New member with questionw and a suggestion...

[MarkFL]

New member with questions and a suggestion...

Hello,

My name is Mark and I just found this forum yesterday. I participate on several other math help forums, which I won't list to prevent being seen as advertizing for them or "plugging." I am a global moderator on one, a Math/Site helper on another and a contributor on the third.

My questions:

i) I see many familiar names here, and look forward to participating! I would like to add those I know from other sites as friends...is this feature available here?

ii) Is there a way to generate the tex tags without manually typing them in? I did a search in the FAQ, and on the site and did not find this information.

Suggestion:

I think it would be nice/useful to be able to see who else is browsing a topic. I know this adds to the server stress and may not be a viable feature to implement, but I thought it wouldn't hurt to ask. Typically on other boards, if I view a topic, and I see someone there who I know is most likely already typing out help, I move on, so I don't potentially take the time to write out a reply, only to find help has already been given. This saves me time. I will check back later, and if I was wrong, and a reply wasn't given, then I will reply.

I like to give the person who responds first the opportunity to interact with the OP without being subverted by other hints/suggestions, no matter how well-intentioned.

Thanks and best regards,

Mark

 

[JeffM]

Hello,

My name is Mark and I just found this forum yesterday. I participate on several other math help forums, which I won't list to prevent being seen as advertizing for them or "plugging." I am a global moderator on one, a Math/Site helper on another and a contributor on the third.

My questions:

i) I see many familiar names here, and look forward to participating! I would like to add those I know from other sites as friends...is this feature available here?

ii) Is there a way to generate the tex tags without manually typing them in? I did a search in the FAQ, and on the site and did not find this information. Unfortunately, no. There was some system glitch last winter that eliminated LaTex altogether for several days, and the simple work-around turned out to be eliminating the tex tags. We have learned to live without them.

Suggestion:

I think it would be nice/useful to be able to see who else is browsing a topic. I know this adds to the server stress and may not be a viable feature to implement, but I thought it wouldn't hurt to ask. Typically on other boards, if I view a topic, and I see someone there who I know is most likely already typing out help, I move on, so I don't potentially take the time to write out a reply, only to find help has already been given. This saves me time. I will check back later, and if I was wrong, and a reply wasn't given, then I will reply.

I like to give the person who responds first the opportunity to interact with the OP without being subverted by other hints/suggestions, no matter how well-intentioned.

Thanks and best regards,

Mark

Hi. Nice to meet you.

 

[MarkFL]

Hello Jeff,

Thank you for your prompt reply, and I can live without them as well, I just wanted to know if I was simply not finding the button to click to generate the tags.

Best Regards,

Mark