I know there is a topic about the solution-verification tag (vs proof-writing), but now we have the proof-verification tag which has affiliated 2452 questions, while "solution-verification" has only 540. Why we need both of them?
What is the usefulness of having "proof-verification" and "solution-verification" as different tags?
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$\begingroup$ This is when (proof-verification) was created: meta.math.stackexchange.com/questions/6636/… $\endgroup$– Martin SleziakOct 4, 2014 at 17:02
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$\begingroup$ @MartinSleziak Should I understand that proof-verification was created later? March 29, 2013 is the first time when I can see a question tagged "solution-verification", and June 10, 2013 the first one tagged as proof-verification, so both were created almost in the same time. My question still remains: do we really need these two? $\endgroup$– user26857Oct 4, 2014 at 18:17
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$\begingroup$ It seems that timeline was like this: 1) A discussion about a tag for proof-verification; 2) creating solution-verification; 3) creating proof-verification. In any case, I agree that the question whether these two tags should be kept separate is very reasonable. $\endgroup$– Martin SleziakOct 4, 2014 at 18:33
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3 Answers
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There is an objective distinction between proof-based mathematics courses, where students write proofs, and non-proof-based ones, where they write solutions to exercises following given algorithms. In both kinds of courses a student might want feedback on their work. The nature of feedback is a bit different, and so is the set of users qualified and willing to give such feedback.
For example, engineering students who excel in Calculus and Differential Equations may be quite good in answering solution-verification questions, while having no interest in proof-verification. It makes sense to have both tags in place, allowing users to filter questions according to their preferences.
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10$\begingroup$ I can understand the theoretical distinction between the two, but my opinion is that for the purpose of this site the distinction is finer than necessary. $\endgroup$ Oct 4, 2014 at 19:45
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While there could be some meaningful distinction (in theory) this does not seem to work well in practice. I checked a bit manually, and also observed that 150 questions (this are almost 20 percent) of the questions tagged solution-verfication contain the word "prove" (and rather not in the way "I do not need to prove this I just need the solution").
To monitor the tag(s) and to enforce compliance seems unnecessary busy-work given that the gain from it seems marginal. I thus reiterate the proposal to create a synonym.
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The tags solution-verification and proof-verification should be made synonyms.
Please, upvote/downvote this answer to show your opinion.
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$\begingroup$ I have posted a separate "poll" answer so that we have clearly separated votes showing whether the tags should be synonymous. The upvotes on the original post can also be interpreted as "+1 it is useful that this issue was brought up". Moreover, there were already some votes on this question before the suggestion to merge was edited in. $\endgroup$ Oct 5, 2014 at 9:02
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1$\begingroup$ Now the tag-synonym between the two tags was created: math.stackexchange.com/tags/proof-verification/synonyms $\endgroup$ Mar 14, 2016 at 9:46