Help Center

Gatherin is a free platform where anyone can create or join spaces — community forums dedicated to a topic, project, or group. Think of a space as your own forum: you set the subject, choose the format, and invite people.

Spaces support two forum formats:

• Q&A — a question-and-answer forum where answers can be marked as accepted and rise to the top by votes
• Discussion — an open-ended discussion forum for conversations and announcements

Each question or topic includes a title, a body (supporting full Markdown and math), a category, and tags. Members can post answers or replies, and leave comments on any post.

Click Sign up on the home page. Enter your email and a password, then verify your email address using the link we send you. Once verified you can start using Gatherin right away.

Check your spam or junk folder first. If it's not there, you can request a new verification link from the login screen. If problems persist, contact us at [email protected].

On the login page, click Forgot password. Enter the email address linked to your account and we'll send you a reset link.

Creating a space is how you create your own forum on Gatherin — and it's completely free. From the homepage or the dashboard, click Create Space. Choose a name, pick a format (Q&A or Discussion), and visibility (Public or Hidden). You automatically become the owner or space host.

Public spaces are visible to anyone on the internet. Anyone can search for and view content in public spaces.

Hidden spaces are not listed in search results. Only people with the link can access the space.

Go to the home page, search for a public space, then go to the space home and click Join. For hidden spaces, you cannot search and need the link from a space member or someone with the link to join.

Yes. When creating a space, choose Hidden visibility. Hidden spaces do not appear in search results — only people who have the direct URL can find and join the space. This gives you full control over who can access it.

Visibility changes cannot be made directly from the space settings. To request a change, contact us at [email protected] with your space name and the visibility you want. We will review and process the request on your behalf.

There is one important caveat: search engine indexing cannot be reversed. If a space was public at any point, search engines such as Google may have already indexed its content. Even after the space is changed to hidden, those cached pages may remain discoverable in search results for an indeterminate period. We have no control over what third-party search engines have already crawled and stored.

Space moderators can create categories to organise content into topics. When posting a question or thread, members can select the relevant category to make it easier for others to browse and filter.

A Q&A space is built around three types of content:

• Questions — a post with a title, a body (supporting full Markdown and math), a category, and up to 5 tags. Any member can ask a question.
• Answers — responses to a question. Any member can post an answer; answers also support full Markdown and math.
• Comments — short notes attached to either the question or an individual answer. Comments are plain text and are meant for clarification, not extended discussion.

Members can upvote or downvote both questions and answers. Votes signal quality to the community — highly-voted answers appear higher when sorted by votes.

The question author (or a space moderator) can mark one answer as the accepted answer. An accepted answer is highlighted with a green checkmark. It signals to others that the question has been resolved.

Question list — three sort options are available at the top of a Q&A space:

• Newest — most recently posted questions first
• Most Voted — questions with the highest vote score first
• Unanswered — questions that have no answers yet

Answers — inside an open question you can switch how answers are ordered:

• Votes (default) — Accepted answer first, then highest-voted answers
• Time — most recently posted answers first

Tags are short labels that categorise a question, for example calculus python beginner. They make it easier for others to find relevant content.

• When asking a question, type into the tag field and select from the existing tags or create a new one.
• You can browse all questions for a tag by clicking it anywhere in the space.

A Discussion space is built around three types of content:

• Topics — an opening post with a title, a body (supporting full Markdown and math), a category, and up to 5 tags. Any member can start a topic.
• Replies — threaded responses to a topic. Replies also support Markdown and math, and the author can edit or delete their own reply.
• Comments — short plain-text notes attached to a topic or an individual reply, useful for quick reactions or clarifications.

Members can like topics and individual replies. Unlike Q&A, there is no downvote in Discussion spaces — likes are purely a positive signal.

Topic list — two sort options at the top of a Discussion space:

• Recent Activity (default) — topics with the most recent reply or edit appear first, keeping active conversations visible
• Newest — topics ordered strictly by when they were created

Replies — inside an open topic you can switch reply order:

• Time (default) — oldest reply first, following the thread chronologically
• Most Liked — highest-liked replies first

Tags work the same way as in Q&A spaces. When creating a topic, select from the existing tags or create a new one. Tags like announcement feedback idea help members filter discussions by theme. Click any tag to see all topics with that tag.

Yes. The body of questions, answers, topics, and replies all support Markdown. You can use:

• **bold** and *italic* text
• `inline code` and fenced code blocks with syntax highlighting
• Headings, bullet lists, numbered lists, and blockquotes
• Links and horizontal rules

Comments are plain text only and do not support Markdown.

See the Markdown & Math reference page for a full syntax guide with rendered examples.

Yes. Gatherin uses KaTeX to render LaTeX math expressions:

• Inline math — wrap your expression in single dollar signs: $E = mc^2$
• Display math (block, centred) — wrap in double dollar signs: $$\int_0^\infty e^{-x^2}\,dx$$

Math is supported in question bodies, answers, topic bodies, and replies. It is not available in comments.

See the Markdown & Math reference page for more examples.

Click the ⋯ menu on any post or comment and select Report. Choose a reason and add any additional context. The space moderators will review your report.

You will receive a notification with the reason your post was removed. If you believe it was removed in error, reach out to the space moderator through the space, or contact us at [email protected] for platform-level issues.

Go to your space and open Manage Categories from the space settings. From there you can:

• Add a new category by entering a name and optionally picking an emoji icon from the picker or copy the emoji from elsewhere like regular text
• Rename any existing category inline
• Change the icon by clicking the emoji button next to a category — you can browse by group or type to search
• Reorder categories by dragging them into the order you want — the order is reflected in the sidebar for all members
• Delete you can only delete a category if it has no posts/questions

A space can have up to 12 categories.

You can link up to 3 related spaces to your space through the Space About page. Linked spaces help members discover communities on similar topics.

• On desktop, linked spaces appear in the right panel next to the main content area
• On mobile, they are shown inside the Space About tab

To manage linked spaces, go to the Space About page and click Manage Related Spaces. You can search for spaces by name or paste a space URL, add them as pending, then apply all additions at once. You can also remove or reorder linked spaces from the same dialog.

Reputation is a score that reflects your overall contribution to Gatherin across all public spaces. It is calculated from five criteria, each multiplied by a weight set by the platform:

• Likes Received — likes on your topics and replies in Discussion spaces
• Topics Created — questions and topics you have posted
• Replies Posted — answers and replies you have contributed
• Accepted Answers — answers that were marked as accepted by the question author or a moderator
• Members in Hosted Spaces — the total number of members across spaces you own

Your current reputation score and a breakdown by criterion are visible on your profile under the Statistics tab.

Achievements are milestone awards earned when a criterion reaches certain thresholds. Each achievement has five tiers — Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, and Diamond — awarded as your numbers grow. Earned tiers are shown as filled stars ★ on your profile; locked tiers are shown as empty stars. Hover over a star to see the threshold required.

Click on any username inside a space to open their profile. Their reputation score and achievements are visible under the Statistics tab.

Yes. When you join a space, you can choose to use your default account name or set a custom display name just for that space. Other members in the space will see only the name you chose for it, not your account name.

This is useful if you want to participate with a different identity in different communities — for example, a professional name in a work space and a username in a hobby space.

Note that the different name is not to hide you in other spaces; it is possible that your account name may still be discoverable in other spaces.

Go to your profile by clicking your name or avatar in the top bar. From there you can upload a new avatar.

From your profile settings, go to Change password. You'll need to enter your current password before setting a new one.

Go to your profile and open the Activity tab. Because activity is organized by space, you'll first pick a space from the list, then browse three tabs:

• Questions / Posts — content you have posted as the topic author
• Answers / Replies — your answers in Q&A spaces or replies in Discussion spaces
• Comments — short comments you have left on questions, answers, topics, or replies

Results are paginated. You can also view another member's activity by opening their profile from inside a space — their activity will be scoped to that space automatically.

Yes. Contact us at [email protected] with your account email and we will process your deletion request within 30 days.