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Lately we've been having a lot of questions that would be better suited over at AskDifferent or Unix & Linux. However, there is no option to migrate them there in the off-topic section, so we just close them as off topic without further ado.

Current Situation

Couldn't this be changed?

4 Answers 4

Reset to default
5

DBA and L&U's migration stats have benefited from one or two users each who regularly flag for migration to those places. When dealing with mod-flags from the under-3K set saying "Go to SU" I myself will evaluate if it should actually go to U&L, AU, or Apple.

A couple times recently we've had more daily migrations to non-SU places than SU, which is interesting. I've heard that SU itself has had some trouble with overlapping scope as new SE sites spawn. They already had an active Apple community when apple.se came out, same for desktop oriented Ubuntu. Those sorts of questions are still topical there as I understand (and if any SU mods drop by, please let us know), even if there are SE sites that cover them.

Personally I feed questions to the smaller sites to give them a leg up as it were, SU has enough inbound from SO as it is.

7

I believe that the powers that be at Stack Exchange have said that they will only add a vote-to-migrate option if there is substantial evidence in favour of it.

So what I suggest, is that if possible, you collect a list of all the questions over the past few months that you believe should have been (or were) migrated, and then present them here on Meta and let the SE staff make a decision based on the raw numbers.

Here are some basic stats on the actual migrations over the last 90 days. Items in italics are vote-to-migration options that regular users have:

  • Super User: 62%
  • Stack Overflow: 12%
  • Webmasters: 5%
  • DBA: 4%
  • Unix & Linux: 3%
  • Apple: 3%
  • Ask Ubuntu: 2%
  • Meta Server Fault: 1%
  • Wordpress: <1%
  • Web Apps: <1%
  • IT Security: <1%
  • Programmers: <1%
  • Android: <1%
  • meta.stackoverflow: <1%

So based on that, it actually looks like DBA would be the next target - however, 80% of migrations are doable with the current migration paths, so I think it would be a hard press to get them to add another path.

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  • +1 Can't find the reference right now but they've said the VTC Migrate screen will always have Meta + the 3 most popular migration destinations in recent history. It's not automatic however, so requests are heard.
    – Chris S
    Commented Aug 31, 2011 at 18:33
  • 2
    The problem with that is it relies on people diving in and flagging - I think stuff is more likely to wind up closed (OT) as it's a path of lower resistance :) It also might be interesting (and maybe more effective) to rebalance those stats over the last (e.g.) 30 days, especially if that's a "for all time" tally...
    – voretaq7
    Commented Nov 16, 2011 at 22:29
4

Moderators are able to migrate a question to any site so if you need to migrate to a different site not list, flag it for moderator attention.

1
  • Sure, but wouldn't it be easier if we could vote on it? Now, 80% of the votes will go towards closing.
    – Bart De Vos
    Commented Aug 31, 2011 at 8:47
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I can't find it now ( I have no mSO fu) but I'm sure I read somewhere that the number would not be expanded for practicality reasons.

The power of 10k+Mod tools brings you the 90 day migration statistics

Superuser       398 
Stackoverflow    78 
Webmasters       37 
Dba              30 
U&L              23 
Apple            21 
Askubuntu        16 
MetaSF            8 
Wordpress         6 
Webapps           6 
Security          4 
Android           2 
Programmers       2
MetaSO            1

The migration list is an accurate reflection of our outward migration habits, although dba is only recently out of beta and may overtake webmasters in the near future. It's always possible to flag a question and ask a mod to move it.

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