22

It may happen that someone asks a question about some work of science fiction. It may be about a character, plot, or even a story-ID question.

What do we do then? Migrate to Science Fiction and Fantasy Stack?

6
  • 3
    Is the supposition that the question in question is off-topic here? If not, migrating on-topic questions is considered a Bad Thing on SE, based on stack blog.
    – DVK
    Commented Jan 18, 2017 at 17:34
  • 3
    I upvoted because, although I think the answer should be clear, this is going to be a valuable discussion to point people to in the future, so it deserves to get attention.
    – Rand al'Thor Mod
    Commented Jan 18, 2017 at 17:56
  • 2
    Also, obligatory snark: read it, what else.
    – DVK
    Commented Jan 18, 2017 at 18:34
  • What might be helpful is giving askers who are aware of both sites a guideline of which one to pick to maximise their chances of getting better answers. I'd imagine if I have a question about the use of a certain plot device in a sci-fi novel, I could get a better answer here, whereas a question about the worldbuilding or other background questions that require deep insight into the larger canon of the work might get better answers on SFF.
    – Martin Ender
    Commented Jan 31, 2017 at 15:04
  • As a new person I can comment only to the point that I did not know about a Science Fiction SE, nor have I looked and the same goes for Fantasy? (is there one? no I have not looked)... At the peril of massive fragmentation and duplication of efforts I'm not sure I have the capacity to participate in them. So IF it becomes important for someone new to not post such things in THIS SE then that should be stated in the description. :)
    – flowerbug
    Commented Apr 21, 2020 at 15:14
  • 1
    @flowerbug the question was concerning this site, and at the time it was asked, there was a significant overlap between the communities of the two websites. It's not about not being allowed to ask SFF questions here, per se, it's about whether we should actively encourage people to ask them over there. The consensus right now is that we shouldn't, as long as the question is on-topic here.
    – Gallifreyan
    Commented Apr 21, 2020 at 16:29

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
34

No. As we do on Movies, we don't dictate which site has "precedence" or "priority" over the other. If someone asks a question here that's On-Topic here, it should stay here, even if it's also On-topic on Sci-Fi.

See the discussion on Movie's Meta, I think it should serve as a good guide for us here as well: What are our thoughts on the practice of using comments to direct users to other SE sites?

4
  • 3
    I think this question is a bit more general than the one about promotional comments you link to.
    – Cahir Mawr Dyffryn æp Ceallach
    Commented Jan 18, 2017 at 17:53
  • What about questions which are on topic here, but are clearly a better fit for sci-fi? For example, one could easily ask an on topic question here about the nature of some fictional technology, but it'd probably be a better fit - and almost certainly attract better answers - if migrated to sci-fi.
    – TheTermiteSociety
    Commented Feb 15, 2017 at 10:34
  • @TheTermiteSociety do you have an example?
    – DForck42
    Commented Feb 15, 2017 at 19:50
  • 1
    @DForck42 Well, I'd say that questions like 'Is there a maximum range for magical spells in Harry Potter?' and 'What are ships powered by in the world of the Hainish Cycle?' are technically on topic here (at least by my understanding), in that they seek to analyse the text in order to find answers to specific questions, but are almost certainly likely to attract better answers if posted to sci-fi.
    – TheTermiteSociety
    Commented Feb 16, 2017 at 13:11
25

  • On-topic questions should not be migrated (possible caveat: unless explicitly requested by question's OP?). Rationale for that is laid out in SE reference on migrations.

  • Offtopic questions of high quality that are on-topic on SciFi.SE should be migrated under the usual migration guidelines and processes.

  • Offtopic questions of low quality should be left alone, per the same reference (the succint if crude formula is, "don't migrate crap"

Reference: What is migration and how does it work? on main Meta.

18

If the question is on topic here, leave it here.

If for some reason we may think the querant will get a better answer there, we may direct them to SFF in a comment, but since the question is still on topic here, there's no reason to migrate.

Besides, as a new beta, we need all the quality questions we can get.

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .