Timeline for Should we be more harsh on questions with answers elsewhere?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
23 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Feb 11, 2022 at 0:09 | comment | added | Martin Argerami | @user1115542: I often struggle to find my own answers. One (not perfect) trick is to try and write a question; the automated search for duplicates/related when you are writing a question is much much better than the plain search. | |
| Feb 9, 2022 at 5:42 | comment | added | caffeinemachine | This has scared me a little bit. Many times I have posted questions here the answers to which I had already found elsewhere. I have found that more often than not a helper here offers some new insights and, sometimes, completely new solutions. | |
| Feb 8, 2022 at 23:03 | comment | added | user1115542 | It’s an interesting question. One of the problems I have, and it may just be me, but the math.stackexchange search engine does not seem to be too smart. There are times when I know I have seen a question asked and answered, but no search I do can find it. If that is indeed the case, then it is more understandable why duplicates arise. | |
| Feb 8, 2022 at 17:09 | comment | added | Sarvesh Ravichandran Iyer | The reason I provide for this is that while Google, Quora, Reddit etc. may provide generic answers that do not deal with OP's situation with much specificity(or even correctness and readability, noting MathJax is available only here), I believe that we should give MSE the opportunity to exceed those sources in quality, particularly if the questions themselves are on-topic to start with. MSE's infrastructure and userbase already give it a good head start in the race for quality. | |
| Feb 8, 2022 at 17:01 | comment | added | Sarvesh Ravichandran Iyer | @amWhy Sure, such questions aren't going to be received well because it lacks context anyway. I believe such questions don't form the focal point of this discussion because we have a better reason to get rid of such questions than a lack of effort to search. What I consider to be debated here is questions which may be non-closable under a standard reason (alternate forms of context are present), but whose answer may be found by directed searching on , say Google or Quora. I'm saying such questions should remain open and be answered so as to reflect the provided context the best. | |
| Feb 8, 2022 at 16:48 | comment | added | amWhy | I am not speaking of giving credit to anyone on or off this site. I agree with that. I just don't want to see questions: "Problem statement. --------------------. Someone on quora said the answer was $\pi/2$. Can someone give me all the steps?" | |
| Feb 8, 2022 at 16:43 | comment | added | Sarvesh Ravichandran Iyer | @amWhy Striving to give credit requires applying a non-zero amount of effort to search, so I have already made that point. Research effort is reflected in the context of the question so it doesn't consist of searching alone. As I mentioned earlier, if I see a question with context that may have been asked on another website e.g. on Quora, I would not close/downvote the question for a lack of research effort, but rather encourage answers that fit the OP's context and possibly improve on the answers in the other site. If it lacks context, it is poorly received in any case. | |
| Feb 8, 2022 at 15:56 | comment | added | amWhy | Nor, @Sarvesh does it mean users are exempt from searching. One of the downvote reasons on a question is "This question shows no research effort". | |
| Feb 6, 2022 at 12:00 | comment | added | Sarvesh Ravichandran Iyer | That doesn't mean that one shouldn't give credit, though. Answerers/Questions obtaining content from elsewhere should strive to give credit to that source, whether it be Quora, AoPS, a paper, or a book. | |
| Feb 6, 2022 at 11:50 | comment | added | Sarvesh Ravichandran Iyer | If a question is asked here with context, it's no more the question whose answer can be found by googling. Context isn't merely a honesty certificate, it's for answerers to make use of as they write their answer so they can tailor their efforts better to the poster. So googling could get you answers, but they mayn't be the answers you want. As for Quora, well, copy-pasting titles from Quora is going to get you in trouble here anyway (like in the linked question) and how reliable are answers on Quora, in any case? I can say with some confidence that the same question here gets better answers. | |
| Feb 6, 2022 at 9:07 | comment | added | littleO | Stackexchange doesn't attempt to avoid duplicating knowledge that can be found elsewhere on the internet. "Your question can be answered by googling" isn't a reason to close a question, if the question is on topic and has not already been asked on math.stackexchange. People ask questions on this forum because they want answers from this community. For whatever reason, the best explanations often tend to appear on math.stackexchange. Even if an answer can be found elsewhere, a more insightful answer is likely to appear on math.stackexchange. | |
| Feb 5, 2022 at 9:24 | comment | added | Martin Sleziak | @Ajay Have you checked SearchOnMath - that's another search engine mentioned in the FAQ post: How to search on this site? I am not the right person to ask about extending Approach0 - in any case, I would suggest to continue such discussion in the chatroom dedicated to searching - it seems a bit tangential here. | |
| Feb 5, 2022 at 9:17 | comment | added | Bumblebee | Yeah that is useful. I only know that Approach zero can find posts on MSE and AoPS. @MartinSleziak is it possible to include quora and other math websites and forums in the search? Sorry if what i'm asking is stupid, i'm not very good with these tech things. | |
| Feb 5, 2022 at 8:28 | comment | added | user1012971 | One thing that can be done is to provide seach bar of approach zero, besides the ask question section. | |
| Feb 4, 2022 at 23:48 | history | became hot meta post | |||
| Feb 4, 2022 at 10:34 | comment | added | Martin Sleziak | I thought that maybe (cross-posting) could be a suitable tag here? I have also checked whether posting on SE and Quora has been discussed elsewhere. Among the few results I found, this post on Meta Stack Exchange seems to be closest to this topic: Am I allowed to indicate crosspost links in my questions on Stack Exchange? | |
| Feb 4, 2022 at 10:12 | comment | added | Nij | How exactly would a duplicate closure direction to other websites work? "Answers" that just link to somewhere else without further explanation, and in particular those that become useless if the link goes bad, are already deleted network-wide. Your answer is in another castle would be an appropriate search in this regard. | |
| Feb 4, 2022 at 10:09 | comment | added | Nij | Posts that have been directly copy-pasted from elsewhere, especially when they give no context or further effort towards a solution, should be closed under existing policies. "I saw this problem and don't understand the answer" is a waste of time; "I saw this problem and follow the solution up to step 7, but I don't get how lemma A links to the equation B, is it something to do with C's theorem?" is at least workable. | |
| Feb 4, 2022 at 6:13 | comment | added | Gerry Myerson | Well, it might be a tad unrealistic to hope to have all of math on our site. We may have to lower our expectations a little. | |
| Feb 4, 2022 at 6:06 | comment | added | Bumblebee | Good point. I didn't think of that. Albeit, it seems very time consuming copying over solutions from other webpages. Also, wouldn't that require some form of consent(permission), to reproduce material? | |
| Feb 4, 2022 at 6:02 | comment | added | Gerry Myerson | One problem is, we want math.stackexchange to become the premier repository of mathematical knowledge on the internet. That would suggest that if there's an answer on quora or Wikipedia or AoPS then we should post a copy of it on our site. | |
| Feb 4, 2022 at 4:54 | history | edited | Bumblebee | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Feb 4, 2022 at 4:47 | history | asked | Bumblebee | CC BY-SA 4.0 |