I find myself doing this too sometimes. Looking at the posts, it is obvious that Stack Overflow has the most posters; therefore, it is your best bet at getting a quick answer.

Site                   Questions
Stack Overflow         2.3m
Super User             101k
server Fault           96k
Meta Stack Overflow    29k

A lot of questions go into Stack Overflow, even though they don't belong there because the people there are experienced enough to answer any question.

What is the incentive for me to go out of my way to post in the correct site, when I could just post in the busiest site (Stack Overflow) and let some moderators worry about migrating questions?

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Apart from reporting a question you think should be migrated, what is the purpose of this question? What is the point that you want to discuss? –  kiamlaluno Nov 9 '11 at 10:51
and your question is? –  waffles Nov 9 '11 at 10:51
@kiamlaluno I edited the question –  puk Nov 9 '11 at 10:58
The example question you show is on-topic on Stack Overflow IMO –  Pëkka Nov 9 '11 at 11:00
I understand he uses the terms 'javascript' and 'flash', however, it just strikes me as a no brainer that a server related question belongs on Server Fault –  puk Nov 9 '11 at 11:07
@puk no. It's clearly a programming question. Server questions are fine on SO as long as they're programming and not maintenance / operation related –  Pëkka Nov 9 '11 at 11:09
Clearly, we should kick some people out, as it's getting crowded (also, way too mainstream). Will you volunteer? –  Piskvor Nov 9 '11 at 12:11
I do agree this is an issue. But so far, I think nobody's complaining too loudly. The influx of OT questions doesn't seem impossible to handle at the moment. –  Pëkka Nov 9 '11 at 12:28
@Pekka I don't understand why everyone is so enraged (ie. Piskvor). It strikes me as unnecessary to have different sites if there is an overwhelming incentive to post in only one site. –  puk Nov 9 '11 at 12:39
@puk as said, I don't think the problem is that huge at the moment. Of course many people will try to profit from SO's traffic. But the migration progress seems to work well, and repeat offenders usually get downvoted, so I don't think there is a problem. (Re downvotes: Bear in mind that downvotes have a different meaning on Meta. They are used to signify "I don't agree with the suggestion/question" rather than bad quality –  Pëkka Nov 9 '11 at 12:43
@Piskvor'sSemifiniteMonkeys I suggest you read this article on rude comments –  puk Nov 9 '11 at 13:48
@puk: Question: "Too many people are using Stack Overflow" - well, if it actually is this problem, we should get rid of some. As simple as that ;) To the actual point: people seem to be asking OT questions everywhere (SO,SU,SF,SE,all the metas); it's only more visible on SO as it's the largest site. –  Piskvor Nov 9 '11 at 14:04
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closed as not constructive by kiamlaluno, ChrisF, Mark Trapp, Diago, Yi Jiang Nov 9 '11 at 11:43


1 Answer

There are two reasons for which you should post to the right SE site:

  • The question is not necessarily migrated. Some questions are simply closed as off-topic, which automatically gives you a down-vote (and you lose 2 points).
  • In the case that most of your questions are closed, you will be probably not allowed to ask questions on Stack Overflow anymore (until you don't write some up-voted answers).

If you keep asking questions on Stack Overflow that should be asked on different SE sites, your questions will probably attract down-votes.
I also imagine that the reaction to a user who keeps asking on Stack Overflow questions that should be asked on a different site, and who justifies himself saying "I ask it here so you can migrate it to the right site," would probably be not to migrate anymore his questions. Asking a question in the wrong site is something that can happens to everybody, and there is nothing bad in that (also because there are borderline questions for which it is not easy to decide the site that better suits them), but doing that on purpose is different.

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I think down-votes are removed when a question is migrated, but the rest of the answer is spot on. –  ChrisF Nov 9 '11 at 11:14
You are right, negative scores are reset to 0. –  kiamlaluno Nov 9 '11 at 11:23
The negative rep still affects you on the original site until the question gets deleted and your rep is recalculated. It will also count towards the bad-questions filter that will block you if you keep posting low quality stuff even if your questions get upvoted after migration. –  Caleb Nov 9 '11 at 11:43
Also remember that after enough questions asked on purpose in the wrong site, moderator might notice this and send the person to the Penalty Box. –  Shadow Wizard Nov 9 '11 at 12:35
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