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The websites of Jeff Miller are a very valuable resource which get cited often here on hsm. Unfortunately, in a few occasion the information there has turned out to be incomplete or mistaken, so the idea of starting a list of errata on hsm was voiced some time ago in a comment by Francois Ziegler.

I find that a good idea in principle, but I see that the website is still actively being mantained (for example this page was revised in May 2018) so if we start a list on hsm and the website adopts the changes, our list would also need to be updated regularly.

I would prefer if there was a way to submit errata directly to the maintainer of the website. Unfortunately I cannot find any contact information on the website.

Is there a way to contact the author of Jeff Miller's "Earliest"? If so, are errata welcome?

In case no one has an answer to that question, what do people think of starting a wiki question on hsm with errata?

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(Sorry, I haven’t noticed this until now!) An address is found at symbols. Many years ago, I sent a few things and they turned up after vetting by the writer of the relevant entry. My impression is that proactive maintenance dwindled with the closure of Historia-Matematica, where many entries were originally discussed. Absent such an open forum, doing it by email seems just too tedious.

Now hsm and mathoverflow are two such fora, with built-in vetting and much better ability to write mathematics, link evidence, etc.; but the many errata we keep finding (still last week) are scattered and apparently not easy enough to harvest. So I am all for devoting a question to this, and happy to contribute pointers to errata I come across again. Then, up to them or anyone to use it or not.

Suggestions:

  • Make it community wiki.
  • Emphasize it’s meant constructively and not to shame or replace Earliest Uses.
  • Request short answers, each linking one disputed entry and its correction debated elsewhere.
  • An errata is an earlier use. No need to claim or require earliest.
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  • $\begingroup$ Thanks, I think I’ll do that. Btw, It was really hard to find this meta.hsm site from the main hsm page. So I was not surprised for not getting any answers here. $\endgroup$
    – Michael Bächtold
    Aug 12, 2018 at 17:34

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