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So I need to ask a question that needs historic (History) and linguistic (Language) elements answered that influence each other in a world building setting... Should I ask the question in all 3 stacks and reference each other, or just world building even though I'm not likely to get a properly informed answer, or linguistics where it is the best place to ask to get the information I want, but it is non-factual question which means it probably doesn't belong there...

As ask in the comment section. Basically, at two points in history a bunch of portals open up on Earth and groups from all over Earth and transported to a new world (in two different spots on this new world at 2 different times)... I need to know generally what would happen, assuming set of them survive and create their own civilizations. So I need to know what civs are there in those times and how they'd react to people of other civs...or at least a best guess... This is a question that needs a bunch of History elements to contruct the world, but then I also need to know what elements of the languages these civs speak would transfer to this new language... which requires the history and world building elements.

The history bits world building might be ok to cover, but the linguistic parts I don't think world will answer satisfactorally...

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    $\begingroup$ It would help us if you gave us the question for context so we can decide where it's appropriate. $\endgroup$
    – Zxyrra
    Jan 30, 2017 at 7:02

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My advice would be to choose the site most likely to answer most of your question (that sounds like Worldbuilding from what you have said) and ask the question there. Just make sure the question is on topic and sufficiently constrained etc for the chosen site.

If you then find that specific areas such as history and linguistics need drilling into you can compose a follow on question - and that question again can be placed at whichever site is appropriate.

There is no rule against posting the questions to all three sites at once (so long as they are different questions, not cross posting the same one) but in general building one question upon the answers to the first will give a better result in the end.

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These sorts of questions are really tricky for the Stack Exchange format. If you aren't careful, the WorldBuilding component will have a tendency to cause the questions to get immediately tossed out of the more strict SE sites. There's a general allergic reaction to fiction on many sites. (for good reason)

WorldBuliding is an inherently intertwined iterative process, so I can see how all of those questions could get wound up tightly with each other. However, what I have found is that the StackExchange format works best when you can tease apart one large interdependent question into several smaller questions. Those smaller questions tend to be better received because they are more likely to apply to others (as opposed to being a ultra-custom answer which only works in this particular world).

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It sounds like you're trying to ask a single Big Question when you actually have several smaller questions:

  • How did people in (historical context) react to outsiders? (You have this for two times/places, it sounds like.) This is a History question.

  • How did people in (historical context) establish ways to communicate with people from (outside locale)? (This presupposes that those people did this. For example, European explorers and native North Americans.) This might be a History or Linguistics question. (You might not have this question, depending on who your two groups are.)

  • How do people establish shared language with speakers of other languages, absent translators? This might be a Linguistics question, but you could also recast it as "how can my people in (context to be explained) do this?" and ask it on Worldbuilding.

  • What would be the most likely points of tension between people from (context A) and people from (context B) on my new world where (describe setting here)? That needs more work, but you've got the basis of a Worldbuilding question here. Ideally you would include what you already know (e.g. from the earlier questions) about how both groups feel about outsiders in general.

And so on.

If you find yourself with a question that draws from several different areas of expertise, start by asking yourself if it's really just one question.

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  • $\begingroup$ I think you misread, which I figured would happen, when I was writing it out... There are 2 occurances of the thing happening. The thing is that say 9000 years ago portals in Asia, Africa, Europe, the Americas, open up and when people enter they're transported to 1 location. so you have groups from all over Earth in one time period suddenly being moved to another world and put in one place... a few thousand years later this happens again, but the drop off portal in the new world is in a different spot. Question is about what qualities the Earth groups have are preserved as they become 1 $\endgroup$
    – Durakken
    Jan 31, 2017 at 7:40

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