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Often times, there are questions that could be considered on-topic for several of the Stack Exchange sites. For example, there's some debate whether Is camera flash actually harmful to infants or newborns? should be moved to the Skeptics site. I think my question about the physical limits of sensor ISO would also work on the Physics site, and might get better answers if it were listed there as well. I could probably come up with dozens more examples.

It's arguable which site would be better for these questions, but I think it's clear that there are people on either site which could answer the question well. These two questions are at the margins of what's on topic for the Photography site -- someone who's very skilled with a camera won't necessarily know the answer to either of these. I think it would be worthwhile if these (and other) questions could be cross-posted on multiple sites to increase their exposure and improve the quality of answers.

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    \$\begingroup\$ Yes. It would be awesome if such questions could actually be cross-posted in a linked way rather than just replicated in two places. \$\endgroup\$
    – mattdm
    Commented Oct 24, 2011 at 15:33
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    \$\begingroup\$ Another area where we come across this is programming questions related to photography. \$\endgroup\$
    – mattdm
    Commented Oct 24, 2011 at 15:33
  • \$\begingroup\$ And, for that matter, the "how do I use software" questions.... \$\endgroup\$
    – mattdm
    Commented Oct 24, 2011 at 15:33
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    \$\begingroup\$ In a similar vein, there's a lot of overlap between Stack Overflow, Superuser, Server Fault, Unix, and Apple. A question about writing shell scripts for Mac might arguably go on any of those sites. \$\endgroup\$
    – Evan Krall
    Commented Oct 26, 2011 at 4:58
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    \$\begingroup\$ And do Aperture or iPhoto questions go here or Apple? \$\endgroup\$
    – Evan Krall
    Commented Oct 26, 2011 at 4:59
  • \$\begingroup\$ Is this something that fits within the SEN model? Or is it a moot point? From a management perspective, I can see each sites moderators having some trouble managing cross-linked questions that have a presence on multiple sites. \$\endgroup\$
    – jrista Mod
    Commented Dec 2, 2011 at 17:48
  • \$\begingroup\$ I think this a great idea. I personally had a very negative experience when one of my questions was moved to graphicdesign, a community where I had no connection and no interest. It was pretty frustrating. I think a cross-post would have been a great solution. \$\endgroup\$
    – Reid
    Commented Jan 2, 2012 at 6:06

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One of the goals of the site is to become the place to find the definitive answer to any photography related question; I think it would be confusing, and dilute this aim if the very same question appeared on more than one site, with the same answers.

What does exist at the moment is that when a question is migrated, for a link to take it's place - I understand this is done in a search engine friendly manner such that they won't see multiple copies of the content.

Perhaps a different approach would be to look into the migration process and allow for people to apply their common sense and take the view like "that'll get better responses on [different SE site]", and request the migration.

The other option would be the option to insert a migrated question on the target sites (such that you still maintain the benefits of a single, master, question) - a "solicit responses from [other site]"; I think this would need some sort of minimum reputation cap and/or some sort of reputation cost (like featured questions) and/or a number of votes and/or some kind of acceptance from the "other" site to be workable.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ I think the core of the question is a concern about this single-place model: Can a given concept have multiple classifications? IMO, yes. \$\endgroup\$
    – Reid
    Commented Jan 2, 2012 at 6:04

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