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According to this answer, software licensing questions are off-topic if they cannot be answered by a software engineer.

Should off-topic new software licensing questions be moved to the law/open source Stack Exchange websites, or closed+deleted?

(Assume the use software licensing question is on-topic on either the law/open source Stack Exchange website)

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    Except software licensing questions aren't off-topic, if they can be answered by a software engineer. That is what the linked answer says (I should know - I wrote it). A subset of licensing questions are off-topic here. Questions about choosing a license are off-topic here (for the same reasons as a resource request), but on-topic on Open Source. Questions about open-source culture are off-topic here (doesn't fit into the SDLC), but are on-topic on Open Source. Questions that require the expertise of a lawyer are off-topic here, but may be on topic on Law.
    – Thomas Owens Mod
    May 18, 2017 at 17:46
  • @ThomasOwens Thank you for the correction, I have amended the question accordingly.
    – Franck Dernoncourt
    May 18, 2017 at 17:48
  • So you're asking "should off-topic questions be closed, migrated, or deleted?" We already have a policy on that. They get closed. We have a custom close reason for these questions already. Personally, I also fast-delete any question I see that is closed for one of our custom reasons (writing/debugging code, career/education advice, legal advice or aid, find/recommend stuff). There's no difference between an off-topic licensing question and an off-topic coding question. Good questions get migrated to the right site (if one exists). Bad questions get down voted, closed, and eventually deleted.
    – Thomas Owens Mod
    May 18, 2017 at 17:53
  • And no, a migration path to Law or Open Source is not necessary. A surprising few number of our questions that are off-topic here are actually worthy of migration. In addition, we can't set up a migration path to Open Source since they are a beta site (that's standard policy).
    – Thomas Owens Mod
    May 18, 2017 at 17:54
  • @ThomasOwens This is why my question specifies "Assume the use software licensing question is on-topic on either the law/open source Stack Exchange website"
    – Franck Dernoncourt
    May 18, 2017 at 17:54
  • @ThomasOwens: Law isn't beta
    – Franck Dernoncourt
    May 18, 2017 at 17:55
  • Remove the notation of software licensing from this question. Replace it with coding/debugging and replace Open Source and Law with Stack Overflow. The same holds true.
    – Thomas Owens Mod
    May 18, 2017 at 17:55
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    So what that Law isn't beta? I'm looking at migration stats. A user-driven migration path is not necessary. If you think there is a closed question that should be migrated, flag it. A moderator can migrate it if it's truly necessary.
    – Thomas Owens Mod
    May 18, 2017 at 17:56
  • I am not necessarily asking for a user-driven migration path. Just what the policy is: systematically delete, or migrate if the question is ok for the recipient Stack Exchange website.
    – Franck Dernoncourt
    May 18, 2017 at 17:57

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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The policy for licensing questions is the same as any other question.

If the question is on-topic here on Software Engineering, nothing happens.

If the question is off-topic here on Software Engineering, it gets closed or migrated. If there exists a site where it is suitable and the question is not crap, it's eligible for migration. We can not have a migration path to Open Source, since migration paths to beta sites are not permitted. We do not need a migration path to Law due to the low frequency of migrations. If you feel a question should be migrated to either site, please flag it for moderator attention.

Note that I do have a fast-delete policy for custom close reasons (writing/debugging code, career/education advice, legal advice or aid, find/recommend stuff). If it is not of sufficient quality to migrate, a question closed for one of these reasons should be deleted quickly. We have had plenty of problems with these types of questions.

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