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This question surely isn't appropriate to be asked neither on Stack Overflow nor on Super User. Why was it migrated to Super User instead of being closed?

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  • Because those users voting to migrate aren't aware of the (now not so) recent changes to the Super User FAQ. Don't hold it against them, just vote to close as "off topic".
    – ChrisF Mod
    May 17, 2010 at 13:23
  • Users from the SO community aren't necessarily aware of what does and does not belong on the other communities. Yes, that question does not belong on SU because SU isn't about web apps. However, from a lay SO user's perspective I can definitely see how that can be considered falls under the SU umbrella: it's computer related but not server or programming related. It only takes three out of five users to vote to close to migrate it, so three users all have the same idea of what SU is. Stop asking questions on meta for an explanation of the actions of three users. That's not what meta is for.
    – Welbog
    May 17, 2010 at 13:25
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    @The Encapsulator, that's really more of an answer than a comment. But that aside, this is a valid question; you could remove the one-question-specific wording and still have the issue about bad migrations left over.
    – Pops
    May 17, 2010 at 14:14

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This is a combination of two issues.

First, migrations to X are decided on by people who know Y very well, but may not have any particular knowledge of X. This is exacerbated by the fact that it's majority rule: if two 3K+ on Y know it's not applicable to X, but three 3K+ mistakenly think it is applicable to X, it's going. There is no action available to anybody on X to refuse the migration.

Second, Super User does not have, and never has had, a coherent explicitly stated identity. Unlike sites for, say, programming-related questions and professional system administration questions, it's for hardware and software questions that don't fall into certain categories. I'm only moderately active on it, so I don't know how well it's developing a community identity, but any implicit or emergent identity is going to be lost on those voting to migrate questions to it.

And, no, I don't have a better idea, unless we alert Super User moderators of questions that may be migrated, and allow them to block migration somehow. That would complicate things considerably, increase the duties of the moderators, and potentially cause confusion among the closers.

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Indeed, those with closing powers on SO should at least know this doesn't fit on SU either, and close appropriately (being off-topic).

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    Why should a user of SO be aware of what does and does not belong on SU? You're asking too much of SO users. It's unreasonable to expect every member of one community to have in-depth knowledge of the content of another.
    – Welbog
    May 17, 2010 at 13:26
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    @The Encapsulator: The problem is that SU is still considered the trash bin for SO.
    – fretje
    May 17, 2010 at 13:28
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    Then change the details of the close reason. It currently states This question is related to computer hardware or computer software in general, and is a better fit for Super User. If you want SO users to close it because it's off topic, make it clear that web apps don't belong on SU. Of course, then the details for that close reason would become ridiculously long because SU's scope is so strangely defined. I would tend to blame SU's scope itself for issues like this. It's not easy to put in words what does and does not belong on SU.
    – Welbog
    May 17, 2010 at 13:31

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