Is it not allowed to ask a question regarding multiple sites in the Stack Exchange network here?

Question

Recently, I asked Friendly agreement for the betterment of user involvement in interest intersecting sites (for AI related sites) for discussion regarding a feature that is particularly related to the sites that are related to the AI domain only. The question is not particular to AI Stack Exchange. The question's scope spans at least three sites on the network (say a, b, and c).

The question does not deal with all sites that are in the Stack Exchange network, as Would a "Related network questions" list be possible and worthwhile? does.

Some users are closing my question, intended for a, b, and c, as a duplicate of the question that is asking for all sites. Some users are suggesting that I should ask questions on the individual meta sites of a, b, and c for their permission.

Does Meta Stack Exchange allow a discussion that is applicable to all sites only?

If there are multiple sites that need to participate in the discussion for a feature, then should I need to discuss on all individual meta sites a, b, and c before posting here?

Answer 1

Questions about two or more sites in the network are on-topic here on this site, even if they don't pertain to the entire network at large. If it were closed as off-topic as only applicable to one specific site, that closure would indeed be incorrect as your question is about two or more sites (the close reason specifically mentions "one specific site", and the link I provided makes it clear that that's important).

However, I believe that your question closure (as a duplicate) was still correct. Your question wasn't deemed unsuitable for merely this reason; there were two other issues that resulted in the closure of your question:

• As far as the duplicate closure: there was already another question here that was asking for the same system feature as your question. Sure, that question may have been more general and may not have specifically referred to the AI sites, but in the end, it was suggesting the same thing. We prefer to consolidate questions asking for the same feature change so that the discussion is in one place; this is why the system allows closing as duplicates of unanswered questions on meta sites, which isn't allowed on the main Q&A sites.

  If you have new points to raise as to why a given feature should be implemented, those should be posted as answers to the feature request (in fact, the target question asks in its body if the feature is worthwhile to implement, so an answer explaining your case of the AI sites and how it's good to implement there is explicitly valid there).

• As to why you were receiving comments that you should ask on the sites' own meta sites instead of here: it's not about site scope, but about the communities that are involved in each site. When you have a feature request that affects specific sites only, it's important that the communities of the site(s) in question are aware of your suggestion, and that there are users from within those sites' communities that back it up. Most sites' communities aren't active here on the global meta, so posting here about it instead of on those own sites' meta sites will mean that those sites' communities won't be aware of or have a chance to respond to something that affects their site.

  It's better to bring the suggestion up on the per-site metas first, and then when you have consensus from the sites' communities post your suggestion here with links to those threads. The team generally does not impose site-specific changes on sites without the backing of those sites' communities. I'd highly recommend reading up this answer which explains this in detail.