Questions tagged [soft-question]

For questions whose answers can't be objectively evaluated as correct or incorrect, but which are still relevant to this site. Please be specific about what you are after.

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51 votes
12 answers
4k 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 ...
-1 votes
2 answers
218 views

I have a question on how to study maths, is MSE the right place for it?

I have a question regarding how to study maths efficiently, and how the best study maths. Is this the best place for i?
-4 votes
1 answer
116 views

How common is it to do a lot of roundabout work? [closed]

When I'm thinking about a question, I often find that I've done a lot of roundabout work only to find a neat direct shortcut solution, especially when I'm into a new concept. It's kind of frustrating, ...
1 vote
1 answer
399 views

The downvoting system is toxic. [duplicate]

I was told to ask here. Here I am! Does anyone else have the same feeling? Sometimes some questions are downvoted because it seems trivial. But to be honest, as a person first seeing some maths ...
17 votes
2 answers
1k views

Which posts have a high value of $\min(\text{upvotes, downvotes})$?

I am curious to see posts that have polarized readers; that is, posts with many upvotes and many downvotes. So, Which posts (question or answer) on Math Stack Exchange have a high value of $\min(\...
30 votes
2 answers
5k views

$\pi + e$ is irrational, I want to share but nervous.

I have the proof for $\pi + e$ being irrational. Honestly, I’ve been delving into irrational analysis for awhile now, and I got lucky stumbling into a solution. I’m not an amateur mathematician, but ...
-2 votes
1 answer
259 views

what is the maximum duration of moderator ? How many years they will remain in their positions as moderator?

I think MSE is like a democratic country. we cast vote and choosing our favourite USER My question : what is the maximum duration of moderator ? How many years they will remain in their positions as ...
0 votes
1 answer
89 views

Create a list of my own questions. [duplicate]

I am planning to create manual solutions for some famous books in Analysis, Topology, Algebra which currently do not have available online solutions. I'd like to share those solutions on this site in ...
11 votes
0 answers
601 views

Are soft questions allowed on MSE? I see there is a tag for it but I'm scared I will be downvoted for it.

What I was really looking for was a SE but for "soft questions mathematics" - the closest thing I found was the History of Mathematics and Physics SE, which is unlucky considering the ...
-2 votes
2 answers
424 views

Has it become too hard to write self-answered questions?

Recently I posted a self-answered question which I had been working on in the Sandbox for drafts of long, complex posts for $2$ months (August $10^{th}$ to October $10^{th}$), which underwent $44$ ...
35 votes
3 answers
1k views

Looking for other math forums for more "soft" discussions

Well, I don't even know if meta is the right place to ask this, but I thought it suited more than the standard Math Stack Exchange. As a mathematics undergrad student, I usually face some questions ...
3 votes
0 answers
125 views

What aspect of a question determines whether a soft question is a good fit for math.SE? [duplicate]

Note: This question is (in my opinion) not a duplicate of the question people have voted to close it for. I specifically cite that particular link, and am expressing confusion about how that answer in ...
2 votes
1 answer
124 views

Writing Math equations in MSE. [duplicate]

How do I write the mathematical equations in a question, here on stack exchange? When I try to write a question which involves equations, I get stuck as I don't know how to input those equations... ...
18 votes
2 answers
613 views

Answering a question too late

I recently answered a question I later found to have been asked nearly 3 years ago. If interested the question is Constructing a family of sets. (EDIT: The answer I provided was not correct, but this ...
35 votes
4 answers
1k views

How do I ask a good question about a topic I am not completely familiar with?

In my classes, it is easy as my professor would correct my question if it bad, or ask me to re-state it and I would learn something new if my question was good or bad. However, in this site I have ...
29 votes
2 answers
1k views

How does one handle books without errata?

My situation: My book is Differential Forms in Algebraic Topology by Loring W. Tu and Raoul Bott of which An Introduction to Manifolds by Loring W. Tu is a prequel. Neither of which appears to have ...
17 votes
1 answer
400 views

Are "soft questions" "opinion based"? How about vice versa?

There is a tag called "soft questions", which is described as follows: For questions whose answers can't be objectively evaluated as correct or incorrect, but which are still relevant to ...
3 votes
0 answers
75 views

Why there are still so many opinion based questions? Should they be closed?

One of the reasons that we delete questions at math.stackexchange is because the answer is primarily opinion based. However, my observation is that there are still many such questions; they are not ...
2 votes
1 answer
66 views

Should this question not be tagged as "soft question"?

There is a question asking about summer programs which is tagged "soft questions" along with other tags. I am not asking about if this question is suitable for math.stackexchange; instead, I am asking ...
-4 votes
2 answers
148 views

Is it OK to link other profiles in questions/comments/answers?

I often will link other people's profiles in my posts where they are appropriate but I've never checked whether this is OK. I've read through the rules and couldn't find anything that spoke to this. ...
22 votes
3 answers
595 views

How to make a question regarding proof verification more interesting and more attractive?

Since I self-study mathematical analysis without formal teacher, I can only appeal to help from out site most of the time. It's obvious that to grasp the underlying concepts in mathematics, we must ...
17 votes
2 answers
1k views

An Identity Crisis

I'm raising a philosophical question, here, having to do with the format and layout of M.SE versus the stated goals. Essentially, I am asking the question of whether the format of M.SE is in alignment ...
10 votes
2 answers
972 views

What was wrong with my post?

Forgive me, I do not know where else to post this - I assume this is the right place. I recently made a post asking a question here: Prove that g has no roots It recevied a negative voting score ...
30 votes
1 answer
1k views

What to do when someone tells you something like this in her/his comment and then deletes the comment?

There was a question today under which I left a comment that was not right in the sense that what was implied by that comment would not settle the question at all, but it had to do something with the ...
0 votes
0 answers
17 views

General informations on questions

My question is related to the enormous amount of questions that are posted here on this site. Are these questions involving definite integrals, sequences series, limit and many more, in short all ...
16 votes
2 answers
1k views

Compiling a book of the most interesting problems solved in Math Stackexchange

I was reading the Princeton Companion of Mathematics compiled by Tim Gowers and team and a thought stuck me. What we if produced a compilation book of the most interesting problems solved in Math ...
9 votes
0 answers
110 views

What is this paradoxical image in the site's header? [duplicate]

What is this paradoxical image composed of red cubes in the site's header called? Is there something (not necesserily mathematically) interesting about it other than its only being able to be ...
2 votes
2 answers
339 views

Would a question asking "Is Theorem X interesting enough to be submitted for publication?" appropriate for MSE?

I have recently proved something (let's call it theorem X) which seems to be a cute, elementary result (I certainly do not mean Riemann, Goldbach etc.) I would like to post the following question: "Do ...
9 votes
2 answers
332 views

Can the chat be used to discuss opinionated questions

After reading: Where to have discussions about intuition? It's pretty explicit that the main Q&A site isn't for gathering opinions or general extended discussion about math/math related topics (...
17 votes
2 answers
846 views

About posting identical answers to a question

I've been a fairly active member for about a month, and I first of all want to say that this is a terrific site for someone like me that loves to mess around with challenging problems for no reason ...
9 votes
1 answer
342 views

What are some examples of good questions falling under the tags (soft-question), (advice), (career-development)?

What are some examples of good questions falling under the following tags? soft-question advice career-development I am asking this question because often, positive reactions from users towards ...
7 votes
1 answer
431 views

Etiquette about posting a large number of questions about preliminary exams.

I am Currently studying for my preliminary exams (Advanced Calculus and Linear Algebra), and I can solve about half of the previous years exam questions. However, I do not have anyone to vet my proofs ...
-8 votes
4 answers
380 views

Why was the soft question on "Maths at university" closed?

Why was the following question closed? https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/609099/maths-at-university/ I ask because it is a very natural question, and one which has the potential to be useful ...
86 votes
7 answers
3k views

I feel mathematically inadequate for this site. What level are the majority of questions?

I visit this site alot (even though I have only just signed up, I was a big reader), as it helps me understand important mathematics and was a big help when I was a student. However, despite ...
1 vote
1 answer
339 views

Questions that involve opinions

I am wondering why it is that questions that are deemed to require opinions are closed or put on hold? But I am also wondering if there is any alternate ways/formats that these types of questions can ...
-6 votes
1 answer
199 views

What are the desired questions that should to be in SM (stackexchangemath)? [duplicate]

According to many questions posted in SM, I see that SM gives high importance for the related questions to Real analysis and number theory and contests where "MO" gives high importance to Algebra and ...
1 vote
0 answers
323 views

Why some questions are unanswered yet?

I am not new here. Well... I see here some questions in "unanswered" category that have gained many votes but are unanswered yet. As far as I know, the site has many outspoken members viz., some them ...
7 votes
3 answers
300 views

Should we eliminate [soft-question]?

Given "The Death of Meta Tags", should we eliminate the [soft-question] tag? Near as I can tell, there are three types of questions tagged with [soft-question]: those that are also tagged [big-list] ...
13 votes
1 answer
293 views

Are career related questions allowed?

Are questions about asking career advice and opportunities removed ? I have seen such some question with up votes and answers, while other are down voted and removed. Are there particular career ...
39 votes
9 answers
2k views

Why are there active users who do not ask questions?

A surprising kind of (a lot of) active users: Those who don't ask question. For example: Robert Israel 2,729 Answers, 0 Questions. Brian M. Scott 5,847 Answers, 0 Questions. André Nicolas 5,528 ...
2 votes
1 answer
59 views

Should requesting examples be tagged as Soft-questions?

Here is the description of the tag "soft question": ...
13 votes
1 answer
619 views

What kinds of soft questions are acceptable at math.stackexchange?

I have asked Is remaining single helpful in mathematical career? today and it was put on hold as off-topic. While How hard should a mathematician work? is acceptable with many positive votes and ...
-5 votes
1 answer
298 views

How to ask a popular question

Problem. Today I saw a question that gathered more than $500$ views less than in $10$ hours. It gives some privilege to the asking person since different people can look at your question from ...
0 votes
1 answer
217 views

Merging of accounts

I had to create a new account due circumstances beyond my control. I already have an account with the same user name (kuku) and I was wondering if someone could merge my accounts. I tried to ask over ...
36 votes
2 answers
1k views

Do those red cubes aligned circulary next to MATHEMATICS have any mathematical significance?

Or they just look fancy and that's why it was put there ?
2 votes
0 answers
69 views

Where should I ask questions?

I am a sophomore student in China, and I have already learned all the undergraduate courses and several graduate courses in my college. Now I am trying to solve out the problems in qualify exam of ...
2 votes
0 answers
114 views

How do we connect our math.stackexchange account to our facebook page???

For instance, I would like to display on my FB page that I have an active account here. Is there some 1-click way of doing that? Has anybody done this? Thanks.
47 votes
6 answers
6k views

Why are people so interested in finding limits without l'Hôpital's rule?

It is not difficult to find questions about evaluating limits without the use of l'Hôpital's rule. As long as the function is differentiable, not directly reducible and tends towards an intermediate ...
5 votes
1 answer
440 views

Popular soft questions

I have seen multiple questions tagged with the tag soft-question. However, one thing that I've noticed is that almost immediately, these questions get voted down or they are flagged. On the tag page,...
2 votes
1 answer
141 views

Should I refer to answerer person?

I've asked a question and have got an answer, which is not a novel research but most probably is just taken from a third party book. When I base a proof in the book I write on a math.SE answer, must ...