Some tags on StackOverflow have icons, such as
and so on.
Question: Can we have tag icons here at maths.SE?
I mean "can" in the sense of "are we capable of having". I'm not saying we should or should not have this.
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11$\begingroup$ Note that on SO these icons are actually indications of sponserships/branding. $\endgroup$ – user642796 Sep 22 '13 at 20:10
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4$\begingroup$ Oh, I didn't realise that. I guess we won't be having a little Petersen graph next to graph-theory then. $\endgroup$ – Douglas S. Stones Sep 22 '13 at 20:12
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5$\begingroup$ I wouldn't see why we couldn't do that. Can't we have non-branding tag photos? $\endgroup$ – PyRulez Sep 22 '13 at 20:30
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2$\begingroup$ @DouglasS.Stones: Probably not. I've done a quick check in a few other SE sites, and haven't been able to find icons on any tags (including on arqade.SE which has many tags that would be well-suited for actual branding). Perhaps in the future it would be possible, but I don't think SE would want to do something that might devalue part of their advertising initiative on SO. In the meantime, you could modify the code of this user script to make it display icons of your choosing. (I haven't tried it out, so I have no idea if it works at all.) $\endgroup$ – user642796 Sep 22 '13 at 20:43
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$\begingroup$ I think this would be a horrible idea! Think of the arguments and opinions, and also wonder how we night represent, say, the ring theory tag? Or the group theory tag? Real analysis? Number theory? $\endgroup$ – user1729 Sep 23 '13 at 9:44
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$\begingroup$ I only intend the above question at the technical level. I'm also unsure if it would be a good idea. It sounds like it won't be possible regardless, so it's somewhat moot whether or not it's a good idea to implement. $\endgroup$ – Douglas S. Stones Sep 23 '13 at 10:08
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2$\begingroup$ @user1729 Not every tag needs to be icon'd. I do think it would be incredibly helpful though, for distinguishing tags with new users. For example, a precalculus student may use the graph-theory tag for a question involving the graph of a function. An icon that looks nothing like the graph of a function may cause them to think about this for a second or two longer--enough to encourage them to read the tag wiki. $\endgroup$ – apnorton Sep 24 '13 at 2:22
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$\begingroup$ On another note: I really like this idea, and would love to see it turned into a feature request... :) $\endgroup$ – apnorton Sep 24 '13 at 2:23
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$\begingroup$ @anorton That is a good point. However, I suspect the most common mix-ups would be abstract algebra and graph theory...but abstract algebra doesn't really have a picture... $\endgroup$ – user1729 Sep 24 '13 at 9:31
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5$\begingroup$ "homework is brought to you by wolfram alpha" hm... $\endgroup$ – Tobias Kienzler Sep 24 '13 at 15:35
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Here's what it looks like if we modify Stephen A. Goss's script StackOverflow script (link) to work on maths.SE:
I made these icons myself:
These I "borrowed" off the internet:
These are icons for software:
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$\begingroup$ Nice ones (though combinatorics is a bit too small for me to identify) - I wonder what the SE team's stance on icons for non-free software is... $\endgroup$ – Tobias Kienzler Sep 25 '13 at 7:24
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$\begingroup$ I really like some of these and I think that in addition to looking nice they could help a little for new users not to miss-tag (but mainly I like the way they look) $\endgroup$ – Belgi Sep 25 '13 at 11:11
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