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Over on Network Engineering, we close a lot of questions as off-topic and feel they belong on this stack.

I've asked a parallel question over on NE's Meta too.

SE guidelines are to NOT migrate questions unless there are comment or answers worth preserving. However, this creates some push back from very new stack users. I'm wondering if we (the two stacks) could come to an informal understanding that it's generally ok for us (the NE stack mods) to just migrate 'naked' questions?

...and of course, if that turns out to be a nuisance (eg, the mods here find they're mostly closing what we migrate) then we (NE) would stop.

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  • 3
    Where are you reading the guidelines to not migrate unanswered questions?
    – random Mod
    Commented May 5, 2016 at 17:59
  • 4
    I agree with nhinkle below. Whether it's unanswered doesn't really matter, all that is important is the golden rule of question migrations.
    – Mokubai Mod
    Commented May 5, 2016 at 19:28
  • Can you give us some examples (at least 10) of specific high quality questions that are not on topic over at NE.SE but might be on topic here at Superuser? We really don't want your dirty laundry, we will return to sender, faster then USPS can spend their yearly budget.
    – Ramhound
    Commented May 5, 2016 at 19:35
  • Anything involving home use, or consumer grade equipment is off-topic at NE. So there's a wide field of things people ask, which is immediately off-topic. I certainly don't have 10, high quality, examples readily at hand.
    – Craig Constantine
    Commented May 5, 2016 at 19:54
  • @CraigConstantine - That is alright. I found 9 low-quality examples, you closed, and left a comment on. I got tired of waiting, which was about 2 minutes after I asked for it, but I made the decsion to research what you might come back with.
    – Ramhound
    Commented May 5, 2016 at 20:04
  • you asked me for high quality examples, I had no at hand. I don't understand what you're driving at here... ??
    – Craig Constantine
    Commented May 5, 2016 at 20:13
  • ooooooooooooooooooooh, now I see what you're getting at. Sorry, I close a LOT of questions without adding a comment. So we'd (you/me/someone) have to wade through all closed questions (I'm not the only mod :) and read all teh comments...
    – Craig Constantine
    Commented May 5, 2016 at 20:17
  • You wanted the communities thoughts on your question. Perhaps it is I who don't understand, or don't see evidence, of examples high quality migration canidants at NE.SE? Like I said I was extremly lazy in gathering my evidence, I typically believe, only those rare gems of a question should be migrated. In other words questions we actually do want to keep but are simply not within our choosen scope.
    – Ramhound
    Commented May 5, 2016 at 20:17
  • the more this gets discussed here (there's some discussion happening the moderator's chat room too) the more I'm not sure how we'd (the mods on NE) be good at judging what would be high quality for SU. I don't hang out on SU at all, so while I'm pretty good at "this is off-topic for NE" I'm REALLY bad at "this is DEFINITELY good/on-topic for SU".
    – Craig Constantine
    Commented May 5, 2016 at 20:20
  • We do have a help center if that is of any assistance. Personally I would create a matrix. See what is within our scope and what is within the scope of NE.SE. What is out of scope here and at NE.SE per the help center, then determine what is out of scope at both places.
    – Ramhound
    Commented May 5, 2016 at 20:26
  • @CraigConstantine : Please consider the networking proposal I just went to re‑open (the precedent one closed a year after with only getting 20 followers). Though most of the questions you close wouldn’t fit there.
    – user2284570
    Commented May 19, 2016 at 17:06

2 Answers 2

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You should only migrate high quality questions, ever. Migrating crappy questions that are vaguely related to another site does no favors to anybody. It wastes time for people on the receiving site who have to deal with a low quality question, and either make it acceptable or reject the migration. It wastes the time of people on the originating site who vote to migrate something which just gets kicked back. And most of all, it's a very frustrating process for the user asking their question to be first told "your question is in the wrong place, we moved it" and then to arrive at that other place and be told "your question might be in the right place now but it's no good".

If a question is well-written, has been researched, and the user seems actively engaged in trying to do the right thing but just ended up on the wrong site by accident, migration is fine. I see no problem with migrating questions that don't have answers, as long as the question has potential to attract good answers on the receiving site.

This is just my personal opinion; other moderators and community members may weight in on this too.

Note that as a moderator on Network Engineering, you can view rejected migrations from your site at [SE site URL]/admin/posts/migrated/rejected. This is a good place to check occasionally to see how questions are faring after they get migrated.

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I went ahead and found 10+ comments which you indicate something wasn't on topic.

Question 1: How to access LAN IP Addresses : Cisco VPN Client [on hold] Your Comment:

It seems you're asking about a network/vpn service that you do not control, that makes this off-topic here (because you should simply contact the support people for said network/vpn service.)

The question seems a little vague for it to be answered by anyone honestly. Statements like "I don't know how to connect LAN IP Addresses." don't help the reader understand the disconnect the author has. I admit this question would be on topic here, it might be closed, but its the type of question that would exist here naturally.

Question 2: Connecting/configuring two switches to a router? [closed]

Your Comment:

host config, homework are off-topic here. this stack is for people working in a professional environmet. this sort of Q can go on the Super User stack.

We don't want networking engineer homework questions either. Somebody likely would have made the exact same comment, and voted the question closed, since their question is based on class material which from my perspective means the appropriate amount of research has not been done.

Question 3: What practices/ mechanisms/ protocols can be used to secure communication on physically exposed Ethernet links?

Your Comment:

some part(s) of this might be on topic here. As it is, it's partly a dupe (as above), partly off-topic (eg, all product recommendations are off-topic here), so I'll close this as "too broad" ;)

If you migrated a product recomendation question to us it would be rejected by the moderators. Please don't send us this type of stuff.

Question 4: Does TCP improve the ability of IP to send really really large files? [closed]

'disgusting' seems a strange word to use; I presume this means it IS homework, so I've closed it. None the less, welcome to our community, where the members decided what topics/questions would be consider on/off topic. You can refer to the Help Center and you're welcome to post in the Meta site if you want to discuss wether your question is on or off topic.

If a site dedicated to network engineering does not deal with homework questions why should Superuser deal those type of questions? We don't do people's homework for them, these types of questions, would be deleted by the community. If not deleted, it would at least get one vote, to be deleted.

Question 5: What is the difference between source based tree and shared core based tree?

Your Comment

You need to provide more context... bear in mind that programming questions are off-topic here, and should be asked on Stack Overflow.

We agree send this question to Stackoverflow.

Question 6: Using co-located wireless access points to maximize client bandwidth [closed]

Your Comment:

..also product recommendation requests are off-topic

We would vote to close this question for the same reason and the migration likely would be rejected by a moderator.

Queston 7: How can a Class B network be in the 10.0.0.0 space? [closed]

Your comment:

all homework/study questions are off-topic here...

See above responses with regards to homework questions.

Question 8: Site to Site VPN Theory [closed]

putting this on hold because 'resource recom' are off-topic. But you could just tweak the wording a bit to make it ask for a high-level outline of how VPNs work (and probably even better if you specify a VPN type/product, eg, IPSEC)

This question should be improved and remain with you guys.

Question 9: Why is my Router's WAN IP different from public IP?

Is this about a home network? Home networking is off-topic here. You can ask over on Super User

This questions seems to be within the scope of your website. This question is not actually been closed. It also is from 2015.

Question 10: HTTP 302 Redirect - Is this my problem? [closed]

Your Comment:

isn't the question then: "Why is this AWS instance sending a 302 to some queries?" ...and then that (configuring AWS) is off-topic here.

How you configure AWS, is not on topic at Superuser, it is well outside of our scope. Just because AWS is a computing environment does not mean its on topic.
Of course the real question, would have been on topic, I am neutral on a question like this.

So out of 10 questions, most of them closed by you, the only question that had any hope was the very first question. While I am not a moderator, and can't speak for anyone except myself, my opinion of each question I listed I feel is based on the contents of our own help center. I also realize that this is a small subset of your closed questions, and none of them might have been even questions, you would have migrated.

I tried to address the overall question you asked. You were wondering should question specifically not on topic at NE.SE but migrated here. I realize I would have to expand these 10 questions out to all the questions closed yesterday to get an honest snapshot of the type of questions closed.

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  • Most of your answer has nothing to do with my question. (Or am I misunderstanding?) Certainly, those are [some of many] of my comments on NE, but only on one or two (not sure, I only skimmed your answer) that you've quoted do I even mention SU. I didn't bring any of these Qs-you-listed up [in my Question here] as candidates for migration.
    – Craig Constantine
    Commented May 5, 2016 at 20:11
  • @CraigConstantine - My answer is in response to your statement that, Over on Network Engineering, we close a lot of questions as off-topic and feel they belong on this stack., I was able to find 9 questions which were closed that are not on topic here at Superuser. The point I just went through the question you commented and closed in the last year, and none of them, should have been migrated. Do you have better examples, which are high quality questions, but are not on topic at NE.SE that should be migrated here?
    – Ramhound
    Commented May 5, 2016 at 20:15
  • I only used the questions you closed and commented on, because I am lazy, and don't feel like trying to generate a query to find better examples.
    – Ramhound
    Commented May 5, 2016 at 20:16
  • ooooooooooooooooooooh, now I see what you're getting at. Sorry, I close a LOT of questions without adding a comment. So we'd (you/me/someone) have to wade through all closed questions (I'm not the only mod :) and read all teh comments...
    – Craig Constantine
    Commented May 5, 2016 at 20:17
  • @CraigConstantine - So I am not doing that. I spent 20 minutes writting this answer, that would take an hour, but I feel this still provides some example of at least my thoughts on the matter. Its basically, don't give us your crappy questions please, we have enough of our own :-).
    – Ramhound
    Commented May 5, 2016 at 20:22
  • Primarily, I think only questions involving home networking and consumer-grade equipment (both are explicitly off-topic on NE) get pointed to Super User. These types of questions come into NE every day, and they are put on hold, and, usually, the OP is recommended to try to ask the question on Super User. If the question involves business networking and server, the OP is directed to Server Fault, and if it involves programming, the OP is directed to Stack Overflow. Many of these questions are then asked on the other sites and answered on those sites, but the OP doesn't delete the question on NE.
    – Ron Maupin
    Commented May 5, 2016 at 22:42
  • I found 1 migrated and 9 closed questions that seem to meet the quality of what I see on Super User: superuser.com/q/1073563 networkengineering.stackexchange.com/q/30166 networkengineering.stackexchange.com/q/30169 networkengineering.stackexchange.com/q/30138 networkengineering.stackexchange.com/q/30102 networkengineering.stackexchange.com/q/30104 networkengineering.stackexchange.com/q/30094 networkengineering.stackexchange.com/q/30068 networkengineering.stackexchange.com/q/30053 networkengineering.stackexchange.com/q/30040
    – Ron Maupin
    Commented May 5, 2016 at 23:03
  • @RonMaupin Wireless Network Locator Don't forget this one. You commented to the user it was suitable for SU. And so it got cross posted. Wireless Network location finder. Unfortunately it is off-topic on SU 1/ phones are off-topic 2/ software recs are off-topic. Result: one annoyed user (read the comments on his question).
    – DavidPostill Mod
    Commented May 6, 2016 at 6:52
  • @DavidPostill, apparently, I made a mistake on that one, but I don't have the power to migrate; I leave that up to the duly elected moderators, I suggested the user try Super User, but it is up to the user to read what is on-topic for a site. I didn't get that the question was looking for a software recommendation, and I do point people to softwarerecs.stackexchange.com and hardwarerecs.stackexchange.com when I see that is what they want. I think the point is that the NE moderators want to be able to ask to move questions with no answers worth preserving.
    – Ron Maupin
    Commented May 6, 2016 at 7:11

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