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How do you feel about the Maths forum?

Hi guys

We've noticed that posting in the Maths forum has been really low for the past couple of months.

We just wanted to know if you've noticed anything wrong in the forum, and whether we could do anything to help? Either in terms of helping to promote threads, create content, or even help keep the forum tidy.

Or you might like it how it is and think nothing is wrong? Let us know!

FC :h:

a few people in the maths forum

Scroll to see replies

Reply 1

Kevin De Bruyne

There used to be a really good CA around :moon:

And to be honest, I find that study help STs (bar Ray, kind of) aren't really present in study help, let alone maths.

I guess to give an example of what I mean, fin you look at the past 5 months, say, the number of posts by someone who can actually move threads or remove full solutions etc Is probably one or two, I honestly don't think that would be far off.

The number of people posting full solutions would be some multiple of that.

Original post by Fox Corner

Hi guys

a few people in the maths forum

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 2

Fox Corner

Original post by SeanFM

There used to be a really good CA around :moon:

And to be honest, I find that study help STs (bar Ray) aren't really present in study help, let alone maths.

Thanks for letting me know Sean :smile:

We definitely want to get more CA's and ST's into the forum. If you ever see anyone you want to recommend, let us know :sexface:

Reply 3

Notnek

Original post by Fox Corner

Hi guys

We've noticed that posting in the Maths forum has been really low for the past couple of months.

Yes I've noticed this. A few years back there were so many threads that it was hard for the helpers to keep up. Is TSR as a whole doing okay or is it just this subforum? And how about other academic help subforums?

I still feel that if a student needs free maths help online then this is the best place to come. But the lack of threads will mean fewer helpers and things could get worse.

When you Google school-level maths problems, it's often this site that appears near the top. It's a shame though that you don't see the site on the first page when you Google e.g. "maths help". If there was money put into adverstising this subforum then I feel it could become very popular again. For maths in particular, students are constantly needing help out of school hours and this is a perfect place to come. I don't know anything about adverstising so I can't say much more about this.

I know that a lot of members (me included) would give testimonials saying how much this site helped them. I don't know where these could be shown though. I don't really have any other suggestions - I can't thing of why there are fewer threads than there used to be.

EDIT : Tagging other members who may have an opinion.

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 4

Mr M

Study Forum Helper

Original post by notnek

EDIT : Tagging other members who may have an opinion.

I've been busy elsewhere on the internet so haven't been particularly active here for a year or two. I'll make myself more available for a bit to see if we can encourage an uptake in traffic.

Reply 5

Fox Corner

Original post by notnek

Thanks for your reply :smile:

Generally the subforums are doing okay - it seems to be that Maths (and Maths Exams etc) are down.

It is great that you feel this way in regards to how much TSR has helped you and other members this much. I think this is one of the best subforums in terms of users helping each other out in a clear and balanced way.

Regarding google - I just spoke to my colleague about this and she said that the clarity of thread titles could be a problem that links to rankings in google.For example, people putting 'I need help' as a title as opposed to a title which actually refers to the problem. Maybe when we get more CA's in that could be one of their duties!

Reply 6

RDKGames

Study Forum Helper

Original post by Fox Corner

Hi guys

a few people in the maths forum

I think it's doing OKAY however I do seem to notice many threads occasionally being created in:
https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/forumdisplay.php?f=51
and
https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/forumdisplay.php?f=80

which should by their nature belong in this subforum.

Other than that, I haven't really been here as long as others to notice much change so it's okay from my perspective.

Reply 7

DFranklin

Original post by Mr M

I've been busy elsewhere on the internet so haven't been particularly active here for a year or two. I'll make myself more available for a bit to see if we can encourage an uptake in traffic.

Same here in terms of my activity, but I don't know if I can realistically say this is likely to change at the moment.

Fox Corner

To slightly "soapbox" here, (and in the open admission that my experience is from 2-3 years ago):

When I moderated the maths forums, it often felt that the size of the maths forums wasn't really appreciated. I'd get feedback about "not being involved in other forums", when F38(+F373) by itself had more activity than all the other academic subjects put together. Just actively moderating F38 ended up taking more time than I felt I could justify.

It feels that the moderation now is a lot more passive - I'm not entirely clear on all the variations in support members now (CA, ST, etc), but I don't think there's much moderation going on from actual subject experts who could "steer" discussions in helpful directions as opposed to simply dealing with reported rule violations.

To be clear, I'm too busy to go back to doing that now - just things like removing full solutions (and dealing with the fallout) was pretty time-consuming. But the result is that those rules (that were "f38" rules, not general TSR rules) just aren't enforced anymore. But posting full solutions "kills" discussion, not just because there's not much to post after a full solution, but it also makes everyone else more likely to post a full solution too.

I'm not saying that's the only reason for a drop-off: sites like Facebook have hurt forums all over. But I do think it's a contributing factor. I think it would make a big difference if F38 had more dedicated mods from the (small) group of experienced graduate posters.

Reply 8

rayquaza17

I do check the maths forum quite regularly, but most times when I go on it there aren't any threads where I could contribute anything to. I think people aren't posting enough questions on there, and when they are, they are being answered too quickly by other users before I can post.

I did suggest a couple of years ago a way to make thread titles more specific, as in people choose a sort of category in addition to the standard a level/gcse one, however I was told this was not something that was possible to do on TSR.

Another possible issue is people post their maths questions in the general A Level forum, maybe there could be warning on there for when people are submitting a post to check they are posting in the correct forum.

Original post by DFranklin

To be clear, I'm too busy to go back to doing that now - just things like removing full solutions (and dealing with the fallout) was pretty time-consuming. But the result is that those rules (that were "f38" rules, not general TSR rules) just aren't enforced anymore. But posting full solutions "kills" discussion, not just because there's not much to post after a full solution, but it also makes everyone else more likely to post a full solution too.

I think in the past if you reported a post that was a full solution, a mod could look at it and remove it. However moderation changed a couple of years ago and so now the support team cannot see if a user has reported a post. So I have no way of knowing if a thread has a full solution posted without manually checking through the thread.

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 9

DFranklin

Original post by rayquaza17

If a maths-specific mod can't easily see reports then that's a problem it its own right. It's not uncommon to have situations where you need a moderator familiar with the subject (or indeed, with the posters) to be able to easily see why the report is (or is not) valid.

As far as full solutions go: yeah, I'd actually find a huge number of them myself by checking on threads. As I said, it was time-consuming.

Reply 10

Naruke

Original post by Fox Corner

Thanks for letting me know Sean :smile:

We definitely want to get more CA's and ST's into the forum. If you ever see anyone you want to recommend, let us know :sexface:

I doubt my recommendation would be regarded as highly as Sean's, since I haven't been here for a long time. But regardless, I'd like to recommend @RDKGames. He's extremely active, very friendly and very helpful. He's not that good at Maths but he tries his best, so I believe he'd make a great candidate.

Reply 11

Notnek

Original post by Naruke

I'm not sure if this is a joke or not. He clearly is good at maths.

Reply 12

KaylaB

Original post by Fox Corner

Hi guys

a few people in the maths forum

I'd say also the disparity for some users of where to post is an issue.
As others have mentioned above, many people are posting questions or asking for maths related advice in the A level and GCSE forums. Although this issue isn't just specific for maths so perhaps it's worth putting a reminder that subject specific questions should be posted in their relevant forums, as opposed to the current situation whereby people just click at the top their study level and just dump the question in there.

Just a thought :h:

Reply 13

Len Goodman

Because young people these days are shunning proper, traditional subjects like Maths and instead going for the easy options of Psychology and Media. Quite sad, really.

Reply 14

Mr M

Study Forum Helper

Original post by Len Goodman

Because young people these days are shunning proper, traditional subjects like Maths and instead going for the easy options of Psychology and Media. Quite sad, really.

This isn't true though. Mathematics is the most popular A level subject in the UK and the number of candidates is at an all-time high.

Reply 15

the bear

nobody has mentioned @TeeEm... he was an inspiring contributor who was very generous with his time and his splendid resources at www.madasmaths.com

the maths forum is diminished by his absence.

Reply 16

Gregorius

Original post by rayquaza17

I've only been on these forums for a bit over a year, but the above reflects my experience at the moment.

I think that the other feature that I notice as a difference between now and this time last year is that there's a whole class of questioner/question missing - those preparing for university entrance with difficult elementary questions. The "proof is trivial" thread and the difficult integrals thread were very lively last year and evidence of a number of posters getting ready for "the real thing". This seems to be missing this year.

I have no idea why!

Reply 17

Pangol

I'm a fairly infrequent visitor, although I try to help out when I'm around. The one thing that I see that infuriates me, though, is people who go way over the top with their explanations, making them too advanced and technical for the level that the question has been asked at. It just looks like brazen showing off, and is completely unnecessary. I wonder if this is scaring some posters off, when they ask for simple advice and are presented with answers that are far too overcomplicated. I sometimes feel that answers are given to make the answerer look clever, rather than to offer actual help. This isn't a massive problem, and doesn't happen too often, but it does occur often enough to be noticeable.

This isn't to say that there is no place for the advanced stuff here, far from it, but it should be thread-appropriate.

Reply 18

Mr M

Study Forum Helper

Original post by Fox Corner

...

Well I've been back for a couple of days and can report on what I have seen.

The traffic is certainly much lower than it has ever been. There are lots of maths threads but they are appearing in the GCSE and A level Forums and elsewhere rather than in F38. I've been reporting them to request that they are moved.

Lots of users are oblivious to the F38 Forum Rule about not giving full solutions. They don't seem to mind when they are told about this and appear willing to conform so, if everyone could challenge people posting full solutions, I'm sure that would help.

I've seen a bit of trolling silliness. This may have moved in to fill the vacuum and I expect it will decline if the academic side of the Forum is re-established.

Finally, I will have been here for 10 years on 16th January. I'm just making you aware of this so that you can put my long service medal in the post.

Reply 19

Notnek

Original post by Pangol

Yes this annoys me and should be brought up in the same way that posting full solutions is. And moderators should be thinking about it when viewing maths threads.

But I don't think it happens often enough to be a problem.