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There has been some recent concerns about MathOverflow's relationship with StackExchange: see

Suppose MO were to decide to sever the relationship (not that I am advocating it at the present), how far away are we from having a replacement?

Finding hosting and DNS service will cost some money, but is relatively benign as problems go. But what about the backend software? Our agreement (a copy is posted here) states in Section 7 that

Subject to Section 8, should MathOverflow wish to migrate its data outside of the Stack Exchange network, Stack Exchange shall, within thirty (30) days of receipt of a written request from MathOverflow, provide MathOverflow with a complete and current database that contains all the data necessary to recreate MathOverflow on MathOverflow's own servers and software. Following such transfer, StackExchange will cease all use of the MathOverflow database.

Do we know what said database would look like? Is there already software compatible with serving based on that database, or is that something that will require development?

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    $\begingroup$ I would expect the database to be in a form similar to the existing periodic data dumps at archive.org/details/stackexchange (not that I have any idea what those looks like inside). Concerning software, see meta.stackexchange.com/q/2267 . Importing the Stack Exchange data dumps can’t be that difficult, as witnessed by writing.codidact.com (which, however, apparently runs on some sort of temporary software). $\endgroup$
    – Emil Jeřábek
    Commented Jan 16, 2020 at 16:49
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    $\begingroup$ PhysicsOverflow has a setup that's reasonably close to MO. It runs on the Question2Answer software. It was in part set up a kind of exodus from physics.stackexchange $\endgroup$
    – David Roberts Mod
    Commented Jan 18, 2020 at 8:11
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    $\begingroup$ Maybe it's fixable with better CSS, but I find PhysicsOverflow's design to be incredibly ugly. $\endgroup$
    – mme
    Commented Jan 22, 2020 at 15:46
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    $\begingroup$ Codidact was born of a previous mass exodus from SE and has some experience with migrating data from SE to their software platform, QPixel. $\endgroup$
    – Peter Taylor
    Commented Jun 6, 2023 at 7:28
  • $\begingroup$ one more step away from "a library for the common good" --- meta.stackexchange.com/q/403002/260547 --- why not move MO to Codidact? $\endgroup$
    – Carlo Beenakker
    Commented Sep 23 at 12:28

3 Answers 3

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Converted from a comment:

Codidact was born of a previous mass exodus from SE and has some experience with migrating data from SE to their software platform, QPixel.

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    $\begingroup$ If this turns out to be something that needs to be a real option, we should be mindful that there is already a mathematics community on Codidact. I haven't seen enough it yet to say anything informative $\endgroup$
    – David Roberts Mod
    Commented Jun 7, 2023 at 9:00
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    $\begingroup$ @DavidRoberts: That community appears to be similar to Math Stack Exchange, which means that it should not be a problem. $\endgroup$
    – Moishe Kohan
    Commented Jun 7, 2023 at 15:02
  • $\begingroup$ @DavidRoberts, (1) as Moishe Kohan says, it's more a competitor to MSE than to MO; (2) the software platform can in principle be used independently of the network, and I believe there are existing instances of QPixel being used separately from Codidact. $\endgroup$
    – Peter Taylor
    Commented Jun 7, 2023 at 15:56
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    $\begingroup$ Hi. I'm a member of the Codidact team. We're happy to discuss options with you if y'all want, either joining our hosted network or setting up your own like these folks did. I wouldn't want to use SE's platform for that, but you can post on our Meta, ping us in Discord, or email us (info at codidact dot org). $\endgroup$
    – Monica Cellio
    Commented Jun 9, 2023 at 0:28
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    $\begingroup$ @Monica thanks for that. $\endgroup$
    – David Roberts Mod
    Commented Jun 11, 2023 at 11:39
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Converted from a comment:

I would expect the database to be in a form similar to the existing periodic data dumps at https://archive.org/details/stackexchange (not that I have any idea what those looks like inside). Concerning software, see Are there any clones/alternatives for running a Stack Exchange style Q&A site? . Importing the Stack Exchange data dumps can’t be that difficult, as witnessed by https://writing.codidact.com (which, however, apparently runs on some sort of temporary software).

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Converted from a comment:

PhysicsOverflow has a setup that's reasonably close to MO. It runs on the Question2Answer software. It was in part set up a kind of exodus from physics.stackexchange

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