Is it OK to take a question asked in another SE site & rephrase it for WB?

Question

Specifically, the question I have in mind is Could bone marrow transplants be used to prevent tissue rejection of trans-species organs? asked by myself in biology SE some 2 months ago.

I asked it there because I wanted solid science based answers & was looking for potential hints on where I might find any research related to the idea.

It's had some attention but no answers so I was considering a re-post here to take advantage of the (what appears to me to be) larger more eclectic user base in WB.

The tags would, of course, include reality-check & hard-science (or at the very least science-based).

Answer 1

While it's true that the general rule is that posting the same question on multiple sites in the network is discouraged (and at least Unix & Linux SE has that as a specific reason to close a question, possibly because of their large overlap with Ask Ubuntu and to a lesser extent Super User and Server Fault), the operative word here is same.

Broadly speaking, it's fine to ask about the same topic on different sites, in order to get different perspectives, but that doesn't mean that you should take the exact same question text and post it verbatim on multiple sites.

Rather, you should adapt the question to each audience.

I haven't looked at this example in particular, but I imagine there are, for example, things that would be taken for granted on Biology SE (say, an earthen environment populated by carbon-based, oxygen-breathing lifeforms) that you might benefit from explicitly stating when asking on Worldbuilding SE.

For example, the best-received (by net vote count) question of mine on Physics SE is one about faster-than-light travel, which is a little surprising in a way because their subject scope specifically deals with mainstream physics only. One of my better received answers on Worldbuilding also deals with faster-than-light travel, was accepted, and is very much based in mainstream science. This doesn't mean that one could just transpose the two questions and expect that things work out well. It does, however, show that the same general concept can be asked about on both sites, if the questions are written appropriately.

Answer 2

The general rule on Stack Exchange is that cross-posting the same question on different sites is discouraged. That said, that isn't a hard and fast rule and if you are looking for a different perspective cross-posting can be acceptable. It looks to me like you didn't get any answers over on Biology because your question is very speculative and they prefer to deal in known answers. So, it seems to me like cross-posting your question here isn't... well, out of the question, because you are likely to get different, useful, speculative responses here.

If you do post the question it's recommended that you link the original question in your new question and give an explanation for why you are asking it again.

Answer 3

The basic answer to your question is sure, modify the question to meet the expectations of Worldbuilding.SE and there's no problem.

But I have a problem with your reason to do so. You asked the question in the correct forum — quite literally the best forum for the question — and you want it here because you didn't like the attention it received and/or the answers you received.

That suggests you really want to ask the same question and want to only change the window dressing to slide it in under our rules, hoping that someone here might do a better job than there.

The entire premise of the opposition to A proposal to finalize the "are real world questions on-topic" debate was that the other forums were far better suited to answer the question and far more likely to provide you with an authoritative answer. Therefore, we shouldn't be letting people clog up our own queues with those questions.

Ultimately, the rule allowing real-world questions was adopted (I personally approve). However, this should never be an excuse to abuse the privilege, and what you're telling us is that you want to abuse the privilege. You didn't get what you wanted there, so you want to give it a shot here, even though there's a lower statistical chance of getting the answer you want here. Honestly, if it were possible to close due to being a duplicate on another stack, it would be (and should be).

So, yes, there's no problem with it. But if you'll forgive the moment of astronomical arrogance: thou shalt not abuse the privilege neither make a habit of it therein.