User:Charles R Greathouse IV/Keywords/aesthetic

Certain keywords in the OEIS are essentially subjective. They may be useful when browsing sequences but tastes vary. Generally they can be considered as a consensus opinion on the aesthetics of the sequence.

These keywords may be used in determining the order of search results (though as of 2017 they are not so used).

Nice

Perhaps the most sought-after keyword, a sequence is declared nice when it is thought to be both a sequence of intrinsic interest and one which is well-presented in the OEIS.

By convention, authors do not mark their own sequences as nice but rely on others to propose it. Usually at least two editors must approve. There are alternate approaches; for example, the OEIS has occasionally run competitions in which sequences chosen by popular decision receive this keyword (and sometimes prizes as well).

Look

This keyword is similar to nice but denotes in particular a sequence with an appealing graph. If features are obscured by the size of the automatically generated graph (too small or large), a suitable illustration should be uploaded to showcase them.

Hear

Similar to nice but denoting a sequence generating a pleasant sound when played. Information on what options to select may be added to the sequence as appropriate.

Less

A keyword suggesting that a sequence is less-interesting, or less likely to be the one you are searching for. Large collections of sequences obtained by varying one or more parameters often qualify: "Less means we have enough of this kind of sequence", according to Neil Sloane, [1], posting to SeqFan on Sep 17 2015. These sequences may fall into the category Alonso del Arte refers to as Not interesting but maybe should be in the OEIS.

Dumb

This keyword is now rarely used, in favor of the less pejorative keyword:less. However it does have a distinct purpose: to mark sequences which are considered fundamentally nonmathematical. This could be because there is no apparent sensible interpretation (A001355, "Mix digits of pi and e") or because the topic has nothing to do with mathematics (A082390, "Numbers on a computer numpad, read in a clockwise spiral").