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I have a question about my Mathematics Stack Exchange post: Riemann integrability of a function with infinite points of discontinuity

I am a new user on mathematics stack exchange and my experience with my first question itself has been anything but pleasant.

The first time I posted my question I wasn't aware that there was a format for a "good question", I was soon made aware after my question immediately got 3 downvotes and got closed. When I checked the comments most of them were pointing at the misspelling of the name "riemann" as "reimann" instead of answering the question, which is not even a repeated question because I could find it anywhere on the site(i have to mention that one very kind man was generous enough to atleast engage in a discussion without pointing out useless things).

The reason for the question being closed was mentioned as "not providing context". I then edited the question and added the context of the question, used mathjax format, even used capital letters to start the sentences as someone pointed out and submitted the question for review hoping that it would be opened, but it didn't make a difference as my question was reviewed and rejected each of the 3 time without even giving a proper reason for rejecting it, I went through the process of looking for possibilities of minor errors in the question and editing the question again and again.

Finally it was deleted after getting 5 votes to delete, now since the comments are closed I cannot even ask why it was deleted. I looked up if I could get some of my friends to vote to undelete the question, but it turns out that they cannot view the question as it is deleted( then what's the point of having the option to vote to undelete?).

I don't even understand why a few people have the power to delete a question they think doesn't fit the format of a "good question" especially when this is a knowledge repository( what harm is a not so good question going to do, why enable deleting it).

I was looking for some suggestion on what to do further? Will reposting the same question be of any help or will it show up on the feed of the very same people who voted to delete it and end up getting deleted again?

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  • $\begingroup$ @user1729 Thank you for answering. Will keep this in mind next time. So the only thinks wrong were the source and not mentioning my effort in solving the question? $\endgroup$
    – 112120
    Sep 1 at 14:47
  • $\begingroup$ @user1729 But i researched a bit about it on the net and youtube and couldn't find anything that explained the term "limiting point" clearly, which is why i ended up posting it on maths SE $\endgroup$
    – 112120
    Sep 1 at 14:54
  • $\begingroup$ @112120: Limit points are also known as "accumulation points", among other names. See here. If $E\subseteq\mathbb R,$ we say that $x\in\mathbb R$ is a limit point of $E$ if for every $\delta>0$, the set $(x-\delta,x+\delta)\setminus\{x\}$ contains a point in $E$. $\endgroup$
    – Joe
    Sep 1 at 14:59
  • $\begingroup$ Hmm, sorry, I'm afraid I miss-understood your question. I'm going to delete my comments. (What is relevant though is that I was confused because -I think- you currently are asking for definitions of terms, but these terms are not used in the stated problem.) $\endgroup$
    – user1729
    Sep 1 at 14:59
  • $\begingroup$ @user1729 it's okay $\endgroup$
    – 112120
    Sep 1 at 15:27
  • $\begingroup$ @Joe thank you for answering. so does that mean for the set D={1,1/2,1/3,1/4......} x=0.5 is a limiting point, because it satisfies the condition? but i think x=0 is considered the only limiting point for the set D. $\endgroup$
    – 112120
    Sep 1 at 15:36
  • $\begingroup$ @112120: In your example the only limit point of $D$ is $0$. We know that $0.5$ is not a limit point, since $(0.4,0.6)\setminus\{0.5\}$ does not contain a point of $D$. Note: its limit point; the terminology "limiting point" is non-standard, as far as I am aware. $\endgroup$
    – Joe
    Sep 1 at 15:38
  • $\begingroup$ I was involved in discussion via comments on the question linked here. I think your issue is more about the notion of limit points and you should search for it on math.SE and you can get reasonable amount of material to understand and work with the notion of limit points. The question about Riemann integrability of functions (with discontinuities having finite number of limit points) is also available on this website (including some of my own answers). $\endgroup$
    – Paramanand Singh Mod
    Sep 1 at 15:47
  • $\begingroup$ @ParamanandSingh Thank you for answering. Since my original question was deleted by others on math.SE without stating a reason and i couldn't comment on it or engage with the comments under it i posted this here. This post was more about the deletion of the question rather than the mathematics in it. Your comments on the original question gave me enough clarity which i am thankful for. $\endgroup$
    – 112120
    Sep 1 at 16:27
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    $\begingroup$ You should try to get your question undeleted by posting a request (via an answer) here : math.meta.stackexchange.com/q/34447/72031 Let me just say that in your original question you had shown willingness to improve the question by editing it and had tried to engage in discussion via comments. If your question is undeleted then you should try to improve it further by adding some information about source of problem (your textbook etc), definition of integral being used (say Riemann sums or Darboux sums). I think this will help it get reopened as well. $\endgroup$
    – Paramanand Singh Mod
    Sep 1 at 16:37
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    $\begingroup$ The callous procedural rudeness is pretty bad here, but on stackoverflow it is worse. $\endgroup$
    – Nick Alger
    Sep 1 at 17:55
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    $\begingroup$ This is one of the highest traffic SE sites. As such, it attracts a large number of newbies who don't read site guidelines before posting. So there is a high volume of off-topic posts - which occasionally causes some of those moderating the site to lose their patience. You will likely encounter the same on any high volume moderated site. It is human nature. (This is a general remark - not meant to apply to any specific incident). $\endgroup$
    – Bill Dubuque
    Sep 2 at 23:05
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    $\begingroup$ "what harm is a not so good question going to do" it will appear in google searches ahead of better questions and prevent people from seeing those questions. For example, you could have found the answer to this question if poor questions hadn't clogged up your search results (or if you did not search properly, in which case that is a skill to be learned well). I have now edited the title of this question to make it better but I found it before anyway. $\endgroup$
    – Sarvesh Ravichandran Iyer
    Sep 4 at 4:16
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    $\begingroup$ Regarding the deletion: the question would have been auto-deleted after 9 days. I do not understand the manual deletions in contexts like this - they can antagonise people (as seen here), while auto-deletions are an essentially neutral act. $\endgroup$
    – user1729
    Sep 4 at 7:49
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    $\begingroup$ Thanks @SarveshRavichandranIyer. You have linked the question (and my answer to it) which I had mentioned in one of my comments here. $\endgroup$
    – Paramanand Singh Mod
    Sep 4 at 8:44

1 Answer 1

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I understand it may be surprising and unexpected to discover that your question was not well-received. What you might not realize is that this community has specific norms and expectations, particularly around the quality and content of your question. When you come to a new community, it is important to learn about the norms and expectations of that group, and be prepared to adjust your participation to match those norms.

I would say that you received comments helping direct you to information about the site's norms. I realize it can be unpleasant to hear that your question, as originally posted, is not a good fit for this site's expectations. While that might be unpleasant to hear, it does not mean that people were rude.

When you are informed that your question doesn't meet the expectations here, there are two directions you can take that. One direction is to decide that it is not worth your time to meet expectations on this site, and go elsewhere. Another direction is to decide that this site has value to you, and spend some time to learn how to comply with the community's expectations.

Presumably you want to post here because you think the site is valuable and there is a high likelihood that you will receive a useful answer if you post here, right? So hopefully that will offer you some motivation to meet the quality standards and edit your question based on the feedback you've received.

You seem to be implicitly criticizing the site's culture and expectations. To that, I would say two things: (1) Spend more time here before judging. It's not going to go over well to enter a new community and have your first interactions with them start out with you telling them you're doing it wrong. (2) This is a volunteer site. You're asking for others to volunteer their time to help you. I think it is legitimate and proper for others to set some standards on what you must do to receive help here. The reason this site remains so useful is because we have high quality standards here, which helps maintain a population of experts who are willing to answer questions as long as they meet those standards.

If you want to ask on a site with no quality standards, you could ask on some other site or discussion forum -- but I think you might quickly find that you struggle to get a useful answer there. This site has decided to protect answerers and avoid wasting their time by setting quality standards. For better or worse, that's how it works here, and I encourage you to make your peace with that.

You might find it useful to review Quick beginner guide for asking a well-received question, Is there a shorter and more opinionated version of "How to ask a good question?" that we can direct new users to?, How to ask a good question..

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    $\begingroup$ Firm, but not unkind, and with lots of actionable advice. This is a really good answer. $\endgroup$
    – JonathanZ
    Sep 3 at 13:57
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    $\begingroup$ I agree with JonathonZ that this is a good answer. However, FYI, regarding asking on Yahoo Answers, note that as explained in Wikipedia's Yahoo! Answers article: "On April $5$, $2021$, Yahoo! announced that Yahoo! Answers would be shutting down. On April $20$, $2021$, the website switched to read-only and users were no longer able to ask or answer questions. The site ceased operations on May $4$, $2021$." $\endgroup$
    – John Omielan
    Sep 4 at 0:19
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    $\begingroup$ Agree with everything you said, but my problem wasn't that i had to edit my question to make it better(like i mentioned in the post i happily did it 3 times), my problem was with a few people deleting it without explaining why. I thought it would be better if the people who wanted it deleted atleast mentioned in the comments about why they think it should be deleted instead of me and other few users who suggested about how it should be edited guessing what went wrong. $\endgroup$
    – 112120
    Sep 4 at 5:58
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    $\begingroup$ Moreover after i found out about how to make the question better, i did make it better by adding context of the question and using mathjax format , but it still got deleted. $\endgroup$
    – 112120
    Sep 4 at 5:58
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    $\begingroup$ @112120, Thank you for clarifying. Individuals can vote to delete a question if it has been closed or put on hold. My impression is that the typical reason to do so is if people do not believe it is likely that the question will be revised to a state that is satisfactory. As the question had been closed for a day or so, and had received some feedback that was not addressed ("Please edit your post to include your favorite definition of a limit point"), perhaps those users had the opinion that it was unlikely the question would be fixed enough to be re-opened. I cannot speak for them. $\endgroup$
    – D.W.
    Sep 4 at 6:12
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    $\begingroup$ As far as I can tell, even though the question has been undeleted, that feedback still has not been addressed, and the question remains closed. If you would like to pursue this further, the first step is to edit the question to address all of the feedback that has been provided. See math.stackexchange.com/questions/4761226/… and math.stackexchange.com/questions/4761226/…. $\endgroup$
    – D.W.
    Sep 4 at 6:14
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    $\begingroup$ Regarding your question "what harm is a not so good question going to do?", my impression is that there is a concern that it could drive away answerers, which would not benefit anyone. See, e.g., what happened to Yahoo Answers, which accepted all questions, regardless of quality. $\endgroup$
    – D.W.
    Sep 4 at 6:15
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    $\begingroup$ @d.w. Not to mention that one of the goals of the site is to be a searchable repository, and lots quality questions can have a negative impact on the searchability of the site. $\endgroup$
    – Xander Henderson Mod
    Sep 5 at 2:37
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    $\begingroup$ @Xander, "respiratory"? Perhaps, repository? $\endgroup$
    – Gerry Myerson
    Sep 5 at 8:46
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    $\begingroup$ @GerryMyerson Yes. I was on a mobile device last night, and it seems that autocorrect ducked up my words. $\endgroup$
    – Xander Henderson Mod
    Sep 5 at 12:29

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