Two years later: an abstract algebra server was created (covering three books: Artin, Aluffi, and “Abel’s Theorem in Problems and Solutions”), but never really took off. I also discovered a topology server (covering Munkres) but it is also now inactive. Meanwhile the Tao Discord is still alive, but I fear it is mostly only alive because I am still there answering people’s questions...
There’s a tricky trade-off where on one hand, I want to answer questions quickly enough that people don’t feel blocked on not knowing the answer to their question, but on the other hand, if I don’t answer a question, then that may actually cause someone else to step in and answer (which sort of “trains” the server to become more resilient, so it doesn’t only depend on me for survival). (Reminds me of the quote about how the worst thing you can do is to completely solve a problem, and Bill Thurston’s anecdote about how he killed a field by making too much progress on it alone.)
I wish I knew how to make more of these servers go well.
Two years later: an abstract algebra server was created (covering three books: Artin, Aluffi, and “Abel’s Theorem in Problems and Solutions”), but never really took off. I also discovered a topology server (covering Munkres) but it is also now inactive. Meanwhile the Tao Discord is still alive, but I fear it is mostly only alive because I am still there answering people’s questions...
There’s a tricky trade-off where on one hand, I want to answer questions quickly enough that people don’t feel blocked on not knowing the answer to their question, but on the other hand, if I don’t answer a question, then that may actually cause someone else to step in and answer (which sort of “trains” the server to become more resilient, so it doesn’t only depend on me for survival). (Reminds me of the quote about how the worst thing you can do is to completely solve a problem, and Bill Thurston’s anecdote about how he killed a field by making too much progress on it alone.)
I wish I knew how to make more of these servers go well.