tea.mathoverflow.net - Discussion Feed («Tell me all about» questions)

Will Jagy comments on "«Tell me all about» questions" (17221)

Will Jagy — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 12:43:42 -0800

I did not care for http://mathoverflow.net/questions/81851/what-is-a-twisted-modular-operad which is still open with 4 votes to close at this writing. Perhaps what I disliked was the absence of "here are some related things I do understand." Sometimes I comment that we are not set up to do tutorials, try MSE, but that does depend on level.

Ryan Budney comments on "«Tell me all about» questions" (17219)

Ryan Budney — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 08:21:49 -0800

Two very generic, recent, "tell me about" type questions.

http://mathoverflow.net/questions/81881/reference-request-introductions-to-current-mathematics-derived-from-related-to

http://mathoverflow.net/questions/81883/reference-request-seminal-papers-in-gauge-theory

quid comments on "«Tell me all about» questions" (17207)

quid — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 05:13:54 -0800

'How to ask' under 'be precise' (in particular later papragraphs) has something along these lines. Perhaps this is what you remember.

Mariano comments on "«Tell me all about» questions" (17201)

Mariano — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 22:27:22 -0800

IIRC the FAQ used to say that questions of thje form «tell me about X» (which are not even questions) are a bad fit for MO. This is probably subsumed under the MathOverflow is not an encyclopedia item in the FAQ, but I think it would be useful to be a bit more explicit, as this kind of questions pops up quite often and it would then be useful to be able to point to the FAQ more concretely.

(A tell-me-all-about-X non-question can be turned into a great question, I think, with sufficient work from the asker, and this has happened several times. But...)