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What do you (dis)like about SFN?


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I've refrained from a few questions due to lack of response

Indeed, I have not refrained from asking questions but have been considering joining forum more specialised in maths or mathematical sciences, on which I can ask more advanced questions and hopefully get more responses.

 

I think this forum is filled with ppl who have abillity in maths, but I am not sure who, if anyone would be expert material...

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I believe it was the low average intelligence of the maths board that convinced the resident maths expert to run away in tears and never return. He was quite good though, maybe we should petition him for his return.

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I believe it was the low average intelligence of the maths board that convinced the resident maths expert to run away in tears and never return. He was quite good though, maybe we should petition him for his return.

 

That sounds like something he would say :)

 

I think it's due to the fact we don't have many degree level math questions / students on here...their predominantly high school / GCSE level. So I think it's a little harsh basing the problem on intelligence.

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I think it was a 0.9... thread that finally made his head blow up, or something infinity related. So unqualified adults, rather than yet-to-be qualified students.

Also, there are some damn stupid people that do post on these forums, as we all well know.

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Not something the admins could do anything about but perhaps this is a suitably-public place to mention it:

 

I dislike people refraining from posting because...

- they are afraid of being wrong: Who cares? If what you think is wrong and you post it, chances a good that you'll know better, afterwards. Chances are much smaller if you don't post and hope to get it right from the other replies.

- they think someone else could explain better. a) what if everyone thinks so? b) how you´re gonna learn explaining stuff to others when you're not trying? c) again: who cares?

 

I dislike people posting...

- claims about the lack of intelligence of certain named or unnamed members or groups thereof. It is, in principle, ok to tell someone that he's simply lacking the background knowledge currently required but again you should probably restrict that to topics you´re fit in, yourself.

- stuff like "I am too <add excuse here> to give a complete answer right now. In short <add incomplete or unnecessarily bad reply here>". I probably also belong to that group sometimes, so as a tip for all the other sinners: For me, the best times on sfn were those when I really put some effort into my posts, sometimes taking 2-3 hours to write a reply, browsing some books to back up what I was about to post, sometimes even replying to questions that I didn´t know the answer to before I started looking things up (and sometimes not even after posting :rolleyes:).

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and not only that, but since WHEN does Not being good at maths make someone "Stupid"?

 

I`m lousy at maths, do you think I`m stupid?

 

But you don't claim to know maths or be able to prove that 785 is in fact 12...

 

In reply to Atheist, I understand your concerns but I at least used to and still sometimes fall into the first group, and somewhat into the second but I normally try and return or post links for the twoo busy section :( I agree about chekcing and spending time though.... also posting afer a few dirnks dosn't seem to work too well...

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I don't know, it seems like we are complaining about stuff that we can't really do anything about. For one, there are always going to be abysmally stupid people that will come by (check a couple of threads in the General Section for an example), and we can't do anything about that. Also, people make mistakes in their posts, and the best we can do about that is raise awareness among the members of this site to avoid doing that.

 

Personally, I have a hard time finding what not to like about this site, other than the aesthetic appearance of this site. I like most of the people here, and I think the mods and admins do a good job maintaining this site.

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posting afer a few dirnks dosn't seem to work too well...

 

Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't and I'm living testament to that :)

 

I completely agree with Atheists post...it's a learning experience for 'everyone' on here. You answer a question, you're almost guaranteed to remember it, and if you're corrected the same applies. And lack of education is 'not' lack of of intelligence.

 

There's no harm in asking what you may seem is a stupid question. If you're in an interview for an academic career for example, the following will not happen...

 

'Well Mr Smythe, we would offer you the job, but unfortunately you said something incredibly stupid on a science forum'

 

It really doesn't matter. :)

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I think it was a 0.9... thread that finally made his head blow up, or something infinity related. So unqualified adults, rather than yet-to-be qualified students.

Also, there are some damn stupid people that do post on these forums, as we all well know.

 

That might be the case, but I've always seen SFN as a place where people can learn new things without fear of being shot down. Being 'stupid' doesn't mean that you shouldn't be able to post - being ignorant and ignoring what everyone's telling you is a completely different point.

 

Clearly matt grime didn't like this and so he left. That's his choice, but I certainly won't be petitioning to get him back.

 

It is needed, I've refrained from a few questions due to lack of response, but I think the number of maths experts that are regularly active on here, are few and far between. There's a few that spring to mind, but I think if there's an expert handling questions (regularly) in the maths forum, it will keep the forum more active.

 

I realize it's not that easy, but give someone status, and they may feel obliged...just my humble opinion.

 

I'll take this into consideration - please PM me with ideas for people you'd like to see as experts. I'd love to see some more posting in the maths forums, it would certainly motivate me to answer more often.

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Clearly matt grime didn't like this and so he left. That's his choice, but I certainly won't be petitioning to get him back.

 

Wow, I must have been away too long because I had no idea that this went down. I just tracked down Matt's final posts to see what the hubbub was about. Heh. I know everyone has a breaking point, but I thought for sure that Matt's was at least another couple dozen "0.999...=1" threads in the future. :D

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Not sure if anyone has noticed, but the number of 'views' on a thread appears to be stuck, for instance the sfn user awards thread has had 241 views for the last week...is that an error, or is it just the same people viewing it ?

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