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I notice that recent posts are using \large in LaTeX when it is not really needed or similarly display math in the title of the post. The impression is that it is just pure visual competition for attention grabs. Is there a policy about font size? I fear that if there is none, soon posts we be typed using \Huge...

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3 Answers 3

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There is general agreement that titles should not include displaystyle math so as to conserve vertical space on the front page (see here). I don't think it is a stretch to expand this to include other forms deliberate enlarging of titles, or otherwise making titles conspicuous in lists of questions (e.g., using colours as in "$\color{red}{\text{NEED HELP NOW!}}$"). I would feel free to edit these elements out of question titles.

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    $\begingroup$ I don't think it is a stretch...: Was that intentional?! ;-) $\endgroup$
    – cardinal
    Dec 8, 2013 at 15:48
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The query Displayed math in title returns 48 posts. Some of them may have been brought into shape after the database dump -- although it's quite fresh right now, made only about an hour ago. Some are pretty old. In any case, the query may help editors to keep this trend under control as far as displays are concerned.

LaTeX abuse in the body of a post is not as easy to identify with SEDE query.

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  • $\begingroup$ I just check many of these. I only found one or two that were actually problematic. The rest just had two expressions in with single dollar signs on each end put next to each other, so there was a double dollar sign in the middle, which is what the search picked up on. $\endgroup$
    – Potato
    Dec 13, 2013 at 0:33
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In the body of a post, this may well be caused by a user not knowing how to adjust a web browser correctly, or a user using a somewhat broken browser. In any case, inappropriate scaling of large amounts of mathematics seems to be a problem that should be edited away whenever possible.

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  • $\begingroup$ For the final answer, it should be $0$ k. $\endgroup$ Dec 13, 2013 at 6:26
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    $\begingroup$ @FelixMarin, I don't understand what you're saying at all. If it is a joke, I don't get it. $\endgroup$
    – dfeuer
    Dec 13, 2013 at 7:10
  • $\begingroup$ It's not a joke. Sometimes, after a long answer it's fine to use color and a little bit font enlargement to emphasize the 'answer main result'. Just the 'final one', not all the answer. $\endgroup$ Dec 13, 2013 at 19:36
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    $\begingroup$ @FelixMarin, "$0$ k" is not normally used to mean "OK", hence my confusion. $\endgroup$
    – dfeuer
    Dec 13, 2013 at 19:43
  • $\begingroup$ Historically (in some version en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_proposed_etymologies_of_OK ) OK was 0 k. as it means 'zero killed' $\endgroup$ Dec 13, 2013 at 19:56

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