What criteria are mods using for removing questions from HNQ (hot network questions)? I confess that I don't understand the rationale in some cases. e.g. for this recent question..

While (quick) removal helps to avoid skewed drive-by voting, it defeats the primary purpose of the HNQ: to expose good topics to wider audiences. The above is a perfect example of such: a topic that deserves to be better known by a wider audience (viz. universal properties of polynomials and quotient rings). Though I am glad that the quick removal helped to avoid further vote skewing, this should be trumped by the goal of better educating the global (vs. local Math.SE) community.

@BillDubuque I've recently explained my criteria on meta, and I know that it's not perfect and sometimes reasonable questions fall through the cracks. In the case you refer to, I felt like a better title is needed, and that such title is very likely to include MathJax. I may have been too quick to judge.

I gotta skedaddle right now, but I'll check and see for further discussion on this topic later/tomorrow.

Perhaps something like "Why is it possible to use complex analysis to compute the residue class of this polynomial?"?