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Sometimes don't understand this question better suits to which SE site. So I may have account on that site but not able to understand that question should be asked there. Or may get similar question on that site. But I wouldn't like to see faq of every site to check What kind of questions can I ask here?.

We can see different types of areas here https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/8401/where-can-i-ask-questions-that-arent-stack-overflow-questions. There might be question which can fit into 2 or more sites.

Update:

I am saying is there any central location also for reading what kind of question I can ask on this site like all sites gathered here. And I am not saying to remove What kind of questions can I ask here? faq from all sites. I do read faq of every site. But it would be good if I know what kind of question I can ask on each site when do anyone join SE community. It would be helpful for searching my similar problems on that sites also.

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  • 3
    You seem to be saying you can't be bothered to read each site to find out what is ok to post there. Say it isn't so!
    – Andrew Barber
    Apr 6, 2012 at 6:13
  • 2
    I am saying is there any central location also for reading what kind of question I can ask on this site like all sites gathered here. And I am not saying to remove What kind of questions can I ask here? faq from all sites. I am just asking is it present or not. I read this faq of every site. But it would be good if I know what kind of question I can ask on each site when do I join SE community. It would be helpful for searching my similar problems on that sites also.
    – Somnath Muluk
    Apr 6, 2012 at 6:17
  • What's wrong with the sites site? You can flip through the sites and which are meeting sounding correct, you go read the FAQ.
    – Time Traveling Bobby
    Apr 6, 2012 at 9:51
  • @Bobby: We can flip through sites is good. With that if we kept link to every faq#question to that single location having faq#question of all sites which will describe what kind of question can be asked on which site(may be in SE). So it will solve problem of new users.(We all are having dream of SE being good community like facebook.)
    – Somnath Muluk
    Apr 6, 2012 at 10:59
  • Can you give any example where this actually happened? Because I don't think you'd try to ask Photography questions on Cooking would you?
    – Ivo Flipse
    Apr 6, 2012 at 14:18
  • @Ivo Flipse: You better know many questions are being migrated daily and closed due to off topic questions. Mainly different sites between technology, Science, Life, Arts,etc having resemblance between many questions. With central location we can minimize at least 1% this type of questions. This will help mainly in Technology sites.
    – Somnath Muluk
    Apr 6, 2012 at 15:38
  • The people who migrate often don't even know the FAQ of the site they're migrating too. People don't read, so more text isn't going to help. Besides, how would people find this site of your anyway? Because its not going to be the first thing they see when they come on a site through Google and start asking questions
    – Ivo Flipse
    Apr 6, 2012 at 15:51
  • @IvoFlipse: That's why I was saying then people will know site they migrating to. I was saying give link of that location to everyfaq#question. So user when reading faq if feeling question not suits there will get to know at that location. Each new user will at least once know which question better suit where.
    – Somnath Muluk
    Apr 6, 2012 at 16:08

4 Answers 4

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+25

Just check the directory

https://stackexchange.com/sites

There is a one line summary of each site's audience there, next to each site. That should be enough to get you started.

Beyond that,

  1. Click through and browse the questions on the homepage. Does your question fit in?

  2. Click on the FAQ link that is so generously linked everywhere on the site. At the top it outlines what is on and off topic for that particular site.

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  • meta.stackoverflow.com/faq#questions doesn't expose location stackexchange.com/sites. We all know this location bcoz we are used to these site. But newbies don't understand what are the other locations. At least we should link stackexchange.com/sites to faq. And also that short info doesn't give more brief about question patterns, types. If we would have central location that gives what type of questions can be asked and what type of not. It will be beneficial to those who want to be part of SE family to find their interest sites.
    – Somnath Muluk
    Apr 21, 2012 at 15:58
  • There are many time we know this question can't be asked here. But where it can be asked then. So people can be redirected there to find suitable site. Will have less headache to moderators & people on community in detecting off topic and to migrate them.
    – Somnath Muluk
    Apr 21, 2012 at 15:58
  • @som well, it is listed on superuser.com/questions/how-to-ask under "If you're looking for a different topic.." but I agree we should include that link under "Perhaps your question would be a better fit on another Stack Exchange site; see the site directory for details." on superuser.com/faq#dontask as well probably. I'll ask for that to happen.
    – Jeff Atwood
    Apr 21, 2012 at 18:45
  • Thanks for understanding 1st request. Do you think one line summary is sufficient for central location having all sites information?
    – Somnath Muluk
    Apr 25, 2012 at 13:18
  • @som /faq was updated on all sites to mention the directory. See superuser.com/faq#dontask at the bottom of that section
    – Jeff Atwood
    Apr 25, 2012 at 15:44
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So, your question is a very interesting one. Many, many times , we see posts here on meta asking "Where can I ask XXX". At a glance asking here seems to be (currently) the best option to gauge (meta) people's opinions on where to post. Sometimes it is a clear cut case and everyone can agree that the OP should post their question on... programmers or... game dev or what ever. In my short time here on meta I have noticed that more often than not peoples opinions on where to post differs. One might say "don't post this on SO. Try programmers.SE" but the next comment is "That would be closed as off-topic there" and on and on and on.

The resounding (best advice) that I've seen given with regard to "where to post my question" lies deeper than simply reading the FAQ for that specific site. It involves taking a look at some of the questions posted on that site and comparing its topics to your own question. This is the best way to know if you are posting in the correct place.

All of the SE sites are community run with regard to deciding what is on/off-topic. This manifests itself (amongst other things) in the form of close votes for any >3K users. All you need is five people within the community to feel that it is an off topic post and poof! [closed]. If the OP is lucky if they get a comment pointing them in the right direction but that is not always the case (an issue for a different post). Because of this design the type of accepted posts on any site can sway to any direction depending on the currently active users.

Stack Overflow is extremely strict with regard to what questions are allowed - one of the reasons is the sheer amount of posts that are made. On a smaller SE site, with less traffic, users might be more lenient and flexible with regard to what is allowed.

Regarding your question/request for a centralized FAQ area.

I think this might be quite a large and probably not too efficient way to convey where to post what. It would have to contain sample questions as references and IMO it would simply be too big to use it as a reference (especially for new users who just want to ask their question already! ;)

The idea is a good one - users should have a place to know and learn where to ask what questions - the solution for that is simply as I said above - take a look at some of the posts on a few sites - you'll see exactly

  • what is allowed
  • what is tolerated
  • what is off-topic
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  • That's what I was saying... You have amazing post writting skills. Why people downvoting feature request I don't know? And not writting what are cons of it also.
    – Somnath Muluk
    Apr 19, 2012 at 7:30
  • Thanks! I try :P I'm pretty sure that the votes are a reaction to the first comment.
    – Lix
    Apr 19, 2012 at 7:32
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Pros

  • Much less migrations (migrations are slightly time consuming for a mod, IIRC)
  • Smoother experience for newbies

Cons

A single page that tells you where a question would be on-topic is, IMO, impossible. On-topicness isn't something that can be written in condensed form. It's an extremely subjective thing, prone to interpretation. Only a regular member of the site should be able to help you there.

This is exactly why a destination-site mod is asked before migration. The source-site mod, even if he knows the faq, may not be sure about the questions on-topicness.

So how can you expect a newbie to know which site will accept the question if mods themselves are not always certain about this?

Though this may be looking at it from a slightly extreme point of view--most questions clearly fall within the faq of the site.

Ways to implement this

I don't really like the "read this page, decide the site" sort of idea that much. I guess the page you linked to is pretty useful for this; and maybe there could be a popup for newbies that links to it.

Another idea would be a chat room for this. Ask users of various sites to stay logged in, and check it out whenever someone asks a "where should I send this?" question. This room can be advertised via a newbie popup, akin to "not sure if this question should be asked here? Find out the best place for your question on [link]"

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  • There are different areas on SE like Technology, Science, Recreation, Culture, Life, Arts, Business Professional. Site which belongs to this section can be grouped together. Confusion or problems are only sites belonging to same area. But this will be helpful also to new joinees also to know what sites SE having. What knowledge we can have on that site.
    – Somnath Muluk
    Apr 19, 2012 at 8:50
  • There currently is such a chat room: The Teachers' Lounge.
    – Goodbye Stack Exchange
    Apr 19, 2012 at 14:31
  • @NeilFein: Not for mundanes
    – Manishearth
    Apr 19, 2012 at 14:33
  • Good point, sorry.
    – Goodbye Stack Exchange
    Apr 19, 2012 at 14:35
  • @SomnathMuluk: I agree, though that is already taken care of by meta.stackexchange.com/questions/8401/… . Maybe a more visible link to that would help on all SE sites.
    – Manishearth
    Apr 24, 2012 at 10:55
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I am also thinking that central location is needed for all the SE sites Faq together. Because new user do this kind of mistakes.

For an example take this three off topic Meta questions

https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/128383/problem-for-run-applet-using-html

https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/128382/is-there-anyway-to-get-the-url-of-any-file-html-css-etc

https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/128392/how-to-monitoring-folder-files-by-vbs

So if all FAQ are together then new user can read them together at one place and this mistakes get reduced soon.

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  • 2
    That's a bad proof. People come to Meta because they either misread something on Stack Overflow (as "Ask question there"), or have been kicked from SO.
    – Time Traveling Bobby
    Apr 6, 2012 at 9:49
  • but its not about meta only, sometimes off topics question are on other SE sites also, i have seen them but doesnot have links for proof.
    – Ankit Sharma
    Apr 6, 2012 at 9:52
  • @Bobby i didnot know the reason of why these three people posted off topic question on meta but my point is why not add centeralize faq.
    – Ankit Sharma
    Apr 6, 2012 at 9:54
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    @Jason_vorhees There's no reason to add a centralized faq, because the users who will not read the FAQ here on meta (or on any other SE site, for that matter) will not read a centralized FAQ on what (not) to post where. It's not a matter of making it easier to find.
    – Nightfirecat
    Apr 19, 2012 at 7:13
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    @Nightfirecat: Do you mean if someone is not reading anything then there is no any need to others? It will be beneficial to people at least who want to know which site supports which type of questions, which type of questions are ready to sites. And also useful for people who have problems but don't know where to ask.
    – Somnath Muluk
    Apr 19, 2012 at 7:17
  • @Nightfirecat its not about the peple who don't want to read faq but its about the people who want centralize place for whole faq together
    – Ankit Sharma
    Apr 19, 2012 at 7:21

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