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I'm not sure where to ask my question. What would be the best protocol to follow to find out which Stack Exchange community would be best for my question?

Should I just make an educated guess and post there? Or can I first post here on Meta.SE and ask where I should post my actual question? Is one of Meta Stack Exchange's roles to give such guidance?

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The first step in choosing the best site is narrowing your choice down to a handful of possible sites.

Go to the all sites page and use the list view. Then narrow your options down by selecting a category up the top. Read through each of the site titles and descriptions, and write down the sites that sound appropriate.

Go to each of the sites you wrote down, and read their tour (sitename.stackexchange.com/tour). This will give you an idea about what sort of questions are on-topic for that site. Also consider searching the site's tags and reading their tag wikis (sitename.stackexchange.com/tags); they will also give you an idea of what sort of questions you can ask.

By now, hopefully you will have figured out which site you can ask your question on. If you're not entirely sure, try dropping into the site's main chatroom, or asking on their per-site meta.

If you are debating between two sites, or you haven't found the site you are looking for, ask a question here on Meta.SE. That's one of the reasons we're here. Remember to tag your question and , and show us the question you want to ask.

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    There is also the help center on each site - with /help/on-topic and /help/dont-ask that will have more details than the tour.
    – Oded StaffMod
    Commented Jul 4, 2016 at 7:40
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    Note that someone without the site association bonus won't be able to use per-site metas or chat, but should probably rely on Meta SE once they've checked the tours.
    – Nathan Tuggy
    Commented Jul 4, 2016 at 11:01
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    Also, consider adding a disclaimer that the presence of a tag does not always mean the site actually (still) welcomes those questions.
    – Nathan Tuggy
    Commented Jul 4, 2016 at 11:01
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    @NathanO'TᴇstingTuggy I noted they should also read the tag wikis - they usually contain notices on the on-topic status of the tag.
    – angussidney
    Commented Jul 4, 2016 at 12:30
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    @angussidney Thanks for that. To be clear, the issue only arises only in the few instances where, after I've looked through the list of all the sites, yet am still unclear where question belongs. I'm certainly not guessing every time I post a question. The tours of each site are news to me though. I think they will help greatly in the future.
    – cag8f
    Commented Jul 8, 2016 at 9:48
  • @NathanO'TᴇstingTuggy, yes, I've run into that issue before where I didn't have the requisite reputation to post a question to per-site metas. The tours will help though.
    – cag8f
    Commented Jul 8, 2016 at 9:50

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