Questions tagged [asking-questions]
Questions specifically about the process of asking questions on this site.
41 questions
11 votes
2 answers
872 views
AI generated questions: a strange riddle?
So apparently now people are posting AI-generated questions (rather than answers). To me this makes no sense at all whatsoever -- why would anyone post a question to which neither they nor anybody ...
- 3,751
0 votes
1 answer
201 views
Are questions about whether a type of work/problem/solution or (one's own) arxiv paper is publishable on topic?
This is a bit related to the question: Are "has this been studied before" questions on topic? If I post something in the arxiv, can I ask for an opinion as to whether: 1) it's been done ...
- 340
0 votes
0 answers
216 views
Incentivizing ‘bad’ questions
As a 5+ year member of MO, I remember the old days when upvotes on questions only netted you 5 points as opposed to the current 10. While I was generally glad to see good questions being rewarded in a ...
- 10.4k
15 votes
1 answer
831 views
Are "has this been studied before" questions on topic?
I have a fairly elementary question but rather than feeding it straight to the wolves I thought I would ask it here. Well, via a more general question: Are questions of the form "has $X$ been ...
- 1,097
8 votes
3 answers
974 views
Feature: Making the MO-guidelines visible while editing questions?
I noticed that some of the MO questions that get closed are clear-cut going against the MO-guidelines eg. "here is the link to my new result" or "here is the jpg file of my homework ...
- 4,579
5 votes
0 answers
238 views
Partial answer accepted, thinking it could have been easily extended and provided enough insights
Some days ago I posted a question and I accepted an answer, "although it’s only a very partial answer," as the answer author wrote in a comment. I accepted it because I thought that it ...
- 1,707
1 vote
1 answer
157 views
Downvote and vote to close of a recent question
I recently asked the following question on God's number for higher dimensional sequential move puzzles. It was downvoted once and has a vote to close, even though it is in my eyes a perfectly good ...
- 5,025
6 votes
6 answers
916 views
I have a question which is a near fit for MathOverflow. What are some other resources I might consult?
What are some other resources which might be useful for somebody considering asking a MathOverflow question, especially if their question is not quite a perfect fit here? In asking this, I have ...
- 66.5k
4 votes
0 answers
424 views
1000 Questions by Dominic van der Zypen!
Amazing milestone! Our first $1000$-question user. Question # $1000$: "Edge sets on 𝜔 maximal with respect to chromatic number".
- 153k
0 votes
0 answers
264 views
"overestimates topoi" and research level
I wonder now and then, why this question is still open Did Grothendieck overestimate topoi? Usually, MO's members tend to be very strict about what is and what isn't a good question. But why is this ...
user366545
10 votes
6 answers
608 views
Revising the help page on "What topics can I ask around here?"
This is a freestanding post taking its content from a previous discussion on the modal window for first-time askers. Thanks to Martin Sleziak and Tim Campion for the encouragement to post it ...
user44143
16 votes
5 answers
882 views
What should the modal window for first-time askers say?
When a user asks their very first question on a Stack Exchange site, they are shown a modal window with some introductory advice. As explained in the March 2020 announcement of this feature, there is ...
- 66.5k
9 votes
0 answers
94 views
Feature request: question title should appear above question preview
Just a minor niggle - when I'm reviewing my question, one of the things I want to review is the title. It would be nice if the title appeared just above the preview of my question, so I could review ...
- 665
21 votes
4 answers
900 views
Customize the modal window for the first-time askers [duplicate]
When a user asks their very first question on a Stack Exchange site, they are shown a modal window with a short advice. The content can be either a generic message or it can be customized for a ...
- 4,793
4 votes
2 answers
218 views
"Scope" of being blocked from asking
As you know well, when one attempts to delete a question that has already received an answer, the following message is displayed. "Repeated deletion of answered questions can result in your ...
- 1,707
1 vote
1 answer
99 views
Asking questions later
I have a question about my MathOverflow post: Sequence without average density (It's deleted!) I've asked it on 15.07.20 (currently yesterday), and in several few minutes realized that USA's time is ...
- 1
0 votes
1 answer
384 views
How can the question ban be removed:
The question is deleted and then I'm banned on MO after I asked the following question on MO earlier ( it's first asked on MSE then after sometime with no answer; I asked on MO) : https://math....
- 375
11 votes
1 answer
547 views
Writing a proper MathOverflow question
I am in uni and I'm struggling to write a proper question for this site. I always end up writing too little and people say they need more detail. Sometimes I get a bad rep and criticised for being ...
- 101
1 vote
0 answers
79 views
Should I rewrite my question, or create a new one
I posed this question two days ago, which effectively asks "Has X hard-to-describe special case on Barnette's Conjecture been proven?". In retrospect, I believe it was a poor question. What I now ...
- 3,509
5 votes
0 answers
122 views
When we close questions and suggest MSE, should we link to their How to Ask? [duplicate]
When we close questions by saying MathOverflow is for mathematicians to ask each other questions about their research. See Math.StackExchange to ask general questions in mathematics. ...should the ...
user44143
-3 votes
1 answer
545 views
Why MO community forbide me and discourage me to do my research and to post my questions?
I'm confused why MO community forbids me many times to ask question however the last question that I have posted wasn't negative , Really this method of dealing is discouraging me and discourage all ...
2 votes
0 answers
114 views
What should I do if I have a question on inactive post?
I recently asked this question about gamma function, and Vincent law commented a link to another post which stated similar question. There I found a link to MathOverflow post. I visited there, and I ...
- 133
28 votes
3 answers
2k views
Asking questions with out answering any one else’s question
Here I only ask questions and do not (can not answer for lack of knowledge) answer any of the questions. Sometimes I feel it is bad. Some questions that I know answer to are either closed as not ...
- 6,203
1 vote
0 answers
126 views
What should I do if I want to ask an almost duplicate question?
There already exists a question very like the one I want to ask, with a very partial answer by the OP. I want to ask the same question but restricted to a special case, for which I hope more can be ...
- 161
9 votes
3 answers
593 views
Editing a question admitting a trivial example
In this question I forgot to add that I want the space to be sufficiently large. One user wrote a (correct) answer pointing out a trivial example on $2$ points, answering the question. It was my ...
- 53.3k
-11 votes
1 answer
205 views
Limiting the length of questions?
Many questions on MO are not formulated as concisely as they could be. I would propose a limit of characters (to be discussed, say 500 characters), and you can "buy" more space by sacrificing some of ...
- 53.3k
25 votes
4 answers
2k views
Should users be shown some basic information before posting the first question? [duplicate]
In an answer to another question discussing possibilities how to decrease the number of off-topic questions1 it was mentioned that: Perhaps we should force a person to read the rules before posting ...
- 4,793
24 votes
2 answers
2k views
Should MathOverflow require registration to ask a question? [2017]
Probably anybody visiting this site regularly noticed that quite often there are posts which are not at MO-level and quite frequently also of very low quality. (Many of them are simply copy-paste of ...
- 4,793
2 votes
1 answer
201 views
How to ask the same question with additional hypothesis
In a recent question I've asked if a claim I've make could be true, a user answered with a counterexample and so I've accepted his answer. Now I formulated some additional hypothesis under which I ...
- 113
1 vote
0 answers
108 views
How to Ask Multiple Very Specific Questions About New Applications of an Old Theorem
This question is a different flavor of this one, the difference being, that I am not looking for help in understanding something. My "problem" is, that while ramping up my knowledge about the ...
- 13.9k
7 votes
1 answer
1k views
How to ask multiple very specific questions about a paper?
I'm slowly going through some topos theory papers by Lawvere. In almost every paper, there are many small sayings and sometimes entire sentences which I do not understand and have never explicitly ...
- 10.7k
2 votes
1 answer
228 views
Question warning without asking a question!
I have never asked a question on mathoverflow.net, yet when I was about to ask my first question, the site flagged a warning regarding the question not being well received, is this normal behavour? ...
- 335
6 votes
1 answer
359 views
How could I have better clarified my question?
I seem to keep getting my posts put on hold in various stack exchanges because it's "unclear what I am asking." How can I do better to prevent this? Specifically right now I'm asking about this ...
- 695
9 votes
0 answers
564 views
Questions on Mathematical Writing
Where should I ask about how to approach Mathematical paper writing? For example, the question [How to write an abstract for a math paper? ] was put on hold? Which stack exchange site should I have ...
- 1,129
3 votes
1 answer
263 views
Reposting a Deleted Question
What are the opinions about reposting a question that come up with the discovery of a new algorithm, but had to be deleted because an "interested party" wanted to do some checking before deciding on ...
- 13.9k
3 votes
1 answer
292 views
Should I add a hypothetic solution of a partial problem in my answer or ask a separate question whether this hypothese holds?
In the MO-question on a lacunary series I wrote an answer (really: a comment) having the hypothese about an interesting fact (the function $d(x)$ as difference between the OP's function $f(x)$ and ...
- 5,440
6 votes
1 answer
312 views
Should I edit this question or make a new question?
Should the Grothendieck ring of varieties be K_0 of numerical motives? I want to change it to: 1) Asking about after tensoring with $\Qb$ 2) Asking if there is a map in some direction and if ...
- 15.9k
2 votes
1 answer
228 views
Automatized features don't work when asking a question
When I try to ask new questions, the "autocomplete features" don't work (in Firefox ESR 31.3.0): When I start typing a title, I don't get a list of existing titles. I don't see a preview of my ...
- 8,166
3 votes
0 answers
421 views
How to change the direction of an answer thread
I asked this question, with the hopes someone might help me with the algebraic proof I was working on towards the stated conjecture. Based on this meta thread, my original question got changed — for ...
- 1,085
12 votes
0 answers
1k views
Why is my question apparently not research-level?
I just posted this question a few hours ago, and it's already had two votes to close for being off-topic (i.e., not of "research-level mathematics"). Considering it's ultimately a question about ...
- 1,085
52 votes
4 answers
5k views
How to write a good MathOverflow question?
How do I write a good MathOverflow question? Got any advice for me?
- 7,928