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Now that we're graduating, we're eligible to appear on other sites' migration lists, such as this one (from Stack Overflow):

enter image description here

If we were on this list, it would mean that normal users with close privileges would be able to migrate questions to our site without a moderator involved. Until now, all migrations from other sites have been initiated by a moderator of the other site.

If another site were to propose having us on that list, would we accept? What if it were Stack Overflow, Server Fault, or Super User? Do we have enough resources to handle an influx of migrated questions, with some (or many) of them being pretty bad?

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  • 1
    I proposed a policy for migrated questions: meta.softwarerecs.stackexchange.com/questions/362/…
    – Ira Baxter
    Commented Sep 12, 2015 at 16:07
  • 3
    I seriously think we should allow migrations from Super User - I see a lot of recommendation questions that would be on topic here, I might go further to say that more recommendation questions there are on topic here than not... but I have no stats so no answer from me. :/
    – ᔕᖺᘎᕊ
    Commented Sep 12, 2015 at 17:06
  • 1
    @ᔕᖺᘎᕊ considering out quality guidelines (and arguing based on what I see and Android.SE), in most cases "asking again by sticking to the rules" makes more sense than migrating what we'd count LQ here. Sure, OP could edit then. I prefer to see they take that effort before "the shit gets shoveled over" :)
    – Izzy
    Commented Sep 12, 2015 at 20:18
  • 1
    finally!~~~~~~~~
    – Franck Dernoncourt
    Commented Sep 13, 2015 at 15:28
  • I wanted to ask the same question, but I found this answer that prevented me from asking. We'll really get crappy questions from migration. Can we e.g. prevent them from being downvoted (which they typically are because they are off-topic) before being edited?
    – Thomas Weller
    Commented Sep 13, 2015 at 16:35
  • 3
    Including this SE in the migration list is likely an effective way to educate other moderators and power users about this site. Many don't seem to even know about this SE.
    – Amazon Dies In Darkness Mod
    Commented Sep 14, 2015 at 17:51
  • How do I get this question moved here? stackoverflow.com/questions/26730787/…
    – Nemo
    Commented Oct 11, 2015 at 12:49
  • @Nemo Questions can only be migrated if they're less than 3 months old. Also, that question isn't very high quality. For high quality questions <3mo old, though, flag them with a custom flag asking for a migration here.
    – user46
    Commented Oct 11, 2015 at 14:31
  • @Undo, ok, thanks. What is high quality enough, especially for people looking for a (ready or semi-ready) plugin or extension and similar for their application? I ensure you that's an above average question for that section of SO...
    – Nemo
    Commented Oct 11, 2015 at 15:11
  • @Nemo Above average for SO is pretty terrible, honestly. Questions here have to meet the question quality guidelines.
    – user46
    Commented Oct 11, 2015 at 15:42
  • @Undo it is indeed; sadly it's quite hard to get such questions deleted on SO, migration ought to be easier. The criteria you link were in my eyes satisfied by the linked question (it's a well-defined task on which there is also plenty of literature), but you disagree, so the criteria aren't helpful to determine migration suitability. :)
    – Nemo
    Commented Oct 11, 2015 at 15:49
  • @Undo: s/3 months/2 months/. 60 days is enough to time it out.
    – Nathan Tuggy
    Commented Oct 13, 2015 at 2:56
  • @NathanTuggy Ah, thank you, it's even shorter than I thought.
    – user46
    Commented Oct 13, 2015 at 3:00
  • 1
    I posted a related question on Programmers Meta: Should there be a migration path to Software Recommendations?
    – user6803
    Commented Oct 21, 2015 at 17:24

5 Answers 5

Reset to default
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It'll be a while before we figure out what's best for you (and sites where the path could conceivably exist). It's important to first reiterate:

Migration is chiefly for improving a user's experience, not bucketing.

We don't want to tell people "Oh wow this would be awesome on [site], go ask it there instead" - the polite thing to do is just move it for them. We don't want to migrate questions through the process of cleaning out and organizing filing cabinets; we migrate questions to lessen the risk of losing users that asked great questions in a less-than-optimal place.

With that said ...

Now that you've graduated, a bit of a barrier has been lifted; we strongly suggest that network moderators refrain from migrating questions to beta sites, and you're no longer a beta site.

Let's see how it goes, how many questions come here and from where, and how many are ultimately rejected, edited to fit the rules of this site and answered, or just brought crickets with a pleasant chirping sound.

It's just too soon to say. My best advice is to continue to treat any question that you think could have value as an unexpected guest that dropped by for dinner unannounced, and do your best to serve them as you have.

We're watching, and we'll go from there :)

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  • [Productivity.SE] often has questions for software recommendations, that I looked at as "would be great for Software Recommendations", but that indeed fit there nicely.
    – user416
    Commented Sep 22, 2015 at 13:56
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My own sense is that the anxiety is misplaced. AskUbuntu, AskDifferent, and Unix & Linux each already have tags for software recommendations, so such questions are not off-topic on those sites. The obvious missing OS in that list is Windows, of course, so Windows-related questions may well end up here. is, in any case, already the most popular tag on SoftwareRecs, so no change there.

But I seriously doubt that there will be a lemming-like rush to hurl questions from other SE's into the ocean of SoftwareRecs. Or at least, as Tim Post counselled -- "It's just too soon to say".

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  • You've missed mobile OSs, David. On Android.SE, asking for software recs is off-topic.
    – Izzy
    Commented Sep 23, 2015 at 22:11
  • @Izzy Quite right. Tells you something about my phone inclinations, doesn't it! :)
    – Dɑvïd
    Commented Sep 23, 2015 at 22:21
  • Oh. Yes, one could look at it like that :)
    – Izzy
    Commented Sep 24, 2015 at 5:17
  • Recommendations are also off-topic at Web Apps.
    – ale
    Commented Nov 27, 2015 at 17:17
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I'd decide that on a per-case basis – and in multiple "stages":

First, mods could be encouraged to migrate here if they're at least half-way sure it fits – they could instruct their users utilizing the "flag for mod attention" to indicate candidates.

Having seen how we can cope with that, "smaller" sites (such as Android.SE) could be encouraged taking it into their migration lists for "normal users" to vote. Again, this gives us some time to see if we can handle that.

In a third and last stage, if we still think we can deal with the "storm", we could open that for the "bigger SE sites".

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    I'm waiting when would Android.SE would show a migration to Software Recs option. But still, a lot of the questions we receive there are not up to the mark, the guidelines the community has set here.
    – Firelord
    Commented Sep 12, 2015 at 19:08
  • @Firelord Which is why my "canned comment" on app-questions there only has a "tiny 2-letter-pointer" ("SR"), linking to our quality guidelines. And even that pointer I remove in 50% of the cases. If I feel something really fitting, I "do stage 1" (flagging it for mod attention). Rare cases that.
    – Izzy
    Commented Sep 12, 2015 at 20:16
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Um; I thought like that's kinda the whole point leading to SR being conceived? So that questions "What's the best software for X? [...]", mercilessly closed on StackOverflow, could be migrated here instead and actually not get closed (if they're of good enough quality), and get awesome answers? Is that not so? I'm confused now...

Also, there are actually people who do try to answer those questions on SO (before they get closed), so if they knew this site existed, maybe there's a chance they'd migrate here too?

And, as to the "poor quality" ones, "please improve, or we'll close soon" seems the generic response to any poor quality question on all SE sites, and seems adequate here too, no?

0

No

Reasoning

  • Is it really a software recommendation?
  • Is the asker interested in participating in softwarerecs?
  • Is the question a duplicate on softwarerecs?
  • Will the question be translated into a softwarerecs appropriate format?
  • etc.

None of these questions should be expected to have been answered on offsite questions. So every migrated question means unnecessary moderation.

Solution

If one thinks they've identified a software recommendation offsite, post a comment referencing the softwarerecs help pages. Or add a reference in the close reason.

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