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When I see an off-topic question on a site where I have the "cast close votes" privilege (mainly, SO), I can click on Close, select "A community-specific reason" (AKA/previously, "off-topic"), and then select the appropriate option.

Now, on sites where I do not have that privilege (like here on Meta SE), I click on Flag but I initially couldn't find those options and was just about to post a question asking "how to flag off-topic questions" until I realized that the options do exist. However, they're buried under the "needs improvement" option, which doesn't make any sense.

If the question is [blatantly] off-topic, why would one select "needs improvement" and expect to find the "off-topic" reasons there? Isn't that counterintuitive?(1)

Can we have the "community-specific reason" moved out of the "needs improvement" sub-list?(2)


(1) I guess part of the reason you had to put that option in a sub-list is the fact that the "off-topic" option was renamed to "community-specific reason" (you can flag something as off-topic but you can't "flag it as community-specific reason!").

(2) ..and maybe rename it to something like "off-topic for a community-specific reason" or whatever makes sense.

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    Related: Question close updates (this answer in particular), and Flag window redux proposed syntax. Commented Jul 25, 2020 at 9:17
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    One remark: the word "off-topic" has a slightly different meaning on SE than elsewhere. The ordinary meaning is "not relevant to the subject under discussion" ( from: lexico.com/definition/off-topic ), but on SE it means "not allowed to be asked about on this site" and the first definition need not apply. (consider programming questions on Computer Science. Programming is certainly relevant to the discussion of computer science, but it is still "off-topic" because we have decided such question should be asked on Stack Overflow.) Commented Jul 25, 2020 at 9:24
  • @Discretelizard True! Maybe something like "out of scope" then? I don't really have a solid suggestion (and English isn't my first language too) but I know that those options definitely shouldn't be under "needs improvement".
    – 41686d6564
    Commented Jul 25, 2020 at 9:30
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    I think replacing "community specific reason" by "should be closed" as suggested here works well. (although it works better in the context of a redesigned menu as suggested in the post) Alternatively, you can use "not on topic according to the help center" (with a link). This uses the special meaning SE has for the term, but also explains it. Commented Jul 25, 2020 at 9:39

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