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There was a question today which considering its subject belongs to StackOverflow, however in its current form it would be immediately closed there.

In such cases is it better to:

  • flag/close as "belongs to StackOverflow"
  • flag/close as "does not seem to be about security as defined in guidelines"

Does it really matter?

Do five votes (or majority of votes) on "belongs to ..." immediately trigger the question migration procedure?

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Please vote to close (or not) based on the question in its current form.

This is especially important with migrations (“belongs on …”), because having a question migrated then closed is a far worse experience than closed on-site. When a question is migrated from site A to site B, it is closed and locked on site A and created open on site B. If site B closes the question then it is locked on site B and unlocked, but still closed on site A. Edits and comments made on site B are effectively lost (you can find them if you dig but they aren't visible on site A).

If you think a question would be suitable on another site after an edit, make the edit first, then vote to migrate. If you think a question could be suitable on another site but it requires an edit from the asker, vote to close without migration, and leave a comment like “your question is off-topic here because … and also lacks …. I suggest that you clarify … and then repost on ….”

  • Rather than reposting the question on another site I think it would be better to edit the original question and then migrate. But unfortunately migration of an already closed question can only be done by a moderator. – kasperd Aug 22 '16 at 21:58
  • @kasperd Unless there are answers worth preserving, it's better not to migrate. Migration isn't seamless, especially when the question gets closed on the target site. If the question gets closed, the asker should repost on the correct site. – Gilles Aug 22 '16 at 22:06
  • If the question in its original form was good enough to be reposted on another site, then it should just have been migrated in the first place. The problem is questions which need to be improved before they are suitable to be migrated. If the poster is told to improve the question and repost on another site, you can expect the majority to repost the question without any improvements. At least a migration wouldn't happen until the question has actually been improved. – kasperd Aug 22 '16 at 22:12

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