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Recent scenario:

  1. Asked the question about video on photo.SE (because I didn't know about video.SE);
  2. Received "offtopic, maybe for video.SE" comment;
  3. Joined video.SE and suggested migration to video.SE using the "flag" feature;
  4. Waited for some time, the question got closed on photo.SE;
  5. Re-submitted to video.SE manually, added the comment to abandoned photo.SE question that I have re-posted it, with a link new new question on video.SE.
  6. Today, I see the comment @Vi0 question migration is only available to graduated sites. Video.SE is still in beta mode. on the migrated question (which is obviously closed as a duplicate).

What should I do to prevent similar situations in future? When should I wait for migration request to go through and when should I consider it abandoned/rejected (do I get notices about rejected flags BTW?) and re-post manually?

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  • And why is the profile for user MichaelT from the migrated question not available? – user234810 Jan 4 '15 at 14:30
  • Probably because of the user is not registered at video.SE and the comment got migrated with the question. – Vi. Jan 4 '15 at 14:35
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    The comment itself looks a bit imprecise (like We don't have red colour written in red). Maybe instead of only available to there should be available only to more moddy mods? – Vi. Jan 4 '15 at 14:36
  • @Paul Michael doesn't have an account there. What profile o you want this link to link? If Michael will create an account on video.se, his comment will be linked to his profile. – nicael Jan 4 '15 at 15:10
  • @nicael In this case, it seems like it would make sense to link to the user's main SE profile page. – user234810 Jan 4 '15 at 15:24
  • @Paul Agreed - post such a feature-request :) – nicael Jan 4 '15 at 15:25
  • @nicael Done! – user234810 Jan 4 '15 at 15:32
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    @Paul You have my upvote already :D – nicael Jan 4 '15 at 15:33
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If you don't need a moderator to do something for you, please don't flag a post for moderator attention. Your post doesn't have any answers that need to be migrated, so you can just delete it and repost it on the correct site yourself.

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  • Note that at 250 rep, you can cast close votes on your own question. This would include migration votes. It's rarely done because most users aren't aware of it at 250 rep, but it can be done (moving comments and votes to the new site). – user213963 Jan 5 '15 at 4:48
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    Non-mod migration is not very useful, as the target site is rarely on the list (especially for beta). – Vi. Jan 5 '15 at 10:23
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    I though deleting questions is a bad move. I don't like meeting "404 Go Away" on "deleted" questions (and looking for appropriate workarounds). – Vi. Jan 5 '15 at 10:25
  • @Vi. You don't need mod migration. You don't need migration at all. Just delete the question and move it yourself. The question was only asked yesterday. 404 is not a big issue. – Bill the Lizard Jan 5 '15 at 12:04
  • @MichaelT That question has -2 votes and comments telling the OP to post it somewhere else. Those don't need to be preserved. – Bill the Lizard Jan 5 '15 at 12:05
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    When should I try to get the question migrated instead of re-posting? When there are already useful answers? – Vi. Jan 5 '15 at 13:26
  • @Vi. Yes, flag for a moderator if there's something that you can't do on your own. – Bill the Lizard Jan 5 '15 at 13:27
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    I though proper system-assisted migration is better than poor man's delete+repost "migration". In my head SE is somewhat united, so shuffling questions between sites withing SE feels cheap. – Vi. Jan 5 '15 at 13:32
  • Created a diagram with the algorithm I'm going to follow. It covers both flag way and repost+delete way. Is everything OK there? – Vi. Jan 6 '15 at 7:37
  • @Vi. Yes, that looks good. You may want to note that if you have upvoted or accepted answers you can't delete a post, so you're pretty much forced to flag for a moderator. (It's not explicitly stated, but still covered by your diagram.) – Bill the Lizard Jan 6 '15 at 13:25
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Summarised other answers and comments as a chart:

Diagram

Source code:

printf '
    graph {flow:south} 
    [q]{label:Question should be on other site} 
        -> 
        [d?]{shape:diamond;label:Are there already\\nsuch question on the target site?}
        -> {label:No}
        [a?]{shape:diamond;label:Are there already\\nany useful answers?} 
        ->{label:No} 
        [r]{label:Re-post the question\\non the approripate site,\\n
            post a comment with a link to\\nnew question to your original question,\\n
            delete original question\\n(if there are no answers)}
        ->
        [ok] 
    [a?]
        ->{label:Yes} 
        [f]{label:Flag the question\\nfor migration,\\nspecifying the destination site\\nand new set of tags}
        -> 
        [m]{label:Monitor the flag outcome\\non "flag-summary" page}
        ->{label:"\"helpful\""} 
        [ok]{label:The question is now at the correct site}  
    [m]
        ->{label:rejected}
        [r] 
    [d?] 
        ->{label:Yes}
        [cka]{label:Consider answers to your question.\\n(if any)}
        ->
        [a2?]{shape:diamond;label:
            Do they add some value\\nto the question you have found}
        ->{label:No}
        [c]{label:Post the link\\nto found question as\\na comment to your question,\\nthen abandon and/or delete it} 
        ->
        [ok2]{label:Your question was not needed}
    [a2?]
        ->{label:Yes}
        [fd]{label:Flag the question\\nfor migration+merger,\\nspecifying the destination site\\nand the destination question} 
        ->
        [m2]{label:Monitor the flag outcome\\non "flag-summary" page}
        -> {label:"\"helpful\""}
        [ok]
    [m2]
        -> {label:rejected}
        [todo]{label:Post a link to your question\\nas a comment to found question}
        ->
        [ok]
' | graph-easy --as dot| dot -Tsvg
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  • Also, you might want to stick "look on the appropriate site to see if your question has already been answered" before "re-post the question..." This is the main reason we're reluctant to just migrate stuff. People should look on the correct site first. – Bill the Lizard Jan 6 '15 at 19:13
  • In this case the look on ... already ... should probably be before Are there useful answers?. – Vi. Jan 6 '15 at 19:53
  • Shall there be instructions to merge questions if "there are useful answers here" and "the question is already exists and answered (with less useful answers) there" hold simultaneously? – Vi. Jan 6 '15 at 19:56
  • Yes, in that case we'd migrate, then ask mods on the other site to do the merge for us. – Bill the Lizard Jan 6 '15 at 19:59
  • How this shall be worded? Options: 1. In flag request, specify "Please migrate it to X and merge with Y"; 2. Make the question migrated, then flag it again for merger; 3. Just offer migration. System+community will do the merge themselves if needed; – Vi. Jan 6 '15 at 20:03
  • Better to put it in the flag request. That way the moderator who handles the flag can request merger immediately on the other site. – Bill the Lizard Jan 6 '15 at 20:16
  • Updated the diagram. Now it's a bit more complicated. Are there any more ideas? – Vi. Jan 6 '15 at 20:53
  • That looks great. Thanks for taking the time to do this. – Bill the Lizard Jan 6 '15 at 20:55
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I don't think there are really many things you can do.

  • Re-ask this question on the site you feel this question is on-topic and just delete the original one.

  • Flag this question with "other" flag to get it migrated by a mod (something like "Please migrate my question to site.se as it is off-topic there"). It may take some time - depends on how active mods are on the site you posted your question.

  • Flag it with off-topic flag. It will go through the review queue and closers might vote to migrate it - there is such an option for users will closing privileges (it'll take 5 non-mod votes). But this won't work if there is no option to migrate to a particular site from this site.

About rejected flags: you can see them in {some-site}.se/users/flag-summary/{your-user-id}.

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  • About rejected flags -> Do I receive inbox notification? – Vi. Jan 4 '15 at 15:50
  • Is every flag either satisfied or rejected? – Vi. Jan 4 '15 at 15:51
  • @Vi. You don't receive notifications; flags can be rejected or approved (or disputed, if from review). – nicael Jan 4 '15 at 15:51
  • just delete the original one -> This whould remove a potentially useful "pointer" for other users who may ask similar question on the same source site. – Vi. Jan 4 '15 at 15:52
  • So I may use the same algorithm, but with one correction: Instead Wait for some time use Wait, monitoring the flag request outcome on "flag-summary", right? – Vi. Jan 4 '15 at 15:54
  • @Vi. But what if your question is completely off-topic? Why to keep it? Potential pointer is the help center :) This your question will be deleted from the original site anyway, there is no need to keep completely off-topic questions (ok, ask a question about bike sheds there or about programming. It shouldn't be removed because they are good examples of off-topic question, right?). – nicael Jan 4 '15 at 15:56
  • @Vi. (to the last comment) As you wish :) – nicael Jan 4 '15 at 15:57
  • Question about video on a photo site is not completely offtopic (as photocameras usually also shoot video). There is also video tag there. If there were no video.SE, the question may have been on-topic on photo.SE. – Vi. Jan 4 '15 at 15:59
  • I think migrated questions should be kept for the same reason as why duplicate questions are kept. By showing up on search and on suggested question list while creating a question, they tell user that the question they are going to create is probably not OK and also pointing correct direction (on the same site if duplicate, or on other site if migrated). Imagine a user creating a question How do I ... video ... sees Similar question: ... (migrated to video.SE). He may think "Let's ask on video.SE instead". – Vi. Jan 4 '15 at 16:05
  • They are typically down voted and therefore will be automatically removed by Community user in some time, if not by moderator. – nicael Jan 4 '15 at 16:14
  • Suggested an edit to the video tag's exerpt. If exerpt contained the link, I would have asked the question on the correct site. – Vi. Jan 4 '15 at 16:19

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