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This question was originally on stack overflow:

https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com/questions/108993/learning-bash#622993

Yesterday it was migrated to programmers, where it was immediately closed as "off topic." This seems pretty silly. How do we migrate it back where it belongs?

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That question does not belong on Stack Overflow. It is kind of silly that it got migrated two years after it was posted instead of simply closed. It looks like 4 closers (other than Michael Petrotta) chose to migrate it instead and that is unfortunate.

In cases where reverting the migration is necessary, moderators on the target site have to contact the moderators on the source site and get them to clear migration history. The question is then deleted on the site it was migrated to.

If the question happens to pick up good answers after it was migrated, we sometimes do the opposite and clear migration history on the target site and migrate the question back. The original question on the source site can then be deleted or merged with the "new" one.

Reversing migrations requires coordination between sites and occasionally gets a bit hairy. It only makes sense to do so for questions that are worth saving. In this case, ignoring the fact that the question isn't on-topic for SO, reversing the migration only to have the question closed again doesn't make a lot of sense.

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That question doesn't belong anywhere on the SE network. It is offtopic on both Stack Overflow and Programmers. It's unfortunate that it got migrated to Programmers rather than being closed on SO, but there's been confusion on the latter over acceptance criteria of the former.

(Yes, my name's on that migration, but I'm pretty sure I voted to close as simply "off-topic")

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There is no "migrate back" or "undo migration" option, although that was requested here (and again at this question and this answer). The request has never been officially accepted or declined.

The best you can hope for is getting a mod to clear the migration history and perform a migration in the opposite direction — as Anna said — or getting the "new" question closed and the "old" version reopened. Jeff once claimed that he unmigrated a post, but it looks like he just did a combination of the above approaches and didn't want to type all that out.

Other posts relevant to this issue:

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The question is off-topic on Stack Overflow, as Bash is not a tool used only by programmers, and the question is not asking about any programming concern.

The question as it is is off-topic, but it is also subjective: Learning first Bash or Java depends from what you are planning to do. If you don't plan using Java, then nothing forces you to learn it.
You are also comparing two things that they are not related to each other; it does not make any difference if you learn first Bash, and then Java, or vice versa.

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    Bash scripting can be a valid programming concern. Whether a question about Bash is on topic on SO or not depends on whether it has a programming focus or not, even though Bash is not used only by programmers.
    – Adam Lear StaffMod
    Sep 19, 2011 at 16:12
  • It can be a valid programming concern, but the question didn't put any light on any programming concern. As it is, the question sounds similar to, "Should I first learn a new programming language, or how to debug the programs I create?" The difference is that debugging a program is totally a programming concern.
    – apaderno
    Sep 19, 2011 at 16:28
  • Sure. I was just responding to your first paragraph that implies that since Bash isn't only used by programmers, it's always off-topic on SO. That's not the case.
    – Adam Lear StaffMod
    Sep 19, 2011 at 16:31
  • I was not trying to suggest that questions about Bash are always off-topic; what I was trying to say is that the specific question about Bash is off-topic.
    – apaderno
    Sep 19, 2011 at 16:46

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