Proposals for new entries for the FAQ repository on this site should use this tag.
8
votes
2answers
110 views
How to ask a good question?
How to ask a good question?
Provide context
Note: this question comes about after a discussion with Lord_Farin: I quote, "[It] will allow us to have a dedicated place for gathering all the ...
3
votes
1answer
126 views
Is there a way to decrease cross-posting issues?
I know there are tons of meta questions about cross-posting already. This question isn't about the cross-posting etiquette per se. It might just be a personal bias or the questions I tend to click on, ...
0
votes
1answer
40 views
Should account-merging be mentioned in the FAQ?
It occurred to me today after I encountered two "different" users with the same name and gravatar (though one of them recently changed names...and genders, apparently...but I digress) that it might ...
21
votes
3answers
321 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 (...
18
votes
3answers
565 views
Do we actually “welcome questions about: • Software that mathematicians use”?
On the FAQ it says: "We welcome questions about: • Software that mathematicians use". However, when I went to post a question about maple, I found this:
About maple
For questions involving ...
14
votes
4answers
620 views
Examples and counterexamples of good questions and answers
A professor of mine has always said that we learn mathematics via lots of examples and lots of counterexamples, as opposed to stating and proving theorems on a blackboard. I think this approach could ...
2
votes
0answers
59 views
Question on a List of References for Improving Problem Solving Skills
I hope I am asking in the right place.
I have seen many people ask for guidance on MSE on how to improve problem solving skills.
I have replied to some requests in this area, but thought it is ...
14
votes
3answers
371 views
Should we have an FAQ with basic math-specific English?
There seems to be a core of English errors that are made very frequently in mathematical writing by non-native English speakers. These include confusing "proof"/"prove" and "die"/"dice" and using ...
16
votes
1answer
309 views
How self-contained should questions be?
Every once in a while, someone posts a question that relies on an image or a Wolfram|Alpha link with a formula or the like. In the case of images, it's often because they don't have sufficient ...
5
votes
1answer
658 views
I have found an error in a book/paper, what do I do?
This is a continuation of the discussion Would a new tag for mistakes/typos/errata for books be useful/appropriate?, where it was suggested that the FAQ might contain guidelines concerning the ...
9
votes
1answer
82 views
FAQ entry on editing question to include information from the comments
Very often questions are asked in an unclear form with crucial information missing; then people ask for the missing information in comments; then the OP provides the information in a response in the ...
11
votes
1answer
123 views
Closing copy-pasted questions
I am considering instituting the following somewhat harsh policy: automatically closing questions which have obviously been copy-pasted from a textbook, homework assignment, etc. Given the recent ...
19
votes
2answers
402 views
On the inclusion of pages-of-text-as-images in questions
This is to ask if there is and if there should be an official position of math.SE about the inclusion, as images, of pages and pages of printed documents in questions. For a recent example of the ...
4
votes
1answer
175 views
Proposed FAQ “move personal material to bottom of question” and carte blanche for edits to do this.
When viewing the Questions list, it is common to see personal introductory material ("I just saw this problem and thought it would be interesting to post ... " ) that pushes most or all of the actual ...
3
votes
2answers
224 views
Comment policy in the FAQ
As I go at length in this answer, I believe the recent kerfuffle over the comment system stems from a misunderstanding of the comment system's purpose. I would like to request that the FAQ be amended ...
3
votes
1answer
213 views
What to put in the FAQ (the “on-/off-topic” section)?
Currently, we can modify the FAQ, but only half a section:
Therefore, most of the [faq-proposed] cannot be applied so far. It was recommended we just include the ...
-1
votes
1answer
68 views
Tag [random-task] and/or FAQ item on random-task postings, is needed.
A large and growing set of math.SE questions are of the random task type:
Question is a task : "prove (a given mathematical statement)", or worse, "prove or disprove" or "find all $n$ (from an ...
11
votes
0answers
140 views
Add to FAQ: “avoid nebulous adjectives (favorite, good, best, nice, …) in question titles”.
Specificity of questions is already encouraged in the site documentation.
But with MO suffering a plague of "what is your favorite ..." queries, there is a point that apparently needs more detailed ...
5
votes
1answer
137 views
When does an Answer become a Community Wiki post?
Does an answer become automatically a Community Wiki when it is revised too much?
Are those who have enough reputation allowed to transform an answer into a Community Wiki's answer?
11
votes
3answers
602 views
How do I learn about markup?
So everyone knows that math.stackexchange supports Tex tags, but what other tags are supported? Is there any info out there the markup supported on stackexchange sites?
In particular, I was looking ...
2
votes
3answers
237 views
How to view LaTeX source of equations?
How do you view the source of a question, to see how the LaTeX was specified as markup?
12
votes
3answers
298 views
Add “SE is not a social networking site” to the list of what-site-is-not in the FAQ
In reading the endless discussions of the acceptability of postings by particular users (e.g., are six postings per day too much for one person), or by users in particular situations (e.g., should ...
12
votes
8answers
742 views
How can I ask a good question?
MathOverflow has an excellent guide on how to write a good question.
Another great guide exists on meta.stackoverflow.
We will probably want our own site-specific guide on how to ask good questions. ...
7
votes
1answer
191 views
Suggestions for improving this FAQ: What kind of questions can I (not) ask here?
I think the current answer is too vague for a lot of people (me) to properly understand and possibly even misleading. I would like to try and get exactly sort of questions are good and what aren't so ...
7
votes
1answer
247 views
Put a link to a tutorial on the Tex in the FAQ
I have no idea how to use either of the Tex methods supported here.
How about putting a link to the instructions or a tutorial on both in the FAQ?
10
votes
11answers
652 views
List of other mathematics resources for the FAQ
In response to this thread, I am starting a thread to compile other online mathematics-related sites to give people places to look before asking a question. These should be included in the FAQ like ...
3
votes
7answers
545 views
Policy on using real names?
MathOverflow encourages users to use their real names as their usernames. This is partly to encourage civility and I imagine there are a few other reasons behind this policy; in any case, I always ...
4
votes
4answers
140 views
Should we adapt the FAQ from the Mathoverflow FAQ? If yes, how much of it is relevant?
Over at Mathoverflow, we put a lot of time and thought into the FAQ. While a lot of it is not applicable to math.SE, there are a number of ideas there that could be very useful to this site.
I ...
38
votes
13answers
6k views
FAQ for math.stackexchange
Right now, the faq only contains the boilerplate explanations of the stackoverflow engine, reputation levels, etc.
This page serves as an index of other important support questions for the ...
