Questions tagged [discussion]
The question you're asking is designed to solicit opinions or best-practices on a particular topic, with the goal of reaching community consensus.
1,294 questions
-8 votes
0 answers
185 views
Should we advise users to ask ChatGPT before posting here?
AI improves fast, and even some of the top mathematicians, like Terry Tao, advocate using it for literature search and simple questions. Should we recommend users to first ask ChatGPT before posting ...
- 19.7k
1 vote
0 answers
101 views
Accepted Answer Deleted (and how to recover)
Recently, I asked this question on MathOverflow. I received an answer, but later the answer was deleted by CommunityBot. A comment under the post is I see an answer by "user574881" that ...
- 650
-1 votes
0 answers
202 views
Trying to understand why a question was closed
Morfin Sallis' question was closed. I am trying to understand, why that was. From my vantage point, the reasons given do not seem to apply. Later I answered an extremely similar question, somebody ...
- 1,086
0 votes
0 answers
94 views
Should I delete my question? [duplicate]
Two days ago, I asked a question on mathoverflow, and even though I tried to formulate it was well as I could, it still has received negative three in rating, which I interpret as that the general ...
- 127
2 votes
1 answer
110 views
How is the "Reached" computed in profile of every user?
In Mathoverflow, how is the "Reached" computed in profile of every user?
- 270
0 votes
0 answers
98 views
How could I have improved my question?
My question, which I tried to formulate as well as I could, was apparently not to the community's liking, and received two down votes. So my question is, why was the likely reason it was down-voted, ...
- 127
26 votes
0 answers
771 views
Is MathOverflow in danger of losing its distinct branding?
I understand from this post that stackexchange sites with their own branding, including their own domain name, are in danger of losing that privilege and becoming a stackoverflow site; the post refers ...
- 201k
44 votes
1 answer
1k views
Proposal to permit verified numerical AI output as a component to a MathOverflow answer
The current MathOverflow policy on AI states, "If the mathematical component of your content is deemed to be generated by AI, it will likely be deleted." I understand the rationale for this ...
- 120k
15 votes
1 answer
440 views
What's the deal with all the Notable/Popular Question badges?
I just saw a ton of badges awarded for Popular/Notable Questions. Did something change how views were computed or something?
- 2,303
1 vote
1 answer
107 views
Reopen a question
Why can not I vote to reopen the following question? (No button available) On structure of certain universal $C^*$ algebras (An attempt to Non Commutative (Torus) Knot theory)
- 270
1 vote
0 answers
163 views
180 vers 230! What is happening
I was 180 points yesterday. Today I deleted a post with -4 vote so I should be 188. But I get 230. What is the reason? (now I am spending 2x50 for bounty hence 230_100=130) But I am curious about that ...
- 270
10 votes
2 answers
503 views
Nobiliary particles and hyphenation in tag names
As far as I can tell, there are exactly two tags on MathOverflow that contain names with nobiliary particles: derham-cohomology and von-neumann-algebras. There's no consistent hyphenation pattern ...
- 1,737
0 votes
1 answer
344 views
Can I post the solution of a math problem here on MathOverflow?
Can I post the solution of the twin prime conjecture here, with very long text? Is this is allowed?
Reda bourason
6 votes
1 answer
473 views
Has this question been asked before? (Fast-growing functions without appeal to integers)
I vaguely recall an old question about, roughly, the paucity of "arithmetic-free" fast-growing functions $\mathbb{R}\rightarrow\mathbb{R}$ in the following sense: if you want to define a ...
- 19.3k
2 votes
1 answer
163 views
Community Wiki button
I remember that, it was previously possible that one choose his/her question to be a community wiki question. But today I could not choose this option. The post is here (A list of ) ...
- 270
16 votes
0 answers
844 views
Is linking to sci-hub allowed on Stack Exchange network/MathOverflow?
Here somebody complained that they cannot access a certain paper, and I gave the sci-hub link to it. Is this allowed on the Stack Exchange network/MathOverflow? (As pointed out by Martin, they can ...
- 19.7k
-9 votes
1 answer
468 views
A general question on deleted posts and the behaviour of users
Here is an example from MO illustrating the phenomenon that posts answering questions are being deleted by socalled "non experts". The asker asks for a "non trivial" example of an $...
- 381
3 votes
1 answer
598 views
Can we ban a new user for behavior that is egregious but not explicitly forbidden?
This post was copied verbatim from another user's post on MathStackexchange. (And no, this is not the same poster using different names on different sites; the original MSE poster popped up in the ...
- 23.5k
16 votes
1 answer
1k views
It's been a pleasure -- bon voyage! [closed]
Hello fellow MathOverflow community members -- what follows is a farewell message. I understand if there are community members who feel that something like this is undesirable; please feel free to ...
- 10.4k
5 votes
1 answer
252 views
What is the scope of the [network-theory] tag?
The tag network-theory currently exists on MathOverflow with 26 questions, but it has no tag wiki. This makes it unclear for both askers and answerers what the intended scope of this tag is and how it ...
7 votes
0 answers
500 views
Graduate Student in Electrical Engineering Stuck on a Math Problem. Is it appropriate for MathOverflow?
I have a non-trivial math problem in electrical engineering research that several engineering professors have been unable to solve, and I have attempted to ask about it on Math Stack Exchange. Nobody ...
- 151
12 votes
1 answer
449 views
Help with answer which doesn't address the question
I recently posted a question: Conics in the surface $x^4 + y^4 -2n^2z^4 = w^2$ An answer was provided. After studying the answer for some time, I realised that the answerer had misunderstood my ...
- 22k
-10 votes
1 answer
303 views
Best strategy to train the AI assistant?
Recently, at the left bar on mathoverflow.net and the SE webpages, a link to an AI assistant has been included. The AI has some flaws and needs training. Some examples: When asked if -1 is a root of x^...
- 2,019
2 votes
1 answer
147 views
I can not offer more bounty on certain post
What is the reason that "Start bounty" is not active for me for the following post A quantity associated to a (finite or Lie or quantum) group I already devoted "200 reputation&...
- 270
20 votes
3 answers
1k views
Is explicitly asking for upvotes on another platform acceptable behavior?
A couple of times now I have seen a user explicitly ask for upvotes on an answer. In one case it was in a different answer on MathOverflow and the request was edited out by another user (possibly a ...
- 19.2k
1 vote
1 answer
212 views
Edit history of deleted posts
On this old post, I find the following deleted answer: Presumably this was not the first version of this post, yet there seems no way to access the edit history. Is it a) normal and/or b) intentional ...
- 23.5k
2 votes
0 answers
148 views
Votes on MMO aren't sticking
In the recent MMO question Minimal MO score requirement for potential moderators, there are several answers summarising possible responses to the question. @YemonChoi asked if people should upvote ...
- 14k
39 votes
5 answers
1k views
Minimal reputation requirement for potential moderators
Now that the election is over, I think it makes sense to discuss raising the minimal reputation points requirement for moderator candidates in future elections. Current requirement of 300 reputation ...
- 15.1k
37 votes
0 answers
905 views
2025 Community Moderator Election Results
The 2025 Election is over, the votes have been counted, and on behalf of the current team and board, I'd like to welcome to our new moderators: Congratulation to you both! Let me thank Todd Trimble ...
- 41.8k
8 votes
0 answers
906 views
2025 Community Moderator Election
The 2025 Community Moderator Election is now underway! Community moderator elections have three phases: Nomination phase Primary phase Election phase Most elections take between two and three weeks, ...
11 votes
6 answers
1k views
2025 Moderator Election Q&A – Question Collection
The purpose of this thread was to collect questions for the questionnaire. The questionnaire is now live, and you may find it here. MathOverflow is scheduled for an election next week, 2025-05-13. In ...
- 101
11 votes
3 answers
1k views
Old question nominated for reopening multiple times
The question Assessing effectiveness of (epsilon, delta) definitions has been recently reopened. In the history, I see that it has been "left closed in review" two times in the past 10 hours,...
- 20.5k
-4 votes
2 answers
742 views
Why homework-level questions are acceptable when they are asked by a celebrity?
...For example, this one: Is there a non-simply-connected topological ring? The question is insanely verbose and "thought-provoking" in its form, but its mathematical content is trivial. The ...
- 5,558
1 vote
1 answer
314 views
By what criteria do Mods decide to make questions CW?
A recent question of mine was made CW by a mod without any prior (or posterior) notice or discussion. While I'm fine with mods deciding that some questions should be CW, I wonder what criteria are ...
- 3,750
11 votes
0 answers
930 views
Is MathOverflow leaning towards foundations?
Mathematics, as we all know, is a diverse forest full of interesting, strange, natural, obscure, appealing, highly abstract, and intuition-defeating topics: depending on which researcher you ask the ...
- 53.5k
6 votes
1 answer
450 views
Account was "sent back to zero"
I just noticed that my account on MO was sent back to 0, like all questions & answers appear to be deleted. How can this happen?
11 votes
2 answers
673 views
Asking if an unanswered MSE question (about characteristic classes) is suitable to be posted in MO
https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/5024382/characteristic-classes-of-flat-g-bundles-induced-from-g-invariant-forms-on Here is the question I posted on MSE several days ago. It seems to be a bit ...
- 51
10 votes
0 answers
270 views
2024: a year in moderation
It’s that time of the year again! As we bid farewell to the year that's concluded and welcome the new one, we have a tradition of sharing moderation stats for the preceding calendar year. As most of ...
- 101
0 votes
1 answer
198 views
When will I be able to post another question?
A few years back, I got a question ban for asking poorly received questions. I didn't know how to improve most of the questions so I deleted them. The last time I posted was August 6, 2024. The ...
- 135
17 votes
1 answer
856 views
Proposed wording for "results of 2024" question
My meta question on breakthroughs of 2024 has so far not yielded the outcome I was hoping for. Let me try a different tack. I propose posting a question with wording something like this: REMARK: The ...
- 88.2k
0 votes
2 answers
580 views
Comment censorship?
Yesterday I noticed that this question had been closed; at the time I saw it, there was a score of +18 net on the question and five well-received answers, so I made the following comment: A question ...
- 10.4k
61 votes
3 answers
3k views
Capabilities and limits of AI on MathOverflow
I did a small informal test over the last few weeks to see if AI could give helpful answers to MathOverflow questions. I want to discuss the results, in case it helps the community work through ...
- 7,204
9 votes
1 answer
489 views
How Can I Improve My Question on MathOverflow
I recently posted a question on MathOverflow, but it received downvotes. I'm not sure what specifically might have caused the downvotes, and I want to improve it to align better with the community's ...
- 540
17 votes
3 answers
2k views
Breakthroughs of 2024
Now that Quanta Magazine's 2024's Biggest Breakthroughs in Math video is out, we can probably expect that someone, sooner or later, will post a similar question on MathOverflow. Last year, there was a ...
- 88.2k
11 votes
2 answers
1k views
Mixed feelings about an LLM response
This post requesting literature about estimation of exponential sums has a reasonable question and an excellent, on-point answer. The answer also looks (to me) extremely likely to have been generated ...
- 4,589
-8 votes
1 answer
152 views
About a recent question of mine closed within minutes:
I asked a pretty big question on overflow sometime ago : Some (philosophical) investigations on possible future of proof of Riemann Hypothesis with possible approach : Clearly I have written "...
- 790
0 votes
0 answers
102 views
A list of text recommendations
I've found Resource recommendations on Physics Stack Exchange which is a community effort to collect many book suggestions for many subjects in physics, and I thought it would be nice if there is one ...
1 vote
1 answer
230 views
Is this the appropriate to post a request for arxiv reference query, or is there another site I should use?
I have found a solution to a big research problem that I want to post on arxiv. Unfortunately, due to mental illness, I haven't worked in years and have no connections in any mathematical community. ...
0 votes
1 answer
223 views
Two accounts for me
I asked this question from my phone and I realized that it represent me as a new contributor. I wish to ask the question from my own account. In the past I frequently used my original ...
- 270
8 votes
1 answer
410 views
Twitter account in the personal information
I recently checked my personal information and saw that there still is a possibility to add a link to twitter account. Question: Should the fact that twitter is now $\mathbb{X}$ and not so "...
- 14k