Please explain why this page was not sensibly migrated to Meta

Question

I am new to codegolf, but not new to the Stack Exchange Network, so I am puzzled (pun intended).

I recently joined this community and immediately searched for tips about how to post good php answers and "golf" my snippets to the maximum (or is it minimum?).

When conducting such research, it is only logical to search the content within a community's Meta because that's where people post about site behaviors and occurrences.

I was surprised when I came upon PHP golfing tips: Reading/writing files and the CLI in the Main community -- it's definitely NOT A PUZZLE -- it is asking advice about how to best post on the Main site.

It was ultimately helpful to me, but seems like a perfect candidate for migration to Meta.

My flag:

This is not a code golf puzzle; it is asking about how to improve answer quality. This page should be migrated to codegolf.meta.stackexchange.com – mickmackusa 2 days ago

Outcome:

declined - a moderator reviewed your flag, but found no evidence to support it

Please explain this decision because it makes no sense to me at all.

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After writing the above, I read the suggested pages in the similar questions box and chased the links with in. Including:

• Re-evaluating [tips] and tip-like questions
• Let's decide what kind of non-challenge questions we want once and for all
• Not quite main, not quite meta questions

...and more.

I find myself mostly aligning with Rainbolt, Howard, and Mego in most cases, but regardless of which side of the fence you are on, popularity isn't how this debate should swiftly end.

Let me say, that I don't endorse the diluting of the Main scope as a tactic to pad posting count or entice more registrations.

I get it, we all want our own communities to thrive. I am a new moderator at Joomla Stack Exchange -- a community that is not on track to mature beyond Beta. JSE has loosened their scope to be more inclusive of support for Joomla extensions and issues encountered while conducting Joomla development because limiting the scope to strictly the core CMS would see Joomla users rerouted back to Stackoverflow/elsewhere (and our community would never gain traction). This is a reasonable justification that does not break the expectations of Stack Exchange. When SE users cross-pollinate/drift into our community, they know where to find what they are looking for and they know where to post.

Meta is the best place to park tips questions because:

1. They seek support and/or discussion (edit: from the community on how to post).
2. They are NOT puzzles. (edit: ...nor "challenges" nor "competitions". They are unexpected anomalies in a vast and predictably-formatted pool of puzzles/challenges/competitions.)
3. They attract answers that improve the quality of legitimate posts on Main.
4. This community is no longer in Beta, so there is no need to scope-stretch to win the site graduation game.
5. "Staying the course" because "that's how we've always done it" (edit: or "that is what is currently engraved on our Meta stone") is a tragic philosophy.
6. Getting increased traffic on Meta is part of a healthy community too!

If you've already posted your opinion on other Meta pages and don't have any new arguments, that's fine, I've probably already read them. I hope that this post stimulates the current moderation team to consider reining in the on-topic question scope. I think the time is right.

Answer 1

Meta sites have a clearly defined scope. What is "meta"? How does it work?

Meta Code Golf Stack Exchange is the part of the site where users discuss the workings and policies of Code Golf Stack Exchange rather than discussing programming puzzles or code golf itself. It is separated from the main Q&A to reduce noise there while providing a legitimate space for people to ask how and why this site works the way it does. Meta is for...

• ...Code Golf Stack Exchange users to communicate with each other about Code Golf Stack Exchange (asking questions about how the websites work, or about policies and community decisions)
• ...Code Golf Stack Exchange users to communicate with Stack Overflow the company (posting bugs, suggesting improvements, or proposing new features), and
• ...Stack Overflow the company to communicate with the community (soliciting feedback on new ideas or features, or discussing policies that affect the whole network)

Some "tips" questions fall in that scope:

• Tips for writing good code golf questions
• What answer-chaining scoring criteria promote collaboration?
• Tips for providing high-quality answers in popularity contests

are all concerned specifically with posting on Code Golf, making them a good fit for meta.

PHP golfing tips: Reading/writing files and the CLI may not be a puzzle, but that's not a requirement for posting on the main site. Since this question is about golfing in general—not about posting on Code Golf in particular—it is off topic on meta.

Answer 2

The subject of this community is code golf (& coding challenges).

While most main posts are indeed code golf challenges, other types of posts about code golf are perfectly on-topic too. tips is maybe the most common.

To address your specific concerns:

1. They seek support and/or discussion.

No they don't. They seek objective answers: how code can be shortened.

2. They are NOT puzzles.

The word puzzles is not in our site name.

3. They attract answers that improve the quality of legitimate posts on Main.

True, but they also help people golf code outside of the site.

4. This community is no longer in Beta, so there is no need to scope-stretch to win the site graduation game.

True.

5. "Staying the course" because "that's how we've always done it" is a tragic philosophy.

Even more so now that the site is called just Code Golf they are on-topic Main content.

6. Getting increased traffic on Meta is part of a healthy community too!

Yes, but we shouldn't move on-topic Main content to Meta because of that.