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Can a descriptive link to the ELL proposal be added to one or more of the following?

  • The FAQ
  • The General Reference description
  • A block in the sidebar or, if not, then as a sticky link in the "Community Bulletin" block.
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    Here's a cheap do-it-ourselves approach: create a community promotion ad.
    – RegDwigнt
    Commented Nov 22, 2012 at 9:46
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    @RegDwighт Does that mean that my suggestions are not feasible? I'm looking for an avenue that will consistently inform all users of the existence of ELL, especially if their question is closed as general reference or similar. Would promotional ads serve this purpose?
    – coleopterist
    Commented Nov 22, 2012 at 14:12
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    Adding things to FAQ is always a helpless move, yes; and usually a fruitless one. Like with everything else in life, it is precisely the people who absolutely need to read FAQs who never do that. The only people who are certain to read FAQs are the people who write them. Secondly, much of the stuff we close as gen-ref is likely to still be gen-ref elsewhere, including ELL. ELL is not supposed to be a copy of Wikipedia or Merriam-Webster any more than ELU is. Lastly, gen-ref is orthogonal to ELL anyway. A complex question asked by a native speaker can still be gen-ref.
    – RegDwigнt
    Commented Nov 22, 2012 at 16:26
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    @RegDwighт My apologies. By general reference, I mean a basic question rather than one that can be answered by a link to a page.
    – coleopterist
    Commented Nov 22, 2012 at 16:28
  • Is it time yet to add one more option on the "Off Topic" alternatives list [currently metaSE and writersSE only]? Including ELL could be useful.
    – Kris
    Commented Feb 14, 2013 at 8:46

2 Answers 2

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I'm adding this answer because kiamlaluno's It's quite too early to add any link to ELL is out-of-date. I think we should now have a line in the What kind of questions can I ask here? section of the ELU FAQ saying something along the lines of...

Please consider whether your question might be better asked on English Language Learners.

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It's quite too early to add any link to ELL, as it is just a proposal, which is still in commitment phase. Once the proposal became a site, and graduated, adding a reference to ELL can be considered.

As for the suggestions:

  • The FAQ contains a part that can be edited from moderators, and which can eventually suggest other Stack Exchange sites that could be interesting for the users who normally ask questions on EL&U, and which are pertinent. (This means the FAQ would not suggest Stack Overflow as alternative site where to ask questions.)

  • The description for the closing reasons are the same for every Stack Exchange sites (except Area 51, and StackApps). It is rather difficult Stack Exchange implements customized descriptions for each site, at least for the fact it would confuse users who has an account on other Stack Exchange sites.

  • The Community Bulletin block can have a link to a meta question that has been tagged , but that tag is automatically removed after X days (I think it should be 30 days).

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  • Thank you. While your answer makes perfect sense, I'm looking for an easy way to point newbies asking or looking to ask basic questions to the ELL site. The more we send over, the sooner it will become a site.
    – coleopterist
    Commented Dec 4, 2012 at 3:24
  • You can do it in a comment, if you make clear it's not a graduated site. Newbies that are newbies on Stack Exchange sites could not understand the difference between a proposal, and a graduated site, especially when they use graduated sites.
    – avpaderno
    Commented Dec 6, 2012 at 0:58

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