57
votes
Can MO go back to +5 rep for questions? Should it?
Let me answer from the perspective of someone who is not a mathematician but follows this community for certain topics of interest.
This is a community of professional mathematicians where, indeed, ...
27
votes
Accepted
Community Peer-Review in Mathoverflow
I am intrigued by this idea and I think it would be a wonderful thing if it gained the support and acceptance of the MathOverflow community. So I am supportive of further discussion of the proposal.
...
26
votes
close/reopen wars on Mathoverflow
I am profoundly opposed to the "cargo cult" question. The internet is full of places where one can indulge in the pleasures of righteous indignation by mocking the failings of others. I absolutely ...
25
votes
Using MO as a platform to discuss papers in math?
If there is a specific mathematical question about a specific point in the paper, then there is no problem with discussing it on MO. This has been established by consensus on numerous occasions. In ...
S. CarnahanMod
- 44.7k
21
votes
Accepted
Should the rules for deleting own questions be modified? - an example
There are few things on MO more annoying than posting an answer and then seeing that answer deleted before it even had a chance to be seen (except by the account that asked the question). All that ...

Todd TrimbleMod
- 51.8k
19
votes
Can MO go back to +5 rep for questions? Should it?
I received a huge reputation boost from this change, but I still think that answering a question still takes much more effort than writing well-posed questions. Coming up with a good mathematical ...
18
votes
Which Latex / MathJax features do we need or want to have supported on the site?
Need:
Most importantly, a true preview which shows me exactly what I have written and which I can look at without affecting my LaTeX.
Support for at least the symbols in standard LaTeX and amssymb (...
18
votes
Revising the help page on "What topics can I ask around here?"
The vast majority of people who write the most common low-quality questions are not going to read this page at all.
I think the people much more likely to read this page are those, especially graduate ...
17
votes
Proposal for a new rule for down-vote
Other reasons to downvote a question is if one doesn't think it demonstrates sufficient research effort, or isn't deemed to be useful. In fact, the question-downvote tooltip says this explicitly:
...
17
votes
Which Latex / MathJax features do we need or want to have supported on the site?
This is not an answer expressing a preference, but one giving some resources for people to consider.
Intmath.com made a Speed Comparison Test between KaTeX and MathJax. MathOverflow is currently ...
16
votes
Should top mathoverflow threads get DOIs and be permanently archived?
Long-term archiving is a valid and important issue, but I do not think it should be done via thewinnower.com. This is a problem I feel we can and should solve in collaboration with libraries or ...
16
votes
Why can't we close questions that have a bounty?
Closing a question prevents new answers to be added. If one could close a question with a bounty, the net effect would be to shorten the bounty period, possibly causing the loss or misattribution of ...
15
votes
Can MO go back to +5 rep for questions? Should it?
I don't have a strong opinion on this subject, but insofar as I have one, it is this: Changing the rules is more trouble than it's worth. I lost points back when +10 was downgraded to +5, and I ...
15
votes
Accepted
Filtering out the Autobiographer badge from "Recent Badges"
UPDATE:
We've blocked Autobiographer from appearing in the recent badges list network-wide so I've removed the general block of bronze badges described below. For more information on the changes that ...
14
votes
Deleting others' work
Here is a specific example
Embed a bordered Riemann surface into punctured Riemann surfaces?
The user apparently asked only one question, it scored 4 and was deleted 2 minutes after I entered the ...
14
votes
Accepted
Should top mathoverflow threads get DOIs and be permanently archived?
DOIs are in some sense just like URLs, but with some differences. In particular, a DOI can be transformed into a URL by prepending http://dx.doi.org/.
A DOI is ...
14
votes
Public dumps for mathoverflow?
Just to bump this question: StackExchange Inc. turned off the periodic network-wide data dump earlier this year, and it can apparently only be resumed with permission from very high in the company. I ...
14
votes
Can we make the cite link bigger?
After letting this slip through the cracks for a couple of years, I'm pleased say we've implemented Scott Morrison's solution:
(Ignore the "mod" link if you aren't a moderator.)
We did talk about ...
14
votes
Can we get rid of the "featured on meta" main meta links?
As mentioned in Emil Jeřábek's comment (which quickly gained several upvotes), at least some of the "network-wide stuff" (Meta Stack Exchange posts, blog posts) can be useful also for MathOverflow ...
13
votes
Ignoring certain users' postings
I share the view by one of the moderators in the post you have linked to that providing such a tool is a bad idea.
13
votes
Accepted
Numbering and cross referencing of equations in questions and answers
MathJax supports manual numbering using $$\tag{…}$$, as below:
$$\tag{1}\label{grz}\Box(\Box(p\to\Box p)\to p)\to p$$
$$\tag{1}\...
13
votes
Can (and should) Project Euclid links be replaced in bulk?
Let us collect here various formats of the links to Project Euclid which no longer work. (Some of those following links also appeared in variants with https instead ...
Community wiki
12
votes
Would disallowing displayed equations ("double dollars") in titles be useful?
I understand the sentiment to have this blacklist, but I don't think it's really important for MathOverflow to have it. Very few questions have ever had $$ in their ...
12
votes
Make it evident that bounties are non-refundable or refund them on other people's questions
The fact that the bounties are not refundable is pointed out in the help center and marked in bold:
All bounties are paid for up front and non-refundable under any circumstances.
Also the dialog ...
11
votes
Deleting others' work
What Stefan wrote in his comment is germane: if an answer has a positive net score, then the OP cannot delete the post: How can I delete my post on Stack Overflow?. Moreover: the moderators get a lot ...

Todd TrimbleMod
- 51.8k
11
votes
Community Peer-Review in Mathoverflow
Very interesting suggestion. While I definitely think that, if doable, this should be a separate activity not related to MO in any way, something related came to my mind.
I've seen several great ...
11
votes
Why is it not possible to offer a bounty for longer than 7 days?
I consider the 7 day bounty period to be quite reasonable and effective for several reasons.
While bounties cost a minimum of 50 pts, in reality the cost for a bounty for one's own question is much ...
11
votes
Accepted
Tags "riemann-zeta-function" and "zeta-functions" are almost identical
There are many interesting zeta functions, and the Riemann zeta function is the most notable of them. It is natural to expect that people who ask questions about other zeta functions would want a ...
S. CarnahanMod
- 44.7k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible
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