# About publishing proofs and math tricks

Can we publish interesting proofs and math tricks on math.stackexchange which we know? How do we do it. How to do it correctly? How to stop it from getting downvotes based on it not being a question ? Can we make a question which will be the compilation of useful things like integration tricks? It will be socially helpful.

How do you get such questions protected .

Such questions do exist 'like this one'

• Perhaps not exactly the same, but this question seems to be in a somewhat similar spirit: List of inequalities including proofs. I'll add that to me it seems that list-type questions and posting question together with an answer are two separate issues - you can find several discussions about the latter if you look at the (self-answer) tag here on meta. – Martin Sleziak Sep 17 '17 at 17:24
• I tried to make an compliation of integration tricks  question and i posted one trick, but it got rapid downvotes  and got closed, what should have i done. – neonpokharkar Sep 17 '17 at 17:27
• If it is a compilation of relatively commonplace tricks (your mileage WILL vary) it may be better to collect them to a CW question. If it looks like a self-answered question ("Here's a trick I want to share") then the bar is quite high. IIRC that has been discussed earlier. – Jyrki Lahtonen Sep 17 '17 at 17:47
• Related questions may include 1,2,3. – Jyrki Lahtonen Sep 17 '17 at 17:51
• "How to stop it from getting downvotes based on it not being a question?" Huh, then what else am I supposed to do if your post isn't a question? – Simply Beautiful Art Sep 17 '17 at 20:31
• "Can we make a question which will be the compilation of useful things like integration tricks?" Like this one? math.stackexchange.com/questions/942263/… – Simply Beautiful Art Sep 17 '17 at 20:33
• I believe you have the wrong understanding of what protecting questions does. – Simply Beautiful Art Sep 17 '17 at 20:36
• "Such questions do exist 'like this one'" You mean you want a (big-list)? – Simply Beautiful Art Sep 17 '17 at 20:39
• – GEdgar Sep 18 '17 at 12:13
• "Can we make a question which will be the compilation of useful things like integration tricks? It will be socially helpful. " Could you expand on your claim that "It will be socially helpful" to do so? I'm simply asking you to provide an "argument" to back up and support your claim, I.e. to explain why "it will be socially helpful." It wouldn't be right, e.g., if I simply replied back: "No, It will not be socially helpful." You'd be right to expect from me that I explain why not. – Namaste Sep 18 '17 at 14:05
• Integration is tough and tedious work, any newbie learning integration might give up. Like $\int \frac{x-3}{(x-4)^2(x+7)^3} dx$ . This question at first look is very tough, but the trick i suggested on my question which i mentioned before it making partial fractions of the integrand and then solving it, integration of that integral then becomes easy, this trick could be a life saver for newbies. Compilation of such truck will be helpful as they help rookies to and competitive exam trainees . – neonpokharkar Sep 18 '17 at 15:31
• Unfortunately my question got closed under "too broad" type questions – neonpokharkar Sep 18 '17 at 15:32

Post a question whose answer is what you want to write; e.g. methods for computing modular exponentation were posted as answers to How do I compute $a^b\,\bmod c$ by hand?

If I were to post a question with the intent of having it available to link to from other answers, I would say something to that effect as an addendum or in a comment; e.g. Is it possible that every set can be specified?

That said, it's not clear to me whether it's appropriate to use m.s.e as a publishing platform for things one finds interesting. IIRC, there have been mixed opinions on this practice in the past. Recall from the tour

Focus on questions about an actual problem you have faced.

And the advocate for self-answered questions from a over half-a-decade ago (which may not apply to today's attitudes) gives examples that are not simply interesting things, but question-and-answer pairs that reflect actual problems the author faced and the answer they worked out on their own.

• Your last link doesn't work for me, but it appears to refer to something from 2011, which is just over half-a-decade ago. – Gerry Myerson Sep 18 '17 at 13:16
• @GerryMyerson: It's not working for me now either; I suppose the SO blog site's temporarily down. I suppose it does say 2011, not 2001; I thought a decade seemed too much! – Hurkyl Sep 18 '17 at 13:21
• That link (to the StackOverflow blog) is working for me now. – hardmath Sep 19 '17 at 0:11