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Is this question acceptable?: Question on handwriting

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    I wish to ask the MO community to show samples of their mathematical handwriting (on paper). I am quite curious to see how many professional mathematicians write things like calligraphic letters, fraktur, blackboard bold, and just plane old variables.

    However, this clearly isn't a math question per se, and much more of a fun/interesting one. There have been posts on math notation, so I see this question as being probably at the brim of acceptability, so I thought I'd ask here first if it'd be okay to post.

    Thanks!
    • CommentAuthorYemon Choi
    • CommentTimeNov 17th 2010
     

    My instinctive reaction is that such a question would not be appropriate. In fact, it isn't a question, but an attempt to carry out a survey. Is it really of that much interest or importance to you? I might as well ask how many pints people drink while grading homework.

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    Actually, I've wanted to ask a similar question and have not done so because of MO's sacred mission. Perhaps we could make it a topic on meta? It's definitely meta-related to something that mathematicians would find interesting.

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    I agree with Yemon on this, I think. Besides, each respondent will have to find a site to host their scanned samples, not to mention create a scanned sample at a size, resolution and quality suitable for posting. I think in practice we'd end up with a huge variability in that department, ending up with a page that is unwieldy to load and to read.

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    @Harald: All the more reason to put it on meta! The possibilities are endless!

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    I would not like to see this question on MO. Questions on MathOverflow should be:

    1. Questions that directly concern you in your mathematical work
    2. Questions that are easy to answer, in that it is easy for someone to know if they can answer it and if so they can give a quick answer

    A notation question is just about acceptable because, if you think about it, if someone knows that notation then they can very quickly say, "That's just the symbols for a flat hedgehog". This question is not in that league.

    Also, questions on MO work best if once they are answered, they can be forgotten. Survey questions, and big-list questions, don't work so well here. Who really keeps going back to the big-list questions to check if the latest answers are good or not?

    The primary principle to remember when asking a question on MO is that you are asking people to do something for nothing. So you need to make it easy for them to do that something and show how much you'll appreciate their efforts.

    PS Yemon: enough that the mistakes get blurry.

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    @ Yemon Choi
    Yes, I'm incredibly interested. I do mathematics as an amateur, but do mathematical typography professionally. So seeing how people write could give good insights to fonts and stuff.

    @ Harald Hanche-Olsen
    The images wouldn't need to be loaded on the page. I would give examples of file hosts such as imgur.com.

    @ Andrew Stacey
    They can be forgotten by anyone who wants to forget them. But I have a good number of favorites with brilliant things I never realized. There was one big-list I really enjoyed answering: http://mathoverflow.net/questions/42929/suggestions-for-good-notation/43006#43006 And it seemed the MO community took it very well.

    @ Harry Gindi
    I don't think meta will reach quite a crowd.

    @ Everyone else
    And yes, I do realize it is somewhat against the principle of MO. But I have seen a very select few questions that were just interesting enough for people to say "ah, we'll let this one go". To me, I think this is incredibly interesting!

    If a mathematician does math, then surely he/she has a mountain of paper available. I don't think it's quite asking people to do work for nothing. I mean ostensibly yes, but so is solving random problems and whatever.

    *deep breath* But still, I do realize it is not a math question.
    • CommentAuthorHJRW
    • CommentTimeNov 17th 2010
     

    Unlike some big list questions that have been successful on MO, this really is nothing more than a survey. When MO starts posting surveys, the spammers will have taken over the asylum. No offence intended, quadrescence - I accept that your question is born of genuine interest, but it crosses a line that, in my opinion, should remain uncrossed.

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    I agree with Henry Wilton. Please let's not go there.
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    Okay, I will refrain from asking. Thanks for your input all!
    • CommentAuthorvoloch
    • CommentTimeNov 17th 2010
     
    I also think it is not appropriate. There are tons of video lectures online where you can see mathematicians' handwriting on the blackboard.

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