Breaking Bad question wrongly "put on hold" for being a list question (no set rule against lists, however)

Question

This question was placed on hold. As you can see from the comments, I fiercely defended it and made the suggested changes, and yet certain users still claimed it was unsuitable. Please could someone explain why, and attempt to salvage what I feel would be an interesting discussion. It seems to have been prematurely halted by just the worst type of bureaucracy.

It has been consistently claimed that this will incite a 'list answer', which in this context seems to be unfairly attributed with negative connotations. I understand the need to discourage mindless lists, but examples posited in a well presented format like the one included in the question (hence its inclusion!) would seem more than appropriate for the answer.

I'd like to request that it be reopened, and people readdress the conditions in which it is appropriate to close down an answer.

Answer 1

@John Smith Optional is asking for examples of classic Western influences in Breaking Bad in support of the creator's statement that such influences exist. This is a far more interesting question than most that are asked on this site. It references a series that is highly popular and might bring fans to the site. It may not have one perfect right answer, but many of our questions don't. It CAN yield a best answer. It can also yield a researched answer - quite possibly Vince Gilligan or others involved in the show have said more on the topic.

The goal of stackexchange, as I am wont to remind folks, is to create a library of questions and answers. When you go to a library, you don't expect a one-to-one correspondence between questions and answers. You expect to find multiple sources from which you can choose the answer you think best. There is an unwarranted fear here that lists and discussions could get out of hand and therefore must be avoided at all costs. If this question elicits even 5 answers I will be surprised! And one of those answers just might increase viewers' enjoyment of the show, which is the goal of movies.stackexchange.

In the interest of growing the site, I think we need to be less pedantic about the rules. In the interest of making the site more interesting, I think we need to reopen this question! (smile)

Now I am going to start looking for answers to this very interesting question in the hopes that it is reopened!

Answer 2

I am one of those who closed the question and therefore I feel I can't deny the responsibility to speak for why I closed the question. Maybe I haven't seen Breaking Bad, but your question is definitely asking for a LIST here.

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I think you already had a look upon the meta post Tyler suggested you to see. Please read these two paragraphs once more.

What's special about Stack Exchange?

Stack Exchange is well-suited to asking very specific questions that represent real problems you encounter in your day-to-day work. A big part of that process is asking very long-tailed questions; the kind where folks with specific expertise in the subject can propose the best possible answer, which is then voted on so the best possible answers rise to the top.

What's wrong with a list?

Asking everyone to contribute to a large bucket of answers means that it stops being a question of specific expertise and becomes a "poll" of the community. For right or for wrong, answer start accumulating and people start voting on what they recognize as familiar, rather than vetting the relative merits of each answer. Often there are too many entries to even know what anyone is contributing anymore. It doesn't even matter; There's usually no expectation that any one answer will be better than any other.

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Problem with this specific example:

Breaking Bad might be a good TV serial and even it might be effecting you a lot. But think about your question twice. Being a fan of the serial, you searched the internet and found someone has indicated that it might have similarities with other Classical Western cinema. If he had pointed clearly X,Y,Z have influenced Breaking Bad, it would have been a objective answer eligible for a knowledge-base like M&TV. But at this point, the answers are likely to be subjective with everyone going to make a list and putting their thoughts into it which inevitably strikes the basic concepts of SE.

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At the very end, your request seems to be asking to consider only for this question; but a rule is rule and it can't be bent down. Who can say, there might be another production with much popularity than this one and people come here posting similar questions even with better arguments than this one and request to consider for that question, giving the example of exception for this question. In a democratic site like SE, this can't happen.

PS- This is no bureaucracy, just a democratic process to keep the order and peace of the site.

Answer 3

EDIT:

Allow me to point something out real quick at this stage. The question has since been altered and re-opened. Not by any one moderator, nor did any one moderator close the question. But these decisions were handled by the community

This is the beauty of the SE network at work here. Everything boils down to community opinion and work. The moderators are only really here to enforce the policies laid out by the community and keep everything as clean as possible.

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My overall opinion on this stands as follows:

Make it work.

There are a lot of exceptions on this site when it comes to overall SE rules. Just take a look at anything tagged analysis if you don't believe me.

And that's where, I think, this site truly shines. When we have an exception, we make it work and make it work rather well. Analysis pieces specifically don't exactly have one correct answer but rather a bunch of ideas that people have and flesh out. Some make more sense than others, and some are just...odd. But nevertheless, with proper writing, evidence, and a bit of thought, these questions and answers work for our site.

Now, back to this example.

The simple answer to the question is Yes, because the creator said so [link to article stating so]

My problems begin right with how the question is worded because you answer it yourself in the text of the question.

Following this up with an example, again answering it yourself, followed by a repeat of the question "Are there any more seemingly deliberate homages anyone can find an example of?" A statement that implies the nature of the question I payed the most attention to:

*A list which denotes that there is no accepted answer*.

And therein lies the difference between a list and an analysis. An analysis, while may not have one correct answer, has at least one ACCEPTED answer. An answer that is known as the one decided by community vote and asker approval that answers the question despite multiple theories being present, this accepted answer is the answer.

This cannot be true of a list question because each answer is equally correct to signify one as the accepted marks all the others as essentially not as good when this is not as true.

Specifically one last thing about your question that turns me off about it is the use of the word Discussion.

This. Is. Not. A. Forum.

This is also not an IMDB clone which is what most list questions seek to be, a direct copy of the trivia section of IMDB.

This is a place:

• To get answers
• To provide information on what you have found in your own time (in the form of a "Blog Overflow")
• To answer QUESTIONS that other users have.

If you want a discussion, we have a chat room for that purpose or this Meta.

Your question can be valid and interesting with some work, and that is what it requires IMO. I will leave it to you to best re-work your question (it wouldn't be the first with a major overhaul and it certainly won't be the last) in order to get it re-opened for a proper setting.