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It would be great if the MathJax typed by users in the chat windows loads as proper MathJax should (as in the case of posts, for example). It is not convenient to read MathJax code directly and figure out what the person is trying to say.

Moreover, not every question requires a post - some things are best discussed on the chats.

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    $\begingroup$ I mean, that's a different story, and we asked for that as soon as the chat existed, so about a decade ago. We got a resounding no, repeatedly. $\endgroup$
    – Asaf Karagila Mod
    Apr 16, 2021 at 10:52
  • $\begingroup$ @AsafKaragila Any idea why that is? $\endgroup$
    – heroic-harmonic
    Apr 16, 2021 at 10:52
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    $\begingroup$ Because most chats don't need MathJax, and loading it is both slow and messes up page rendering, especially with rapidly changing page. That means that it is easy to "bomb" a chat by putting a complicated formula on it, and then with each time the page is updated, it needs to render again. $\endgroup$
    – Asaf Karagila Mod
    Apr 16, 2021 at 10:54
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    $\begingroup$ (Of course, you could argue that since we can connect chatrooms to a parent site, we can be more selective with who gets MathJax in chat, but it's still something that was never fully taken by the devs. You can look up on Meta Stack Exchange and probably find a handful of discussions. If they are all very old, feel free to bring it up again. meta.stackexchange.com/…) $\endgroup$
    – Asaf Karagila Mod
    Apr 16, 2021 at 10:55
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    $\begingroup$ Interesting! Bots like TeXit on Discord seem to be managing well, though. There should be some solution. Also, I am suggesting this only for MSE (and related sites, so not all sites). Lastly, one good way to demonstrate majority agreement on the fact that we need MathJax support on chats (at least MSE) would be to gather some upvotes on this post, I think. $\endgroup$
    – heroic-harmonic
    Apr 16, 2021 at 10:56
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    $\begingroup$ Before you think you're the first one to try, math.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/chat+mathjax $\endgroup$
    – Asaf Karagila Mod
    Apr 16, 2021 at 10:57
  • $\begingroup$ @AsafKaragila Thanks for referring me to that link. So, it has been brought up many times in the past. Looks like a useless attempt from my side now. $\endgroup$
    – heroic-harmonic
    Apr 16, 2021 at 10:58
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    $\begingroup$ What you're feeling here is about a quarter of my research endeavours since my M.Sc. research proposal. Don't worry about it. $\endgroup$
    – Asaf Karagila Mod
    Apr 16, 2021 at 10:59
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    $\begingroup$ I just want to mention though that I can see a good fraction of users on old posts asking for TeX support, so we may have a good case here. It's not just a handful of people. $\endgroup$
    – heroic-harmonic
    Apr 16, 2021 at 11:00
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    $\begingroup$ We may. But whether or not we do is irrelevant. It's only a question of what the developers are willing to put into plan. It's easy to think that it's a small feature request, but it needs to interface with a whole website that has a big backend, and with a lot of users on a lot of devices, internet connections, etc. We don't have the big picture data that they do to make a decision like that. $\endgroup$
    – Asaf Karagila Mod
    Apr 16, 2021 at 11:02
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    $\begingroup$ There is some script by robjohn to enable mathjax on chat. See math.meta.stackexchange.com/a/3297/72031 $\endgroup$
    – Paramanand Singh Mod
    Apr 16, 2021 at 11:10
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    $\begingroup$ Another related post: Why is there no support for MathJax in chat? On Meta Stack Exchange: Any chance of MathJax in chat? On MathOverflow Meta: What's the point of having an MO chat without LaTeX enabled? and MathJax on Chat. $\endgroup$
    – Martin Sleziak
    Apr 16, 2021 at 11:20

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