# Tag Info

## Hot answers tagged specific-question

52 votes
Accepted

### Why was this on-topic question unilaterally closed and migrated by a moderator?

The author of the question flagged and requested it be migrated to Computer Science. Although such questions are also on topic here, if the author requests migration, and the question is also on-...
• 199k
50 votes

### On the Bachelor/ette "correction"

Personally, I don't think the question is sexist towards women, or that the edit is sexist towards men. With that said, the fact that I'm not offended by it doesn't invalidate the feelings of the ...
• 26k
46 votes

### Why do users give answers using alternative method when I'm asking what went wrong with my solution?

Many aspects to this. I agree to a great extent with the points raised in the other answers. Yes, there are XY problems. Yes, the question is not here just for the benefit of the asker, and this shows ...
• 124k
36 votes

### On the Bachelor/ette "correction"

There are two issues at play, here. This post deals with the way the post was edited, rather than the end state of the post. The Editor is an SE Representative Regardless of whether or not Jaydles ...
• 17.2k
31 votes

### Is it a good thing to erase wrong answer?

Regarding your question about keeping flawed answers: there are several reasons people delete their answers once a fundamental flaw has been pointed out: the question will not appear in the ...
• 45.9k
28 votes
Accepted

### User defacing their question

Next time just flag the post for moderator attention. Site moderators can "lock" the post, which will prevent any and all further edits by normal users. It has already been temporarily locked once, ...
• 49.9k
26 votes
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
25 votes

### Is a question about "Best books/papers on X" appropriate?

I'd avoid the word 'best;' it just causes the problem of subjectivity and does not bring much precision in return. You search for references in a relatively specific subject. Explain in a bit more ...
• 40.9k
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 ...
23 votes
Accepted

### Is this a good homework question? Is there anything like a good homework question?

Short answer: Your question is great! I wish more people asked questions like you. Long answer: Of course, anything can be improved. :P Let's address your ...
• 17.2k
22 votes

### How could this question be improved?

"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 ...
• 6,118
22 votes

### A question quickly closed and deleted

There is a very simple reason why we should not encourage posting about open problems by plain amateurs. If we allow just one, to be consistent we would need to allow a hundred. With the recent ...
• 54.1k
21 votes

### Guerilla reposting of a question that no one answered

This is an unacceptable abuse of the site, as it is more-or-less equivalent to reposting the exact same question multiple times due to impatience. The course of action I would take in this event is ...
• 17.2k
20 votes

### What happened to my question on discrete valuation rings?

The question was automatically deleted by the Community♦ bot: Apr 11 at 0:16 history deleted Community♦ Scheduled: RemoveDeadQuestions It had a score of $-2$, was more than 30 days old,...
• 199k
19 votes

### What to do if there are two contradicting answers?

You have several options: You can do your own research based on the information gained, to check what is correct and what is not correct. You can ask the authors for further clarification, as ...
• 40.9k
19 votes

### On the Bachelor/ette "correction"

As a preamble let me say that I consider questions touched upon here as important in general, yet the precise instance seems in any case minor in the general context of the problematic so that I think ...
• 40.9k
19 votes
Accepted

### Asked a trivial question, got a simple answer,was put on hold. Should I delete it?

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 ...
• 3,353
19 votes

### What to do with two old questions that are clear duplicates but not marked so?

There are so many questions; plenty of things just fall through the cracks. When you come across clear-cut old duplicates flag/vote one of them as such. (Click "flag" select "a duplicate" etc.) ...
• 40.9k
19 votes

### Why do users give answers using alternative method when I'm asking what went wrong with my solution?

Not the exact answer to your situation, but it might give some idea, so in that sense, this answer is also an alternative answer to the question that you are asking. We are not your tutor in here, ...
• 7,131
18 votes

### About a question on formalising "interestingness" in mathematics

I think that this question seems to be more of the type "I would like to have a conversation about ..." than of the type "Please answer this mathematical question". The topic of "mathematical ...
• 77.9k
18 votes

### Trying to keep students from using MSE to do their homework

In short, we do not have a consolidated homework policy. It is fair to say that we act as though each question is asked in good faith. Other than that, it is up to each answerer to decide their own ...
• 86.4k
18 votes

### I don't understand the deletion of a recent question

From my experience on Math Help Boards as an admin, I'd say that such behavior is often indicative of cheating. They get help real quick, then delete the post so that their professor doesn't catch ...
• 9,651
18 votes
Accepted

### What to do with a question that is no longer relevant?

You should just delete it. There is no reason to clog up the site with questions that don't need to be answered. The localized nature of your mistake also makes it unlikely that the question will be ...
• 26k
17 votes
Accepted

### Is this website only for the cream of the crop?

I'm sorry, but when your "question" is "Factor: $z^5 - i = 0$", you shouldn't really expect to get a treatise on factoring methods in return — and this is independent of the "difficulty" of the ...
• 49.9k

Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible