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When a question is closed as "Unconstructive", could a comment be added suggesting the proper StackExchange site (e.g. programmers.stackexhange) for that question.

This will really help the person asking the question, as well as users who reach the page via Google.

Almost everyone knows about StackOverflow.com, but not everyone knows about the other StackExchange sites like programmers.stackexchange.

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17  
Generally, when questions are closed as "not constructive" on one site, they're not suitable for any site. –  Michael Petrotta Apr 2 '13 at 4:04
1  
The off-topic close reason is usually used for a question that is closed because it does not fit within the scope of the site on which it was posted. –  Eliah Kagan Apr 2 '13 at 5:00

1 Answer 1

up vote 12 down vote accepted

If a question is closed as not constructive, that does not mean that it should have been posted on another Stack Exchange site.

If the question were truly suitable for another site as-written, it would have been migrated there instead of being closed on the original site as not constructive.

Generally, questions that get closed as non-constructive violate guidelines that we adhere to across the entire network of Stack Exchange sites. After doing this for several years, we've learned that certain types of questions just don't fit into the Q&A format very well. They might even be perfectly valid questions, and you might really need the answer to them, but they do not fit into our model.

You can find a partial list of those guidelines for constructive questions in the site FAQ (for example, here is the FAQ for Stack Overflow), and more specific guidelines on asking "good subjective" questions here on the SE blog.

The Programmers.SE people have been complaining for years that Stack Overflow was treating them as their toilet bowl, dumping off all of their poor-quality, not-constructive questions on their site. It was really making it hard for the Programmers users and moderators to run a high quality site that meets the Stack Exchange standards, so now we have promised to keep our garbage to ourselves. Please consult the FAQ for the two sites to see what types of questions belong on each. We also have a handy guide available here on Meta. Hint: it has nothing to do with the constructiveness or subjectiveness of the question.

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2  
unless we have Unconstructive.stackexchange.com :P –  NullPoiиteя Apr 2 '13 at 4:09
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@NullPonyPointer New idea for a [feature-request]: redirect unconstructive.stackexchange.com to answers.yahoo.com –  Cody Gray Apr 2 '13 at 4:12
    
lol this will work too :D –  NullPoiиteя Apr 2 '13 at 4:14
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Didn't know this, thanks. Perhaps, "Unconstructive" is the wrong label then ? Perhaps it should be changed to "NotForStackOverflow" to clearly indicate this and educate users about this? –  user637563 Apr 2 '13 at 5:36
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@user637563 We're working on improving them; join the discussion here: Help us make "Not Constructive" and "Not a Real Question" closures more effective –  Cody Gray Apr 2 '13 at 5:42

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