tea.mathoverflow.net - Discussion Feed (Benefits of the question on "greatest hits of DOH!")

Ben Webster comments on "Benefits of the question on "greatest hits of DOH!"" (7195)

2010-07-18T14:58:00-07:00

If it makes you feel any better, we don't have to count meta.

Pete L. Clark comments on "Benefits of the question on "greatest hits of DOH!"" (7166)

2010-07-18T10:36:41-07:00

Wow, I win the competition? I had forgotten that I had even entered -- I am pretty sure that was the one time in my life I used the word h*lla. Maybe I had been watching too much No Doubt on youtube or something...

Ben Webster comments on "Benefits of the question on "greatest hits of DOH!"" (7165)

2010-07-18T04:37:50-07:00

Hella as an adverb? Say it ain't so,Theo.

I would say it occasionally while in California (it's just in the air there), but quickly dropped it whilst on the right coast.

Jonas Meyer comments on "Benefits of the question on "greatest hits of DOH!"" (7162)

2010-07-18T00:23:59-07:00

I couldn't resist searching to answer Kevin's question. See the first comment at

http://mathoverflow.net/questions/15383/generalized-kernel-formulas

and Pete Clark's second comment at

http://tea.mathoverflow.net/discussion/131/you-may-only-submit-a-comment-once-every-30-seconds/

+1 from me, too. Unfortunately, I don't think "hella" ever really caught on in my region. I only hear it from my office mate who used to live in San Francisco.

Kevin Lin comments on "Benefits of the question on "greatest hits of DOH!"" (7161)

2010-07-18T00:13:21-07:00

+1 for "hella"

Is this the first usage of "hella" on MO? I think it must be.

Mariano comments on "Benefits of the question on "greatest hits of DOH!"" (7153)

2010-07-17T15:18:28-07:00

While I do not vote up as much as I should, I do not vote down in situations like this, either, because that lowers the poster's reputation (I don't know if having one of your questions closed also takes away points, though...)

theojf comments on "Benefits of the question on "greatest hits of DOH!"" (7152)

2010-07-17T12:22:45-07:00

For the record, although I was secretly hoping that my comment would create some momentum towards closing the question, I decided that I was not going to include my vote towards closing (largely because by now there are enough people who can vote to close that I'd rather the number of votes needed slowly creep up past 5). I vote down questions that are "unclear or unuseful" or whatever the phrase is, and this question was exactly that. Myself, I've been reserving "close as subjective and argumentative" only for questions I think are argumentative (which I think has no place on MO) --- this question was only subjective, not argumentative.

My comment got hella up-votes, which surprised me. If everyone who up-voted my comment also down-voted the question, then that means that almost as many people up-voted the question. I doubt that to be the case, but still, I wonder how many people said "yeah, I support down voting this, but I'm not going to down vote it." It's kind of like me saying "yeah, I support closing this, but I'm not going to."

I wish that more users on MO would vote up more questions and answers. If there were a wider point range between the good questions and the bad, then we wouldn't have to close as many bad questions. MO is slowly getting big enough that that should work.

Harry Gindi comments on "Benefits of the question on "greatest hits of DOH!"" (7151)

2010-07-17T06:25:09-07:00

It is also not very clear how users are supposed to decide to up-/down-vote what will essentially be personal anecdotes.

Vote them all down purely out of principle =D!

I could also just be kidding though.

WillieWong comments on "Benefits of the question on "greatest hits of DOH!"" (7150)

2010-07-17T04:27:00-07:00

+1 jbl.

@danseetea: I don't think it is just the fact that it is a duplicate that irks me. But that it is an inferior imitation of earlier questions of the same flavour that had some semblance to improving pedagogy. Besides the fact that it feels to me more like a chatting topic that belongs more to an after-dinner discussion in a pub, a thread on sci.math, or a post on a 'board' somewhere, it is also not very clear how users are supposed to decide to up-/down-vote what will essentially be personal anecdotes.

danseetea comments on "Benefits of the question on "greatest hits of DOH!"" (7148)

2010-07-17T02:02:26-07:00

I agree this should be closed. Especially since very similar questions have already been asked. Close as off-topic or duplicate...

jbl comments on "Benefits of the question on "greatest hits of DOH!"" (7146)

2010-07-16T20:20:15-07:00

It strikes me as a worthless question. Trying to pinpoint why, in comparison, I consider the "colorful language" thread not worthless: individual answers on that post are in some sense universal, while individual answers on this post seem unlikely to yield content interesting to anyone other than the author. (At least, I've read the first 3 answers and my life has not in any way been improved, while many of the answers to "colorful language" were enjoyable to read.)

Also, Theo J-F seems to agree, and his explanation of a -1 vote has more upvotes than the question itself.

Yemon Choi comments on "Benefits of the question on "greatest hits of DOH!"" (7141)

2010-07-16T18:19:23-07:00

Mariano: well, I liked that question too, but I was mindful of the cliche/aphorism that one (wo)man's meat is another (wo)man's poison, and so was trying to be even-handed.

Mariano comments on "Benefits of the question on "greatest hits of DOH!"" (7140)

2010-07-16T18:17:20-07:00

I'd love to hear about any gain too :D

(BTW, The question on colorful language was quite entertaining, so I don't see much in common between the two, really)

Yemon Choi comments on "Benefits of the question on "greatest hits of DOH!"" (7139)

2010-07-16T18:13:13-07:00

I get the impression that most MO people's reaction to "Is this question acceptable?" would be "sure, why not?" Nevertheless I find myself not sure what the point of the question is, although it may well be just as good as the MO question regarding "colo(u)rful language in mathematics papers".

I can't formulate a definite reason to vote to close, so I haven't, but could people help me figure out how this question is of positive benefit (as opposed to being harmless)? I think my mild aversion is because it feels to me like a blog post or pub natter or "mathematical socializing", which is not my cup of tea these days on MO... That and my suspicion that the answers will be either overly subjective, or else of a widely differing level.

Anyway. If you see a definite gain to be had from having this question on MO, could you please comment on this thread, just so I can get a feel for what I'm missing?