Edit: This problem exists only for meta sites, so I am reclassifying it from a feature request to a bug.
On a site where I have a little over 200 rep, I just wanted to flag a question that I think belongs here (MSO).
In the process of flagging, though, I did not get the options in the screenshot here: How do I migrate a question to a site which is not listed in close window?
I chose
- "it doesn't belong here, or it is a duplicate..."
- "off-topic because..."
...and the only option I was left with was
- "This question does not appear to be about on-topic, within the scope defined in the help center."
That's no so bad, but when I happened to read the breadcrumbs above at that stage, they had sneakily changed from "Flagging > This question doesn't belong here because it is" to
- "Flagging > Closing > Off-Topic"
...without me ever saying anything about closing!
There are plenty of questions here involving people wanting more options for sites to flag for migration to, but I was not given a single option. I was not even given the choice to recommend closing or recommend migration, let alone recommending a specific site for migration.
(After much second-guessing and clicking through all of the flag options, I did put the flag through anyway. I know there is a generic flagging option for diamond moderator attention, but this did not seem like such a special case that it needed that. If that is the right choice for recommending migration, it should clearly say so somewhere in the flagging process...either at the point right before submitting what looks like a close flag, or under the option for diamond moderator attention.)
Assuming my lack of options was not a bug, I suggest:
- When flagging, there should be clear, separate options for recommending closing and recommending migration.
It would also be nice if, when the option to recommend migration is chosen, options for different sites (or at least a text box for a moderator to read) appeared, but I will leave that for someone else to propose.
Related: Should off-topic migration close votes be differentiated from others? That question is more for people whose posts are flagged rather than flaggers, but they identify a second problem with the lack of distinct options for closing vs. migration:
- "I've also noticed an increasing trend where off-topic questions that are ripe for migration to one of the existing listed sites are simply tagged as off-topic (with no destination site specified). The propsed "migrate" link would potentially go some way to resolve this." and
- "I see a lot of questions that should be migrated just get closed."
