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 ...
- 7,480
63
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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
- 43.3k
47
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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 ...
- 27.6k
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 ...
- 27.6k
39
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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 ...
- 218k
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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 ...
- 5,485
35
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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 ...
- 131k
31
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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
- 44.9k
28
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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, ...
- 18.7k
26
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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 ...
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23
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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 ...
- 6,660
22
votes
Accepted
Does anyone remember seeing this answer/comment? (A famous result known earlier than believed)
You are thinking of the question Two-colouring the two-sphere, where a certain problem seemingly in discrete geometry was explained to be related to quantum mechanics.
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20
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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
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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
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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 ...
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18
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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 ...
- 43.2k
18
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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 ...
- 87.1k
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") ...
- 59.2k
17
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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 ...
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17
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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
- 51.9k
17
votes
Accepted
Drive-By Deletion of Answer to Own Question by Moderator
My apologies for the mistaken deletion of your answer. — What led to this mistake was a combination of several circumstances: it was a self-answer of an anonymous user which got flagged as "not ...
Stefan KohlMod
- 19.3k
16
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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
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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 ...
- 45.2k
14
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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
- 51.9k
14
votes
Accepted
What to do when the answer makes details of the question moot?
I think such things show (to those willing to discern) that mathematics is a human activity, and that yours is an example of how to deal with mistakes. I would prefer to see the details stay up, ...
- 3,199
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Why was there pushback on a user's profile image?
Answering this for closure:
By the comment of Stanley Yao Xiao, the OP in question had a confederate flag as their avatar. A moderator (presumably) changed it, with the understanding that a ban would ...
- 356
14
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The reason for putting on hold a question
I do not think there is much evidence to support your assertion that your question is specific. You ask whether there is research on "in which mathematical universes does Grothendieck's approach ...
S. CarnahanMod
- 44.9k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible