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.
746
questions with no upvoted or accepted answers
188
votes
0answers
3k views
Resigning from moderator duties
Sorry. At the moment I cannot handle the duties of a diamond bearer with the patience it requires.
This job forces one to encounter all the worst the site has to offer. My approach to the job (and ...
149
votes
0answers
4k views
Announcement: I'm retiring
I've been thinking about this for some months now, and recently I've made up my mind to retire from moderator duty. It has been an awesome four years, and I see a lot of positive in how the community ...
137
votes
0answers
1k views
Trying to ask a question provides better results than normal search.
I have noticed this interesting behavior several times now.
Many a time I scour Math SE looking for a particular query but fail to find anything even after several rounds of rephrasing and ...
112
votes
0answers
5k views
Main Chatroom Guidelines
Welcome. Hello friends. My online handle is anon, and I will be your guide.
Associated with the Mathematics StackExchange is the main chatroom. I am chatroom co-owner alongside current moderator ...
92
votes
0answers
779 views
An attempt to add real-time previewing for comments
Screenshot
About
When writing a comment with a lot of formatting, especially one containing formulas, I often found myself pasting it into the "new answer" editor at the bottom of the page to see if ...
84
votes
0answers
3k views
2014 Election Results: Congratulations to the new moderators!
The 2014 elections are over. Analyzing the OpenSTV file (you may view an online summary report here as well) the results are as follows (with no particular order):
At the same time, I'd like to thank ...
78
votes
0answers
1k views
Proposal for promoting more interesting, deeper questions
There was recently a (now-locked) thread about the prevalence of "do my homework" questions on math.se. I want to set aside for now the question about what to do about people posting homework ...
75
votes
0answers
753 views
Please don't flag posts containing re-purposed ImageShack image URLs as spam
It has recently been noticed that ImageShack does a horrible thing: they re-purpose old image URLs for advertising purposes. This can lead the impression that some older posts are actually spam, for ...
70
votes
0answers
2k views
Cheating on USAMTS 2018-2019
As some may know, USAMTS round 1 problems have just been released.
To read more about the USAMTS go here: http://www.usamts.org
(From the above link) "Students may use any materials - books, ...
66
votes
0answers
500 views
“Maybe answered questions” box on “Ask Question” page is much more useful than “Search Q&A”
I often find that "Search Q&A" is quite useless when I want to find a question or something related to it. But I've also noticed that when I'm about to ask a question, the "Questions that may ...
59
votes
0answers
1k views
USAMTS 2017-18 Round 2 Problems
The USA Mathematical Talent Search (USAMTS) is a free mathematics competition open to all United States middle and high school students.
As opposed to most mathematics competitions, the USAMTS allows ...
57
votes
0answers
832 views
An interactive graph of Math.SE tags
Some time I created
A Graph Map of Math.SE, which met with a warm response from this community. Encouraged by this, I created a new visualization, this time interactive and up-to-date (as long as the ...
50
votes
0answers
3k views
It's that time of year again: USAMTS 2016-17 Round 1 problem set is out!
The 2016-17 USAMTS Round 1 problem set is out, and some problems from it have been found on the site already.
This is yet another request for all users to be on the lookout for these problems, and ...
48
votes
0answers
3k views
Launching *Pearl Dive* - a chatroom where excellent questions/answers meet willing sponsors
Announcing the birth of the Pearl Dive – a chatroom dedicated to enhancing the quality of the material on the site, sieving out the pearls from the sand.
Caveat: I'm new to creating chatrooms, ...
44
votes
0answers
1k views
Announcement: the MathStackExchange Blog is active, and Call for Content!
Announcement: We have a blog!
And in case you didn't notice, the standard links in the dropdown menu have updated. So now clicking here
takes you to the blog! This is an exciting time, as the blog ...
44
votes
0answers
660 views
When closing question for lack of effort, leave a comment to OP explaining what to do
Recently there was an extensive discussion about closing the questions containing only the problem statement: http://meta.math.stackexchange.com/questions/9201/proposal-discourage-questions-that-are-...
43
votes
0answers
1k views
Why does the community seem to encourage technical cleverness over the actual answer to a question?
First post on meta, so here goes nothing.
Earlier today, I answered the question linked below:
Evaluating $\int_0^1 \frac{3x}{\sqrt{4-3x}} dx$
I believe it is a good question. The user had a ...
43
votes
0answers
1k views
User asking exercises from textbook without so identifying
A user is copying verbatim exercises from my textbook, e.g.,
Local Feature Size, Describe Conv(A U B),
Flip graph of point set,
Expected number on the convex hull, etc. Is the MSE convention that he ...
41
votes
0answers
577 views
Edit session for wrong spelling of mathematicians and mathematical concepts
Wrong spelling of mathematician's names and mathematical concepts is perpetuated by their presence in highly indexed resources like stackexchange.
I think that the internet would become a better ...
39
votes
0answers
2k views
Strange new users with Chinese/Korean usernames
From here, we can see many 1-rep users with Chinese or Korean usernames. Their profile photos are their usernames themselves. I am a Chinese native speaker, I can see their usernames do not seem to be ...
38
votes
0answers
678 views
Wolfram Releases the Wolfram Engine for Developers!!
This isn't technically a question, but I thought there would be enough interest in Mathematica here on M.SE.Meta to post it.
Wolfram made what I would call a gigantic move: they released the Wolfram ...
36
votes
0answers
488 views
Encouraging duplicate hunters
There are more and more duplicates on this site, but sometimes it is time consuming to find an earlier source. Now, there is a variety of moderation badges for editing, voting, reviewing, raising ...
36
votes
0answers
1k views
Nearly all frontpage questions downvoted
Of the 50 questions on the front page a few minutes ago, all but 4 have downvotes. (Many also have upvotes, of course, and many have more upvotes than downvotes.)
This doesn't seem normal to me. Is ...
36
votes
0answers
1k views
Could those named “User XXXX” please consider changing their names to something more distinctive?
It might be completely unremarkable if there were only a couple of such names on this server, but lately there are many people now going by monikers such as user3432 and user5633, who've accumulated a ...
35
votes
0answers
565 views
Announcement: private contacts by moderators
I am writing this post to discuss a possible small upcoming change in moderator policy. I post this here on Meta (instead in the Mods only discussion room) because
The topic is not sensitive.
There ...
33
votes
0answers
695 views
Why would a question with an upvoted and accepted answer be deleted?
This is a question on MSE which I had answered a month or so ago. It was an interesting question and it took me some effort to write the answer. The answer got upvoted twice and accepted.
Two weeks ...
33
votes
0answers
2k views
Polish Mathematical Olympiad 2016/17
After seeing this post about problems from USAMTS I thought it might be a good idea to post here about problems from Polish Mathematical Olympiad. The first stage of this olympiad is involves high-...
33
votes
0answers
342 views
Improving the search system
When recognizing some questions as duplicates, sometimes it is difficult to find the original question one remembers. For instance, I recently saw a question asking to prove that
$$\forall x\in(-1,1),\...
32
votes
0answers
403 views
Bookmarklet plugin to speed up LaTeX macro typing
I've developed a little tool that assists in writing LaTeX macros. It works the same as the OSX press and hold accent picker. You press a key, and then there will appear a pop menu, with symbols ...
31
votes
0answers
737 views
2018: a year in moderation
It's New Year's Day in Stack Exchange land...
A distinguishing characteristic of these sites is how they are moderated:
We designed the Stack Exchange network engine to be mostly self-regulating, ...
31
votes
1answer
1k views
Have the questions on Math.SE changed in quality?
Perhaps this is just subjective nonsense. But after browsing through the site today, I somehow feel as though the average of quality of questions has gone down since when I first started using this ...
30
votes
0answers
425 views
Quality blocks enabled for questions
Questions are the lifeblood of any Stack Exchange site. But asking good questions can be difficult, for some people entirely too difficult to bother with. When the Trilogy sites reached traffic levels ...
29
votes
0answers
1k views
MathJax v2.7.2 beta
Update: v2.7.2 has been released, so we're switching over to the non-beta version today.
MathJax v2.7.2 has entered the public beta phase. We're setting it up here to kick the tires and help out with ...
29
votes
0answers
693 views
Should a mathematical error in the context of a question be edited?
This is a scenario I have encountered a few times when going through the edit suggestion review queue.
An asker posts a question and as context they provide some information that they used when ...
29
votes
0answers
1k views
New Math Teaching Stackexchange is looking for 38 more people to register for a private beta
Edit: Thanks to the 162 people who have signed up so far! You've made this proposal one of the fastest-growing proposals of all time.
The math teaching SE proposal has reached the commitment phase, ...
29
votes
0answers
397 views
modularizing answers
Sometimes in answering a question I need to derive an intermediate result that might be of interest in its own right. It seems to me that in such a case it's best to post a separate question asking ...
29
votes
0answers
387 views
Why restrict my ability to change my vote once I have editing priveleges?
Yesterday I intended to upvote an answer, but accidentally downvoted. I did not notice this and did not change it within the five-minute window for changing votes. Later that day I noticed a drop on 1 ...
28
votes
0answers
544 views
2019: a year in moderation
It's New Year's Day in Stack Exchange land...
A distinguishing characteristic of these sites is how they are moderated:
We designed the Stack Exchange network engine to be mostly self-regulating, ...
28
votes
0answers
476 views
Race condition in editing question
I have noticed this problem. Let's say when I first see a question, it is in version $A$. It is badly formatted, so I click edit. However, it takes a long time for me to edit. Before I finish, someone ...
27
votes
0answers
3k views
SUMaC 2018 entrance exam questions
The Stanford University Mathematics Camp (SUMaC) 2018 Admission Exam is online. The rules say, "You are expected to do your own work without the use of any outside source (books, internet search, etc)....
27
votes
0answers
406 views
Why not add the title of the question in the preview while writing it?
Sometimes I don't know if the $\LaTeX$ used in the title of a question I'm writing is correct. Why is not added the title preview of the question when one is writing it to avoid typos? Just like it's ...
27
votes
0answers
1k views
Is our main site breeding USAMTS Round 3 problems?
The 2014-15 USAMTS Round 3 set has been released, and unsurprisingly some problems from it have already been spotted on the main site.
This is another request for all users to be on the lookout for ...
26
votes
0answers
583 views
Switch to MathJax version 3?
It seems it has been a long time since the MathJax has been updated on this site (probably MathJax 2.7 beta by @m0sa). So I was wondering if there is a plan to switch to newer version 3? (http://docs....
26
votes
0answers
970 views
wrong edit made by a user
I have asked Homotopy invariance of de Rham cohomology question
Some user has changed the context from homotopy invariant(by which I mean homotopy equivalent) to diffeomorphic. This is totally ...
26
votes
0answers
488 views
Retire localized meta.MSE acronyms including PSQ and its variants
Earlier in 2013, for a short time a volcano of postings about basic homework questions took over practically the entire meta.MSE, with the same 20 users rapidly exchanging what seemed to be thousands ...
25
votes
0answers
502 views
Demotivating test reviews
Some of the posts I review as candidates for deletion are test items. After I duly pass or condemn such an item, I get the message
Congratulations! This was only a test, designed to make sure you ...
24
votes
0answers
677 views
Active Contest Ending 12 November 2018: Questions from CodeChef November Challenge
Questions have begun arising on this site from an active contest. It is the CodeChef November Challenge, which ends at 15:00 Indian Standard Time on 12 November 2018. There are two divisions, ...
24
votes
0answers
387 views
MathJax editing preview improvements userscript
There have been a number of issues recently with how MathJax interacts with the editing preview code:
MathJax preview bug
MathJax not rendering in previews
Problems with losing MathJax formatting ...
24
votes
0answers
459 views
Editing closed questions to add answers
Recently we have seen quite a few instances of users editing questions that are closed to add their answers to the body of the questions themselves.
That is a clear subversion of the rules and an ...
23
votes
0answers
1k views
Help me find an original for questions like “Why $(-1)^{ab} \ne [(-1)^a]^b$ when $a, b, \in \Bbb R$?”
There are many questions that boil down to
"why is it not true that $(-1)^{ab} = [(-1)^a]^b$ (or $z^{ab} = (z^a)^b$) for $z \in \Bbb C$ and $a, b \in \Bbb R$ (or $\Bbb C$)?"
and, respectively,
"...
