Why is there a question with tags on freelance, business, clients on Graphic Design SE?

Question

I read this question and found only comments posted. It was a definite “How do I run my business better” question with a wide range of comments. As I wrote it, I had to imagine how she got in that spot and the picture became clear that she was a novice designer just starting out.

The question was on the wrong SE site. So, I wrote my response as an answer:

At first I wanted to answer your question. But, the more I thought about it, your question is better served at [freelancing.se]. Your business model and client contract skills need help. There is no graphic-design question here to answer.

I got an immediate downvote. I still did not understand why nobody else mentioned taking it to Freelancing, and I said so. (I'm inquisitive and honest.) This was a comment on my answer:

You have commented on OP's question that this should be better on Freelancing.SE, which I think is a fair suggestion. Aside that and meta commentary of "There is no graphic design question here to answer", this only leaves "Your business model and client contract skills need help" as the content of the answer, which I think is too short on details. Please don't use answer to comment. Otherwise, consider edit the answer and expand it

Why is my post which directs her, to what the tags and the question indicate are her concerns, is a comment? I am a fan of community standards, but not attempting to answer legal, business, client-relations, and freelance like it could confused as being about design? Am I too picky for this group? Maybe, but, if I were just starting out – I'd be busting down the door to the Freelance site for client and business help and coming to Graphic Design for technical and design function question. Is that not true?

Answer 1

There seem to be some misconceptions here:

• Client relations, freelancing, etc. are on-topic here. This is why we have tags for them. In contrast to some other places on the Internet, tags are not just words chosen by the asker at will, but they have to exist beforehand. Creating tags is a privilege for experienced users.

• Stack Exchange sites are primarily built around communities, not around topics. The central criterion for our scope is whether somebody having experience with graphic design can better answer the question (or judge answers) than a random person on the Internet. As this question is about a problem that is more likely to occur to Graphic designers (client not liking a design), this is the case here. Note that we close some questions on the topics of business if they are not specific to graphic design whatsoever (and thus a community of business experts, lawyers, etc. would be better suited), but this is decided on a per-case basis by the community.

• Migration (except to Meta) is exclusive to moderators. We migrate questions only if the following apply:

  • The question is off-topic here as indicated by community vote or as evaluated by the moderator in question. Or: It has no answers and the asker requests migration.

  • We are moderately confident that the question is on-topic on the target site.

  • The question has an acceptable quality.

• Answers are for attempts to (directly) solve the askers problem. Redirecting to another site does not do this (unless the question is asking for where to get help on the issue). Such information belongs in comments, where you can mention that another community probably is better suited for the question. However, before you post such a comment, please be sure that the question is really suited for the other site and off-topic on the current one. Otherwise such a comment will only cause unnecessary confusion and possibly disappoint an asker who blindly heeds it.

• Your answer wasn’t fully deleted. It was converted to a comment (which is where it belongs). This comment was later moved to chat and can still be found here.

Answer 2

(I'm not a moderator)

Freelancing.SE is a beta site.

GraphicDesign.SE is not a beta site.

The question was on topic at both sites. It's customary to allow the user to choose which site they feel a question fits best at. Running a Graphic Design Freelance business is just as much on topic at GraphicDesign.SE as it is at Freelancing.SE. The user chose to post here.

It is customary for questions which fit multiple Stacks that the question not be migrated from a full stack site to a beta stack site provided the question is on topic where it has been posted.

Typically questions are migrated when the user was unaware of where they should post and the question is off-topic where they ultimately decided to post. Or migrated to assist the user in getting better, more qualified, answers.

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As for the down vote and comments on your answer, answers aren't really the place to post "this belongs somewhere else". Answers are for answers. Yes. I down voted that "answer" because it wasn't an answer and was not helpful. As a comment I think your post would have been fine.

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Personal observation from someone who does frequent both sites....

That user would have waited days before getting any response, if they got one at all at Freelancing.SE. Freelancing.SE does not get a whole lot of traffic from what I see. It appears to me to be disproportionately populated by users from crowd-sourcing sites with tax questions or support questions for such sites. My opinion is there are maybe 3-5 users there with some real-world experience regarding freelancing. I, personally, don't anticipate Freelancing.SE graduating to a full stack site.