Tag Info

squeezing for further information once an answer is given

No you are not required to follow up in comments. At the same time I feel it is not unexpected and rather normal that an asker tries to engage somebody that answered in case something is open. I ...
• 40.9k

How to ask a good question.

Avoid "no clue" questions Too many questions begin or end with "I don't even know how to begin with this problem". While this may be true (you may genuinely have no idea how to ...

I am a student and have reached my limit of 50 questions per month what do I do?

I think the answer here is to be more selective in your questions. The site has to protect itself against getting bombed by low-grade questions from any particular user, hence the limit. (I'm not ...
• 60.3k
Accepted

What qualify questions to be in mathoverflow and not in math.stackexchange?

How can I choose the preferred website to put my questions? I once read something along the lines "If you have to ask whether to ask on MO or math.se, likely you should ask it on math.se." I think ...
• 40.9k
Accepted

Can I post a 'homework' question without any MathJax/Latex.

Please do your best to write this up using MathJax. This makes your post much more readable, searchable, and accessible. If you're worried about the process of formatting it in MathJax taking too much ...
• 50.5k
Accepted

Statistically, how does question length relate to community response?

TL;DR: the longer, the better. Based on the current data, longer questions tend to get a higher ratio of upvotes than shorter questions. There is not enough data to determine an 'optimal' question ...
• 3,929
Accepted

Why image cannot be used for explaining my maths problem?

This is largely an accessibility issue. Images are not searchable. Whatever you think of the quality of the built-in search engine, or external tools such as approach0, and their ability to find ...
• 24.1k
Accepted

Is there a shorter and more opinionated version of "How to ask a good question?" that we can direct new users to?

This Answer to How to avoid downvotes for beginner's questions? is relevant, as upvotes usually accompany Good Questions. Here I build off that Answer, giving instructions with examples. (For ...
• 31.4k
Accepted

Why does the criterion for a good question change with reputation?

I do agree that sometimes higher reputation users are given greater leeway than lower reputation users. This is not just true with questions, but also "answers". This is unfortunate, but also somewhat ...
• 49.9k

Why does the criterion for a good question change with reputation?

Context is everything. When one of my students asks me "How can I solve question 1", I know what they are asking, I know what they were taught and what tools they have accessible to solving the ...
• 371k
Accepted

Am I in danger of being banned?

You're not; your account triggered a warning for a ban that is no longer in effect (it has been superseded by rolling rate limits) - the ban itself was turned off but not the warning. There's ...
• 101

Are questions necessarily "static"?

In general, it is considered poor practice to change a question drastically enough after an answer has been given. The person could have spent quite some time writing up a good answer, and if an edit ...
• 2,334

Can I post a 'homework' question without any MathJax/Latex.

I want to amplify, perhaps a little more kindly, on @TonyK's "you're just being lazy" answer. Everyone answering your questions is volunteering their time, in trade for silly internet "...
• 88.2k
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How to avoid downvotes for beginner's questions?

Added a present the problem bullet point that includes an Edit-Images section. Added an Edit-Tools paragraph. In my opinion, the best way to have your query upvoted rather than downvoted is by first ...
• 23.4k
Accepted

What is a "PSQ"?

To answer the first question, the acronym (or some might prefer initialism) PSQ, is derived from Problem Statement Question. In its purest form it is a question post that only contains the statement ...
• 40.9k
Accepted

How can I avoid immediate down-voting and how should I go about requesting feedback?

Disclaimer: I hadn't seen your question before following the link in this meta question. I'm basing this answer on the first revision of the question. The title is the title, not the first sentence ...
• 13.1k

Why does the criterion for a good question change with reputation?

I answer questions on math.se for several reasons. In roughly decreasing order of priority: To help researchers with problems they run into (especially those from fields outside pure math, whose ...
• 45.9k
Accepted

Is it okay to re-ask a deleted question?

I have on occasion re-asked someone's deleted question, trying to ask it in such a way as to engage with the criticisms levelled at the deleted version, and being sure to state explicitly that I was ...
• 169k

Is it a good idea to include source from where a question is taken?

YES. Posting a question from elsewhere${}^1$ without reference could be considered plagiarism. While not illegal, it is considered to be very bad in academics. ${}^1$In particular, posting your ...
• 97.4k
Accepted

Posting 'Solved' Questions

The FAQ on Meta Stack Exchange is pretty clear on this. Yes! There are already numerous posts that answer their own questions. There's nothing wrong with it. It's even been encouraged since the very ...
• 2,833

A criterion for distinguishing between two kinds of questions

Let's call a spade a spade and admit that "show your work"/"what have you tried?" in the context of this site are primarily intended to be a less accusatory way to say "no, we will not do your ...
Accepted

The registration requirement had a big impact on the issues related to users losing access to their unregistered account (points 3,4,5 in the feature request). It is now a rare exception that a user ...
• 199k
Accepted

Can I post a question and an answer just because I think it helps others?

The answer to the question if it is allowed is readily found in the help center: Can I answer my own question? The short version of the answer given there is: "Yes!" On top of that the software ...
• 40.9k

squeezing for further information once an answer is given

Buy, I guess none of you ever taught public high school or junior college. My week wasn't complete without someone threatening to go to the principal/head of department and threatening to have me ...
• 1,379
Accepted

Is double posting allowed if a question is not answered after some time?

Posting the same question anew just to get more attention is not acceptable behavior. Please do not do this. If it is noticed your questions will be swiftly closed as a duplicate, likely it will also ...
• 40.9k
Accepted

Too "difficult" for MSE and too "easy" for MO questions

There is a meta-thread on MO Interesting and not sufficiently answered questions on math.se whose purpose is to draw attention to questions here. Posting there is an intermediate solution between ...
• 40.9k