# Stack Exchange 14 Hacker News commenters recommended Stack Exchange and 24 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 7 of 13 months; owners who said how long report a median of 15 years (4 owners). **Verdict:** People recommend the niche Stack Exchange sites for reliable, terse answers from knowledgeable communities. Critics say heavy closing and deletionism make it hostile and hard for newcomers to join. ## Why people recommend it - Strong niche communities with good answers (6 comments): "There are wonderful sutes in the SE network where you get great answers from very helpful people." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48285657)) "While I generally agree with the narrative of the negative arc that stack overflow took" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46483207)) "Stack Exchange sites such as cooking or latex (and other niche ones) work very well." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47054352)) - Reliable, high-quality answers (4 comments): "There are wonderful sutes in the SE network where you get great answers from very helpful people." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48285657)) "I saw it as a way to ensure the site remained valuable as a place for high quality answers." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48960012)) "you get good, terse, sensible answers there." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46099762)) - Searchable Q&A format, well known (2 comments): "It's still formatted as Q&A so people with the same question can find it" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46628115)) "Stack Exchange and ServerFault were universally known in the industry." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49990242)) ## What people warn about - Heavy closing and deletionism (5 comments): "I've never understood why so many questions on Exhange need to be closed for minor deviations of moderator norms" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50041862)) "It's the deletionism that effectively ended my participation in stack exchange networks." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48070729)) "Stack Exchange tends to shut down product recommendation questions" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49302173)) - Hostile, toxic community (4 comments): "my account and the entire IP of my office had been banned & blocked from entier Stack Exchange network" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50310829)) "StackExchange sites have always been among the most hostile communities on the Internet." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48695930)) "the Stack Exchange metaphor seemed to draw those kind of people like moth to flame" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50283088)) - Hard to break into (2 comments): "StackExchange had ridiculously high barriers to participation, making it inclusive to the long-time users on the site, but exclusive to the newbie participants" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48960367)) "This has bootstrapping issues, is hard to break into the community, and risks creating moderator cliques." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48182242)) - Users banned by automated flags (2 comments): "my account and the entire IP of my office had been banned & blocked from entier Stack Exchange network" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50310829)) "On both SO and SE their hunter bots immediately flagged me for doing this" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46333961)) ## Alternatives hackers recommend - [Lobsters](https://hackerapproved.com/p/lobsters.md): 105 recommend - [LessWrong](https://hackerapproved.com/p/lesswrong.md): 14 recommend - [Math Stack Exchange](https://hackerapproved.com/p/math-stack-exchange.md): 6 recommend - [AskHistorians](https://hackerapproved.com/p/askhistorians-subreddit.md): 5 recommend - [Cloudy Nights](https://hackerapproved.com/p/cloudy-nights.md): 5 recommend ## Where to get it - [Visit the official site](https://stackexchange.com/) ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "Stack Exchange", https://hackerapproved.com/p/stack-exchange/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).