Should we point recipe request questions to the recipe stack exchange proposal?

Question

this started out as a comment to an answer on this question but I think it might deserve its own question.

We are all(!) agreed that we don't want this to become a recipe swap site, and we know we will continue to get these questions regardless of what we want. It seems, from this question, that the majorities preferred solution is to have a sub-site, like meta, which can be used for these recipe swap questions. From the responses it seems like this is unlikely to happen any time soon, with so many site launching and this needing to be a site specific change.

Robert proposed setting up a (actually supporting the existing) proposal for a recipe swap site, but this seemed to be rejected. I admit I was a nay sayer in the beginning, but i have come round to the idea having seen that it should be simple to migrate between the sister sites¹, and even think that having them have separate focuses the sites on the differences, and means that those who don't care for this don't need to be involved and those that only care about recipe swapping (or whatever the scope for that site is) don't need to worry about this site. it sort of makes sense to have different reputations for that site as well.

On SO if you have 3 answers which suggest 3 different things, all with equal votes, but one of them is by Jon Skeet, you know that that one is probably to be trusted. Similarly on the recipe swap site, if someones recipes are consistently voted up, then you know you can probably trust another recipe they have posted. it doesn't necessarily follow that they have good rep on this site that their recipes will be the best. For example if a chef from here with great rep posts a recipe, it might be fantastic, but might need a thermo mixer or blast chiller to get it to come out right.

The proposal as it currently stands doesn't have a great deal of traction, but it seems to me that if we made a concerted effort to reply to recipe requests with something along the lines of:

'Thanks for the question, but recipe requests are considered off topic here. We are focused on questions which can be objectively answered. However, there is a proposal for a similar site focused on recipe requesting. If this proposal gets enough interest it will become a site like this one. Please consider adding your voice to the proposal so the site can get off the ground ASAP. You can read the proposal here: http://area51.stackexchange.com/proposals/11202/recipes and just click the follow button if you decide this is the sort of site you would like to be involved in'

then we could probably help to swell the numbers of relevant people quite quickly.

This would be mutually beneficial I believe.

_{¹ from the comments in the linked question: My concern with having this a seperate site would be how easily it would be to migrate postings between sites -- with Stack Overflow, they can move messages to Super User or Server Fault; will that be possible if it were a completely separate site? Would you have to have a new set of moderators and all of the other overhead for the recipes site? – Joe♦ 2 days ago @Joe: Migration would be equally simple between two paired sites versus site-to-meta migration. No difference. Moderators: Probably different simply due to the commitment of time needed. But there's nothing saying it would have to be separate Moderators. – Robert Cartaino♦ 2 days ago edit}

Answer 1

I prefer the idea of a meta site, however, as you point out, that seems unlikely. So this is the second best option. So, I agree and will join the recipe's proposal today.

Answer 2

This is just my opinion (and I've been wrong many times), but just because we have a specific off-topic that gets asked frequently does not mean we need to deal with figuring out where else to send the asker, especially Area51. It's a good thought, but I just don't see it happening:

Imagine that this site is a bookstore. You come in asking for a thai cookbook. The clerk would say "I'm sorry, we don't carry cookbooks, but we have this great book on how to perfect your pad Thai recipe". The clerk may even say "there's a store with cookbooks down the street, and come back when you still can't get that pad Thai right". However, the clerk would never say "We don't carry cookbooks, but you can help us build a cookbook store next door if you like!"

We should be instructing the asker about what the site is, how to ask an appropriate question, how to fix their current question, and where to go if they'd like to participate and help shape the community.

I think sending them to Area51 would be a mistake. Non-committed first time users will mostly bail.

Answer 3

I'm with you in principle, but I don't think it would actually be effective.

Why?

Because we'd be asking extreme newbies to deal with Area 51. And that site/application is not geared toward those kinds of people. I'm thinking of, for example, my mom, who spends countless hours scouting for recipes but AFAIK would have zero interest in a "technique" site like this one. If she comes and posts a recipe request and gets pointed to Area 51, I guarantee that she'll decide after all of 6 seconds that it'll be quicker and easier to find that recipe somewhere else.

I am for the idea of trying to build support for the Recipes proposal. But advertising it to every Joe/Jane who naïvely requests a recipe here, just isn't the right way to get it.

I think that any serious support for that proposal would have to come from the more "long-term" membership of this site - probably the meta, because those are the kinds of people who care enough and are willing to invest sufficient time to move that proposal forward.