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22

"Missing context" is a bit of a catch-all term, but basically it's a request for you to motivate the question (why do you want to solve this? Why is it interesting for you, and for people who might help you with it?) and to show some effort (there's a $\sqrt{2}$ there that suggests there's a substitution that might work -- what have you tried? Where did it ...

21

https://math.stackexchange.com/revisions/1072132/1 Seriously? You consider this a reasonable question for the site? I would have voted to close in a heartbeat. We already get too many question, to the point that excellent questions get little attention and no answers. If users who can't be bothered to put thought and effort into their posts are scared away,...

21

You simply don't. The scope of this site is not to announce new results. It's also not a good idea to do it here, it will be buried under a deluge of homework questions. Write it up and submit it to the relevant journal. Post it to arXiv. Publish it on your blog. Do it on a platform where people can refer and cite your work. But don't use this website as a ...

19

Since nobody else has answered... You can't delete the question because it has upvoted answers. That's precisely for the reason you identified: it would negate the effort put in by those answerers. So no, don't delete it. If you're worried about the question accumulating more downvotes, the best thing to do is edit it to improve it. Add in some statements of ...

16

Wait and see if the OP returns to edit the question into something better. In the case where a couple days go by, and the OP has not returned (which is a possible option, seeing how it is an unregistered user), edit the question yourself, then request it to be reopened and post an answer. Or, if you're not in the mood for waiting, post the question yourself ...

16

Those sorts of discussion-based questions are not really the purpose of the Stack Exchange family of sites. From our don't ask page: You should only ask practical, answerable questions based on actual problems that you face. Chatty, open-ended questions diminish the usefulness of our site and push other questions off the front page. I would expect any ...

16

You ask: What should I do when I think that I understand and/or have an answer to an on-hold or closed - and, more specifically, "unclear" - question? You should help to make the question more clear, so that it can be reopened. To do so you can propose changes and improvements in comments. You can even propose edits directly. For larger changes this ...

15

You posted Sum of digits, sequence (no theory). You were told, "Please improve the question by providing additional context, which ideally includes your thoughts on the problem and any attempts you have made to solve it." You made no effort to do so. (By the way, you got six answers to this question [two have since been deleted], but you didn't accept any of ...

14

Were I in your shoes, I would just post the question again. I often find myself stumbling upon interesting questions which were asked very poorly, so I would appreciate people rewriting them. People shouldn't mark a question as a duplicate if the other question was not worded well, unclear, or didn't get an accurate answer.

13

I quote from Shog9 (emphasis mine): Currently, this means that a closed question will automatically be added to the reopen queue when it is... ...Edited (body edits only) within 5 days of closure by the author. Or, ...Edited (body edits only) within 5 days of closure by a 3rd-party, provided the editor has not also flagged the question or voted ...

13

Here is the entire body of your Question: I saw this question for example, but I don't understand the proof there. Can you please explain how to do that? I tried to prove it and I have some thoughts, though I don't think they are worth mentioning. Yes, a reasonable Reader might find it unclear what you are asking. From the brief contents of the Question's ...

12

For the benefit also of other users who may have the same question: Questions are never put on hold for no reason. A convenient box always pops up with the reason that the voters give. You should read it and follow the links. (Picture below taken from another recently closed question.)

11

I believe that this issue of what and what's not on-topic, or what counts as a question deserving closure has cropped up too many times in MSE. Is it the standing policy of this community to allow a question only if they meet every single one of these requirements? First of all, let's go through all the reasons for closure. Duplicate: this may not have ...

10

Here are the reasons I voted to close: Unclear notation: what is the dagger? What is "Riemann"? Are the sum/product equations an assertion, or the conjecture? No context: where did these sums come from? Why do you expect them to be related to the Riemann hypothesis?

10

To answer my own question, there is an explanation given to questions that are put on hold, but unfortunately the iPhone stack exchange app is not currently formatted to display those explanations outright. There is a small button on the very bottom right of the page that will display the reason, or you can open the question in your web browser to see the ...

10

No. The ability to vote to close questions should not be reserved for those users with a badge in some tag attached to the question. As a practical matter, there are two points: There are tags which have fewer than 20 total questions, whereas a user needs to have at least 20 (non-community-wiki answers before achieving a bronze tag badge. This would mean ...

9

When a user does not know how to ask a question in mathematical symbols, I generally prefer that they get help in person. For a student, this would be a tutor, perhaps paid. In business, this would be a consultant, and cost more. The trouble with questions that are too broad is that there is little reason to think that a person who cannot ask a focused ...

9

I voted to close that question because, as Jonas indicated in his comment, I felt that the question lacked context. More generally, I think that any question that appears to be just a statement of a problem from a classroom without any indication of where it came from should be closed for that reason. Quite a few folks active on the site hold a similar view, ...

9

This was linked from the closure notification. What topics can I ask about here? Mathematics Stack Exchange is for people studying mathematics at any level and professionals in related fields. We welcome questions about: Understanding mathematical concepts and theorems. Mathematical problems such as one might come across in a course or ...

8

The standards upheld on math.SE and MathOverflow are not the same (even if applied by the same people). I might find it fine to joke with one particular student in my office hours, or when running into them in the hallway, I will not necessarily find it suitable to make the same joke in the classroom. Math.SE and MathOverflow are two different sites. Not ...

7

To answer the abstract question about what happens after a question is put on hold, I advise you to visit our help center, especially the pages on "closed and on hold questions" and "reopening". In particular, if a question that is put on-hold is edited, it would be eligible to be placed into the review queue at which point users with the review privilege (...

7

On the one hand I applaud your willingness to champion a Question that you feel has merit and a likelihood of receiving a suitable Answer. However there is a process for re-opening Questions and improving them. Presumably your concern is the broader one of some Questions being closed too quickly and/or for what you think are the wrong reasons. I must ...

7

Is it the standing policy of this community to allow a question only if they meet every single one of these requirements? Questions should strive to meet the guidelines laid out in the thread you mentioned. To say a question is only acceptable when every single point is met would be an overstatement. I'd say each point could be factored in to get an overall ...

7

Yes, these are real people (in the sense that the accounts belong to at least one person).

6

This will be a short answer, since I generally agree with what quid and TheSimpliFire have already said, but I want to note several things before moving on to why I wrote a new answer. This is a long standing policy on this site, insofar as a highly upvoted meta proposal counts as a policy. As TheSimpliFire pointed out, it's not hard to meet the standards ...

5

There is a strong emphasis on MO in favor of placing no impediments to an anonymous question by the next Fields Medalist. This has been tested in a number of ways. The down side is that anyone can make up a number theory question that cannot be resolved with current knowledge. When someone places such a question and refuses to give background, I generally ...

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