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Very similar to how a comment is automatically posted in Stack Overflow when a question is flagged as a duplicate, I propose we have a similar kind of auto-comment when a question/post on Meta is flagged as Off-topic --> Programming Question.

Why I feel that this should/could be implemented.

These days we are repeatedly seeing so many programming questions being posted on Meta. Every time we encounter such a question, we drop in a comment saying that this is MSO which discusses about SO itself and that they should post their question on SO. And then flag the question for closure with the reason Off-topic --> Programming Question.

Its not a very big deal to type that comment, but wouldn't it be nice if that static, redundant text be posted as a comment automatically once a user flags that question as OT->PQ? That way the question is also flagged and the a comment is also posted to the user to post the question in right site, all in a single event.

And honestly, this seems to be a relatively simple feature to implement (atleast in comparison with the several other ) which could very well save a min or two, for every user posting those redundant comments on such questions.

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    "These days we are repeatedly seeing so many programming questions being posted on Meta" - not quite right. I've been keeping an eye and the flow is steady for as long as I've been watching which is long months. Dev or CM can come with accurate stats, but I am pretty sure he'll just confirm there is no actual rise in the amount of programming questions posted on Meta.
    – Shadow Wizard
    Commented Jan 29, 2014 at 8:25
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    99% of the time, the questions is unsuitable for SO, so an auto comment will not contain the appropriate guidance. More personalized comments telling them why they question is bad before sending them to SO is more appropriate.
    – psubsee2003
    Commented Jan 29, 2014 at 8:30
  • @ShadowWizard - Not sure why but I felt that the no. of such questions have increased a bit. It may be because am not logged in the whole time, but from the time I've spent on Meta, I felt so. May be you're right that its been constant, but its just that I felt otherwise and thought that it would be a small nice feature to have(I didn't know about the MSO-MSE split tho') :)
    – Rahul
    Commented Jan 29, 2014 at 8:55

1 Answer 1

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I don't really see this as all-that-necessary. I used to post comments, but:

  1. It gets really old. Although for me, specifically, the information will be immediately available to them when I close (and delete) the question, via the close reason.

  2. I doubt most of them actually read the comment. From my experience, most users who end up replying ignore the comment and continue asking for help in the comments.

  3. A lot of them that come here already know they're not supposed to be posting it here. They came here because they're question-banned on Stack Overflow. They skimmed over a message talking about the question-ban, ended up here, and just assumed this was another forum. They already had the chance to read everything, and they ignored it, so I refer you to point #2.

  4. When they inevitably get suspended for asking programming questions here, they'll get a nice message explaining that this is not the place for that.

  5. Once Meta Stack Exchange splits off, Meta Stack Overflow will become a normal Meta site, where you'd need at least 5 reputation in order to post anyways - that would cut out a vast majority of the inappropriate postings right off the bat, rendering this feature completely useless.

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    Point no. 5 comes to me as a surprise, as I never knew that there were plans to split off the Meta sites network-wide. Well that's one very good reason why this shouldn't be implemented, but the other reasons can be debated on, as I've seen a programming question not get closed for even 1-2 hours. And there are so many new users just posting them here, partially because of the ban and partially because of not knowing the right site. Also, why wait till you get 5 votes to close, when a single flag could tell the user about. That's what I feel.
    – Rahul
    Commented Jan 29, 2014 at 8:00
  • @R.J Stack Overflow is getting a place of its own
    – animuson StaffMod
    Commented Jan 29, 2014 at 8:02

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