Questions tagged [discussion]

This tag is used for questions that ask users to discuss an idea, concept, or problem in an abstract way. A discussion question may not necessarily have a clear-cut right or wrong answer and is often subjective. On Meta, you do not need to use community-wiki mode for subjective topics unless you are asking a "poll" question.

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0 answers
51 views

Do all questions need to show work?

Check this question with over a hundred upvotes: If squaring a number means multiplying that number with itself then shouldn't taking square root of a number mean to divide a number by itself? ...
22 votes
38 answers
5k views

Requests for Reopen & Undeletion Votes (volume 01/2022 - today)

The purpose of this thread is to focus the attention of the community on posts that may require reopen and undeletion votes. A request should be posted as an answer below (one request per answer). ...
8 votes
0 answers
194 views

How to ask a good proof-verification question?

Firstly, I want to thank the people who have commented on or reviewed my attempted proofs over the years. I'm not a student, so that kind of feedback is invaluable. I've gotten a little bit better at ...
6 votes
1 answer
107 views

The [mobile-web] tag info is outdated

The mobile-web tag info For questions about the mobile versions of Stack Exchange sites. You can access the mobile version of a site by clicking the "mobile" link in the page footer. is ...
6 votes
2 answers
1k views

Why image cannot be used for explaining my maths problem?

I joined few days ago and have recently asked many questions. In most of these questions, I use images to make everyone understand it better. I prefer to use both MathJax and images. But most of the ...
7 votes
1 answer
433 views

Are `math.meta.stackexchange.com` and `meta.math.stackexchange.com` the same website?

Are math.meta.stackexchange.com and meta.math.stackexchange.com the same website? The order in which the words "math" and "meta" are swapped. math meta meta math
1 vote
0 answers
90 views

Visual effect of formulas in mac

As can be seen, some parts of the formulas overlap with each other in mac. So the visual effect is not really satisfying. How can I solve this problem?
48 votes
12 answers
3k views

What's the reputation of MathSE among students and more casual users?

StackOverflow has quite the reputation as a toxic site, mostly for being unwelcoming to new users. But what's MathSE's general reputation? For users who are teachers, have you heard any of your ...
276 votes
9 answers
28k views

List of Generalisations of Common Questions

Here is a list of generalised faqs to which other questions may be deduped against, split by topic (please edit the question). Arithmetic arithmetic Laws of signs (minus times minus is plus): Why is ...
5 votes
8 answers
348 views

Tag management 2023

New year, new tag management thread. Rules of the game are basically the same: Post your suggestion as an answer here if you see A particularly bad tag (a rule of thumb: “if I can't imagine a person ...
-6 votes
0 answers
114 views

Can we have a section on the right side of the site for showing ongoing contests and linking to the problem sets?

Recently many questions consisting of the problems from the application for Ross Mathematics Program have appeared at MSE. I did not know of it and came to know of it when a user unintentionally ...
2 votes
1 answer
646 views

Where did [gradient] go?

At the moment, Mathematics SE has tags hessian-matrix and jacobian. However, tag gradient is a synonym for tag vector-analysis. Why? Motivation Since tag gradient does not exist, tags gradient-...
1 vote
0 answers
93 views

Is my queueing theory question completely misunderstood? [duplicate]

My question on queuing theory has been closed as "not about mathematics". It references a paper about ChatGPT, but that is completely incidental to the question. The question and associated ...
-4 votes
0 answers
132 views

Why was my question on Ontario lotteries " flagged as spam or offensive content", closed, deleted? [duplicate]

I asked https://math.stackexchange.com/q/4660623 for myself as a private person, out of curiosity. I am not affiliated or backed in any way by any lottery company. Post Closed as "Not suitable ...
44 votes
1 answer
1k views

9to5Science scraper site is plagiarizing our content

While testing AI tools on DuckDuckGo (DDG), I noticed that the scraper site 9to5Science.com is plagiarizing much of our content (along with other SE science sites). For example a DDG search on "...
0 votes
0 answers
47 views

Fractional-Differential-Equation tag [duplicate]

Fractional Differential Equations are becoming very important. I propose to the community to consider it a tag, and also its abbreviation FDE. To give a flavor of its importance I'm including an ...
28 votes
1 answer
1k views

Addressing cheating on tests

Not often, but often enough, questions such as this one appear on the site: https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/4658795/im-in-quiz-i-need-asap-help This question is either a blatant troll, or it ...
11 votes
3 answers
582 views

What to do when my question has already been asked and answered, but unsatisfactorily?

I would like to ask about the classification of finite simple groups, in particular, how we can be confident that it is correct. This post asks essentially the same question, so if I were to ask, it ...
53 votes
0 answers
2k views

A list of questions on Boyd & Vandenberghe

Work in progress. To be updated whenever the opportunity arises. I take the liberty of compiling a list of questions on Math SE pertaining to theorems, lemmas, examples and exercises from Boyd & ...
11 votes
3 answers
566 views

Hierarchical spoilers

When giving hints to a problem, sometimes it's beneficial to use the spoiler markers >!, however if the reasoning is longer and split into more than one hint, ...
11 votes
0 answers
596 views

Similar questions about the misunderstanding of limits of products

I've been noticing that we get a lot of questions like Why do I get two different answers while doing this simple limit math? It's basically the traditional thing where people don't understand where ...
7 votes
0 answers
791 views

Do we downvote all PSQ? Also a few questions about comment-answers and comment-hints [duplicate]

At the time of writing, this post has 28 views and no downvotes (or upvotes). I see it simply as a PSQ (Problem Statement Question), and it is quite possible it will be closed soon. I didn't downvote ...
-4 votes
0 answers
121 views

Close vote immediately followed by a reopen vote

I voted to close this question as "needs more focus" when it already had four duplicate close votes. When I voted to close, it got closed as a duplicate. Since I didn't think that it was a ...
-3 votes
0 answers
76 views

What triggers the automatic reverse voting?

I have gotten a few "bursts of downvotes" in the past few weeks that look something like this in my inbox. I would assume the site would automatically catch this and reverse it, as happens ...
21 votes
60 answers
7k views

Requests for Reopen & Undeletion Votes (volume 01/2021 - 12/2021) [duplicate]

The purpose of this thread is to focus the attention of the community on posts that may require reopen and undeletion votes. A request should be posted as an answer below (one request per answer). ...
36 votes
2 answers
2k views

How to deal with the negativity of a power user that picks on you?

For a while, I've been having my suspicions about a certain power user that often downvotes my questions - both here and on MO. Now, I know for certain this user has downvoted a question of mine at ...
-6 votes
0 answers
119 views

RH and objectively bad questions [duplicate]

I do understand that random reformulations of the Riemann hypothesis aren't good questions, but apparently related questions can also be seen as bad. My questions was closed with the usual message: &...
-8 votes
0 answers
104 views

A Query around Question Bans

I am currently under a question ban where I can't ask any questions. One thing I have tried is to put different questions in place of deleted questions. See examples below: https://math.stackexchange....
-9 votes
0 answers
109 views

Can I post these things here

Can I post problems that are partly unsolved (not the highlighted ones, rare ones) on math stackexchange with the research or working that has been done before, hoping that some users may find it ...
-4 votes
0 answers
142 views

Is a new and interesting but long proof appropriate for the [proof-verification] tag (and the site)?

Let's imagine that an MSE user believes they've proven some non-trivial open problem, perhaps something on the edge of recreational (packing, magic squares, etc). They have a proof that can be ...
-1 votes
1 answer
216 views

Making my question (and sub-questions) rigorous and readable? [closed]

Question for this post: In my post, how do I make the motivation and question rigorous and readable to get a proper answer. (It received downvotes when I first originally sent it to math overflow but ...
1 vote
0 answers
121 views

Wrong accepted answers [duplicate]

A new phenomenon I noticed on Math.SE after I returned here after a long pause is wrong accepted (and sometimes highly upvoted) answers. Looks like when most users see such answers they assume that ...
79 votes
24 answers
8k views

Congratulations: the big thread!

Also known as the happiest place on the website! Use this thread to congratulate MSE users that you feel have reached a significant milestone on the website, or to congratulate the website itself, if ...
31 votes
4 answers
1k views

Should the overuse of colored text be discouraged?

I have just edited this question, because apart from some spelling mistakes the asker had colored a good portion of the text (not the equations!), almost as if they wanted to convey what they felt ...
17 votes
2 answers
928 views

When is a question 'recreational'?

I was going to tag this question as 'recreational-mathematics' because it is not directly related to core syllabus topics. Placing an integer's divisors around a circle But then I observed that I ...
23 votes
3 answers
869 views

Friends lists -- keeping track of users

Is there a better way of keeping track of users you want to follow than just visiting their page manually every time? I've found I enjoy looking at various users' posts and the list of usernames/...
28 votes
1 answer
1k views

Are my questions really this bad?

I just noticed this "recommended" badge in my profile and I'm rather confused. I have $20$ out of the $5$ needed questions for this badge, but apparently they are "poor" questions ...
13 votes
16 answers
1k views

Tag management 2021 [duplicate]

New year, new tag management thread. Rules of the game are basically the same: Post your suggestion as an answer here if you see A particularly bad tag (a rule of thumb: “if I can't imagine a person ...
21 votes
3 answers
963 views

What happened to CiteSeerX? Is there a way to fix those links?

Both on this site and networkwide there are many links to CiteSeerX. it seems that those links no longer work - at least the ones that I checked. Is there some official announcement explaining what ...
144 votes
3 answers
7k views

History of Math.StackExchange

This thread is used to record significant events in the life of Math.StackExchange. What should be recorded? Creation of the site (proposed, beta tested, graduated). Technological innovations like TeX ...
25 votes
4 answers
1k views

Treatment of comment-answered questions: what is the current policy as of February 2023?

I have noticed that quite a few questions tend to be answered in the comments. This was apparently observed $12$ years ago to a similar extent. These questions (unsurprisingly) tend to be on the ...
2 votes
0 answers
117 views

Follow-up on previous question about comment-answered questions

Last week I asked this question on what the current policy is on comment-answered questions. I thought I had reached an understanding. The top answers expressed that if someone sees this, they should ...
0 votes
0 answers
69 views

Format conversion problem For mathjax

Take the code “[{f_i} = {x_i}\left[ {{c_i} + \ln \left( {\frac{{{x_i}}}{{\bar x}}} \right)} \right]]” for example,I could get the proper formula displayed on the official website of "https://www....
-1 votes
1 answer
183 views

Asking and editing good questions, but still receiving more downvotes than upvotes [duplicate]

I edited and improved some Math StackExchange questions as much as possible, but I'm still receiving more downvotes than upvotes. What should I do?
0 votes
0 answers
145 views

Better command for $\require{cancel} \cancel{\exists}$ (There does not exist)

After searching the MathsJax tutorial pages, I couldn't find an actual symbol for $\require{cancel} \cancel{\exists}$ The way I have written it <\require{cancel} \cancel{\exists}> is the best I ...
1 vote
0 answers
216 views

Why did my question about Lie algebra software get closed?

I asked a question about mathematics software here, and the question was closed as "this question is not about mathematics." But there are numerous questions on this site asking for ...
1 vote
1 answer
99 views

What is [euclidean-geometry] for?

Isn't Euclidean geometry the assumed default kind of geometry unless stated otherwise? What information is added by tagging a question as euclidean-geometry instead of just geometry? I suppose it ...
1 vote
1 answer
183 views

How to better ask problems from known contests?

As we know, AoPS has got contest collections, containing threads where users discuss corresponding contest problems. Therefore, is it really necessary to ask them on mathematics stack exchange, if one ...
0 votes
0 answers
281 views

How do we stop "bot" accounts from being made by users?

What I mean is that people could have an account answering questions, and then other accounts being used to just upvote the answer, giving the user's main account a ridiculous or at least unfair ...
13 votes
0 answers
461 views

2022: a year in moderation

As we say goodbye to the old year and welcome the new one, we have a tradition of sharing moderation stats for the preceding calendar year. As most of you here are aware, sites on the Stack Exchange ...

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