Following the recent complaints concerning the growth of the Stack Exchange Family and where to ask questions, I think it would make sense to help the users and moderators to find the right place for a question. One of the best examples available would be the faq of math.se, especially the list of ambiguous questions pointing to the corresponding site of the Stack Exchange (SE) Family.
- First thing would be to specify if a specific type of off-topic question on EL&U would have a place on another SE site, whether it be launched, in beta, or still a proposal. For example, language (other than English) questions would be directed to the right proposal (German Language, Yiddish Language, etc...) or when concerning more than one language, it could be redirected to Linguistics or Languages. Then a list could be written and added to our faq. Then the user would be sure to have an answer to the question asked when placed in the right place.
- Then, other sites could have off-topic questions, that would belong to EL&U. Those sites should be identified and then contacted with a proposal to add our site as redirection for those questions in their faq, or at least keep an eye on those sites if they haven't made it to their beta phase. The obvious suspects are more or less the same as for point 1. as far as I know. Once the link between sites is made, it could bring traffic to EL&U that would otherwise have been lost.
In the end, if in each community, at least one dedicated and active member would maintain such a list, it would facilitate the connectivity between sites, and ensure that questions are asked in the right place. For EL&U, I am willing to be part of this effort.
Can anyone point to any other site that should be of interest in this topic? Do you think it is a good idea to begin with?
