tea.mathoverflow.net - Discussion Feed (Can we _please_ have a naggy pop-up asking "is this question research-level"?)

Nate Eldredge comments on "Can we _please_ have a naggy pop-up asking "is this question research-level"?" (9243)

Nate Eldredge — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 09:36:50 -0700

I'm not sure that it needs to be a popup. However, the "Ask a question" page in fact contains no explicit mention of what types of questions should and should not be asked. There is the request to read the FAQ but it is unobtrusive and easy to (shall we say charitably) overlook.

I would propose that, where that text appears now, to add the few sentences from the FAQ about appropriate questions.

I would also propose that, both in the FAQ and the Ask a Question page, that we elaborate on the term "research-level". I don't think that people who are not really doing research have a clear understanding of what it means. At the high school and lower undergraduate level in the US, "research" tends to have a connotation of "a project that requires you to read something other than your textbook". So a sophomore working on a term project that may involve reading some literature but does not actually create original mathematics may consider this as "research" and think a question about it is acceptable here, when it looks like homework-level to everyone else.

Perhaps these things together can cut down on the number of unwanted questions here.

Dougy comments on "Can we _please_ have a naggy pop-up asking "is this question research-level"?" (8955)

Dougy — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 23:51:29 -0700

+1

Better would be an ability to move these questions to math.stackexchange.com. Sometimes they're quite reasonable questions and well-written questions. but not research-level questions. I think, however, that implementing this would be quite difficult. So perhaps a little checkbox or something will do for now.

Harry Gindi comments on "Can we _please_ have a naggy pop-up asking "is this question research-level"?" (8940)

Harry Gindi — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 13:01:19 -0700

+1 Theo:

@Dror: What?

Dror Speiser comments on "Can we _please_ have a naggy pop-up asking "is this question research-level"?" (8937)

Dror Speiser — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 12:51:36 -0700

-1: After enough threads on this topic maybe a pop-up asking "has this question come up numerous times before?" also appropriate.

Cam McLeman comments on "Can we _please_ have a naggy pop-up asking "is this question research-level"?" (8932)

Cam McLeman — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 08:59:56 -0700

theojf comments on "Can we _please_ have a naggy pop-up asking "is this question research-level"?" (8256)

theojf — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 17:19:02 -0700

I don't remember which thread, let alone which user, suggested the following. But is there someone with sufficient time and javascript-fu to please add a pop-up nag asking "Is your question research-level?" to the "ask a question" page for users with \leq 100 rep?

My most recent reason for wishing for such a nag is the borderline-acceptable http://mathoverflow.net/questions/35150/sum-equals-product . It has been successfully answered, including a link to the corresponding (harder) 2006 USAMO problem.