Say I want to learn representation theory and want to form a reading group. A question like "Does anybody want to form a representation theory reading group?" is clearly inappropriate for the main site. Is there a more acceptable way to ask the Math.Stackexchange community about something like this?

A question like "Does anybody want to form a representation theory reading group?" is clearly inappropriate for the main site.

Such a question is appropriate here on meta, where you already are ... you can also use the math web chat rooms to coordinate, as appropriate:

http://chat.stackexchange.com/?tab=site&sort=active&host=math.stackexchange.com

The chat rooms are stateful, so a message left a day ago will still be readable and present in the transcript, etc.

• Jeff, is TeX available on chat yet?
– Asaf Karagila Mod
Jun 21, 2011 at 5:26
• @asaf there are no plans to do that at the current time Jun 21, 2011 at 5:56
• stateful?${}{}$ Jun 21, 2011 at 6:04
• @Jeff: If there are no plans, I hardly see how a reading group can be using the chat effectively. Mathematical symbols are of an essence when discussing mathematics.
– Asaf Karagila Mod
Jun 21, 2011 at 6:19
• @asaf I meant more for coordinating the group. We'll see. Jun 21, 2011 at 6:25
• @Gerry Myerson: I don't understand your comment (or why it's upvoted 6 times). I imagine it's not asking what 'stateful' means, because Jeff's answer contains an explanation (and doesn't seem to have been edited after your comment or at all). Is it that the chats rooms sometimes happen not to be stateful, happen to lose messages, etc.? I've not seen that happen… Jul 3, 2011 at 4:33