This tag is used for questions that ask users to discuss an idea, concept, or problem in an abstract way. A discussion question may not necessarily have a clear-cut right or wrong answer and is often subjective. On Meta, you do not need to use community-wiki mode for subjective topics unless you ...
6
votes
1answer
73 views
Avoiding extended discussion in comments section with low rep user?
I know it's bad practice to have extended discussions in the comments section, and I understand why. But there is no way to move the discussion to chat with a low-reputation user, and in my experience ...
0
votes
0answers
29 views
What is the best way to write an arbitrary multi-variable function?
I have been a bit confused for a while on what is the best way to write a multi-variable function of an arbitrary number of input variables when writing a question or answer. My first thought is to ...
0
votes
0answers
30 views
Why was this question involving Survival Functions migrated to Stat.Stackexchange?
Trying to understand formula for the Survival Function (survival analysis)
It's essentially a basic actuarial science question. Most of the tags don't fit. I'd say actuarial science and probability ...
2
votes
4answers
150 views
Why are there active users who do not ask questions?
A surprising kind of (a lot of) active users: Those who don't ask question.
For example:
Robert Israel 2,729 Answers, 0 Questions.
Brian M. Scott 5,847 Answers, 0 Questions.
André Nicolas 5,528 ...
7
votes
2answers
115 views
Flagging problems
I've flagged two question which were closed, but both flags were declined. The questions and the moderator answers are:
Please help me understand, what is sweet: X or sugar [closed]
declined - Since ...
11
votes
1answer
264 views
Differences in [homework] policy to SE Network
I was reading around the extensive topic minefield of homework policy in order to come to better understand the community's attitude (not provoked by anything in particular), and came across a ...
6
votes
1answer
148 views
when is that a comment is better than an answer?
This is my first post on meta, so I hope to say something that makes sense.
I often see comments that if they had been posted as answers they could be acceptable ones. The problem I see in this is ...
13
votes
1answer
127 views
Guidelines for good use of $\LaTeX$ in question titles
Motivation:
Every once in a while, I find myself making edits like this one, where OP (likely due to inexperience in asking questions) has used display math mode (...
6
votes
0answers
138 views
Tags (integral) and (integration)
I have noticed that there is a suggestion to make integral and integration synonymous in the list of suggested synonyms. See also synonyms for integration. (The users with sufficient rep in that tag ...
16
votes
2answers
273 views
Primary in moderator election - did it help?
This question is designed to pull out specific feedback and views on the primary election in the 2013 moderator election. Early comments suggest that there were lots of primary only voters who may not ...
65
votes
1answer
914 views
2013 Election Results: Congratulations to the new moderators!
The 2013 elections are over, and it's time to congratulate the winners, our new moderators:
Good luck in your new positions, and may the force be with you!
In the same breath, I wish to thank ...
2
votes
0answers
55 views
Perspective to equip MathStackExchange resources to the creation of diagrams such as in LaTeX
There are some perspective to equip MathStackExchange resources to the creation of diagrams such as the packages TikZ LaTeX? This is a viable possibility in the future?
6
votes
2answers
146 views
What is the accepted notation for natural logarithms, trig functions and powers?
Actually, I have several different questions:
What is the accepted notation at this site for the natural logarithm: $\log x$ or $\ln x$?
Is it OK to write $\sin 2\pi x$ instead of $\sin(2\pi x)$? ...
4
votes
1answer
71 views
Bounty or new question?
Suppose, I need a clarification on a question. Should I place a bounty on the question I need clarification on and ask the answerers to make their post more informative or should I post another ...
6
votes
0answers
108 views
Why isn't there `\textsf` commands, and what should we do about it?
Currently MathJax supports several fonts for text in mathematics:
$$normal,\mathbf{mathbf},\mathsf{mathsf},\mathrm{mathrm},\mathtt{mathtt}.$$
(And I intentionally omitted all the ...
15
votes
2answers
243 views
I'm doing a user study on PlanetMath - is there an appropriate way to solicit participation here
Hello: I'm on the board of directors of the nonprofit PlanetMath.org, and I'm doing my Ph. D. at the UK's Open University on the topic of "Peer Supported Problem Solving and Mathematical Knowledge". ...
20
votes
1answer
242 views
Editing to remove a “Thank you” in a post
What should be done when a (for example, brand-new) user has a question which ends with,
"Thank you."
I ask because in the "edit suggestions" review queue today there was an edit which removed such ...
3
votes
3answers
89 views
Which Markdown library is used?
I wonder which markdown library is used in this stackexchange site? In particular I like how it allows LaTeX to be used for Maths. There are many libraries like marked. Many that knows how to render ...
6
votes
0answers
118 views
possible delete candidate: “algebras” tag
There is a tag titled algebras. It has only been used on one single question (and another one used it recently, but I replaced it with a more appropriate tag). Is it necessary, or should it be ...
10
votes
0answers
129 views
Should M.SE consider a Question Wizard Guide?
After spending quite a bit of time doing thousands of reviews of first posts, suggested edits, editing questions and trying to understand the comments/concerns about the quality of the site, I am ...
9
votes
1answer
116 views
Low Quality Posts Upvoting Upon Review
When reviewing low quality posts, you do not have the option to upvote the answer on the review screen.
There are certainly times when there are issues with the post for a lot of different reasons.
...
24
votes
1answer
338 views
Can we get a $\LaTeX$ button?
I would like to propose the addition of a $\LaTeX$ button. It would be very similar to the "code" button that formats the highlighted text into code, the $\LaTeX$ button would surround the highlighted ...
6
votes
6answers
219 views
Creating diagrams
I am fed up of using MS paint for creating diagrams and posting images on our board , do you have any application which will me to create diagrams easily . which must be portable or is there any ...
0
votes
3answers
143 views
are any people facing problem of not loading latex symbols?
are people facing problem of not loading latex symbols in MSE? I have high speed internet connection but I am facing this problem from yesterday,any suggestion?It says "math processing error" if my ...
7
votes
2answers
126 views
What's the [problem-solving] tag for?
here are 358 questions tagged problem-solving.
Question: What's the problem-solving tag for?
The questions with this tag seem wildly varied. By the looks of things, it's mainly added to ...
15
votes
2answers
386 views
Can I publish your answer?
Lets say that I build up parts of a chain of reasoning leading to a publishable research discovery by posting one or more questions on http://math.stackexchange.com (or any other public Q/A-board), ...
6
votes
1answer
120 views
Do we have or should we have a guide for making good questions?
This question was made and I asked the usual:
You should provide more info: What have you tried? What are the definitions? What book are you reading?
The user replied me by saying that he tried ...
8
votes
1answer
161 views
Number of helpful flags in elections
A question I had about the "helpful flags"-field in the ongoing elections:
Would it be an idea to not only list the number of flags deemed helpful, but also the total number of flags (or the number ...
13
votes
4answers
371 views
Should questions on (matrices) and (matrix-equations) be also tagged as (linear-algebra)?
Recently the following text was added to linear algebra tag-excerpt:
For questions specifically concerning matrices, use the (matrices) tag. For questions specifically concerning matrix equations, ...
3
votes
2answers
104 views
Numbered lists interspersed with commentary. [duplicate]
Sometimes I want to intersperse commentary into my lists. For example.
Thus, it holds that
blah, and that
blurg,
and noting that bloop, thus also that
blipple.
...
4
votes
1answer
112 views
Avoiding duplicates
I was wondering if I could ask a question on meta whether some question is on the site or not. I'm asking this since sometimes one might ask a duplicate question which he/she searched for and didn't ...
-6
votes
2answers
179 views
Privacy settings
Is it possible to edit privacy settings on SE? For example, is it possible for me to be able to make it so that people can't see the questions I ask when they view my profile?
4
votes
1answer
289 views
How about 5 Moderators?
It seems that five candidates are somewhat receiving a distinguishably large amount of votes. In consideration of the demands of the position, and that these five certainly would like the position, ...
8
votes
1answer
205 views
Question about PSQ and answering them
I understand that there has been a lot of debate about PSQ's and I believe, we have decided to leave a comment explaining that the OP should some thought on the problem so it is not an "isloated ...
26
votes
9answers
861 views
2013 Moderator Election Q&A - Questionnaire
In connection with the moderator elections, we are holding a Q&A thread for the candidates. Questions collected from an earlier thread have been compiled into this one, which shall now serve as ...
5
votes
2answers
285 views
The return key returns
I recently found out that on mathoverflow.net, when keying in comments, pressing the return/enter key doesn't submit the comment; rather it does the most sensible thing, i.e., goes to the next line. I ...
11
votes
2answers
487 views
How are serial upvoters looked upon?
There are several reasons why someone would serially upvote another account. I will list some examples, ranging from good faith to pure evil.
Gratitude. A user encounters a particularly enlightening ...
22
votes
1answer
394 views
MathOverflow 2.0 is a-comin'!
Not a question; more of a notification. For those who are unaware, MathOverflow is upgrading to the "new" StackExchange platform.
A recent update on meta.mathoverflow.net:
Anton Geraschenko 3 ...
9
votes
1answer
149 views
Should the description of the bounty page be changed?
I recently made a 500 reputation bounty on this question. As I was really interested in getting an answer I crossposted it on MathOverflow. On MathOverflow I got an answer and for completeness reasons ...
6
votes
0answers
156 views
What would be an acceptable way of opening a question about this topic?
I have often (on the math.se main page) encountered the idea that, "A structure must never be viewed in isolation, but always as an object of some category." This doesn't make sense to me, since:
We ...
1
vote
1answer
170 views
Could maths.SE use an appeals committee?
I spent several years as the arbiter for the Croydon Chess Club. In the event that an arbiter's decision was disputed, the decision could be appealed. If a decision were to be appealed:
The ...
0
votes
0answers
85 views
Should we have a FAQ for false proofs?
Should we have a question listing known false proofs, and other fallacies? Like an official FAQ version of 113? Then for all instances of questions like 389180, 388435 and so on, we can just redirect ...
23
votes
3answers
288 views
Only 300 reputation points needed to nominate as moderator?
In the nomination phase, any community member in good standing with
more than 300 reputation may nominate themselves to be a community
moderator.
300 reputations points seems ridiculously low ...
24
votes
3answers
578 views
What is Math.SE?
Disclaimer: This question is not about PSQs, or "Problem Statement Questions". Rather it is about what users want Math.SE to be. I bring up PSQs to frame the issue.
Background: Recently there has ...
2
votes
1answer
387 views
Permanent flag-ban without warning. [closed]
I've flagged some posts and comments and nothing happened.
Edit 1. An update after correspondence with the The Stack Exchange Team about my flag-ban:
As people thinks here (Permanent flag-ban ...
12
votes
3answers
185 views
Is there a problem in editing questions?
I'd like to ask if there is a problem in editing questions that look hard to read or lack an answer for many days?
I'm asking this cause some people think this is "ridiculous". I'm not afraid to ...
1
vote
5answers
172 views
Has this question been asked before: Graphs of functions we should all know
I recall as a student when I asked TA's for help on problems (calculus and analysis), they often had an idea of how to approach problems (usually regarding limits, sequences, integration) before even ...
19
votes
2answers
246 views
PSQ and the FAQ
There's a lot of talk about PSQ (problem statement questions).
It was recently suggested in this question that PSQ should be an issue at the upcoming election.
From the aforementioned question:
...
2
votes
3answers
63 views
Is it possible to create nested lists?
We can create lists, as in:
hello, and
world; but
sometimes I want sublists, or in other words "nested" lists. Has this feature been implemented?
14
votes
2answers
312 views
Abuse of closing reasons?
I have a problem with some closing reasons, for example what is the probability that both the fuses are defective? is right now about to be closed as "not constructive" (per several users). I don't ...
