# Would a new tag for mistakes/typos/errata for books be useful/appropriate?

Maybe it could be called book-errata?

I cannot give many examples of discussions from math.SE offhand but at least one example from here Find limit of unknown function

This is an example from a different forum: http://www.sosmath.com/CBB/viewtopic.php?p=181367

I guess questions (and answers) revealing mistakes in book will appear here occasionaly. (Perhaps even withou this being the original intent.)

Although I have tag-creating privileges, I've never done this before and I wanted to ask about opinion of other members first.

EDIT: Here's a recent post of this type: $\displaystyle\sum^N_{n=1}\left(\prod_{i=1}^n b_i \right)^{\frac{1}{n}}\le \sum^N_{n=1}\left(\prod_{i=1}^n a_i \right)^{\frac{1}{n}}$?

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No. Usually a better thing to do when finding a typo/error in a textbook is to notify the author and the publisher, so it could be corrected for the next printing. Some authors even maintain their own erratum on their own websites.

In addition: when a student comes here to ask a question, the last thing they will suspect is that the question, as posed in their textbook, is error-ridden. I sincerely doubt that this is a tag that can be usefully used by the question asker. (And it is a tag that is even less useful for the question answerer.)

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Hi Willie -- I don't often disagree with you, but in this case I do :-). Please see my answer. –  joriki Jul 21 '11 at 14:46
I think this could be a useful tag that's added after the question has been made, but not for the initial questioner. –  OghmaOsiris Jul 21 '11 at 16:06
It seems that most of the users tend to agree with you. If we reach the consensus in this way, do you think linking to your answer would be good place to link in order to give the person who finds a typo/mistake what is the suggested procedure in such cases? Or would it be better to mention this in faq or make question/answer in meta with solely this purpose? –  Martin Sleziak Jul 23 '11 at 7:52
Linking to this, I think, is fine. Or you can just tell the user that sending a correction to the author/publisher is often the accepted thing to do. Putting this in the FAQ seems like it could be a good idea. In which case the way to go would be to post a question on Meta titled something like: "I've found an error in a book, what do I do?" and tag it (faq-proposed). After the users here hammer out the correct phrasing of the Q and A, I'll tag it as an official (faq) and add it to our collection of (faq) questions. –  Willie Wong Jul 23 '11 at 11:03
It seems that concensus is towards your anwer (no downvotes there). I have try to do what you've suggested here: meta.math.stackexchange.com/questions/2658/… –  Martin Sleziak Jul 25 '11 at 17:32
This is the third question I've come across within a couple of days or weeks now that explicitly asks whether there's a typo in a book. I think we can regard your theory that the last thing that students coming here to ask a question will suspect is an error as empirically falsified :-) –  joriki Oct 26 '11 at 18:46
@joriki: I think it is actually verified. The OP on that question is left with no other alternatives, so that the book has a misprint is in fact the very last thing the OP suspects, in complete accord with the Sherlock Holmes philosophy. –  Willie Wong Oct 29 '11 at 16:24
:-) OK, I hereby officially reopen this question. Someone just posted a question entitled "Possible mistake in Krause's “Localization Theory”" and put a bounty on it -- what more has to happen? :-) –  joriki Dec 10 '11 at 13:50
It's hard to imagine that Penrose will come out of retirement to correct math.stackexchange.com/questions/618366/…. –  dfeuer Dec 26 '13 at 0:48
I agree.${}{}{}$ –  joriki Jul 23 '11 at 8:23