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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542 votes
3 answers
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Differences between mathoverflow and math.stackexchange.

What are the differences between MathOverflow.net and Math.stackexchange.com? Why two communities for Mathematics? Wasn't one enough?
Prasoon Saurav's user avatar
298 votes
7 answers
9k views

(homework) tag should be deprecated (Voting's over! You won't believe what won!)

Note. After over one month of discussion, and more than one week of voting, I think the community has decided. Leave the tag alone: 43 upvotes (20.38%) Consider the tag deprecated, but do not remove ...
user avatar
278 votes
9 answers
29k 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 ...
210 votes
0 answers
4k 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 ...
Jyrki Lahtonen's user avatar
209 votes
1 answer
34k views

How to ask a homework question

How to ask a homework question Can I ask a homework question here? How do I ask a homework question on this website? What information should I include in a question about homework? Why don't you ...
Willie Wong's user avatar
  • 71.9k
198 votes
1 answer
11k views

I am resigning as moderator

I don't want to give a big speech about this. In short, moderating is draining my emotional energy and I'm much less convinced of its value than I used to be. Edit: Thanks for the warm comments! ...
Qiaochu Yuan's user avatar
179 votes
8 answers
5k views

Can we please be more generous to elementary beginners?

This question: Given that $\arctan(1/5) + \arctan(1/8) = \arctan(1/p)$, how to find the value of $p$? (now deleted again) was originally closed as "off-topic". Here is the original title: ...
user avatar
162 votes
29 answers
18k views

List of comment templates

Inspired by this question on meta.cstheory.SE. The post at meta.Tex.SE is quite impressive. We often leave generic comments to OP and answer posters such as "if this is a homework, please add a tag," ...
161 votes
2 answers
1k views

It’s become difficult to see visually if I’ve upvoted a post

I suppose this isn’t such a big deal, but it seems to have become difficult to see visually if I’ve upvoted a post on math.stackexchange: Compare this with the clear coloring on stackoverflow: Has ...
littleO's user avatar
  • 50.6k
159 votes
0 answers
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 ...
Willie Wong's user avatar
  • 71.9k
157 votes
5 answers
3k views

Let's require registration to ask a question

More than two years after http://meta.math.stackexchange.com/q/4569/, this may be the time for reconsideration. A brief update: In July 2012, when the aforementioned discussion took place, the site ...
user avatar
146 votes
0 answers
2k 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 ...
Akay's user avatar
  • 411
144 votes
5 answers
14k views

Should chat have TeX support?

OK, so chat is now available... but; it has been suggested that for Mathematics we should have TeX support. The current TeX processing has some non-trivial client impact. Before I even attempt trying ...
Marc Gravell's user avatar
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 ...
user avatar
132 votes
10 answers
4k views

Congratulations, Brian M. Scott! [duplicate]

Congratulations on reaching 100k reputation! We all appreciate the quality (and quantity) of your posts on Math.SE.
Elchanan Solomon's user avatar
132 votes
4 answers
4k views

Congratulations to Brian M. Scott!! (200K edition) [duplicate]

It's been a little more than two weeks since our last celebration, but today another math.SE user has passed the 200K barrier! Prof. Scott's habit of providing fantastic answers to questions of all ...
user avatar
132 votes
2 answers
7k views

General Moderation Strike: Mathematics StackExchange moderators are participating

As some of you may be aware, there is a general moderation strike in place as of Monday, June 5th, 2023. Seven members of the Mathematics moderation team have signed the demand letter and are striking....
robjohn's user avatar
  • 340k
126 votes
2 answers
3k views

2017 Election Results: Congratulations to the new moderators!

The 2017 elections are over. By analyzing the OpaSTV file with the voting data, the result of the 2017 moderator elections are as follows (with no particular order): In the name of all the users on ...
Asaf Karagila's user avatar
  • 388k
125 votes
9 answers
6k views

Is CRUDE healthy?

The chatroom CRUDE stands for Close, Reopen, Undelete, Delete, Edit. Is the way this room is currently used healthy for Maths Stack Exchange? There is a core of users which can be counted on one ...
it's a hire car baby's user avatar
124 votes
2 answers
5k views

Announcing a third-party search engine for Math StackExchange.

Approach0 is a math-aware search engine. “Math-aware” means you can add math expression(s) as some of your keywords to have search engine help you find similar expressions. Check out here: https://...
Wei Zhong's user avatar
  • 447
121 votes
4 answers
3k views

Vote early, vote often

I would like to echo a post that Scott Morrison made on Tex.SE. I think this is definitely something we are experiencing here on Math.SE. A link to the post here, and the text of the post: "I'm a ...
BBischof's user avatar
  • 5,747
120 votes
2 answers
5k views

Congratulations, Arturo! [duplicate]

I think congratulations are due to Arturo Magidin on hitting 100k reputation points here on MSE! All the users of this site are better off for his tireless contributions, and we appreciate his ...
user avatar
119 votes
0 answers
6k 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 ...
robjohn's user avatar
  • 340k
118 votes
2 answers
4k views

Congratulations to André Nicolas! [duplicate]

Congratulations on reaching $200,000$ reputation! I think I speak for us all when I say that your posts here are greatly appreciated.
user avatar
117 votes
3 answers
6k views

My letter of resignation

I have just submitted my resignation as a moderator on this website to Jeff Atwood. I would like to use this thread to explain my reasons. When I make a significant time commitment to a given ...
Akhil Mathew's user avatar
  • 30.8k
116 votes
1 answer
3k views

I am also resigning as a moderator

An election is a big process for the community (and for SE team to set up), and now that Qiaochu's resignation will set one in motion, I am going to take the opportunity to resign as well. To be ...
Zev Chonoles's user avatar
113 votes
7 answers
7k views

The unilateral removal of comments by Jeff Atwood

Initially, I was going to write this as a response to this discussion. It seems, however, a larger issue, which I think merits a separate thread, perhaps a sequel to this one. For people who have not ...
Akhil Mathew's user avatar
  • 30.8k
110 votes
4 answers
3k views

Can we please STOP closing and deleting old posts with answers?

This is a follow-up for a recent questions of mine: What are the merits, if there is any, of deleting (correctly) answered questions in the main site of MSE? I have noticed recently that quite a few ...
user avatar
109 votes
8 answers
5k views

Addiction to Math Stack Exchange

This is a fairly silly comment, but I am starting (already started actually) to get addicted to this site. I am even looking at this in parties and or with friends, as recreational activity, or as a ...
Brethlosze's user avatar
  • 2,986
109 votes
7 answers
8k views

Proposal: Discourage questions that are nothing besides a problem statement

This is a very clear followup to Qiaochu's question: http://meta.math.stackexchange.com/questions/9180/proposal-ban-verbatim-homework-questions The reason that I create a new post is because I want ...
davidlowryduda's user avatar
  • 89.8k
106 votes
6 answers
14k views

Enforcement of Quality Standards

Math SE has a long-standing policy regarding what constitutes a Good Question. The policy is intended to ensure that the collection of questions and answers here is of high quality, is searchable, ...
Xander Henderson's user avatar
  • 27.2k
104 votes
2 answers
2k views

Are we too trigger-happy about deleting (relatively) new posts?

I was directed just now to a post with the following abbreviated time-line: Question was posted 21 hours ago Question was closed as "unclear what you are asking" 19 hours ago Question was deleted by ...
Willie Wong's user avatar
  • 71.9k
104 votes
0 answers
1k views

Thanks! (Gratitude Post)

I just want to say how grateful I am for everyone on this forum. I don't get around to answering others questions nearly as often as I would like to. As I continue to pursue my study of Mathematics ...
Algebraic's user avatar
  • 463
103 votes
31 answers
7k views

Why do *you* answer questions on math.stackexchange?

Why do you post answers on math.stackexchange? As a math student, this is a very helpful resource. This could be asked for any forum, but I would like to understand the motives why people are ...
jacob's user avatar
  • 2,735
102 votes
1 answer
12k views

A Graph Map of Math.SE

I've just made a map of tags for Math.SE. (And to some degree - a greatly simplified map of mathematics.) In short: tag size is related to tag popularity (caveat: see below) and edges are related to ...
Piotr Migdal's user avatar
102 votes
1 answer
2k views

Congratulations, Asaf! [duplicate]

Congratulations to Asaf for joining the 100k club (Arturo, Qiaochu, André, Brian, Did). Your contributions are always appreciated!
Pedro's user avatar
  • 120k
101 votes
2 answers
2k views

Why should "trivial" questions not meet the guidelines?

Often among young students, or those new to the site in general, we all see questions that are seemingly too trivial to even be asked. Usually, and perhaps unsurprisingly, these types of questions get ...
Graviton's user avatar
  • 4,448
100 votes
7 answers
5k views

Papers that originated on math.SE

I was thinking it would be interesting to have a list here on meta of any published papers that originated on math.SE. I realize that most of the questions here aren't research-level, and that it's ...
Mike Spivey's user avatar
  • 54.7k
95 votes
1 answer
4k views

Congratulations, André! [duplicate]

Since yesterday, the number of 100k+ users on MSE has doubled, courtesy of André Nicolas. I think congratulations are in order!
hmakholm left over Monica's user avatar
94 votes
3 answers
2k views

STOP! Look and Listen.

I was reviewing a bit and ran into a bad answer. Usually I open the question to see it within context (I know this is not the supposed course of action) and so I did. The bad answer I was reviewing ...
Git Gud's user avatar
  • 31.2k
94 votes
6 answers
6k views

Is there an MSE-like site that is more pleasant to work in? Or are there other solutions?

The Problem: It becomes more difficult to help people on a site in which there is mass closing of questions. And I am disturbed that a small group of people is engaged in trying to delete permanently ...
André Nicolas's user avatar
94 votes
0 answers
867 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 ...
Antonio Vargas's user avatar
92 votes
10 answers
5k views

discrepancies between skills and ambitions

This is something I've been wondering about for a while now. I hope I don't offend anyone with this question; but in addition to satisfying my personal curiosity, perhaps an answer to this question ...
joriki's user avatar
  • 229k
92 votes
5 answers
2k views

Non-experts closing questions

I have recently noticed what, to me, is a pretty irking trend in the tag I contribute to most often (algebraic geometry). It seems to me that there is a contingent of 'serial closers' who insist on ...
Alex Youcis's user avatar
  • 52.8k
91 votes
9 answers
11k views

Coping with abstract duplicate questions.

Any longtime reader cannot help but notice that we get many abstract duplicate questions, e.g. this recent question on partial fraction computation, which is not essentially different from many other ...
Bill Dubuque's user avatar
90 votes
2 answers
3k views

Why do some users delete their questions after receiving an answer?

It has happened several times now that a question is deleted by its author a few minutes after I post an answer. I suspect it's because the question is a homework question and the user wants to ...
Ayman Hourieh's user avatar
88 votes
1 answer
4k views

Dealing with answers in comments.

I have noticed, of late, people providing answers/copious hints to the question in comments instead of actually adding an answer on their own. Other people might choose not to answer, as the ...
Aryabhata's user avatar
  • 81.4k
88 votes
0 answers
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 ...
Asaf Karagila's user avatar
  • 388k
87 votes
3 answers
6k views

Firing mods and forced relicensing: sudden changes at SE

Thank you to Martin Sleziak for bringing this to my attention on the math meta chat. I would just like to inform the Math SE community of a recent change in behaviour from Stack Exchange (meta post). ...
Toby Mak's user avatar
  • 16.7k
86 votes
6 answers
3k views

How can non-experts best contribute?

Hi all, I'm a fairly recent arrival to math.se. I've asked a good amount of questions (and learned a lot from the answers). But I haven't had the chance to answer many questions. I've been perusing ...
Michael Chen's user avatar
  • 4,151

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