Timeline for What do you think is the largest problem facing Math.SE today (July 2015)?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
17 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Nov 7, 2015 at 14:07 | comment | added | hmakholm left over Monica | @Asaf: I'm saying "teacher" inclusively to mean anyone that the institution tasks with giving feedback on homework. (I'm also assuming that students do get feedback from someone on the homework they hand in; otherwise handing it in at all would be rather pointless). | |
| Nov 7, 2015 at 14:02 | comment | added | Asaf Karagila Mod | @Henning: While I am willing to help my students review their proofs from time to time, I doubt that I'd be that willing if all 120 of them came to me with these requests every week. And most people I know in academia will be willing to help on occasion, but not on a constant basis. For most students the feedback comes from homework graders, who often have significantly less experience in writing proofs let alone critiquing them, and even then many times the grading is partial (you only grade some questions, over a limited time frame); or in exams, which is essentially "too late". | |
| Nov 7, 2015 at 13:59 | comment | added | hmakholm left over Monica | My biggest problem with proof-verification questions (apart from the few crank cases of check-my-proof-of-Famous-Conjecture) is that they're usually asked about homework, which means that there's a teacher somewhere who is getting paid specifically to attempt to understand the proof and tell the asker what problems (if any) there are with it. It seems like a waste to tie up the site's volunteer resources simply so the asker can have his curiosity satisfied a bit earlier than he would otherwise in the due course of things. | |
| Oct 13, 2015 at 11:59 | comment | added | Martin Sleziak | The suggestion given in this answer was: "Close as a duplicate after the OP had sufficient feedback." | |
| Jul 15, 2015 at 4:15 | comment | added | Cameron Williams | Re: your first point. There are users (who shall go unnamed) that post questions with the intent simply to answer them. I get that this technically is not in violation of site rules but it really seems against the spirit of the site. Occasionally, someone comes across something cute that they want to share and a Q/A format is reasonable; however posting question and answer after question and answer feels like it's just a way to post homework problems (or something of the sort). Blogs are best suited for this and I'd really like us to amend the rules to omit such behavior. | |
| Jul 10, 2015 at 18:11 | comment | added | Brian M. Scott | @Asaf: I don’t mind leaving them open; it doesn’t matter much to me whether the useful information is in the question or in an answer. My real preference, I suppose, would be for the asker to transfer the argument to an answer, but I see no practical way to make that work in general. | |
| Jul 10, 2015 at 13:26 | comment | added | Asaf Karagila Mod | @Brian: I don't have a problem with the concept. I am always very happy to see people who actually tried to do the work. It's just that... I'm not sure what to do with these questions after the basic critique has been given and received. Do we close them as duplicates (e.g. how many nearly identical proof verifications of basic set theoretic questions have we seen? Many, that's how many. After the basic critique has been given, should they stay open)? Do we leave them? Do we edit them somehow? It makes me a bit uneasy. | |
| Jul 10, 2015 at 1:13 | comment | added | Brian M. Scott | I’m in favor of such questions. I’ve not actually counted, but I think that at least half the time there’s some infelicity that could be commented on, some shortcut or other improvement that could be suggested, or the like. If not, though, I’ve no problem simply leaving a comment and an upvote. | |
| Jul 8, 2015 at 16:22 | comment | added | Asaf Karagila Mod | @quid: As I wrote, I agree that this is often the case, but it's not uncommon to find a reasonably written proof. Since the question is about proof verification, I sometimes find it in bad taste to write my proof (unless I feel that the OP lacks any style). So to a proof that is written reasonably well, and I have no stylistic comments, what would I write in an elaborate answer? | |
| Jul 8, 2015 at 13:28 | comment | added | quid | re 2: in my experience normally for such questions when they are asked here there are plenty of things that can and should be said beyond "yes." For more details see this meta-answer I wrote some time ago. | |
| Jul 8, 2015 at 4:47 | comment | added | Asaf Karagila Mod | @1999: Admittedly, answerers make up only 1/3rd of this site (or even less if you consider regular contributors), but I don't see how something which is essentially a problem of all answerers is not a large problem of the site. | |
| Jul 8, 2015 at 4:45 | comment | added | Asaf Karagila Mod | @mixedmath: Oh, you mean answer ban. I guess you can lose that privilege. I see what you mean now about downvotes. | |
| Jul 8, 2015 at 2:14 | comment | added | user147263 | Are they really of such little archival value? If a proof is correct and well written, it can be a valuable item (depends on what's being proved, of course -- but the same holds for all questions). From the Google point of view, there isn't much difference between proof being in question box vs in answer box. If the proof is not correct, there will probably be a correct one added. The discomfort of posting short answers is something for answerers to deal with; I don't find it impossible to add a couple of lines. Overall, this doesn't quite rise to the level of the largest problem. | |
| Jul 8, 2015 at 0:25 | comment | added | davidlowryduda Mod | I had to make sure, but it is possible to lose answering abilities (at least temporarily). I recall seeing this happen, and when I asked some other mods (from other sites) they recall it happening. But when I just looked to find someone blocked from answering, I didn't find anyone. [I did find people who were throttled, and people who were blocked from asking. But not answering]. | |
| Jul 8, 2015 at 0:13 | comment | added | Asaf Karagila Mod | You can't lose answering abilities. Just saying. Also, as far as the Trogdor universe, if I recall correctly only peasants are on fire (the rest of the burninated folks die off pretty fast). | |
| Jul 8, 2015 at 0:03 | comment | added | davidlowryduda Mod | I have strong opinions on this, but I also think this is something that not so many others are worried about. In short (and because I do not want to create another thread that demands thought now), I have wondered whether these posters should just phrase the question as a question, and then write their (attempted) answer as an answer, and have others say what they say. A possible downside is that wrong answers get downvoted, and many deleted downvoted posts lead to people losing answer abilities. This is just a quick thought. | |
| Jul 7, 2015 at 23:39 | history | answered | Asaf KaragilaMod | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
