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Currently there are "only" 100 users with >3000 reputation, i.e. who can vote to migrate a question. Everyone else (over 15 anyway) can only flag what seem to be "obvious" migration questions (possibly a contentious example, but let's say Home Networking, which consensus indicates is SU material).

So: is it appropriate to be flagging these sort of questions, instead of waiting for someone with enough rep to come along and do it for us?

(Exhibit A and Exhibit B, for example.)

My apologies if this is a dumb question, but "flag for moderator attention" feels like one of those things that deserves a little bit of caution before using; after all, I don't want a hundred serial downvotes from moderators who are sick of false flaggings ;)

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My feeling is that the majority of "low rep" users, especially those below 1K, are unlikely to even be aware that the voting options exist. This feeling is based mainly on my perception that few ever read the FAQ, at least not until they have been prompted to do so a number of times. It therefore makes sense for those users to flag as they see fit. Besides, when you first start 3K seems so distant and long before then you probably want to have a more active role.

I would also be very surprised if any moderators did any serial downvoting, especially for such a (relatively) trivial matter. From what I've seen they are all quite disciplined and well mannered. Moderator rights aren't handed out to just anyone.

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  • +1 nods, the likely hood of a moderator doing anything nasty when a flag was legitimately related to spam or off-topic question seems extremely unlikely. If a person was being excessively annoying you would probably get contacted first.
    – Zoredache
    Commented Aug 11, 2010 at 20:12
  • As a low rep user, I resent that. Some of us can read. I've even heard a few of us have a sense a humor ;)
    – JamesBarnett
    Commented Jan 15, 2011 at 19:50
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I've never had the impression that "flag for moderator attention" is being overused or swamping the mods. Before I got to 3000, I used it whenever I saw a misplaced or spam question, and I still use it now that I can vote to close if it seems obvious to me that the question should be moved or closed.

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I would have flagged the two exhibits above (if I had seen them) as being a better fit for SU. Given the way the site works questions can quickly disappear so flagging them can only be a good thing.

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There might be a case for allowing 3K+ users on the other sites to vote to migrate to that site. So I would be able to vote to migrate to either SO or SU.

However, the cost of coding that logic probably isn't worth the small benefit it would bring.

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  • Ignoring the coding aspect for a moment, I see some real merit in that idea. High rep SO users for instance should be in a pretty good position to determine that a question is more suited to that site. Imagine also if those same users could counter votes by others to move a question that they determine as unsuitable for the move.
    – John Gardeniers
    Commented Aug 12, 2010 at 11:50
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I used to flag moderator attention for migrations at low rep and many people suggested it. 10k users don't see "moderator attention" flags, so someone with real moderator access has more weight on this subject.

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