Software recommendations on SO [duplicate]

Question

I have a minor issue that I think might get solved without much ado. Although currently I can't find a link, quite a sizeable number of people tend to ask questions asking for software recommendations on SO. Even though the FAQ clearly states that that shouldn't be done.

Some questions are still off-topic, even if they fit into one of the categories listed above:

.....Questions asking us to recommend or find a tool, library or favorite off-site resource are off-topic for Stack Overflow as they tend to attract opinionated answers and spam. Instead, describe the problem and what has been done so far to solve it.

Some new users might think that they can probably get away with a couple of questions along those lines even though the FAQ requests that it shouldn't be done. I was wondering if only we could add a link in the FAQ, something along these lines:

Although if you must ask for recommendations check out another wonderful site on the StackExchange network, Software recommendations

Would that help in controlling the problem? This isn't a major feature request per se and nothing hard to do, and anyway there's no reason I can think of that this shouldn't be done.

Also on a related but tangential topic, I am aware that individual questions can be flagged to be "migrated" to other StackExchange sites if that seems appropriate. I recently came across a question that was well formulated but not fit for SO, it was asking us to review the code. I decided that it would be very well, by definition, suited to codereview.se. I proceeded to flag it as such, but was presented with this.

There wasn't any option for codereview. What's the deal with this? Is this a bug? Or is it a matter of reputation, allowing only flags to certain sites. The specific question at hand itself is no longer a problem, I simply flagged it as 'needs moderator attention' with the description 'should be migrated to codereview.se' and that was taken care of. Not that the option not being there created any hassles, I am just curious as to why I didn't get codereview in this list.

Note that the sites listed are not the one's I have accounts on, for instance I have accounts on math.se and physics.se, and I don't have accounts on tex,dba and sharepoint.

Answer 1

Migrations have come up before, and until we survive beta, we're probably going to have to discourage them. If a question doesn't meet the quality criteria of softwarerecs.se, chances are it'll get kicked back to SO. This is true of other beta sites too. Eventually, we'll grow up, be tottering along on our own feet, and be nimble enough to catch or dodge fast moving migrations. Migrations to beta sites are discouraged but not contraindicated, and may be handled differently by different sites.

So, not yet,unless its an absolutely awesome question that just has to be re-homed. When you do get the ability, please use it wisely.

Do not forget, don't migrate crap, there's potential downsides to migrating crap to migration targets, like requests to take those sites off the migration list, and least personally, I think fixing up questions pre-migration, instead of letting them stumble into the line of fire may improve their chances of survival. If its really bad, don't have any mercy, and just eliminate them on the parent sites .

Having a special mention on SO does seem a little scary though. If we are mentioned, it really ought to be accompanied by a warning or two ;)