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I've read this: Should marginal, off-topic questions be closed instead of migrated?

However, I've seen several questions get closed as off-topic lately, where I don't believe their quality alone warranted the close; perhaps migration to Programmers would have been more appropriate.

Examples:

I'll admit none of them are really great questions, but they're from relatively new users.

I feel that closing instead of migrating will discourage them from becoming more active / productive on stackoverflow. Should these have been migrated instead?

If not, why is closing more appropriate?

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  • 11
    Because folks on Programmers.SE won't like those questions and they'll get closed anyways. See: Please stop using Programmers.SE as your toilet bowl
    – NullUserException อ_อ
    Commented Dec 4, 2011 at 18:48
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    @robjb - nope. It's too open ended. Where's the problem to be solved?
    – ChrisF Mod
    Commented Dec 4, 2011 at 18:55
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    Why do you think migrating campfire questions is more appropriate than closing them? Hurt feelings?
    – random
    Commented Dec 4, 2011 at 19:53
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    (+1 as I think this very question is legit and I don't understand its downvotes; not because I feel migration would be better than closing.)
    – Arjan
    Commented Dec 4, 2011 at 20:33
  • @robjb - it's a very open ended question. Is it a real problem or an academic exercise?
    – ChrisF Mod
    Commented Dec 4, 2011 at 22:09
  • @Arjan Nothing wrong with upvoting; but on Meta, down votes are different than the main site; they often indicate disagreement with what is being stated. That's the reason for mine, for example. From FAQ
    – Andrew Barber
    Commented Dec 5, 2011 at 12:45
  • I know, @Andrew, but the question did not take any position to vote against, I'd say... (To me, it's a question, not a statement.)
    – Arjan
    Commented Dec 5, 2011 at 12:47
  • @Arjan The question headline did not take a position, true, but the question body did: "I don't believe their quality alone warranted the close; perhaps migration to Programmers would have been more appropriate."
    – Andrew Barber
    Commented Dec 5, 2011 at 12:49
  • Every second question of mine gets closed because of off-topic. Then I have to copy the text and post the exact same question on another site. Now two identically topics exist. Please SE, migrate questions instead of closing them.
    – zomega
    Commented Sep 6, 2022 at 9:12

2 Answers 2

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In general it takes at least 4 votes to migrate a question rather than a simple majority of 3.

This is because there have been a series of bad migrations, not just to Programmers, but to Super User and Server Fault as well.

People need to take the time to check out the current FAQ of the target site before voting to migrate. There's a link right there on the close dialog.

Migrating isn't a right. If the question is off topic on Stack Overflow and you have any doubt over whether it's on topic elsewhere just vote to close as off topic. You can flag the question for a moderator to check and the question can be migrated after it's closed so it's not the end of the world if it's closed as off topic for a while.

As for the specifics:

I'll admit none of them are really great questions, but they're from relatively new users

You've summed it up quite nicely here. Above all the one golden rule of question migration is:

Don't migrate crap

None of the three questions you link to are suitable for Programmers. We have a specific line in the FAQ that states that questions about:

what language you should learn next, including which technology is better

are off topic.

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    Perhaps that bold Don't Migrate Crap could be put on the close->migration dialog. Excellent summary. :)
    – sarnold
    Commented Dec 5, 2011 at 1:43
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People would rather you fail to migrate legitimate questions than that you migrate a non-legitimate question. See my meta question I don't care if a question is closed or migrated. What should I do? for example.

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