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I recently discovered Meta Stack Exchange and asked a programming question on it. Subsequently, it got (down|delete|close) voted for this reason:

This question does not appear to be about the software that powers the Stack Exchange network, within the scope defined in the help center.

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The downvotes don't indicate that this question sucks. They indicate that it doesn't deserve to be tagged with , and that's totally OK.

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    I like the intention. But TBH, people who post programming questions on meta.SO or meta.SE are very unlikely to find this post and be willing and able to understand it.
    – Mysticial
    Commented Jul 15, 2016 at 20:58
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    I don't see this being incredibly useful. I've never encountered this actually being asked so much that we need to have it available on demand, or that we need to have a bloated version of the words "you're on the wrong site" to explain that they're on the wrong site.
    – animuson StaffMod
    Commented Jul 15, 2016 at 21:31
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    I suspect that there's a reason why that off-topic reason doesn't specially tell the OP to repost on the correct site. People who post programming questions on meta.SO or meta.SE are either banned or are highly unlikely to be able to post a question that meets quality standards. IOW, what we (the site) wants is for the person to GTFO and stay away. Of course that isn't very diplomatic. So we leave them in a limbo state so they get confused and will leave on their own.
    – Mysticial
    Commented Jul 15, 2016 at 21:32
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    @animuson I could imagine pointing users who post off-topic questions to something like this when I vtc.
    – Catija
    Commented Jul 15, 2016 at 21:41
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    Do downvotes on FAQ proposals (such as this one) indicate that the community doesn't think the proposal is a viable FAQ entry, just like the downvotes on feature requests?
    – SE is dead
    Commented Jul 15, 2016 at 22:55
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    @dorukayhan Almost certainly, yes.
    – user206222
    Commented Jul 16, 2016 at 1:06
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    I am amused to see that some very clever person voted to close this as "no repro". I only wish that were true.
    – Nathan Tuggy
    Commented Jul 16, 2016 at 3:41
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    Possible duplicate of Sudden increase in off-topic posts on MSE
    – rene Mod
    Commented Jul 16, 2016 at 8:31
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    Why are we really trying to look for a reason to close this? I'm too bored; I'll leave it open.
    – M.A.R.
    Commented Jul 16, 2016 at 16:14
  • @rene That post looks more like "related" rather than "duplicate", I think.
    – SE is dead
    Commented Jul 16, 2016 at 16:18
  • @dorukayhan yes, it is related but I really think the question is not helpful so it should be closed. None of the other close options did fit IMHO, so I chose a possible dupe.
    – rene Mod
    Commented Jul 16, 2016 at 16:25
  • Heavily downvoted faq is useless. Better delete this or at least remove the faq proposed tag as it will not be a faq
    – Shadow Wizard
    Commented Nov 18, 2016 at 7:53
  • Possible duplicate of People get lost and crash into meta - maybe we need roadblocks for their safety
    – Sonic the Anonymous Hedgehog
    Commented Mar 14, 2018 at 5:31

1 Answer 1

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How is MSE different from Stack Overflow?

As mentioned at the top and bottom of its tour, Stack Overflow is just one of the 150+ sites in a question-answer network called Stack Exchange. It's where questions about solving specific programming problems1 are asked.

Meta Stack Exchange is about something completely different - it's where bugs, policies and feature requests that affect every single site in SE are discussed. In other words, questions on MSE should be "about the software that powers the Stack Exchange network, within the scope defined in the help center."

More info

1 - Be sure to mention what you have tried.

What am I supposed to do?

Well... ask that programming question on SO!

If "we're no longer accepting questions from [your] account", read What can I do when getting "We are no longer accepting questions/answers from this account"? to figure out how to start asking questions again.

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