Propose "close as off-topic" option that suggests to post a question on a different Stack Exchange website

Question

After reading this question I was wondering if it isn't a better idea to make a suggestion to the poster to post the question on a different Stack Exchange site instead of vote for migration. Migrating seems to be a difficult task (source) and would mean that the question already meets the rules of the other site, but this doesn't have to be the case.

What:

As a reason for the close vote, allow to make a suggestion to the poster to post it on a different SE site. It allows the poster to decide if the question should be edited to keep it on UX Exchange, or if it should be posted on the suggested site, maybe in a different format to meet the rules of that site. So it still is a close vote but with a friendly message to the poster to think about asking it elsewhere. Often I choose Off-topic > other just to make such suggestion.

Why:

It's a friendly and helpful message

The suggestion is there to help someone to get an answer to their question. It promotes choosing a more friendly and helpful tone instead of just voting to close it as off-topic with a reason but without giving any further direction.

I often see new users post a question that is obviously better suited on a different site. This could make those users feel more welcome.

Provide options to suggest SE sites

Keep it simple and provide an auto-suggest option that search SE sites while you type. We still have the Off-topic > other option to direct to a different site. Also it should be in Stack Exchange Network's interest to keep people on their sites, right?

So instead of this:

I'd propose something like this:

As seen on in the links above, but it could use a friendlier tone and explain that it is a suggestion.

Answer 1

Actually, This used to be how Stack Exchange worked many years ago - the migration options were open and people could vote to migrate to a wide variety of sites. However this was reduced to a small number of sites, and then removed altogether because it caused more problems than it solved.

The main problem is - people on one site generally don't know what is and isn't appropriate for the Stack Exchange site they're suggesting migrating to.

StackOverflow is a common example. Any question posted with a vague relationship to programming would invariably attract 'this should be posted on StackOverflow' migration suggestions. And then when migrated to StackOverflow it would immediately be closed off as not being suitable. Because StackOverflow has a very precise requirement for what does, and doesn't work there. Just because a question is about coding, that doesn't mean it's appropriate for that site.

That lead to a lot of grumpy users. "Well I was told to post this here, but now you're closing it here too? Just where CAN I post it?".

There's also the other issue that if people know the question will just be migrated to it's 'proper' home they won't put as much effort into finding the right location in the first place. "I'll post it here and someone will migrate it if I get the wrong site". This leads to the same problems as above.

Finally - if it really is a question suitable to another site, then there's actually a good chance it's already been asked over there. So if we migrate it over it'll just get closed as a duplicate. Which annoys the poster (and the other site's community too).

So really, we should be keeping the onus on the person asking the question to find out where they should ask it. It's not our job to direct people in one place or another. And being a professional site (or network of sites) it's in the question askers responsibility to do their research to solve the problem before they even ask it - one such area of research is to find out where to post a question in a particular topic.

It's a nice idea in theory, that we help people out with where to post. But really, we only know what does and doesn't work as a suitable question on this Stack site. We don't know what works and doesn't on every other one. So generally we just get it wrong and annoy the original question asker AND the community we dump these questions over on to.

So. Best leave it to moderators to decide. Generally they'll just get closed off, but sometimes they'll be migrated. But it's up to the moderator to do the research, contact the moderators on the target site to see if it's suitable and then migrate if it really needs to.

Here's a bit more about the whole Migration process: What is migration and how does it work?