Vanilla 1.1.9 is a product of Lussumo. More Information: Documentation, Community Support.
In the Non-English posts discussion (http://tea.mathoverflow.net/discussion/142/nonenglish-posts/#Item_0), Tom Leinster brought up the point that
"Anecdotally and informally, I'm getting the impression that Math Overflow is acquiring a reputation for being unwelcoming. For example, Anweshi had a rather fiery experience when he arrived here. I also got an email from an acquaintance relating another bad experience with a first question. Another person I know was also put off MO by the reaction to his (careful, helpful) first contribution. I don't think either of the latter two people have returned.
Obviously this is a bad reputation for MO to acquire. We want to attract good mathematicians, not put them off. Maybe part of the problem is that there are too many rules. So I'm wary of adding more."
(Also, html doesn't seem to work in meta. What am I supposed to be doing instead?)
Like hanche, I'm not sure what negative reactions Tom's referring to, but if MO really is acquiring such a reputation it can only hurt us in the end. Perhaps when we see a question being asked by a new user we should agree to try harder to phrase our comments constructively. (Like hanche, I agree that it would help if we knew the specific reactions Tom was referring to.)
One interesting point which one recent joinee (I think it was Anweshi, but I might be misremembering) mentioned was it had even occurred to him as a possibility that his question might be closed. Might it make sense to stick a message saying so somewhere prominent, just so people aren't completely blindsided? It's not even really explicitly said in the FAQ.
@bwebster. If I had mentioned it, I had quickly removed it also.
Well, let us not get into the numerous events on the day I joined this website. It was all quite unexpected. I might have said something at the heat of the moment. But I quickly became more thoughtful and recanted.
I value the work of all administrators and moderators and I have no hard feelings left from that day. I view your daily attention to this gem of a website as community service and in return for getting my questions answered and the learning experience, a bit of such problems is fine by me. After that day I had tried to stay clear of all problems.
Indeed I wouldn't even have joined this meta, if not for the fact that I was absolutely forced to do so on my very first day and post. Please try to understand. I am not here to create bad repute for you. That is the last of my intentions. Shall we put what happened behind us?
I have tried to look at it standing in your shoes. Try to understand it from my perspective also and please end this argument here.
Anweshi, I think you may have misunderstood my point: those of us who've been on this site for a while take it for granted that if one asks certain kinds of questions, they will be closed. Some of us even learned this by experience.
But this is not true on most internet forums. New users might not understand that it is a possibility, and thus will be unpleasantly surprised if it does happen. I was just suggesting that MO might be made a more welcoming place by just making this fact a bit clearer in the early parts of the FAQ. Just saying something like "If you ask a question that the site's moderators and users don't think is appropriate for the site, it will be closed. Please don't take this to mean that you are not welcome at the site, or think that this will be held against you in the future. A lot of active users have had questions closed at one point or another."
Oh. I didn't know that closing questions was a "normal" event. Of course, if this is so, you should certainly mention it prominently in the FAQ
Edit: This MO is indeed a wonderful place. What all things I will keep learning! :) This sort of reminds me of the description of the big quarrels that used to happen in Bourbaki meetings, as detailed in the autobiography of Laurent Schwartz. They fight like cats and dogs, and then later laugh and make merry like nothing happened. Is it always like this when mathematicians try to meet and collaborate?
I think we usually skip the fighting like cats and dogs part. Though maybe that could be another Umeshism: if you don't fight with your collaborators, you aren't collaborating enough.
The avoidance of fights seems to be a merit of the stack overflow software. However general trends could still come up, over a period of time.
I think I overall like the stack overflow based design, rather than a message board software like vBulletin.
@bwebster. I suppose it must be hard to do both the moderating job and concentrate on the daily work?
People have different senses of what makes a "real question". For my part, a real question has the following properties:
From what I've observed of the MOFler Modus Operandi, these properties of what I consider "real questions" tend to elicit negative affective reactions. The thumb-jerking utilities of the software system provide the fastest relief from such discomforts, and I fear that a segment of the local population may have succumbed to an over-dependence on them.
A certain level of hostility comes in the form of enforcing the main function as a Q&A site for precise questions. This is important to keep the content focused and high-quality, but I do think that people get carried away. I try to follow these rules:
@bwebster: the second section of the FAQ starts "There are several broad categories of questions that should not be asked on Math Overflow. If a question is closed, it's probably because it fell into one of these categories." Then there's a list of reasons questions might be closed. I've added your line "If your question is closed, please don't take this to mean that you are not welcome on the site, or think that this will be held against you in the future. A lot of active users have had questions closed at one point or another." just above the list of categories.
@Tom. I just had a look again at my first post, and noted that you were one person who tried to soften my fiery experience. It is only now that I notice. Thanks a lot for it. :)
1 to 13 of 13