Tagging - 2019-01-12

3:26 AM

new-tag A new tag group-varieties created by Yanior Weg.

3

Q: Can Erdos-Turan $\frac{5}{8}$ theorem be generalised that way?

Suppose for an arbitrary group word $w$ ower the alphabet of $n$ symbols $\mathfrak{U_w}$ is a variety of all groups $G$, that satisfy an identity $\forall a_1, … , a_n \in G$ $w(a_1, … , a_n) = e$. Is it true, that for any group word $w$ there exists a positive real number $\epsilon (w) > 0$, s...

Martin Sleziak

1:50 PM

deleted-tag The tag conformal-maps was edited away by Saad. The tag measurable-sets was edited away by Eric Wofsey.

@MartinSleziak deleted-tag The tag umvue was also removed by Saad. The discussion on meta have not received much response so far.

deleted-tag spatial-graph-theory is also gone: math.stackexchange.com/posts/2691083/revisions So is convergence-in-distribution math.stackexchange.com/posts/3061644/revisions and inverse-galois-problem math.stackexchange.com/posts/3061018/revisions

Feeds

3:07 PM

0

Q: How to deal with question solved in comments?

This is a common trend that I saw while trying to find questions suitable for me to answer. The filter and sorting problem of the questions was more or less solved for me by my previous question. But then again arises a new problem(minor as it seems to me). That is most of the questions with no a...

discussion tagging sorting

amWhy

9:59 PM

Maybe it is time to post a question to math.meta.se proposing the removal/burnerating of the advice tag on math.se. I think at this point in time, askers may believe that asking for advice (course of study, personal advice given their lengthy descriptions of where they are at), is okay on this site, because, well, afterall, it's a tag existing on this site. I'm a bit hard-pressed to think of any use of the advice tag that isn't off topic on math.se??

2

@quid, is the correct term (previously used on meta.math to describe deleting the old homework tag) the "burninating" of a tag (and not "burnerating" of a tag)? Asaf would know this too.

quid

@amWhy yes burninating is jargon on SE.

Xander Henderson

It is a reference.

amWhy

@quid I guess so; there are 23 results on meta when I searched for "burninating"!

@XanderHenderson ;D

@XanderHenderson Maybe I have a new username: Trogdor!

Xander Henderson

10:15 PM

No, you should change your name to @SimplyBeautifulArtTheBurninator.

amWhy

@XanderHenderson hahahaha!

@amWhy @quid, Do you have any input on this idea? Mainly, I want to help newer-ish users not post questions which will, almost invariably, be closed, perhaps downvoted, perhaps deleted, and that can sting, particularly when an asker discloses a lot of personal information. I worry that the existence of some tags lead some users to believe that, therefore, anything or that sort (named by some certain tag), is welcome here.

quid

5

A: Tags that encourage off-topic questions

Vote up/down if you think the advice tag should/shouldn't be deleted. I consider this as disruptive/having the potential to create off-topic questions as asking for advice on something has a conotation of some 'personal' question. This hardly ever makes a good MO question. Besides, it is basical...

^^ I can't do better than that. ;-)

amWhy

@quid voila! Good answer!!

quid

@amWhy not good enough, apparently. mathoverflow.net/questions/tagged/advice

amWhy

10:30 PM

@quid But then again, it looks like the only questions listed when searching that tag were asked June 2018 or earlier. It would also be helpful to know how many questions tagged advice on MO have since been deleted, post the 2013 MO answer posted above?

Apart from the presence of the tag misleading askers that asking for personal advice is welcome on math.se, I think that, as is, given the abundant comments and occasional answers to such questions asking for advice on their course of study, where they should study, whether they should give up mathematics, etc, most (answerers) of which haven't any clue, really, about the specific asker, their mathematical nore their character strengths, weaknesses, fears, and are not at all qualified to ...

quid

I think there was one from October 2018. Yes, I think the use decreased over time. Not last due to academia.se getting more established.

Not to disagree with anything but to me the main point is that it's neither clear nor useful. I mean in a way five different advice tags might be better.

amWhy

...offer "counsel", yet that's what they attempt to do! For me, it's a matter of not wanting this site to take part in giving uninformed advice.

quid

Maybe that subject would fit better in the tagging room?

amWhy

@quid Okay, you're right.

amWhy

10:53 PM

← 18 messages moved from CRUDE

Xander Henderson

/me approves of burninating advice.

quid

Was there ever discussion of this before?

amWhy

@MartinSleziak I moved a dialogue in Crude, over here. I hope you don't mind. I suspect it may be that I should post an "answer" on the Tag Management Thread on meta, if it still exists for 2019?

@quid good question!

quid

@amWhy it's arguably large enough for a question proper, modulo checking if it came up.

amWhy

@quid Agreed.

quid

10:59 PM

A point to note, it has some "official" approval in that it's mentioned here:

15

Q: The "meta-tags".

What are the tags reference-request, soft-question, big-list for? When are they used? When should they not be used?

discussion faq tagging

That's not a show-stopper, but in any case we should keep it in mind.

Not last as the post would need to be updated.

amWhy

@quid That's valid. I am somewhat partial to the Hippocratic Oath: "First, do no harm." And I worry that the asking for advice and answering by mathematics-oriented users with personal advice they are not qualified to provide, and the manner in which such questions are handled, which is appropriate (closure, possibly deletion) over the internet, can cause far more harm than it is useful.

@quid Probably my next target for burnination will be "big-list", unless the "big-list" tag description includes an imperative that "any user wanting to use this tag must, immediately after posting the "big-list" question to math.se, flag a moderator requesting that the post be made community-wiki."

@quid Is there any way to otherwise trigger, when a question is posted with the big-list tag, to automatically mark the post as CW?

quid

@amWhy no, except SE changes the software, or a mod running a bot. Both is unlikely and the latter is I think not allowed. The former is especially unlikely as SE wants to minimize CW Q and that would go against that.

What somebody that cares could do is run a bot that auto-flags. (I'd not know how to do that exactly, but I am sure it's basically trivial for those that know something about this. )

amWhy

11:16 PM

@quid In that light, I think the "big-list" tag should be burninated and questions seeking any list, or poll, or posts giving examples of some overly broad phenomenon should be declared off topic or too broad, according to the explanation given by the close reason "too broad."

@quid where is NormalHuman when we need them!

@quid I understand the post might have been taken as official when the question/answer were first posted. But, that was 7.5 years ago. And at this point in time, 'big-list' questions are by definition, too broad, and "advice" questions can be absorbed by other tags, are off topic, or belong on academia.se.

quid

I'd support getting rid of the advice tag and that might be feasible. I'd personnaly also don't mind if big-list goes, but I doubt that the idea would get enough traction and IMO it might not be worth the commotion it might created.

amWhy

@quid True, and anyways, best to focus first on advice, and put aside big-list for now.

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$Mathematics$ Tagging