Is being answered a reason not to migrate?

Question

I flagged two questions for migration to The Great Outdoors: https://travel.stackexchange.com/q/14711/2509 got migrated, but Do I have to expect snow at 3900 meters above sea level during summer? did not.

Quoting from the question that did not (currently) get migrated:

I'm planning to climb a high mountain during end of May, beginning of June, in the Yosemite National Park

(...)

Do I have to expect snow there?

Quoting from my very similar question at Outdoors:

I would like to do some hiking [in the second week of May]

(...)

I find a number of areas in the vicinity: John Muir Wilderness, Inyo National Forest, Sierra National Forest, Ansel Adams Wilderness, Kings Canyon National Park, Yosemite National Park, Hoover Wilderness, and others

(...)

Up to what elevation should I normally expect passable terrain in May?

I think both questions clearly fit better on The Great Outdoors than on Travel Answers. However, VMAtm♦ commented:

I think other one should be here, because it got attention and great answers.

My question on The Great Outdoors did not get any answers until I actively e-mailed someone I found based on his extensive website about the region. Considering how quickly the Travel Answers question got answered, perhaps my question would have received better answers on Travel Answers, too — even though it's not a travel question!

If a question is not a travel question but an outdoors question, but happens to get good answers by the Travel Answers crowd, is this a valid reason to keep the question open and on Travel Answers? Or should migration be based on a determination if the content is on-topic, regardless of attention and answers?

Answer 1

It's been a Stack Exchange policy not to migrate questions that already have good answers on one site, particularly old ones, even if they are currently off-topic. Questions that already have good (and accepted) answers shouldn't be migrated, even if they are currently off-topic. In fact, migrating questions older than 60 (or was it 90?) days is no longer possible -- this is a recent change.

Migration should only be done for new questions that do not currently have good answers and are off-topic.S copes of SE sites change occasionally and a previously on-topic question might become off-topic -- but that alone is not a reason for migration.

That doesn't mean that these can't be closed, locked or somewhat restricted if they are actively off-topic, to signal the community that they are historical artifacts and while tolerated, new ones of their ilk would not be.

Since there's some intersection between the scopes of some sites (in particular Outdoors-SE and Travel-SE), a question that is somewhat on-topic on both sites shouldn't generally be migrated, unless the OP and the community really feel it would find better answers elsewhere. But in your case it actually worked the other way around, so some judgement on part of the mods would be necessary.

In short, use the following as a guideline:

• Is the question currently on-topic?

  • Yes. Answer the question.

  • No.

    Does it have good answers?

    • Yes. Consider locking, protecting or closing the question. Do not delete or migrate it.
    • No. Migrate.