38
votes
Accepted
Should questions asking to prove false claims be downvoted or closed?
It should be neither closed nor downvoted, if anything because both are quite contrary to the whole spirit of the mathematical endeavor!
32
votes
Accepted
Are "soft questions" "opinion based"? How about vice versa?
The standard reference for this is "Good Subjective, Bad Subjective".
Note that when we compare the two description you quoted there remains a gap.
On the one end of the spectrum there are those ...
quidMod
- 40.8k
26
votes
Accepted
What should be acceptable as "context"?
For the specific question, the context seems completely clear. The question reads:
How deep is the liquid in a half-full hemisphere?
I have a baking recipe that calls for 1/2 tsp of vanilla extract, ...
quidMod
- 40.8k
25
votes
"Be nice" vs. summarily closing questions for being too naive or "frustrating"
This is a difficult issue, but I basically disagree with your conclusions in these two cases. Sporadic thoughts:
I didn't vote to put either of those questions on hold even though I saw them in the ...
- 124k
25
votes
Accepted
I voted mistakenly to close as duplicate. When I realised my mistake, my comment explaining why was deleted.
Your Comment contained a link to an older Question. Although this Question was not the final target chosen by voting to close-as-duplicate, someone may have voted to consider that target the ...
- 35.2k
25
votes
Accepted
Is there anything to improve in this post which is about ambiguity in question about field axioms?
Is there anything to improve in this post?
Yes. A lot.
Remove your commentary about the downvotes.
Remove your commentary about the close votes.
Move your comment about the cross-posting to a ...
- 561
24
votes
Accepted
Is arithmetic mathematics and can we answer questions about it?
The question you mentioned should be closed. The argument given for closing it is arguably prone to cause confusion and dissent though.
In our guidelines How to ask a good question. it is mentioned ...
quidMod
- 40.8k
22
votes
Accepted
Why is the number of required close votes constant?
Votes do not just accumulate, they can "age away" and how quickly actually depends a bit on the number of views.
Moreover, questions with many views often are disproportionately viewed by ...
quidMod
- 40.8k
21
votes
Accepted
Was this question a “problem statement question”?
I think there are two separate issues:
The complaint about your edit is of course unsubstantiated. If you face such a situation, please feel free to flag. (Flagging the post can be preferable to ...
quidMod
- 40.8k
20
votes
Close reason: "lack of research effort"
Complementing Alexander's answer, a close reason of "lack of research effort" is, in my opinion, intrinsically bad for multiple reasons: it is impossible to ascertain how much research effort there ...
- 32.1k
19
votes
Accepted
How to deal with just-google-it questions?
If a question includes a precise statement of the question they wish answered, includes enough context for us to judge where the OP's misunderstandings may lie and what sort of facts may be obvious to ...
- 58.6k
19
votes
Close reason: "lack of research effort"
"No context" does function as a bit of a catch-all, and certainly 90% of the time, it is applied to "do my homework!" PSQs. However, there are several reasons it is stated like it is.
Its "forms of ...
- 26.9k
19
votes
Can we please stop voting to close a question just because the question is short?
The question raises a valid point, but does so in a non-optimal way.
Can we please stop voting to close a question just because the question is short?
Yes, sure. Everyone agrees. Let's move on. ...
quidMod
- 40.8k
18
votes
A feature requested for the purpose of avoiding unintentional newbie-biting
Sorry about being late to weigh in - I was busy last weekend.
Why I support this feature-request?
The norm re context that we have developed means that new questions at varying levels of ...
- 124k
16
votes
Accepted
Why the questions of which an answer has been accepted won't be close automatically?
Because many times you can get a better answer, you can get more answers, you can change your mind and decide that one answer is better than the others.
Because the questions are also for [future] ...
- 370k
15
votes
Are these questions not about mathematics. If yes then is there any other site on SE network or outside SE where I can ask these type of question?
I was not involved in any step of putting the question on hold, but even cursory reading of your question and the related comments makes the hold reason "not about mathematics" perfectly valid: the ...
- 4,500
15
votes
Accepted
Allow question to be closed for low effort
About the first part of your question (about low effort posts) - this is exactly what the "missing context" close reason is for. (Of course, context is wider than just effort - there are ...
- 50.2k
14
votes
Should questions asking to prove false claims be downvoted or closed?
It may be relevant to downvote such a question, but that wouldn't merely be because it is asking for proof of something that is false. Something more is needed -- for example, sometimes a user will ...
14
votes
Why is a question needing more details called "off-topic"?
No, it doesn't really mean "off-topic", but it seems that the only way the SE platform supports site-specific closing reasons is by putting them under the "off-topic" heading. So that's where it ends ...
14
votes
Can we please stop voting to close a question just because the question is short?
This (second) answer is specifically about the newly added paragraphe and the question mentioned there:
The question in its original form:
Find the second solution. First solution is 1/(1-x) .Solve ...
quidMod
- 40.8k
14
votes
Why should "trivial" questions not meet the guidelines?
TL;DR
This post has many upvotes now, but I'd like to make sure everyone is talking about the same thing. I think it's natural that many of those votes are probably fueled by the sentiment "I ...
- 141k
13
votes
Accepted
Is it important that a question is closed for the correct reasons?
tl;dr: Vote to close with the reason that you think applies the best. If you're optimistic, you can also comment to explain your vote and explain the best way how to improve the question in your ...
- 50.8k
12
votes
Accepted
Nonsensical close options
I'll take this time to remind everyone of the golden rule of migrations:
Don't. Migrate. Crap.
That question would not have survived on mathematica.SE, so there's no point trying to migrate it there. (...
- 49.9k
12
votes
Accepted
Is it against the rules to ask about a different proof for a proposition which has already been asked?
It's all about learning math now and curating great content for the future.
You are of course welcome, encouraged even, to propose a substantially different answer to an existing Question. The ...
- 35.2k
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