Some of my colleagues have worked very hard to build up a Materials Matter Modeling Stack Exchange forum, currently in beta. They need more contributors to graduate to a full-fledged forum, so I encourage anyone reading this to join at materials.stackexchange.com (you will have to create an account to join the private beta, but it’s super easy). Much of the discussion is currently on computational chemistry methods like DFT, but the admins are actively seeking more physics content to differentiate themselves from existing Stack Exchange forums.

I suppose some context is in order. Stack Exchange is a family questions-and-answers in various (usually technical) fields like physics, LaTeX, and programming, but also in non-technical subjects like academia or the Chinese language. You’ve almost certainly come across some of the answers on Stack Exchange (because they are often in the top google search hits). What separates Stack Exchange from other formats is that the rules and structure encourage thoughtful questions and generous, non-snarky answers. Users earn reputation for making positive contributions to the community (both in the form of good questions and good answers), and as a result, it’s one of the nicest places on the internet.

I’ve been posting on several Stack Exchange forums for the past couple months (mostly the physics one) and I’ve really enjoyed it. It’s a great way to use my knowledge to help others and to practice explaining complex ideas to various audiences. Seeing the other answers and engaging in the debate can also be fun! I post under a psuedonym although I suspect that my friends would not have too much trouble figuring out who I am.

Edit 2020-06-29: the name of the forum has been changed to Matter Modeling (from Materials Modeling) but everything else is the same.