CURED

1:35 AM

del-pls 20k+ algebra-precalculus The official policy is that I should lock this. Does anyone object to it being deleted? Finding all functions $f$ from positive integers to positive integers such that $f(x^2+y^2)=f(x)f(y)$ and $f(x^2)=f(x)^2$‭ - jadeep‭ 2021-04-13 19:07:52Z

John Omielan

2:42 AM

@XanderHenderson I don't know what is best to do here but, for what it's worth, there's at least 2 small advantages I can think of to lock the post instead of deleting it. One is that for anybody who sees this post, they will be informed that our community doesn't accept cheating on active math contests. Second, if a similar question is posted and somebody searches for a duplicate to find this post, they will know the other question should also not be answered.

Paramanand Singh

3:01 AM

close this PSQ

KReiser

8:15 AM

close

vitamin d

8:41 AM

close

José Carlos Santos

delete This PSQ should be downvoted and deleted.

Martin R

11:06 AM

A (multiple) duplicate: math.stackexchange.com/q/4101716/42969

user21820

12:09 PM

Wrong answer because the implication is the wrong direction and so it is not a correct solution.

@JoséCarlosSantos One more delete-vote needed.

José Carlos Santos

@user21820 It's gone now! Thank you.

user21820

1:08 PM

Close? Note that the many upvotes are probably drive-by votes from HNQ.

soupless

1:53 PM

@user21820 Can I ask what HNQ means?

postmortes

@soupless Hot Network Question(s) -- there's a list on the right-hand side of the main site that lists questions across the network of SE sites that are getting lots of views

soupless

Yes. I see it, including the Hot Meta Posts

Wait, this is the questions on the lower part, and Hot Meta Posts are above, right?

postmortes

@soupless yes, the lower part, from many other SE sites. Usually one from Academia, and often a couple from Puzzling

I haven't read any messages about them yet in here, but usually the problem is a low quality or PSQ making it onto the HNQ list as it brings people here thinking this is a "do my homework" site

soupless

Is there some way to say to people that this site is not one?

@postmortes I think the cookies come to play at this part, or no? I have no idea about cookies, but it just came to my mind.

postmortes

2:12 PM

@soupless well, that would require an actual consensus from the community that it is the case, and we don't have one. The community splits into two parts mostly: people who think this isn't and shouldn't be, and people who will answer anything and enjoy that, so don't want to make that statement as it would reduce what they can answer

if you look at Physics.SE they are very firm on not answering homework questions and their site has a slightly different feel to it. Personally I'd rather be more like physics: good, interesting relevant questions that aren't drowned in a sea of "this weird integral can't be solved! Or can it?"

soupless

Yes. The "best" ones are the image-only questions, commonly has a text link of 'insert image description title' or something

postmortes

exactly. But until we get a consensus, or the site splits into Math.SE and MathHomework.SE, we have to police the HNQ a little as well. As I understand it, MathJax in the question title will automatically remove a question from the HNQ, so sometimes it's possible to remove poor/low quality questions with an improving edit :)

soupless

Should there be a "room" for training, like 'Oh. It seems that you encoded mathematical equations/expressions without the use of MathJax. We recommend/require you to go to this room to learn how to do so.'

Xander Henderson

An example of a mediocre question which I was motivated to answer because I felt that the other two answers (particularly the highest upvoted answer) were insufficient. I would not be opposed to closure, but someone please let me know if it is closed, as I think that the underlying question is reasonable, and I would be tempted to post a new question and migrate my answer there.

postmortes

@soupless there's an FAQ. People seem disinclined to read that, so I doubt very much they'd turn up in a room for "training" or any description either :)

Xander Henderson

2:25 PM

I would also be interested if anyone comes up with a good dupe target---the best I found was this, but the expression there does not simplify to a polynomial.

soupless

@postmortes Should there be a badge that indicates you still don't have the grasp over MathJax or ... well, never mind. That will be a shame.

postmortes

@soupless badges that shame people will not be well-received by the network generaly :-D

@XanderHenderson your answer is significantly better than the other ones; I especially like the correct use of the plural data :) That aside, it's a good answer to a reasonable question. +1

soupless

@postmortes Let me reverse it. Those who use MathJax will receive a badge,

Xander Henderson

@postmortes It should also be noted that there are technical "problems" ("features"?) which prevent some of the best Math SE questions from appearing on the HNQ. Because not all SE sites use MathJax, any question with MathJax in the title will not render properly in the HNQ list on other SE sites. As such, questions with MathJax in the title are automatically excluded from the HNQ.

Since good questions have good titles, often involving mathematics, good questions are often a priori excluded.

Contrast this with low-quality questions written by folk who don't know how to write a good title or don't know about MathJax. Such questions are often quickly upvoted and answered here (contributing to "hotness"), and are not excluded from the HNQ for technical reasons.

Thus the questions sent to the HNQ from Math SE are systematically biased towards being a poor representation of what Math SE is supposed to be.

soupless

@XanderHenderson What are the qualifications for a question to be considered "hot"?

Xander Henderson

2:32 PM

Note that moderators can remove questions from the HNQ (and we do).

Paramanand Singh

@XanderHenderson: while the question you linked is mediocre, your answer is really great and very detailed.

Xander Henderson

@soupless I don't know the precise algorithm, but I believe that it has to do with (1) number of views, (2) number of answers, and (3) number of upvotes (on the question and its answers).

soupless

@XanderHenderson It can also be time-based, right?

postmortes

@XanderHenderson True, I'd forgotten we have that (probably unique) problem

Xander Henderson

@postmortes @ParamanandSingh I appreciate the kind words regarding the answer, though I am more concerned about whether or not the question is worth keeping around.

@soupless Yes, there is some "decay" in how these things are counted.

That is, a single view a week ago is weighted less than a single view today.

postmortes

2:34 PM

@XanderHenderson I think the question is reasonable, as I said. If there's a dupe, and it's better, then by all means close as a dupe, but it's the kind of question that comes up from students when learning about polynomials and as you note, the answer isn't an easy "yes"/"no"

Paramanand Singh

@XanderHenderson: I think the question is ok, we don't need to close it.

Xander Henderson

Thanks for the input.

Paramanand Singh

@user21820: the thread contains another answer which sort of deduce that $n=11^{1/11}$ and in my view should be accepted. For the answer you linked it is better to drop a comment that one should establish the uniqueness of $n$.

user21820

3:02 PM

@ParamanandSingh Indeed, the other answer is better, but unfortunately the asker accepted the bad answer.

@ParamanandSingh I think it should be downvoted and deleted because it was posted a whole day after the better answer and yet was wrong.

Paramanand Singh

@user21820: while I prefer correctness in math over other considerations we should give the answerer a chance to fix their post. A downvote is ok, but maybe let's wait for delete.

@user21820: also the question involved is PSQ which is already closed and might get deleted, so I think let's not worry too much

Teresa Lisbon

3:26 PM

@XanderHenderson WOW. I don't know the exact context, but the point is that the object $(x^2-4)/(x-2)$ is being talked about as an expression. For me, while that doesn't explicitly signal context, it certainly tells me that the OP is not quite looking at this as a function, which would put the real analytic, and measure theoretic definitions a little in the background, and give the algebraic viewpoint some prominence.

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$Mathematics$ CURED