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There are a host of Bioinformatics questions on StackOverflow, CrossValidated, and probably other SE sites as well.

Many of these questions would now be better placed here than on the site they were originally posted on. Should we actively seek out migration of good, relevant questions from other SE communities which would fit better here?

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    $\begingroup$ I think this should/would happen once this site is live? $\endgroup$
    – zx8754
    May 18, 2017 at 6:26
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    $\begingroup$ Certainly new questions should be migrated when they are asked in the wrong places, but I'm not sure what the protocol is on existing questions - I think it would require an active effort to seek these out. $\endgroup$
    – Scott Gigante
    May 18, 2017 at 6:28
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    $\begingroup$ Yes, that would be a quite an effort, maybe mods at SE can do it automagically. $\endgroup$
    – zx8754
    May 18, 2017 at 6:31
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    $\begingroup$ Could work. However, I imagine a number of those questions would be related to bioinformatics but still in essence code-based problems and thus better placed on StackOverflow? Not sure what others think about overlap between this site and SO in particular $\endgroup$
    – Scott Gigante
    May 18, 2017 at 6:34
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    $\begingroup$ There are bioinformatics questions on Biology, Unix & Linux, Stack Overflow, Ask Ubuntu and almost certainly others. However, all were on topic on their sites so they cannot (and should not) be migrated. And mods can only migrate questions that are less than 60 days old anyway (speaking as a mod on other sites). $\endgroup$
    – terdon
    May 18, 2017 at 11:09

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First of all, we can't migrate questions older than 60 days. Moreover, the general rule across all SE sites is that we don't migrate away things that are on topic. So assuming the questions were indeed on topic where they were asked, there is no reason to migrate them.

Instead, what we should do is when we find an interesting bioinformatics question on another site, we just ask it again here. We can either use the existing answers from the other site directly (with attribution, of course, and possibly marking as Community Wiki as well), or write our own.

But no, migration of existing questions isn't the way to go and isn't possible anyway.

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    $\begingroup$ The Unix & Linux SE forum gets a few bioinformatics-related questions, but they are most of the time perfectly on-topic on U&L as well. $\endgroup$
    – Kusalananda
    May 30, 2017 at 22:50
  • $\begingroup$ The bioinformatics tag on SO seems nearly as active as the entire forum here, should we not be directing more of that traffic here either by migrating new questions or commenting on questions? $\endgroup$
    – Chris_Rands
    Jul 20, 2017 at 11:40
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    $\begingroup$ @Chris_Rands commenting yes, absolutely. But the general rule is that we don't migrate away things that are on topic unless the poster asks for it. Leaving a comment to let people know about this site is something else and probably a very good idea. $\endgroup$
    – terdon
    Jul 20, 2017 at 14:31
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Although some questions about bioinformatics might be answered in other Stack Exchange sites if they are on topic on that sites it doesn't need to be moved here unless the OP asks to move his/her question.

For example some questions are on topic both in Stack Overflow and Software Engineering, but unless the user asks the question is left where it has been asked.

See related posts in meta SE and this other post. Specially this one:

If it is a borderline question, let it live in both cultures, as the answeres will be different, programmers answering for programmers, and admins answering for admins.

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If such is done; then primarily-bioinformatics questions on Biology SE could be also migrated (imported) (later-on) to this site, so that they could be easily found together.

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