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In the PHP collective, we are seeing a lot of discussion posts that should have been questions. These posts generally include a lot of code, which is a flag (in my mind) that they should have been a question, as I would expect discussion topics to have minimal code in them (if we're discussing code, we should probably be on Code Review).

Could the question wizard for discussions be modified to enforce a higher words to code ratio? I think that would largely resolve this issue.

Alternatively - and maybe this is a better solution - could we have a way for recognised members to automatically migrate a discussion post to a question instead?

Or can we have proper moderation tools - e.g. close and delete voting, expanded flagging - for recognised members of the collective?

Any suggestions as to whether there might be an even better way?

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    Are you really sure you want those posts to become questions? What fraction of them would likely be duplicates? How often do they already meet focus/clarity etc. standards? Commented Nov 30, 2023 at 10:32
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    I don't think that increasing the text-to-code ratio is a good idea. I'm already using my "Please do not post garbage or duplicated content to get around the quality filter" quite a lot. If the threshold is increased, people will just pour more garbage in to get around that "stupid filter", because their question is perfect as it is and no mean computer shall deter them from posting. Commented Nov 30, 2023 at 10:52
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    @KarlKnechtel at least as questions we can quickly close/delete if required. As discussions, we have to wait for a CM to get around to getting rid of them. But yeah, perhaps the better way is to allow discussions to be close and delete voted. Commented Nov 30, 2023 at 11:23
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    @Adriaan I know, the garbage issue happens a lot and this might make it worse. If we could instead migrate to questions, they could quickly be closed and deleted if required. Commented Nov 30, 2023 at 11:24
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    This is kind of similar to migrating to different sites, IMO. That kind of stopped being done because the recipient site was generally not too happy with the content being dumped into their lap. Let's learn from that and not migrate discussions to questions. Chances are, we don't want 'em. Commented Nov 30, 2023 at 12:44
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    I would hate to move discussions to questions as we are not being able to close all questions that needs to be closed. Adding more to that is not something I would welcome. If the discussion is supposed to be the question, it should just be removed. Commented Nov 30, 2023 at 13:52
  • I mean, making it impossible to find seems to have been somewhat effective for chat, Commented Nov 30, 2023 at 14:13
  • @DalijaPrasnikar I think the point is that, with questions, we at least have the tools to deal with crap; Discussions don't have any of that tooling at the moment, which makes these cases harder to deal with. Commented Nov 30, 2023 at 16:44
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    @zcoop98 Yes, I understand that. But IMO the solution to moderating discussions has to be a proper solution for discussions, not dumping what does not belong there back to Q/A. From what I have seen plenty of those question in discussions are literally a duplicate of questions those user already posted in Q/A. It makes zero sense to add those as duplicates. It would also just incentivize people to go to discussions first for posting questions. Commented Nov 30, 2023 at 16:51
  • I'd love to see some suggestions as answers. It would seem so far that proper moderation tools for recognised members is the way to go so we can just deal with this problem at its source. Commented Nov 30, 2023 at 23:18
  • We also have to keep in mind that discussions are new. We have to allow the possibility for them to be recognised as another failed experiment, if people don't use them responsibly. Whatever happens with it, let "them" handle it. At this point we'd not be fixing a problem, but sweeping information under the rug. Commented Dec 1, 2023 at 7:57
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    Note that there will be a flag reason for it: "Should be a question". Though this doesn't satisfactorily address the question of scaling for me. I agree that some kind of interface guidance for the discussion initiator would be useful. Commented Dec 1, 2023 at 21:08
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    @starball can't wait for that feature to actually be implemented... Commented Dec 2, 2023 at 0:31

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The other answer here is wrong. So let me weigh in as a Discussions moderator.

Questions that belong to Q&A should not be posted to Discussions. Please flag such posts as Not suitable for Discussions and a moderator will delete them, along with a reply encouraging OP to post to Q&A:

We have removed your post. This seems like a specific programming question, rather than a conversation starter. With more detail added, this may be better as a Question rather than a Discussions post. Please see this page for help on asking a question on Stack Overflow. If you are interested in starting a more general conversation about how to approach a technical issue or concept, feel free to make another Discussion post.

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  • The 'Canned Reply' is grammatically not very consistent, with "Discussions post" <> "Discussion post", => should decide if you want to use "Discussion[s]" with an s or not, ... and then stick to one form... (I would say "a Discussions post" and "a Discussion" are both correct, but "a Discussion post" is not...) Commented Apr 29, 2025 at 20:16
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Asking programming-specific questions which belong on Stack Overflow Q&A is only discouraged, not prohibited in Discussions. As such, the correct response is to jump into the discussion yourself and suggest that perhaps the question would be better asked in the normal Stack Overflow Q&A.

I guess it makes sense, if you're after a back-and-forth about your question. That kind of discussion doesn't follow the Q&A format.

Whether the existence of Discussions detracts from the existing Q&A format... That's a different question.

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    I've got to the point of having a canned "This should be a question, not a discussion post." comment... Commented Nov 30, 2023 at 23:51
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    are you sure? there's (/will be) literally a flag reason for it: "Should be a question". cc. @Nick Commented Dec 1, 2023 at 21:06

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