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This is closely related to this answer but isn't an exact duplicate (I want to think).

When someone posts a programming question on MSO, can the close reason explain that SO is the place for programming questions and Meta is for quesitons about the site itself? Rather than rely on having someone post this information or risk having the person come back (since they were already confused about when to come here), I would like to hope this could help some of the new users who actually want to understand the site and genuinely were confused.

So instead of 

"Programming questions are off-topic on Meta Stack Overflow.
Please refer to [how to ask][1] on Stack Overflow.
See also: Why are questions no longer being accepted from my account?" 

[1]:how-to-ask link

Could there be something like

"Programming questions are off-topic on Meta Stack Overflow.
[Programming questions should be posted on Stack Overflow.][1]
Meta Stack Overflow is for discussing how Stack Overflow is run. 
See also: Why are questions no longer being accepted from my account?"

[1]:how-to-ask link
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The addition of "Meta Stack Overflow is for discussing how Stack Overflow is run." sounds fine to me. I'm not crazy about changing the wording on the "How to Ask" link though. "Programming questions should be posted on Stack Overflow." makes it sound like we're telling them to just go post their question on Stack Overflow. Programming questions that accidentally get posted here on Meta are rarely of high enough quality that they should just be posted verbatim, which is why we have a policy against migrating them. I think we should stick with the original wording that just directs them to read "How to Ask."

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    Also (1) programming questions posted here are often because the OP is question banned on StackOverflow and (2) sometimes programming questions belong on other sites, such as Software Engineering or Database Administrators. I don't think we should blanket everything technical as belonging on SO, and we also shouldn't have to make decisions about where it really belongs. I think "not on-topic here" is sufficient.
    – Aaron Bertrand Staff
    Jul 9, 2013 at 19:53
  • @AaronBertrand Two excellent points.
    – Bill the Lizard
    Jul 9, 2013 at 23:32

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