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This question came about because I (and fleablood) posted what I thought was a good answer to the question. But then I got a comment saying I shouldn't have posted my answer because it is against site policy/EoQS. The question was of the type, "here's my proof. Is it correct?", and the user appeared to be self-learning.

Now, see Xander Henderson's answer to this question.

"if you are self-learning, there are other, more "social" sites out there where you can get help (including the Mathematics chat room here!)."

I would have thought that math.se is the best or "go-to" site for such questions (although apparently this is not the case), so it's not surprising that new users also think this is the "go-to" site for such questions.

For new users who are self-learning, I want to be able to comment on their question the quoted text above, although I want to be more helpful and suggest specific sites. So my question is, other than the chat room on this site, what are some other more "social" sites out there which welcome users asking for their proofs to be reviewed?

ChatGPT is not a bad option, but it isn't always great.

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    $\begingroup$ This is a good question. It's always more effective to offer alternatives when criticizing a behavior. $\endgroup$ Commented Nov 5, 2025 at 16:53
  • $\begingroup$ Have seen people go here occasionally. $\endgroup$ Commented Nov 6, 2025 at 2:52
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    $\begingroup$ Somebody familiar with reddit might be able to tell whether some of the math-related subreddits are suitable. And you could also have a look at some older discussions here on meta: math.meta.stackexchange.com/q/16451, math.meta.stackexchange.com/q/35782, math.meta.stackexchange.com/q/34331 or math.meta.stackexchange.com/q/25878. (Each of them has some further links in answers or in comments.) $\endgroup$ Commented Nov 6, 2025 at 7:29
  • $\begingroup$ And you can have a look also at the suggestions from MO.meta: My question was closed on MO because it is not research level. Where should I ask instead? (Having said that, all of these have been posted some time ago, they might be partially outdated.) $\endgroup$ Commented Nov 6, 2025 at 7:32
  • $\begingroup$ Re: "it's not surprising that new users also think this is the "go-to" site for such questions". Newbies often infer site policy from actions of more experienced users. But many experienced users keep ignoring site policy and answering off-topic SVs - as you and few others did in said thread (avg, 71K rep so very experienced users). This encouraged the OP to ask a couple more off-topic SV questions. I've lost count of how many times I've encountered similar instances of this. We need to do a better job of educating experienced users on site policy (and enforcing it if need be) $\endgroup$ Commented Nov 6, 2025 at 18:21
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    $\begingroup$ @BillDubuque When a user who is clearly not doing homework asks if they have made a mistake in their proof, this seems to me like a suitable question for this site, particularly if the problem is new to the site, and so long as the user also includes the "alternative-solutions" tag, then people can post alternative solutions as well as criticise the proof, so OP's thread could be the "go-to" question for that problem. If the only thing OP has to do to change their question from being one that goes against site policy to one that abides by site policy is to randomly pick a step in their... $\endgroup$ Commented Nov 6, 2025 at 23:49
  • $\begingroup$ ... proof and say "Is step [insert randomly chosen step] correct?", rather than say "is my proof correct?", (and the answer to either question would be the same), then surely this aspect (i.e. closing questions with "solution verification" when the proof validation request is not homework) of this particular site policy is pedantic/contrived/pointless...? I do try to abide by site policies to the best of my ability, but I sometimes struggle to do so when I fail to see the purpose of this site policy in this specific scenario. $\endgroup$ Commented Nov 6, 2025 at 23:49
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    $\begingroup$ This is not the correct thread to debate SV policy. Almost all SVs are dupes, and leaving them open usually generates many dupe answers, and many "alternative solution" dupes. Duplication is one of the biggest problems the site faces, since rampant duplication make searching for (best) answers difficult if not impossible - severely impeding the primary purpose of the site (an easily searchable library of excellent Q&As). $\endgroup$ Commented Nov 7, 2025 at 0:14
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    $\begingroup$ To massage it to be on-topic the OP needs to do much more than "randomly pick a step". They need to convert it into an on-topic question localized to a specific step, and explain what is in doubt, and why so. $\endgroup$ Commented Nov 7, 2025 at 0:14
  • $\begingroup$ With regards to your first comment: I agree somewhat with what you are saying, but what if it's not a duplicate question. And w.r.t your second comment: fair enough. My first reaction was, "this means there will be many different questions about different steps of the same proof." But I guess your point would be then that this is fine: multiple questions, each one focusing on different steps of a proof, serves a purpose to different people. $\endgroup$ Commented Nov 7, 2025 at 0:54
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    $\begingroup$ Recently someone had made a similar argument elsewhere about how some opinion-based questions should be accepted here because the experts here give far better answers than elsewhere. It all points to the same thing : this site is overloaded. The experts elsewhere are very few in number and/or simply unreachable (e.g. behind a paywall). I'm baffled that we're the "best" at something that isn't even our focus, given how diverse the internet is. $\endgroup$ Commented Nov 7, 2025 at 9:13
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    $\begingroup$ I don't do much with ChatGPT, but is it actually a not bad but not great option? My impression is that ChatGPT is likely to tell you "yes, that's a valid proof" regardless of what you give it. And that it's likely to give you subtilely incorrect proofs to statements that may be true or false. $\endgroup$ Commented Nov 9, 2025 at 19:47
  • $\begingroup$ @Teepeemm It depends. For verifying "easy" or well-known/standard proofs, it is usually pretty good. For proof attempts which are medium-to-difficult in complexity, it's understanding of what is going on varies (it's understanding is sometimes good, sometimes bad). $\endgroup$ Commented Nov 9, 2025 at 23:27
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    $\begingroup$ @mezzoctane the fact that it answered one question incorrectly doesn't make it "generally unreliable". I would say that out of the advanced maths questions I ask it, it gets the question correct around 80% of the time, whereas chatGPT version 4 was closer to 40% of the time. So yes it is not perfect, and I would never take it's answer as gospel, especially for advanced maths questions, but when used in the right way, it can be a really useful tool, especially compared to a year ago. $\endgroup$ Commented Nov 11, 2025 at 9:21
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    $\begingroup$ Check math discord $\endgroup$ Commented Nov 12, 2025 at 11:22

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not doing AoPS promotion

I think Art of Problem Solving (AoPS) can be a good alternative platform. Although most users there come from a contest-math background, they still have a solid foundation in mathematics. It’s especially useful for high school and undergraduate students. While you might not always find people to answer every type of question, the community is active and curious—so whether your question gets answered often depends on whether someone finds it interesting.

what I found good about AoPS

  1. AoPS hosts a huge community of math enthusiasts. While many are focused on contest mathematics, they’re generally skilled enough to help with a broad range of mathematical questions.(highschool to undergraduate primarily though)

  2. (Personal favourite) There’s virtually no strict moderation about the kinds of questions you can ask. Even the most trivial or unusual questions are allowed and remain visible indefinitely—so there’s no risk of your post being closed or removed.

  3. It's a pretty comfortable place unlike reddit or Quora where I have seen people post math problems and also reddit and quora are not math centered sites like Math SE or AoPS, answers given by users there have to be checked thoroughly.

EDIT-(11th November 2025)

Some not so great thing about AoPS

  1. While AoPS has many talented problem solvers, there’s still a noticeable gap between AoPS and Math Stack Exchange (MSE). The scope of AoPS remains narrower, which makes sense considering it was never designed to be a platform for “Q&A for people studying math at any level and professionals in related fields” like MSE is.

  2. Although AoPS is overwhelmingly focused on mathematics (about 99% of the time), the remaining 1% can include virtually anything—some users even treat it like a social media site. That said, this doesn’t really matter unless you happen to stumble across those threads while browsing. It's not as serious as Math SE.

  3. Most users on AoPS are high school students/undergraduates who are still actively learning and developing their mathematical skills. In contrast, many high-reputation users on Math Stack Exchange have years of experience and a deep problem-solving intuition. This naturally creates a noticeable difference in the quality, depth, and maturity of discussions and solutions between the two platforms.

We are the best!..no seriously we are ofcourse, As Sarvesh commented,

“The experts here give far better answers than elsewhere. It all points to the same thing: this site is overloaded. The experts elsewhere are very few in number and/or simply unreachable (e.g., behind a paywall). I’m baffled that we’re the best at something that isn’t even our focus, given how diverse the internet is.”

In short, Math Stack Exchange has become the best place to ask mathematical questions—not because that was its intended purpose, but because of the consistent quality and accessibility of its experts but ofcourse it won't be harmful considering AoPS as an option at worst the post will get ignored, which is like fine.

$\rlap \smile {\dot{}\dot{}}$

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    $\begingroup$ Nice thoughtful review of the site. Thanks! $\endgroup$ Commented Nov 6, 2025 at 15:03
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    $\begingroup$ Thanks for the post, it's very important to recognize that AoPS is under the radar on multiple matters. I agree you're not doing their promotion, but I'd like to see some downsides as well. For instance, do the things you need to do to get attention here and at AoPS differ significantly? What if the site receives such requests "at scale" like MSE does : what would their response be? Nevertheless, I'd happily welcome some of these questions being redirected there; it'd be a win-win-win for both sites and the person getting their proof checked. $\endgroup$ Commented Nov 7, 2025 at 4:16
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    $\begingroup$ @SarveshRavichandranIyer yeah I will update it but i think I will need some time to think about it. $\endgroup$ Commented Nov 7, 2025 at 5:28
  • $\begingroup$ @SarveshRavichandranIyer I have added it $\endgroup$ Commented Nov 11, 2025 at 16:59
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    $\begingroup$ @T﹏T Thanks! I think AoPS needs more popularization. This site benefitted from some organic exposure around the time of inception, thanks to StackOverflow being excessively popular. AoPS is somewhat of the same age but its forum still feels invisible. This post will help popularize it on this website, which is great. $\endgroup$ Commented Nov 12, 2025 at 4:22

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