Questions tagged [discussion]
The question you're asking is designed to solicit opinions or best-practices on a particular topic, with the goal of reaching community consensus.
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What if the answer is "that doesn't exist"?
Let's say you ask a question that asks about the existence of some type of object, like a result, a document or a historical event; such as:
What group theoretic results were known for several ...
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Very impressive
Just reading and re-reading our questions and answers (and even some of the more in-depth comment discussions) - there are some truly impressive and substantial contributions made by an array of ...
user22
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How can we get the example questions asked here?
I took a look back at the site when it was in the Definition phase, and noticed that there were a lot of good example questions. Unfortunately, many have not been asked here. I'm guessing that part of ...
HDE 226868Mod
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Is this question no longer 'too broad'
I have edited my question How did prisoners of war discover scientific breakthroughs while interned?, which currently has 3 close votes as being 'too broad'.
The question now focuses on how ...
user22
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Answers vs comments
There is a size limitation for comments. If I have a long comment, I sometimes enter it as an answer. Some people object this, I don't know why. I hope they state their objections in the answers to ...
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Answers in Wikipedia
I understand that this site is new, and it is time to discuss some rules, formal or informal. As a long time participant of another similar site, Math Overflow (MO), I propose to discuss the following:...
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Unanswered questions - something to keep an eye on
As of writing this, we have 19 unanswered questions out of our 115 total questions. As % answered is one f the criteria we are judged on when we are a public beta - it is something one should keep an ...
user22
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Lessons for the future.
Today, we had this question posted. In its original form, it read
Why do we see things?
Yes. That seems unquestionably obvious. But, when i try to think about it in my way. I find it as a mystery. ...
HDE 226868Mod
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Why do we have 'history' and 'history-of-terminology' tags?
As noted above, we have a history tag and a history-of-terminology tag. These seem a little redundant, given the name of the site. I just re-tagged a question from history to history-of-terminology, ...
HDE 226868Mod
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Watch out for duplicates (public service announcement)
Hopefully, soon, we will go public - as such we will more than likely get many enthusiastic new members, which will be awesome!
One thing we need to do is keep an eye out for duplicates of what is ...
user22
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Will we consider Wikipedia an acceptable source?
Some SE sites - Astronomy, Space Exploration, Physics, etc. will allow Wikipedia to be used a source in many cases, although multiple sources are always preferable, especially for really key points. ...
HDE 226868Mod
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Are some tags too specific or just fine as they are?
I've noticed that there are a couple of tags that recently popped up. There's the ancient-egypt tag and the nazi-germany tag. They only have a couple questions each, but more will come.
Are these ...
HDE 226868Mod
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On questions that do not refer to a specific discipline
There has already been some discussion about how to tag questions that are (explicitly) not specific to some discipline (e.g. this one or this one). The author of the first example question I just ...
DanuMod
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Notifying "experts" on specific subjects
The site is fairly diverse, no matter what it may seem. This question on Physics inspired me to post a modified version here, because I think it could be relevant.
The gist of the principle is that ...
HDE 226868Mod
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Who should our moderators be?
From The 7 Essential Questions of Every Beta:
Discussing the criteria of a great moderator is important and picking out potential candidates is a great way to introduce outstanding contributors to ...
user22
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Options for the name of this site
There has been some discussion about the possibility of renaming the site.
Please give a suggestion as an answer to this message and people upvote/downvote what they see as the best options.
Note: I ...
user22
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What fields of study are on topic here?
According to Wikipedia,
The history of science is the study of the historical development of science and scientific knowledge, including both the natural sciences and social sciences.
There have ...
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Argument for keeping the "base 10" question open?
This question about past cultures using non-base-10 systems is quite popular. The meat of the question was:
Have any non decimal numbering systems been used frequently in the past? If so, what were ...
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Is Economics on Topic Here?
This question inspired by this question, which has several close votes.
Economics is a "social" science. But it is considered a "science" by the Nobel Prize Committee. Moreover, the question is about ...
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Almost half of the questions so far are about math
I counted earlier and found that 23 of 48 questions were about either mathematics or mathematicians. While I am probably most interested in the history of mathematics, I am hoping this site will ...
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Is history of Computer science on topic?
Is the history of Computer science on topic? I can see that you could argue that it falls under mathematical logic and therefore is on topic. Questions with this focus would include questions about ...
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What to do with questions that are interesting but easily looked up?
Throughout the week I come up with a number of questions about the history of this or that. Most often Wikipedia authors on the subject some of the hard work for me, so it's not really necessary for ...
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Are history of engineering/invention questions on topic?
For example, a question about the invention of gliders/aircraft by George Cayley, or a question about the development of high pressure steam by Watt et al.
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Reference for the answers wherever required
To make the answers acceptable I think there should be references to all the answers (atleast wherever required) provided to really believe in the history. Since our site is about the HISTORY of math ...
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Should 'big list' type questions be put on hold?
The question Which scientists (mathematicians, philosophers) who voluntarily served Nazi had large contributions to human knowledge? seems like it is requiring a list of notable Nazi scientists (the ...
user22
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What should we name our chatroom?
Currently, it is the generic name of the site.
What should we name our chatroom? Perhaps give your suggestions here and the popularity could be gauged by how many votes each suggestion gets.
user22
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What should our 'Tour' and 'Help' documentation contain?
It may be a little early, but no harm in putting this out there now and open this up for discussion.
Specifically, what should our 'Ask about' and 'Do not ask about' on the Tour page contain? ...
user22
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Is asking on philosophy on topic?
Science used to be considered as second philosophy. PhD, the highest title for a scientist, is a Doctor of Philosophy. However, some philosophers opine that philosophy is not science. So, is asking on ...
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Do we need the mhchem MathJax extension?
Assuming that we get the MathJax support, do we need the mhchem extension? We have this enabled on the Chemistry site, and it's incredibly helpful there in showing anything more complicated than a ...
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Do we need MathJax?
On other SE sites like Physics, Math, MathOverflow, we have the possibility to write equations in what is called 'MathJax'. This allows you to write equations the way you would write them in LaTeX, ...
DanuMod
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What is an acceptable way to improve answers?
In the post Why was Évariste Galois killed? @Danu correctly points out that my answer is worse than a bad summary of the wiki page on Galois. (A fair point)
Quickly looking around, I don't see ...
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Proposal: A tentative tagging scheme
One of the most important questions to be settled is: How are we supposed to tag questions on this site? I happen to have some opinions on this matter, and I will use this meta post to lay out my '...
DanuMod
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Tagging of names
How should we tag names?
I've just gone for thomas-digges for the astronomer, but this got me thinking about how we should standardise it. digges might be acceptable in this context but what if there ...
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Are questions about mathematicians and scientists' lives on topic?
Are questions about history behind a scientist or mathematicians life on topic? For example personal life, death etc.
This is motivated by my recent question Why was Évariste Galois killed?
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