27
votes
MO policy regarding pseudonyms that are other people's real name
I think that it makes a difference whether there is any chance that the person using the pseudonym could be confused with a more well-known person with that name.
There are a number of users who have ...
- 73k
26
votes
Appropriate or not: "To what extent are the results in Paper X correct?"
One approach is to find a different stakeholder: see who cites the paper and uses the result. Then ask them if they are interested in your counterexample. If they are responsive, they may give you ...
- 12.8k
23
votes
Appropriate or not: "To what extent are the results in Paper X correct?"
I propose to ask it as follows: In my view such a question written clearly is suitable for MO.
A question about X's paper on Y
The main theorem of X's paper on Y is
"quote (precisely) and if ...
- 24.1k
21
votes
Guidelines for contacting author of paper directly as opposed to asking on mathoverflow
Upon thinking a little longer about my question, it seems to me that the following should often constitute a sensible procedure:
If you think the answer would be of public interest, ask on ...
- 631
18
votes
Accepted
Altering the question in a way that makes an answer obsolete
As Gerald Edgar said, the most common reason for this situation is that the answer reveals to the OP that they posed the question in a form that did not properly capture what they intended to ask. I ...
- 52.5k
17
votes
Editing etiquette
Most of the time, the edits that I see on MO are respectfully and tactfully performed and small in scope, and gratefully received by the post's author as improvements. Occasionally though I see flare-...
Todd TrimbleMod
- 51.6k
15
votes
How to discourage excessive self-edits?
In the Internet world (and also in the real world) non native English speakers have huge disadvantage. Gaining some attention to one's MO questions and answers due to the need to edit them more is a ...
- 24.1k
14
votes
Accepted
Strange username
The user has changed to another username Math is like Friday.
(Just answering to make the possibility of considering the issue as solved.)
- 56.2k
12
votes
Guidelines for contacting author of paper directly as opposed to asking on mathoverflow
Stefan Kohl has the right idea, which I amplify.
Authors are usually interested in sincere feedback and appropriate level questions about their work. It is not clear to me how your question will be ...
- 12.8k
10
votes
MO policy regarding pseudonyms that are other people's real name
It is evidently inappropriate to use someone else's identity to post on MO (or anywhere else!).
That said, people's chosen username is a sensitive issue. If someone is legitimately known as "...
- 43.1k
10
votes
Accepted
Are MO Titles questions or Headlines:
Both systems of capitalization are OK for use here:
How to Answer Questions on MO.
How to answer questions on MO.
Conclusions:
Which system should you use? The one most comfortable to you.
Should ...
- 39.4k
10
votes
How to discourage excessive self-edits?
I am not familiar with software management of MO, so I do not know whether the following suggestion is applicable or no?But I guess that it is easy to be applied.
Suggestion 1: Consideration of ...
- 139
10
votes
Accepted
Delete wrong answers or leave them for instructional purposes
I think many wrong answers should be kept for the reason you stated.
But this only applies to answers that have mistakes that are interesting or easy to do; it is only worthwhile to keep answers if ...
- 7,703
9
votes
Citing papers in questions/answers
I would say that to some extent this could be simply based on common sense. And perhaps you could take into account your estimate whether you think that your answer (and the link/citation) might be ...
- 4,578
8
votes
Accepted
Subquestion of Original Post
It seems that you have a new question and the old question was already answered.
I therefore suggest asking a new question, for two reasons:
It is clearer to state separate questions as separate ...
- 7,703
7
votes
Citing papers in questions/answers
I post my comment as an answer: it is definitely good to use the citation helper (see New feature - citation helper). It makes citation easy, and puts all the information needed into the post. Ideal ...
- 4,649
6
votes
Is it good practice to write "@someone" in a question?
@-notifications don't work in questions, as @MadScientist wrote.
Nevertheless, I still prefer to write @ in front of an username in a question, as a graphical cue ...
- 18.5k
4
votes
Giving a question a recent "activity" though nothing is visible?
If you want to bump an old question even though you have nothing to add to it, the least you could do is to make it publicly.
If you add and quickly delete an answer, only the users that can see ...
- 7,703
4
votes
Editing etiquette
If you see a sloppy accidental error then certainly correct it. But when an author put special effort into editing--then changing it is ignorant, arrogant and insensitive, simply rude. You should ask, ...
- 7,384
4
votes
Are MO Titles questions or Headlines:
I suppose that all of us who don't have English as mother tongue would rather not have the idea of capitalizing nouns or other "key words" in titles. At least to me that idea has never occurred for a ...
- 12.8k
4
votes
Accepted
Should I delete my own question if it turns out trivial after a comment?
To answer the comment question, "Why not just answer the question instead of discussing in comments?", my belief is that your question is both too general and too specific for meta. The specific ...
- 3,189
4
votes
How to discourage excessive self-edits?
Isn't there a disincentive built into MO by automatically making a question with 8 edits become CW? After that the user can still bump the question with minor self edits (at the expense of others), ...
- 24.7k
3
votes
How to discourage excessive self-edits?
At the given time let $P$ stand for the position of a question on the list of all questions, where the top question has position $0.\ $ Let $E$ be the number of edits. Say 5 edits is reasonable easy ...
- 7,384
3
votes
Is it OK to direct attention of a particular user to a particular question of mine?
Short answer: No.
If you come to think of it, you might be pleased to have people consult you on problems, but not so pleased to have other people ask you to read stuff. MathOverflow has enough ...
- 3,189
2
votes
Is it good practice to write "@someone" in a question?
As explained in other answers, writing at_username in a question/answer does not notify a user. This would not matter that much - experienced users know that you ...
- 4,578
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