5

This question is not the first to arrive here from EL&U, and it is not the first where the person who asked the question "does not exist".

Of course this makes sense, as the user has made an account on EL&U, and not (yet) on ELL.

As I am very inexperienced in asking questions here, and as inexperienced in having my questions migrated, I am wondering if a user who has his question migrated will easily find it back on a site where he has no account, or if the question is effectively "orphaned".

If the question is orphaned, as seems to happen (whether because the user can not find his question back, or whether he has lost interest and doesn't feel like creating an account here), is the migration actually useful?

  • Yes it is useful, because we answer question not just for the asker, but for anyone with the same or a similar question in the future.

  • No it is not, because the asker never gets to see his question answered.

In general, if the question begs more questions (clarification, context), it is unlikely that that context or clarification is actually given, as the person who normally would give those is not registered and cannot provide those answers. So any "orphaned question" that is not clear enough to be answered will (should?) be closed as "unclear what you're asking" or similar - which means that migration was just a stay of execution.

Any thoughts on this?

4
  • I'm no migration expert, but if a user revisits the original site to find an answer, then that user will still be able to find answers on the migrated-to site. True?
    – J.R. Mod
    May 13, 2014 at 18:25
  • I guess so, as I also see migrated question on the original site. However, I wonder if the original user can respond without making an account on the target site. That is not much work, but it seems an extra obstacle form some, leading to questions that don;t survive the migration :(
    – oerkelens
    May 13, 2014 at 19:04
  • The original post (say, on EL&U) will point to the migrated question on ELL once migrated. If the user is still interested, then they can create an account here and follow up with comments, etc. However, I'm not sure about notifications - does anyone have experience with whether the OP will get notifications from the target site? In general - I think these questions should be retained if the answers merit it.
    – jimsug
    May 15, 2014 at 4:07
  • The user that asked the example question did not bother to create another account. The question may still be interesting, but the only "answer" is so far in a comment. Even if it would be posted as an answer, it would not get accepted, so the question remains "unanswered". Basically, the migration resulted in a slow death of the question, instead of a quick one – by closing it on ELU.
    – oerkelens
    May 15, 2014 at 7:15

0

You must log in to answer this question.

Browse other questions tagged .