Questions tagged [policy]
for questions on Mathematics Stack Exchange policies
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Request: an easy way to access the posts on meta that explain policies or serve as tutorials or lists.
Today when I was going through the questions on our main site, I saw a question that showed absolutely no effort. But the op left a sentence "don't know where to start". Then I remembered I've seen ...
28
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3answers
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Should there be a policy about “hints”?
First, let me say that I completely understand the idea of not posting full solutions, but instead "hints" (or outlines) to let the OP figure out the details by themselves. I tend to do that myself.
...
88
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6answers
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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 ...
25
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3answers
681 views
What is our question deletion policy?
I've recently become a 10k plus user, and I was taking a look at the moderation tools, specifically the deletion votes section. As I was looking at the questions nominated for deletion, it struck me ...
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2answers
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Why do we care about monitoring for CodeChef problems?
Title kind of gives away the question, but here we go.
Very recently another meta-thread has appeared "warning" about the possible appearance of questions related to a CodeChef challenge. There have ...
18
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1answer
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I voted mistakenly to close as duplicate. When I realised my mistake, my comment explaining why was deleted.
I refer to this question: Comparing logarithms with different bases.
Over-hastily, I flagged it as a possible duplicate of How to compare logarithms $\log_4 5$ and $\log_5 6$?.
I also thought it was ...
18
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1answer
1k views
Is Math StackExchange aging?
I am just a relatively new user, so please correct me if I'm wrong.
If you read about the questions with most votes in MSE, you can find that until the $35$-th of question, the questions are all ...
0
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0answers
85 views
Immediate question deletion to prevent others from seeing an answer
I recently answered a question about a simple strategy game. (Mine was the only answer.) The OP deleted the question about a minute later. It occurs to me that he might not have wanted a potential ...
0
votes
1answer
109 views
What happens if the answer which had appeared after starting a bounty is not worthy of that bounty?
This happened to me once. I had a question and started a bounty over its topic but the "new" answer which came for the bounty was "to my standards" not worthy of that particular bounty. Stackexchange ...
18
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1answer
564 views
On bibliographic references.
On this answer, which provides a bibliographic reference to one of the standard sources of information on the subject of question to which it is attached, was flagged for review for «low quality» and, ...
11
votes
1answer
607 views
Can the site-design be improved to be more welcoming to new users?
I think that the design of MSE could be more welcoming to new users. I don't know how much effort it would take and of course that should be considered. My view is as someone who is relatively new to ...
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0answers
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Question on proofs with text-&-LaTeX images
Two days ago, I saw a stochastic process question which contained images that could be completely $\rm\TeX$ified. Based on several related questions found on this site, I think those images should be ...
25
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3answers
924 views
Are intuition-based questions off-topic?
I was perusing the "Close Questions" queue just now and noticed a common theme. It seems like a large number of questions involve gaining intuition about some result; most of them use the word "...
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2answers
1k views
Why don't we use a homework policy… like physics.SE?
I was reading Proposal: ban verbatim homework questions which have no accompanying text and I came upon some startling old statistics.
Since 2013, the number of questions on this site has multiplied ...
19
votes
2answers
839 views
Posting multiple questions as one?
It often happens that (usually somewhat inexperienced) users post several questions on more or less related themes as one single question. To give a stylized example, someone may ask:
Which of the ...
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4answers
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The things that make math.SE 'better' (or worse) than most other math sites
So there was a recent conversation below the main post of When does the series converge?, which prompted this meta post.
I know there are plenty of people who are for and against the closure and ...
15
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8answers
2k views
On the continued impolite closure of questions by new users for the wrong reasons.
[Historical preamble. Since this old 2011 thread was recently bumped by another user, it is worth giving some context. Way back then it was much more difficult to get closed questions reopened, since ...
29
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2answers
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Best way to “revive” a question (which does not abide by the Math.SE rules) [duplicate]
There exists a question which looks interesting to me, given that I scribbled some attempts to solve it and, in spite of the fact that it "seems" like an easy application of Rolle's theorem, couldn't ...
0
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0answers
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Is it a bad thing to give more than one examples in a [big-list] question?
In most [big-list] questions, I see that every person has entered at most one example. Why is this so?
I recently provided about 5 examples in this answer. Is that considered a bad thing?
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6answers
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What are ongoing non-proctored mathematical competitions where math.SE could be used to cheat?
The purpose of this thread is to list the mathematical competitions where math.SE based cheating is relevant. This is useful for two purposes: (1) To understand the scope of the problem and (2) To aid ...
17
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0answers
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How closely must a question match a contest question to fall under our policy?
With the start of this academic year's USAMTS, we are going to get a some questions that have their origin in these problems, some more closely worded to the original than others. Perhaps it is time ...
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1answer
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Has there been discussion about a Beginners sub-community?
It would provides a space for beginners to ask questions that may be "stupid" without spamming the serious forum. (Thus only those feeling particularly generous in a given moment would have to be ...
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2answers
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“Context” vs. “your work” redux
Recently, we (once again) discussed the practices of requiring context and asking for someone's work on a question.
It has been quite an established principle these days that people ought to include ...
11
votes
2answers
743 views
What to do when someone is answering a question that he/she has no clue about?
It ought to be common knowledge that you should answer only questions that you know an answer to. Well, sometimes mistakes can happen and the answer becomes erroneous. That usually happen because
1....
19
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1answer
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Is there an issue with this question?
After spending quite a bit of time trying to crack a problem about the convexity of a multivariate function by myself, I asked this question a couple of days ago: Convexity of difference of log-sum-...
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4answers
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Is this account suspension abuse of moderator power?
Is this account suspension abuse of moderator power?
My account had been suspended for one year.
As some of you know, some users don't like my questions in the main because I tend to answer my own ...
14
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2answers
706 views
Is it OK for a user to ask other users to vote for him as a quid pro quo for voting their questions?
Perhaps it is not an issue in sites like MathOverflow because it is really shameful for a prestigious professor to get involve in such childish games but in Math.Stackexchange it could happen.
Here ...
9
votes
3answers
435 views
Closed as off-topic after asking and answering own question
I came across a question by a new user where he had asked a question and answered it himself right away (since he had read the guidelines that says that this is encouraged).
The question which was a ...
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8answers
2k views
Answers composed entirely mechanically, e.g. by computer algebra systems
Some users post many entirely machine-composed answers, e.g. integrals computed by Maple (e.g one user has over 150 such answers).
Should such "answers" be CW? $ $ Should they be comments?
...
11
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0answers
462 views
Proper notice to posters unfamiliar with S.E. customs
https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/1356481/complete-the-square-on-x210x9-0
I put this comment under the question above:
Probably the reason for the down-vote and the votes to close the ...
9
votes
1answer
214 views
Policy on hyperlink shortening/redirection sites
While reviewing a LQ post, I found the answer contained a link, purportedly to a video providing a proof requested in the respective question. However the link was presented as a bit.ly "shortened" ...
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3answers
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Proof Verification of Open Problems
Over the past few days, I've noticed several proof verification questions regarding open problems. On one, quid left the comment:
I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it asks for ...
41
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8answers
2k views
On the Bachelor/ette “correction”
Two days ago the question “The Bachelor Problem” (from Tao's Google+ account) was posted on MSE.
It received a lot of positive attention, solutions and comments until an MSE user voted to close on ...
24
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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 ...
4
votes
1answer
179 views
How to clean up after multiple questions were posted as one question, then reposted individually
A user asked a question with multiple unrelated parts
(three problems and their answers from a book,
which the OP wanted help in understanding).
Someone advised that the different problems in this "...
3
votes
5answers
672 views
PLEASE exercise more restraint before voting to close - discuss here first
I think that we should have discussed here the question "Integral Representation of Infinite series" before it was closed. Students often have questions about such topics so the replies could have ...
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2answers
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Proving that $e^\pi-\pi<20$ Without Using a Calculator
No, I did not mistake the meta for the main site. :-) I'm just curious how you would recommend to approach such utterly intractable questions. Apparently, simply answering them in the negative is not ...
2
votes
1answer
127 views
Tons of induction proof questions in the review queue
I just went through the close vote queue and it seems someone just sent a whole bunch of questions of the form "Is the following proof of (very simple induction problem) correct"? to the queue.
For ...
12
votes
1answer
836 views
Rude comments embedded in user profiles
I have a problem with a particular user's profile, specifically this line:
See what's going on with my answers. They take the hints and ideas from my answers and then they down vote and delete them....
11
votes
1answer
218 views
What to do about a plagiarized post?
I recently noticed that a user has copied one my posts without crediting me. Who do I contact here about this and how?
18
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3answers
858 views
Understanding the community stand point on posts about self harming
Now before I state the question I had when I woke up this winter morning.. this is definitely not about me, or anyone I know.
Anyway..
I was wondering what the protocol is for someone who claims ...
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4answers
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What is Math.SE?
Disclaimer: This question is not about PSQs, or "Problem Statement Questions". Rather it is about what users want Math.SE to be. I bring up PSQs to frame the issue.
Background: Recently there has ...
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4answers
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Suggested Guideline for “I Don't Know Where to Begin” Questions
We've all seen them: posts that ask the community members for help regarding a homework problem, lacking in any previously attempted work. Sometimes you can't blame the asker for not knowing where to ...
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2answers
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What is a mod to do? (Traceless edits and “deletions”.)
A few users flagged this post to our attention.
The reconstructed time-line based on users' comments seems to be:
OP posted the question
Some users saw the question, started to compose the answer.
...
2
votes
2answers
643 views
How to deal with users padding their answers with custom signatures?
I'd like to start by clarifying that this is not a question about whether custom signatures in posts should be allowed. That issue has been discussed before, and the SE policy on the matter is pretty ...
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votes
1answer
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What kind of comments are “not-constructive”?
I flagged some comments 3 of which got declined.
1.Trouble solving $\int\sqrt{1-x^2} \, dx$
This says only Thankyou.
2.Baricenter of $4$ intersection points of parabola with circle lies on axis of ...
3
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2answers
562 views
Censorship of swear words on mathSE
(This issue has been discussed before, specifically here. A different kind of censorship has been discussed here.)
There are two reasons I am bringing this up again. Firstly, the previous ...
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3answers
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Can we do anything to avoid losing Bill D? [closed]
Recently I was very disturbed to learn that one of the most distinguished members of the MSE community (my former teacher, and close friend, Prof. Bill D) was suspended for 30 days, under what seems ...
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6answers
2k views
Should we discourage the use of multiple redundant @username pings in comments?
EDIT $\ $ There is now an "experimental" SE software revision blocking comments with multiple @name's, see Jeff Atwood's answer below.
As was mentioned in this recent question, only the first @name ...
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1answer
190 views
Is one allowed to post in her/his blog an answer to a question she/he asked?
If someone asks here (in the main site) a question and is pleased with a particular answer he/she got, may it be posted in his/her blog without asking permission to the answerer?
Edit: One should ...
