Math Stack Exchange
Shares rank 12 of 17 discussion forums by recommenders
Free Q&A site where people get help with math problems, and it is seen as more beginner-friendly than MathOverflow. One critic cites unhelpful gatekeeping.
Free Q&A site where people get help with math problems, and it is seen as more beginner-friendly than MathOverflow. One critic cites unhelpful gatekeeping.
7 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 6
- criticize it
- 1
- approval share
- 86%
Recommended in 4 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 6 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 6 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 4 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Helps beginners with specific problems
“Primarily because you could ask about a problem you were struggling with and get help.”
Comment from 26 May 2026 in “Stack Overflow's forum is dead thanks to AI” “math.SE has a (semi-?) explicit mission of being more friendly to beginners than MO”
Comment from 26 May 2026 in “Stack Overflow's forum is dead thanks to AI” Still working well as others decline
“Stack Exchanges that do not have such a bias for time-sensitive information are still going relatively well AFAICT, e.g. math exchange.”
Comment from 29 Oct 2026 in “StackOverflow now gets fewer than 1000 questions a month” “every *Overflow site other than the main one for asking coding questions has been very good to me.”
Comment from 5 Apr 2026 in “StackOverflow: Retiring the Beta Site”
Other discussion forums people recommend
The four most recommended other discussion forums, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hacker News | 361 | 156 | 70% | 12 | 10 yrs17 owners | Approved |
| 261 | 988 | 21% | 13 | 14 yrs54 owners | — | |
| Lobsters | 105 | 31 | 77% | 12 | 10 yrs4 owners | Approved |
| Old Reddit | 60 | 47 | 56% | 12 | — | — |
| Math Stack ExchangeThis page | 6 | 1 | 86% | 4 | — | — |
What people said
6 of the 7 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Stack Exchanges that do not have such a bias for time-sensitive information are still going relatively well AFAICT, e.g. math exchange.”
“the rotten culture of unhelpful gatekeeping at Stack Exchange”
“Primarily because you could ask about a problem you were struggling with and get help.”
“math.SE has a (semi-?) explicit mission of being more friendly to beginners than MO”
“every *Overflow site other than the main one for asking coding questions has been very good to me.”
“I could have enjoyable interactions on the math, Ux, written language, and aviation exchanges”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.