11

Why was the question Short Story with “All Odd Numbers Are Prime” Joke migrated to Literature?

The question stated it was from Analog, which is an SF magazine, and indeed it was because it's the short Epicycle by P. J. Plauger who is an SF author and whose works have been identified on the site before.

7
  • 1
    I noted that Moderator Rand al'Thor moved it without any real discussion, then deleted the comment he'd posted with the explanation. It did seem an oddly prompt move, especially given that OP had identified it as coming from a (mostly) Sci-fi magazine.
    – Valorum
    Commented Sep 21, 2020 at 10:10
  • 3
    The OP hadn't identified it as coming from anything, they had simply suggested that it might be from Analog: "perhaps in Analog around the 1970s". There was nothing definitive in the question to suggest it was actually a work of SF, and therefore on-topic here. Questions need to stand on their own merits before the correct answer is identified.
    – Anthony Grist
    Commented Sep 21, 2020 at 11:04
  • 4
    @Valorum I didn't delete any comment. But my comment was posted after migrating, which means it appears only at the stub on SFF, not at the migrated post on Lit. (If you can't see that stub, the text of the comment is "This isn't really a sci-fi or fantasy story, so I've migrated it to Literature SE which also takes ID questions.")
    – Rand al'Thor Mod
    Commented Sep 21, 2020 at 11:10
  • @AnthonyGrist - And while that's true, unless it's clearly off-topic (or OP neglects to respond to questions about its topicality in a reasonable timespan) we don't usually migrate things so very quickly.
    – Valorum
    Commented Sep 21, 2020 at 11:19
  • 7
    @Valorum Who's "we"? Except for main -> meta, migration is handled by moderators, so it's usually a matter of waiting until a mod sees a flag for a migration to actually get done. I just happened to see this one soon after it was posted.
    – Rand al'Thor Mod
    Commented Sep 21, 2020 at 12:50
  • 2
    We as in "SFF as a site". Rather than we a specific set of individuals. Typically questions are given more time to prove their topicality before a mod moves them.
    – Valorum
    Commented Sep 21, 2020 at 14:50
  • 1
    the royal we :)
    – NKCampbell
    Commented Sep 21, 2020 at 21:43

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
9

My bad, I guess. I thought the OP just wanted an ID on the joke about mathematicians and engineers, which in itself isn't sci-fi or fantasy at all, although readily identifiable as part of "scientist folk humour" in one form or another. Had I realised that what he was really looking for was a sci-fi short story featuring this joke, I wouldn't have migrated it.

The reason for my speed in migrating it was partly because I happened to see it quickly, but mostly because I wanted to spare the OP downvotes for posting an off-topic question here (something which often happens even if the question is of good quality disregarding scope considerations).

5
  • 1
    It seemed an odd move. My assumption was that you knew what the answer was and that it definitely wasn't scifi
    – Valorum
    Commented Sep 21, 2020 at 11:16
  • 7
    @Valorum: My recollection is that the asker needs to at least assert that the answer is SF, if there's no SF elements in their question. I don't think a passing mention of Analog as a possible means of publication necessarily qualifies for that...
    – Kevin
    Commented Sep 22, 2020 at 0:19
  • @Kevin - Sure, but when it's not overtly clear, generally they're given the opportunity to make an edit explaining why they think it's on-topic
    – Valorum
    Commented Sep 22, 2020 at 6:35
  • 3
    @Valorum Indeed, and if I'd realised the OP was looking for a story which may or may not be sci-fi, I wouldn't have migrated so quickly or at all. I thought they were trying to ID the joke, which definitely isn't SF/F in itself.
    – Rand al'Thor Mod
    Commented Sep 22, 2020 at 7:29
  • 4
    Everyone makes mistakes. This seems like a reasonable snap decsion.
    – FuzzyBoots
    Commented Sep 25, 2020 at 14:54

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .