What's up with the migration?

Question

I have asked this question, originally on Scifi and Fantasy. After a bit of discussion, it was voted that it should be migrated to english.stackexchange, but was for some reason migrated here.

Yes, this is fair enough, there is some level of relevance, since this is about a line that appears in movies a fair bit, but it was still closed and the vote to migrate to english.stackexchange was once again put forward.

But coming back to it again today, I have found that it was attempted to instead migrate it back to scifi.stackexchange.

Why?? Everyone has said it should go to english, but that's the one place it seems people don't want it to go?

Answer 1

I did not consider migrating that question to English Language & Usage so much, since it was already a migrated question that was simply inappropriate for our site and thus closed as "too broad", rejecting the migration. Neither did any user actually flag the question for migration. Granted, looking at the comments one user pointed out that it could find a home on ELU but double-migrations are not a particularly well-understood thing from the mere framework side of things in the first place and this possiblity thus stayed largely unconsidered, which in retrospect was the right decision, even if admittedly rather born out of confusion than careful consideration.

The situation has been resolved now by the Science Fiction & Fantasy moderators migrating the original question to ELU after the migration to M&TV was rejected. This also is the preferred approach, since after rejecting the migration the migrated question on the target site gets locked (and is scheduled for deletion, as has been done now already after the question found its new home on ELU at last) and the original question on the source site gets unlocked. It is then preferable to migrate this unlocked and previously inappropriately migrated original question to any further sites to avoid having two unlocked and working (even if closed) copies of the question straying apart and being worked on.

The question why the original question was not migrated from SciFi to ELU in the first place is something you'd have to ask the SciFi moderators, though, since we lack any insight into this. But as a general advice (even if you maybe did that already on the original question), if you (either as asker or just normal passerby) genuinely feel that a question should be migrated to another site, feel free to flag it for moderator attention mentioning this possible migration, which gives a much stronger signal than some stray comments saying "this would be better fit on ..." (but thus also comes with a stronger responsibility).

Answer 2

Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a particularly good home for this question the way you've written it.

Normally, there is a distinction between a question being "on-topic" and a question being "a good question". Off-topic questions get closed, while bad on-topic questions just get downvoted.

With migrations, however, the bar is significantly higher. We don't want to migrate bad questions to other sites, even if they would, strictly speaking, be on-topic there. That gives the impression that we're just trying to "dump our garbage" on other sites. (Please don't take this as a personal affront -- this is merely the overall impression we're trying to avoid).

In your case, I think your major problem is you're asking too much:

So where does the phrase come from, and/or why is it I so many different movies?

That's two very different questions, and I think they are getting in the way of each other. Lets take them in reverse order, because it's easier:

• The second question, by itself, would probably get closed as too-broad on this site. It's such a common English phrase, that it would be like asking "why do they say 'hello' or 'goodbye' so often in movies." I don't think you're going to find a good answer to that, other that the obvious fact that it has the meaning the writers want to convey -- which basically applies to everything you see in dialogue.

• The first part, however, taken by itself, would probably make a semi-decent question on the English Stack Exchange. That part alone is a question asking for the origin or etymology of an English phrase. That seems to be like it would be on-topic over there. Unfortunately, as-is, we can't migrate your question because the other bit's still there.

My recommendation to you would be to let this question get closed -- by now, the revision history and downvotes would likely scare away any English:SE mod who saw M&TV trying to migrate it. At this point, it's probably a lost cause.

Instead, narrow your question to just the aspect of "origin of the phrase"; you can still use the movie quotes as reference for where you heard it, and in what context, but be sure to focus on the part that you're likely to get answered, namely, "where did this phrase originate?".

Caveat: I am not a regular on English:SE; I can't guarantee they'll like the question over there, but I think if you focus it and make it on-topic, that is your best chance to get an answer.

Answer 3

As was already said in comments, we have no control over SFF migrating the question here, other than closing it and sending it back their way. If the plan was to move the question to ELU, that seems like something you need to be addressing on SFF.

As someone who has rep on ELU, this question (if phrased more generally to a usage history question) should be fine on ELU. Etymology and history of phrases is part of what they do there and you should ask it there directly without having it migrated. It's already closed on both SFF and M&TV, so it's not going to hurt anything to ask it there directly.

Here are some examples:

• https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/277829/button-up-that-frog-will-you

• https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/263732/where-does-pizza-pie-originate

• https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/44127/where-did-god-helps-those-who-help-themselves-originate

• https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/191819/when-and-where-did-the-exclamation-snap-originate

But do make sure to do some research of your own to see if this phrase is easily explained in readily available sources. If you don't do some prep, it's likely to get closed for lack of research.

Also, be sure to do a bit of searching on ELU to make sure they've not already answered the question.

One final note... ELU can be a bit quirky... so don't be super surprised if they randomly close your question. It can be difficult to predict what they'll do.

Answer 4

The chain of events are like this. The question was VTC by 5 users on Scifi.SE as Off-Topic. Off topic can mean a few things, and unless there is a clear migration option as the winner, it is just closed/on hold.

Then a Moderator, based on his reading of the question and/or users flagging, decided to Migrate it here to Movies.SE. It was then VTC to us here as it does not fit this site. Anytime a migrated question is Closed on the newly migrated site, it is automatically kicked back to the originating site as Migration Rejected. Automated process. Then the Scifi.SE moderator migrated it to English.SE.

This is where it gets weird. The question lists as being Rejected again, BUT it's still open and active on English.SE here. So the revision log on the original Scifi.SE questions seems to have bugged out. I don't have enough rep on English to tell if it has any close votes there. Ignore the revision log, your question is alive.