

Mathoverflow.net - for research level math questions - andymoe
http://mathoverflow.net

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joshfinnie
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."

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Tawheed
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.

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andymoe
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.

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joshfinnie
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.

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digitallogic
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.

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bdr
Terry Tao is on it! [http://mathoverflow.net/questions/9731/polynomial-
representi...](http://mathoverflow.net/questions/9731/polynomial-representing-
all-nonnegative-integers)

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carterschonwald
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

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aresant
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 . . .

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

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roryokane
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.

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sparky
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.

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

