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This feature same request Add softwarerecs to vote to migrate option was declined in Feb. 2014, since the circumstances meanwhile changed I don't think this is a duplicate.

Software Recommendation graduaded and has 3 elected moderators now it should have become a valid migration target

You will become eligible for question migration paths with the rest of the network

As stated by Gilles:

Super User generally rejects recommendation questions (which is the primary reason why the Software Recommendation site exists in the first place), so your question was by no means “perfectly reasonable” there. Rather than being closed in place, your question was migrated here where it is on-topic.

There is a plenty of well phrased and even researched questions which would for sure be welcome on Software Recommendation instead of getting downvoted and just closed on Superuser.

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    I can't think of which migration slot would most be suited to "go" (it's so hard to drop one of the "trio" sites off our migration path) otherwise I'd be in favor of him.
    – allquixotic
    Commented Jan 16, 2016 at 20:45
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    @allquixotic before Mokubai answered I was not aware of the limit on migration targets and I agree that non of the others should be dropped.
    – bummi
    Commented Jan 16, 2016 at 22:49

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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We currently have only 5 migration targets available, 4 if you discount the standard migration to meta. In order to allow migration another target one of the others has to be deactivated.

I'm reluctant to enable migrations to Software Recommendations for that reason and because a large majority of migrations will inevitably not meet their quality guidelines.

Conversely if we can compare the number of good quality software recommendations that could have been migrated and there is a significant number that surpasses the top four in our migration stats then there is no reason to not have them as a migration target.

Our stats on outbound migrations for the last 90 days:

  • to webapps.stackexchange.com × 91 (15% rejected)
  • to android.stackexchange.com × 56 (5% rejected)
  • to stackoverflow.com × 51 (13% rejected)
  • to serverfault.com × 23 (13% rejected)
  • to meta.- to × 10 (20% rejected)
  • to apple.stackexchange.com × 7 (14% rejected)
  • to softwarerecs.stackexchange.com × 5 (0% rejected)
  • to other sites x 16

Generally outside the top 5 the migrations will be moderators responding to user flags to migrate questions, potentially requested by the user.

So, of 28 "unusual" migrations (outside of the current targets) only 5 were to Software Recommendations.

Currently though, I cannot think of any easy search terms that will distinguish software recommendation questions from our preferred questions.

For the time being it might actually be worth asking this on Software Recommendations meta and finding out if they actually want to be a migration target or if they feel that they might just get all of our garbage. As it currently stands when people here push users to SR they often post a link to the quality guidelines, which might be helping them somewhat.

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  • Of course only questions meeting the guidelines should be flagged for migration, a link to the guidelines beside the option could be provided. Search terms I could think of are e.g. tool , freeware, solution ...
    – bummi
    Commented Jan 16, 2016 at 17:48
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    @bummi - Alright. The problem we as a community is the majority of software recommendation questions submitted to superuser are extremely low quality. So we would end up migrating junk.
    – Ramhound
    Commented Jan 16, 2016 at 18:43
  • @Ramhound I agree with this point and we should not migrate junk, but on the other hand for those users getting downvotet and closed for asking a question which would be welcome on softwarerecs it's a depressing experience and a possible lost for softwarerecs.
    – bummi
    Commented Jan 16, 2016 at 19:00
  • They should be reading what is on topic and not on topic before asking a question, and those questions that would not migrated would still receive downvotes. Besides as it sits currently it can be migrated manually. If that happens the downvotes are basically reversed anyways. The other migration targets are used far more often on far better questions daily. I have seen maybe 2 software recommendation questions in 5 years.
    – Ramhound
    Commented Jan 16, 2016 at 19:16
  • @bummi: For those using "automated" comments, an interim solution would be to add a comment on the question advising to re-post on softwarerecs. The comment would include a link to the guidelines. If the question isn't up to standards, advice could be added to the comment to improve the question before posting.
    – fixer1234
    Commented Jan 16, 2016 at 20:56
  • @fixer1234 that's what I thought and did but the found this We don't want to tell people "Oh wow this would be awesome on site, go ask it there instead" - the polite thing to do is just move it for them.
    – bummi
    Commented Jan 17, 2016 at 15:36
  • @bummi: I saw that, and agree with it for high quality posts that are migration-ready. The problem is that those posts are pretty rare. The vast majority need work before they would be acceptable there, and it's the kind of improvement for which only the OP has the information. Some can be made on-topic here by turning them into a problem-solving question. For ones that can't, we would need to handle it like a troubleshooting question--use comments to help them rewrite it and then ask a mod to migrate it.
    – fixer1234
    Commented Jan 17, 2016 at 17:27
  • @fixer1234 thanks, got your good point.
    – bummi
    Commented Jan 17, 2016 at 17:58

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