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The moderators recently received the following message from the SE community team:

As you may know, on sites where MathJax is enabled, the /editing-help page includes a LaTeX section, with a "MathJax help" link at the bottom of it. By default, this link points to the URL https://legacy-www.math.harvard.edu/texman/. However, I recently discovered that this URL can be customized for each site that has MathJax enabled.

Right now, only a few sites have actually had this changed (several of them link to a post on their own Meta, though a few link to Math.SE's MathJax guide). I wanted to reach out to your mod team to see if this is something that would be useful for your community as well. (Ideally, it'd link to a post on your site's Meta tailored to your own community.)

If so, you (or a community member) should start a discussion on your Meta site about what this "MathJax help" link on your site should point to. Anyone can then post an answer suggesting what this link should point to (whether it's an existing post on your own Meta site or something else). Once there's consensus from the community, you can add the tag to bring it to the CMs' attention.

As mentioned, the link in question appears here on the Editing Help page:

Learn more: MathJax help.

What should this "MathJax help" link point to?

Feel free to post your suggestions, one per answer. Please upvote the answer(s) you support the most.

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  • $\begingroup$ I found a previous discussion on this site about this link as well: Misleading link about MathJax help – however, the original post there suggests multiple alternatives, and there are no answers favoring one particular link over the others, so it doesn't provide a single clear solution. $\endgroup$
    – V2Blast StaffMod
    Commented Sep 22, 2022 at 20:57
  • $\begingroup$ Another related discussion: Instructions on how to use LaTeX on CrossValidated – That isn't really a comprehensive guide, but the answer does link to a few different resources where users can learn more. So this might be an option, if that's what the community wants this link to point to. (Alternatively, one of the other links in that answer could be used for this "MathJax help" link instead.) $\endgroup$
    – V2Blast StaffMod
    Commented Sep 22, 2022 at 21:00
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    $\begingroup$ What should a new post on this bring to the table? The Meta post at Maths has been compiled more comprehensively, imo, than the default site. In fact, I direct new users to that post: it is lucid, provides a quick tour and more or less covers what is needed for composing any typical post here. So, I would vouch for the default to be changed to the Maths Meta post. Re a new post, if any extra specifics, especially catering to CV, is needed, (which I am not seeing) then it is welcome (but again I feel it redundant). $\endgroup$
    – User1865345
    Commented Sep 23, 2022 at 3:54

1 Answer 1

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Personally, I'm all for having the link as $\TeX$ is heavily used on our site and while most of the users seem to be familiar with it, it's not all, and sometimes the knowledge is partial, for example often we see people writing things like $X$ ~ $N(0, 1)$ because they don't know the \sim symbol.

In my opinion, the best solution would be to have our own post surfacing the notation that is most commonly seen on CrossValidated.com, so related to probability, statistics, and machine learning. This would include things like \sim, matrices, vectors, different fonts that can be used (blackboard, boldface), subscripts and superscripts, maybe \operatorname, etc. The subset of the notation commonly used here seems to be much smaller than on Math.SE, so we probably could have a shorter but more focused tutorial linking to the Math.SE one for readers interested in more details.

Such a post already exists here: Instructions on how to use LaTeX on CrossValidated

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    $\begingroup$ Shorter but more focused: that's a solid point for making a case of having our own post. (+1). But then we can rejig the already existing post here: Instructions on how to use LaTeX on CrossValidated. $\endgroup$
    – User1865345
    Commented Sep 23, 2022 at 7:26
  • $\begingroup$ @User1865345 sure, my comment is more on what than how. $\endgroup$
    – Tim Mod
    Commented Sep 23, 2022 at 7:29
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    $\begingroup$ Hm. You articulated well. For many new users are either indifferent or the Maths post might be too heavy for them to go through. In any case, a shorter consolidated post with more focus on the frequent usage here would be actually fruitful. Finally posts with two options for voting could be used for comprehending the mood of the community, albeit I am in favor of yours. $\endgroup$
    – User1865345
    Commented Sep 23, 2022 at 7:37
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    $\begingroup$ @User1865345 and Tim: Has the community made any progress on cleaning up that linked post to make any desired improvements, or creating a new one if desired? (Once the community agrees that the post is ready to be linked to from the "MathJax help" link (or agrees that it should be updated to point to some other post/URL instead), the mods can escalate the request for staff attention by adding the [status-review] tag to the question.) $\endgroup$
    – V2Blast StaffMod
    Commented Mar 25, 2023 at 4:14
  • $\begingroup$ While reviewing, day in & day out, I have left the stated thread for new users; for one I feel the present post is sufficient in that it contains many credible links as well as the much more detailed MathsMeta page link. Any other relevant thing can be added later by the community, but I deem, it is time to vouch for directly adding that thread to our help link. @V2Blast $\endgroup$
    – User1865345
    Commented Mar 25, 2023 at 4:25
  • $\begingroup$ I had no idea you could right-click the math equations, and I've been using this site for over 8 years already $\endgroup$
    – Firebug
    Commented Mar 28, 2023 at 12:00
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    $\begingroup$ Better late than never @Firebug! $\endgroup$
    – User1865345
    Commented Apr 3, 2023 at 3:44
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    $\begingroup$ The "MathJax help" link on Cross Validated (and this Meta site) has been changed to point to this FAQ, per your suggestion. Let us know if you encounter any problems! $\endgroup$
    – V2Blast StaffMod
    Commented Jun 7, 2023 at 2:49
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    $\begingroup$ Thanks @V2Blast for the incorporation of the post to the FAQ link. $\endgroup$
    – User1865345
    Commented Jun 7, 2023 at 3:55

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