It's kind of ridiculous at this point. I guess the questions are on-topic, but it still seems better suited for a separate site (maybe one that doesn't exist yet, or the off-the-grid one?).
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FWIW, I've been cleaning up tags recently and I bumped a bunch of old solar questions (replacing the tag controller, which is ambiguous and should therefore go away entirely), so what you're seeing might be just that.
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3\$\begingroup\$ If that downvote is intended to express that you think I should be editing posts slower, or doing something differently, perhaps you could say that in a comment so I know what you mean. This answer is just answering the question, and the OP even thought it made sense. \$\endgroup\$ Sep 15, 2017 at 18:00
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1\$\begingroup\$ Now that I reread the question, I guess you literally did answer it. But I'm probably not the only one who assumed that the OP's implicit question was "do we want these questions here?", which your answer doesn't directly address. That might be why your answer got downvoted (or it might not; I'm not the downvoter, and I can't really know what they may have been thinking). \$\endgroup\$ Sep 18, 2017 at 22:36
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1\$\begingroup\$ @IlmariKaronen Fair enough. I could have made it clearer that I was intending to supply context for the discussion. The implicit contribution to the implicit question then being "There isn't a recent flood of questions so there isn't necessarily a problem needing solving here." \$\endgroup\$ Sep 18, 2017 at 23:05
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This is one area where it is hard to set the position of the off topic line. There are clearly questions on solar which are in the realm of the electrical engineering stack exchange, there are questions which are not e.g panel positioning, and then there are those in the middle.
It is my opinion that we should leave this to the wisdom of the community. You are at liberty to vote a question as off topic and suggest migration. With sufficient support this will happen solving the problem.
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There are a few topics like that... Stereo systems, car wiring etc.
Grey areas will always abound.
Does it fit under EE? In reality often yes as a subset, but the OP may get better answers from the appropriate specialized forum.
Also, as any good EE knows, there are areas where cross disciple knowledge is required, for example pretty much anything to do with motors you need to use your mechanical engineering training too.
Ultimately, as someone else mentioned, it's up to the wisdom of the community, however the problem with too much segregation is someone searching for something here can miss some pearl in some other forum. Perhaps something SO should look at.
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\$\begingroup\$ Could you provide some examples from the help center or other meta posts? This is a lot of hand waving \$\endgroup\$– Voltage Spike ModSep 19, 2017 at 19:17
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\$\begingroup\$ Examples of definitions of what is on topic and what is off topic on this site, these things have been defined. \$\endgroup\$– Voltage Spike ModSep 19, 2017 at 19:22
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\$\begingroup\$ @laptop2d that is the issue. Some stuff is borderline. \$\endgroup\$– Trevor_GSep 19, 2017 at 19:28
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In order to label such things off-topic, we would need explicit rules. There are many areas that overlap with EE and also many Stack Exchange sites with a scope that overlaps:
- https://stackoverflow.com/
- https://ham.stackexchange.com/
- https://diy.stackexchange.com/
- https://arduino.stackexchange.com/
- https://iot.stackexchange.com/
- https://raspberrypi.stackexchange.com/
- https://robotics.stackexchange.com/
- https://superuser.com/
It isn't obvious where to draw the line.
Migrating posts between SE sites is rarely a good thing to do - most often such questions just die out. Plus it creates work for moderators at the source and destination sites both. I believe the overall trend on SE is to stop migrating posts, but rather to close them instead.
Arduino questions is another example like the solar setups etc, they are mostly on-topic but would perhaps get a better reception on another site.
Given that the question is actually on-topic here, the best thing to do is to leave a comment to the OP, telling them that their question is better suited for site x. That way we can direct traffic to other sites in a positive way and without creating more work for the moderators.
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\$\begingroup\$ Actually, where a post is not getting attention on a site, or is marginally in scope but not working, migration is absolutely recommended and encouraged. Most often such questions gain a better chance of survival. The overall trend is not to close them, but to migrate. I moderate 7 sites so see a lot of stats on succsessful and failed migrations. \$\endgroup\$ Sep 19, 2017 at 23:20
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\$\begingroup\$ @RoryAlsop Main issue with migration is that the mod needs to know what's on-topic on the other site. It is quite a lot to ask of EE mods to learn what's on-topic on all the sites above. If they don't, they might be migrating crap: meta.stackexchange.com/questions/225006/… \$\endgroup\$– LundinSep 20, 2017 at 6:32
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\$\begingroup\$ Nothing like that is needed - simply ask someone (ideally a mod or high rep user) at the proposed destination. Something like "Is this question suitable for you, URL Link here" We do this all the time. \$\endgroup\$ Sep 20, 2017 at 6:37
but it still seems better suited for a separate siteWhy? What makes it not well suited here? \$\endgroup\$