We already have this question: Mathematicians being elitist? which showed the point of view of the community about mathematics and related questions.
But something that annoys me more is this commentcomment by Mike Ounsworth :
FYI to the community: downvotes on questions like this (with no comment) are what make people like me feel "unqualified" to even read this site, and take moths off at a time. I get that people insta downvote anything that looks like a "pure mathematics" question... but really?
Being down-voted is never a great experience. But what I find the most frustrating is not having the reason why it was down-voted:
- Is it the quality of the answer? (too short...)
- Is there a mistake in my answer?
- Is it that you just don't like the answer?
- Is it the correctness of the answer?
- Is it that you think the question not relevant?
- Is it a blunt homework question?
When such thing happen I don't think this helps the community growing.
I try to get more people on the website. I advertise a lot. I have given stickers and gave a lightning talk at Real World Crypto 2017... But if someone does not feel welcome here. All this is for nothing.
As part of personal experience, a few months ago I managed to bring a friend on the website. As a result, he nearly quited the website when someone challenged him on an answer, questioning his ability to comprehend mathematics:
You can nitpick all you want, the fact is that you are stating an isomorphism without justification. Looks like you are just repeating what's in this document without understanding it.
Thus my question:
