Mathoverflow.net - for research level math questions | Hacker News Reader

Mathoverflow.net - for research level math questions

mathoverflow.net

35 pointsandymoe19 comments

Seems like this has a surprising acceptance rate just by quickly looking at the Badges page. They have given out quite a few!

One things, though, is that I am sad that it is just for questions. It seems like they could harvest this group of people and write some nice explanations to some difficult problems, yet their FAQ explicitly doesn't want this:

"MathOverflow is not an encyclopedia. MO is a site for questions that have answers. MathOverflow visitors should know how to learn new things and do mathematics on their own, but we all get stuck sometimes, and this is where MO saves the day."

This is my BIGGEST qualm about the StackOverflow line extension strategy. A Q&A site is NOT a community site, a proper community site has discussions, sharing, along with some Q&A.

I think these sites fill their niche well; Each question can have discussion surrounding it, or a specific answer, and the comments can enhance the quality of the answers. I was never able to get specific questions answered as quickly or as well until I started using stackoverflow type sites.

Each question should have discussion surrounding it, I don't think the StackOverflow mindset is the way to go about this, however. The discussion on each answer is shoved below in an unnested order which makes conversation almost impossible. StackOverflow works wonders for easy questions with finite answers, not dicussable "research-oriented" math questions.

Agreed, which I find somewhat of a paradox. Questions w/easy finite answers are generally easy to solve via a Google search (for example, the most points I've earned are from answering 'how do you copy a python list'), and the more complex questions that should have answers along the lines of "well it depends, you could do 1, 2, or 3" have one accepted answer that isn't the best solution for the context I'm working in.

Absolutely! At best it saves me a google search here and there, but only if there is a hard and true answer.

Check out the group discussion interface at http://braintrust.io, it caters to actual debate and discussion taking place.

Screenshot here: http://braintrust.io/about/3.gif

Well, you could have found another niche/problem to solve with a new website.

Terry Tao is on it! http://mathoverflow.net/questions/9731/polynomial-representi...

I should point out that the mathematical topics on math overflow lean very heavily towards sophisticated topics in algebra, though there are certainly many other topics represented.

Im repeatedly amazed at how many heavy hitters in math research are active on MO

Site is well put together - nice job!

BUT a word of caution:

I would expect that you'll receive a letter from StackOverflow's legal counsel regarding trademark violation for your domain name - rename now before you get enough traction to matter . . .

Nope there's no infringement issues, they're using stack overflow's software with some extra bells and whistles to allow inline latex equations

The software is fine, but I wonder about the name Math Overflow. “Overflow" doesn’t seem particularly to have anything to do with the name math or with answering questions, so it seems it is only referencing Stack Overflow. Therefore, Stack Overflow might be worried about people confusing Math Overflow with Stack Overflow, and might want MO to change their name.

The founder of MO was on the SO podcast last week ( http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2010/03/podcast-86/ ), and they didn't seem to have any problem with it. They're pretty easy-going. That said, SO is trying to get VC funding, and their investors may not be so charitable.

Given that MO is a customer via their 'stack-exchange' program (http://stackexchange.com/) I don't see that as becoming a problem.

I thought there was something with trademark laws that meant owners had to actively protect their marks or risk losing the ability to pursue legal action against infringement. So even though SO and MO are buddy-buddy, couldn't allowing MO to use their name as is theoretically jeopardize SO's trademark?

Yeah, I doubt it will be an issue legal-wise, but that is a pretty terrible domain name. First the overflow bit and then the .net, just doesn't make sense.

I agree, the name isn't meaningful in a mathematics sense the same way SO's name is to computer science. Is there an equivalent to be found? I can't think of any particularly disastrous mathematics errors or situations. Division by zero.... Division by infinity?

Its a latex pun (about a very annoying error). If you've ever written a math paper with long equations you instantly get it..

It's not a problem -- to infringe, the name has to be similar enough to confuse the public, and it has to be in the same market.

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