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I'm noticing building support for the idea of removing the "math problem" close reason. It's come up in discussion on meta, and has been brought up in chat a few times.

I can definitely see where support for removing this close reason would come from. Those questions which are truly off-topic can simply be marked with the "off topic" close reason; math-related questions would (should?) be segregated by quality through voting rather than by close reason. I'm also growing increasingly convinced that it is acting as a means of introducing unintentional favoritism into the system, and I can see the argument that the close reason is doing more harm than good as a result.

I'm still on the fence about removing the close reason entirely, though. Still, looking back at the original reasoning for rendering math "problems" off-topic, it looks to me like the problem could be solved with downvotes alone, and that a close reason might not have been necessary.

Should we remove this close reason? If so, how do we, as a community, handle the quality of math problems and math puzzles (wherever the distinction, if it exists, may lie) going forward?

I'm noticing building support for the idea of removing the "math problem" close reason. It's come up in discussion on meta, and has been brought up in chat a few times.

I can definitely see where support for removing this close reason would come from. Those questions which are truly off-topic can simply be marked with the "off topic" close reason; math-related questions would (should?) be segregated by quality through voting rather than by close reason. I'm also growing increasingly convinced that it is acting as a means of introducing unintentional favoritism into the system, and I can see the argument that the close reason is doing more harm than good as a result.

I'm still on the fence about removing the close reason entirely, though. Still, looking back at the original reasoning for rendering math "problems" off-topic, it looks to me like the problem could be solved with downvotes alone, and that a close reason might not have been necessary.

Should we remove this close reason? If so, how do we, as a community, handle the quality of math problems and math puzzles (wherever the distinction, if it exists, may lie) going forward?

I'm noticing building support for the idea of removing the "math problem" close reason. It's come up in discussion on meta, and has been brought up in chat a few times.

I can definitely see where support for removing this close reason would come from. Those questions which are truly off-topic can simply be marked with the "off topic" close reason. I can see the viewpoint that math-related questions would/should be segregated through voting rather than by close reason as well. I'm growing increasingly convinced that it is acting as a means of introducing unintentional bias into the system, and I can see the argument that the close reason is doing more harm than good as a result.

I'm still on the fence about removing the close reason entirely, though. Still, looking back at the original reasoning for rendering math "problems" off-topic, it looks to me like the problem could be solved with downvotes alone, and that a close reason might not have been necessary.

Should we remove this close reason? If so, how do we, as a community, handle math problems and math puzzles (wherever the distinction, if it exists, may lie) going forward, and/or their foreseeable quality problems, if they will come up?

I'm noticing building support for the idea of removing the "math problem" close reason. It's come up in discussion on meta, and has been brought up in chat a few times.

I can definitely see where support for removing this close reason would come from. Those questions which are truly off-topic can simply be marked with the "off topic" close reason; math-related questions would (should?) be segregated by quality through voting rather than by close reason. I'm also growing increasingly convinced that it is acting as a means of introducing unintentional favoritism into the system, and I can see the argument that the close reason is doing more harm than good as a result.

I'm still on the fence about removing the close reason entirely, though. Still, looking back at the original reasoning for rendering math "problems" off-topic, it looks to me like the problem could be solved with downvotes alone, and that a close reason might not have been necessary.

Should we remove this close reason? If so, how do we, as a community, handle the quality of math problems and math puzzles (wherever the distinction, if it exists, may lie) going forward?