97
votes
Accepted
Is there a way to discuss the correctness of the proof of the RH by Atiyah in MO?
After some internal discussion, the moderators have agreed to post the following text.
There are calls from the community to enunciate a firm and consistent policy for what questions are permissible ...
- 7,430
60
votes
Welcoming new user: on a recent question about connections
I just want to comment, I think at this point, fighting and unpleasantness about whether questions are appropriate is a much bigger problem for the site than the presence of less-advanced questions on ...
Ben WebsterMod
- 42.8k
47
votes
Why was there pushback on a user's profile image?
For people who are either unfamiliar with US history (either due to growing up in other countries or who had White Supremacist textbooks in school), here are the first two paragraphs of the state of ...
- 27.3k
42
votes
Should these sexually suggestive jokes be kept or deleted?
I wanted to say specifically why the second joke on the list really should be deleted. There's a very common trope in math where people analogize math to an attractive woman often explicitly in a ...
- 27.3k
38
votes
Question about $i$ versus $-i$
This question relates directly to issues that are often discussed in the philosophy of mathematics.
According to one of the standard accounts of structuralism, what mathematical objects are at bottom ...
- 208k
36
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Is there a way to discuss the correctness of the proof of the RH by Atiyah in MO?
I will take a different viewpoint than some and say that the correctness of the proof can be discussed, and maybe it should. But as to how, that's a question of tactfulness and precision.
When ...
- 5,475
35
votes
Welcoming new user: on a recent question about connections
I want to distinguish two different things that were said in the first comment: that the question was not research level and that the question should be migrated to math stackexchange.
It is not ...
- 125k
31
votes
Appropriateness of recent LIGO question for MO
It seems that the moderators' opinions are not unified on this question, so I will offer my view wearing my private citizen hat.
The question asks how various parameters of an apparent black hole ...
S. CarnahanMod
- 44.3k
30
votes
On discussion of published papers at MO
A scientific paper is like a politician --- much of its reputation is based on hearsay, and superficial impression, not on cold analytic examination. Very few have willingness and time to investigate ...
- 7,666
28
votes
Why was the whole math jokes thread deleted, and should it have been?
I feel the deletion is a significant loss to MathOverflow. As one of a few prominent older light-hearted threads, it helped make MO an entertaining and enjoyable place — like the departmental lounge, ...
- 17.2k
26
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On discussion of published papers at MO
This meta question is phrased as a general question about the appropriateness of discussing published papers on MO. That's a fair question, but I think that it's actually quite a different question ...
- 72.5k
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 ...
- 52.4k
23
votes
Is there a way to discuss the correctness of the proof of the RH by Atiyah in MO?
I don't think there's any good solutions here, but I am going to suggest what I think is the least bad solution, and people can vote on whether it is a good idea or not. There are going to be lots of ...
- 6,579
20
votes
Appropriateness of recent LIGO question for MO
My view is that what should count is the (academic/scientific interest) times (the amount of mathematics involved). So if the academic interest is huge and the mathematical component is modest we ...
- 24.1k
20
votes
Accepted
Kitty can’t fix it — Old questions inaccessible for logged-in users, giving “unexpected error”
Thank you all for reporting and excellent documentation of this issue! We have applied a fix and all the affected pages should now load as expected for logged in users as well as anonymous users.
As ...
19
votes
Should Kevin Buzzard's Lean question be left in its original state?
My opinion, posted as an answer here so that it is ready for the downvotes.
The "background" section reads more like a blog post than a question, and I feel it's out of place on this website. You ...
- 18.4k
18
votes
Appropriateness of recent LIGO question for MO
I find it difficult to understand many of the comments and concerns that this question seems to have raised. The site has a fairly simple and well established procedure for closing/keeping open ...
- 42.9k
18
votes
Using MathOverflow to get new results in your research and publish them afterwards
On my opinion, no general rule can be stated. But I can share my experience.
I answered a MO question which was needed in someone's research. The result was two separate papers. My paper where the ...
18
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Welcoming new user: on a recent question about connections
I note that frequently users complain about unexplained downvotes and anonymous downvotes. Discouraging comments from users who indeed make a comment of this nature ("this is off-topic") ...
- 56k
17
votes
Humans, Go, Computers, Math
In addition to my comment that the thread is too "discussion-y" (meaning too opinion or speculation driven), my feeling about this question is that there is probably no one in our community who can ...
Todd TrimbleMod
- 51.6k
17
votes
How is it off-topic to ask whether the normalization of a local complete intersection is Gorenstein?
As one of the users who casted a vote to close, I guess I should provide an answer.
What I did not like was the lack of effort displayed in the question. The question in itself could be fine: it is ...
- 9,720
16
votes
Are these close-votes cast correctly?
The close votes on your question are correct.
You write it correctly that the answer on MSE seems imprecise and unsatisfactory for you. But it looks like it is actually quite precise and ...
- 2,994
16
votes
Why was "The origin(s) of the word “elliptic” migrated to hsm?
I wrote the top-voted answer to this question on MO (it currently has something like 40 up votes) and was a bit surprised to see it migrated to HSM. I don't care about votes or what-not, but in terms ...
- 44.1k
15
votes
On discussion of published papers at MO
I think Joseph O'Rourke meant to say something else. I will guess that something like
the following is intended.
MathOverflow is not a forum for judging, critiquing, or refereeing preprints or ...
14
votes
I fixed my question. Can it please be taken off hold now?
Although the question at MO has been reopened, the meta post is not completely moot: let me remind users that there is a meta thread dedicated to the requests for reopening: Requests for reopen and ...
Todd TrimbleMod
- 51.6k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible