8

We just got another "Who is the person in this picture?" question:

https://movies.stackexchange.com/questions/19208/whos-the-actress-in-the-picture

This kind of question is really bad, far worse than the usual identify-this content. Here is why:

  • The author usually does not even know for sure if the person in the picture is an actor.
  • Even if it turns out that the picture is movie-related, the question is still off-topic, because the it is not really about any movie or tv content, but about an internet picture. Answers don't make questions on-topic.
  • The question is completely ungoogleable and won't help anyone in the future with the same problem.

To summarize: I think we should get rid of this kind of identify-this-web-picture altogether.

Those questions do not help in understanding or appreciating movies or TV shows in any way, and they help no one but the one person asking them, which opposes the wiki aspect of SE. Is there any good reason not to make them off-topic?

18
  • 1
    "they help no one but the one person asking them, which opposes the wiki aspect of SE." - Careful, there are enough people that tend to take offense in that comparison and even on other SE sites (especially SO) many questions are likely to only help a single person ever. But of course I'm absolutely with you on the general question (but think this has already been brought up previously, yet maybe we could limit this discussion to "ID person from pic", which is even more off-topic rubbish than the usual ID stuff, even more than the "ID movie from pic" ones).
    – Napoleon Wilson
    Commented May 6, 2014 at 12:40
  • 7
    I have no problem with declaring identify-this-picture off topic - but I'll wait and see whether an alternative consensus is built.
    – iandotkelly Mod
    Commented May 6, 2014 at 12:46
  • I could've sworn we had this discussion before >.>
    – Tablemaker Mod
    Commented May 6, 2014 at 12:59
  • @NapoleonWilson That was not meant in an offensive way at all. I just think that SE sites are supposed to be a mix of wiki and Q&A where users build a repository of interesting questions and answers. If a question is not searchable and only helps the one person, it just doesn't contribute anything meaningful to the page. Regarding your SO example: However strange and localized your cornercase might be, at least there is a chance someone has the same problem and can find it. That chance just does not exist with identify-this-picture.
    – magnattic
    Commented May 6, 2014 at 13:05
  • That's also one of the reasons why we request as many details on the other identify-this questions. It increases the small chance that this question will be useful after the day it was asked.
    – magnattic
    Commented May 6, 2014 at 13:08
  • @atticae Yeah, I didn't mean to imply any offensiveness there. Just be prepared for people questioning the Wiki-comparison. And I tend to agree to your falsification of the SO-comparison.
    – Napoleon Wilson
    Commented May 6, 2014 at 13:08
  • @TylerShads Maybe in the question I linked. The first answer goes into that topic as well.
    – magnattic
    Commented May 6, 2014 at 13:08
  • Related: meta.movies.stackexchange.com/q/916/49. Though that is more about ID in general (or rather movie ID). And I think letting this question stand on its own (or emphasize person-ID in particular) might result in a maybe narrower but more definite consensus (or just one that more agrees with my aversion to those questions, muhahaha!). ;-)
    – Napoleon Wilson
    Commented May 6, 2014 at 13:10
  • 1
    I also agree these types of questions are of little to no use to anyone in the future for a very simple reason and this is where they differ from other identify questions. There is no way the OP can put any pertinent information in the title or in the tags which another person can relate to when asking a question. I've seen probably a half-dozen of these types and I would bet all of them state something like, "who's in this picture" ... at least in a movie ID question you can put something pertinent there which can be related to.
    – Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2
    Commented May 7, 2014 at 0:51
  • I'm not convinced how useful any of the identify this questions are to future users, especially given the poor nature of many of them. I'd be happy to get rid of identify this actor, but I don't see why identify this movie/tv show should stay if that's the case. That's just my penny's worth!
    – Andrew Martin
    Commented May 7, 2014 at 13:17
  • 1
    @AndrewMartin While I totally agree with you, it does not seem like the community has reached a consensus on this (yet). I think we have to take small steps and outlaw the identify-this-picture questions first, where most seem to agree that they are not doing our site any good. Better to separate the issues and reach a decision on one than to try to take on the whole big matter and not get anywhere.
    – magnattic
    Commented May 7, 2014 at 13:22
  • 1
    @atticae: To be honest, I'm easy either way. The identify actor ones don't bother me. They either get answered within a day or two or get lost in the system/deleted (exactly like the identify-movie questions). I'll keep my eye on this post and see what else comes out.
    – Andrew Martin
    Commented May 7, 2014 at 13:25
  • 1
    As long as we have only one of those per week, sure. But you always have to consider what happens when we allow them and this takes off. They will clutter up the site with non-useful content, burying interesting questions. People could use them to grab some easy rep (no need to think of a good question, just take a picture from any movie and post it) and on top of it: It will take time for people to clean them up. The voting system helps a bit in regard to hiding bad content, but if we don't want this content here there is just no reason to allow it just because it doesn't happen to often now.
    – magnattic
    Commented May 7, 2014 at 13:39
  • To quote Ovid: "principiis obsta" - "Resist the beginnings."
    – magnattic
    Commented May 7, 2014 at 13:40
  • 3
    They're already allowed and they haven't taken off. I don't see why they'll suddenly start or why interesting questions will be hidden - we only average some 5 - 10 questions daily. I'm also not sure why you think people posting it would get easy rep. The questions won't be upvoted and they'll get a simple answer. Where will their upvotes be coming from exactly? I don't think they're as evil as people are making them out to be, not least because we could do with as many questions as we can get here. It would be nice to someday break out of the damn Beta.
    – Andrew Martin
    Commented May 8, 2014 at 7:23

5 Answers 5

Reset to default
7

Agree.

Note: These answers are just added to make a decision. Feel free to downvote or upvote to show your choice.

Some reasons:

  1. Questions are only useful to OP.
  2. Questions can be based on the false premise that picture shows a movie/tv star, when in actuality they show a random person and as such are unanswerable.
  3. Feedback thus far on this site suggests community are against them.
  4. Even if pictures do feature actors/actresses, they aren't related to any actual movie or tv show content.
4
  • Are you happy if I add some possible benefits/cons to both these options?
    – Andrew Martin
    Commented May 20, 2014 at 8:39
  • @AndrewMartin yup i am ok with it.
    – Ankit Sharma Mod
    Commented May 20, 2014 at 9:00
  • Thanks - have added some reasons to both sets of answers.
    – Andrew Martin
    Commented May 20, 2014 at 9:10
  • 2
    I've put my vote for this option. Originally I was very much of the opinion that these are no worse than identify-this-movie questions and they do bring users to the site. However, I think that opinion was due to my tendency to play devil's advocate. The quality of the identify this picture questions are often very low and I don't think it's worth taking the small increase to the questions-asked-site-total in return for having such narrow and poor questions.
    – Andrew Martin
    Commented May 20, 2014 at 9:22
0

This particular Identify this question is just a horribly written one. It's not known if it's from a movie, tv show or just a fashion shoot.

It's worse than a second hand knowledge question such as "I heard of this movie from someone" For example this question about a movie his sister described (Evils are in glass building/hotel and a kid enters it)

However there are good examples such as this GIF question. Trying to find this dinosaur movie Overall it doesn't help anyone except the OP but it might interest someone. "I never knew Denise Richards was in this type of movie. I've got something new to watch on bad movie night."

Overall the problem isn't "can you identify this" it's that the asker has no first hand knowledge of what they are asking. I propose instead of banning identify this questions of any kind we ban second hand knowledge questions like these two because there is no conclusive way that the OP can even be sure that the question has been answered.

-1

Disagree.

Note: These answers are just added to make a decision. Feel free to downvote or upvote to show your choice.

Some reasons:

  1. Whilst questions are only useful to OP, it could be argued the same is true for all identify-this questions.
  2. The site is still in Beta and these questions help increase the volume of questions being asked a day (one of the two key criteria on which the site is below the required level to gain full-site status).
  3. These questions bring new users to the site and as such can increase overall site interest, awareness and following.
-1

I disagree and would like to refute some reasons given by Ankit Sharma

Questions are only useful to OP.

Feedback thus far on this site suggests community are against them.

How can you be sure? If they're off the internet other people may have seen them. I've got a folder full of pictures I've given up hope of identifying because if they don't show up on reverse image search there's nowhere on the internet you can get them identified. Here are some identify-this-picture questions the community are not against:

Movie about a giant robot - Question +3, Answer +13

Tobasco ice-cream and air warriors in an (Anime?) animated movie? - Question +3, Answer +2

Questions can be based on the false premise that picture shows a movie/tv star, when in actuality they show a random person and as such are unanswerable.

Even if pictures do feature actors/actresses, they aren't related to any actual movie or tv show content.

The same could be true for any question. Plot inconsistency questions could be based on a misunderstanding of the material, Identify-this-Movie questions could be about TV shows, or vice-versa. "Identify-this" questions in general could also be based on fabricated memories or mis-remembered events.

The possibility of a mistake or poorly written question should not invalidate the entire premise.

5
  • 2
    Just saying: +3 is not an especially high amount of upvotes, at least not high enough that I would consider it a particularly good question. Also, the second question you mention is not an identify-this-picture question, but a "normal" identify-this-movie question with a self drawn image added to a lengthy description. Big difference.
    – magnattic
    Commented May 23, 2014 at 15:57
  • @atticae he second question you mention is not an identify-this-picture question, but a "normal" identify-this-movie question with a self drawn image added to a lengthy description. Where does the line come in though? How many extra remembered things make the question ok, and why?
    – Crow T Robot
    Commented May 23, 2014 at 16:01
  • 1
    The point about "only useful to the op" is still valid, you can't really google those pictures as you can google other questions. Yes, maybe you get lucky and you got your picture from the same place as the op and so a reverse image search engine will somehow find the question, but I think that is a corner case. You will not be able to find this question through a normal search engine.
    – magnattic
    Commented May 23, 2014 at 16:01
  • 2
    Where does the line come in though? - We want to get rid of those "Look, I found a picture on the web, what is that on it" questions. The second question is not of that kind. It is a "I have watched a movie and can't remember the name, I remember this and that and have drawn this picture to help identify it." I hope you see the difference.
    – magnattic
    Commented May 23, 2014 at 16:03
  • The same could be true for any question. Sorry, I don't see how a question about a movie or tv show can suddenly turn out not to be about a movie or tv show. You really have to go out of your way to find an example for this. We never had a question where it turns out someone mistook a memory of his life for a movie, or anything like it.
    – magnattic
    Commented May 23, 2014 at 16:07
-2

I've already agreed with the suggestion these questions be deleted. But to play devil's advocate (as it's just so much fun!), they could be kept with strict rules, e.g.

  1. Questions without any accepted answers are automatically deleted after a certain period of time, much faster than other questions (e.g. after four weeks, deleted if no response).
  2. Questions are closed even faster if OP doesn't respond to requests for information (e.g. where did you see this, where did you get picture, what makes you think its from a movie/series)? For example, if OP doesn't respond to requests for info within three/five days, question is closed (would probably work well for all identify-this questions to be honest).
  3. ??? Feel free to edit and add suggestions...

I'm adding these suggestions because let's be honest - if someone comes on this site and chucks in a picture of some fairly famous actor/actress (e.g. Jennifer Lawrence/Leo DiCaprio), or a still from a fairly famous scene/movie (e.g. Jack in Titanic, Don Corleone in The Godfather), it'll not be closed before someone answers. I know I'd answer before voting to close.

Ultimately, the reason why these questions are closed is because they're narrow and often lack the required information to produce an answer. If they're answerable, they'll be answered (even if they're closed later).

Perhaps then a possible solution is to allow them, but to be strict with them by applying rules such as those shown above to delete them quickly if it becomes apparent no solution is readily available. OF course, this solution is far from perfect. What if someone posts a picture of a famous musician? They'd get an answer, sure, but both the question and answer would be about a totally irrelevant topic.

To be honest, this isn't a particularly good solution, but I thought I'd propose it anyway to see what people thought and generate some comments.

9
  • It's not about being answerable easily or not (and I don't know how often this arguments will come up again and again), it's about crappy and uninteresting low quality trivia questions. But if you keep them, you can just keep the same rules as for all the other ID questions. Introducing different levels of moderated deletion for different levels of crap questions isn't really that beneficial either.
    – Napoleon Wilson
    Commented May 25, 2014 at 20:50
  • "Ultimately, the reason why these questions are closed is because they're narrow and often lack the required information to produce an answer." - No, it's because they're shitty questions with no benefit for the site, if even remotely related to the site at all.
    – Napoleon Wilson
    Commented May 25, 2014 at 20:52
  • I don't agree with your second point. There are some good identify-this-picture questions (perhaps someone, e.g. a mod, could run a search and find out how many are answered?). I know this isn't the best solution, but I feel many arguments against these questions are equally applicable to the other identify-this questions, so I do feel we either get rid of all of them or none of them.
    – Andrew Martin
    Commented May 25, 2014 at 20:57
  • Besides, I don't see how identify-this-picture can be a crappy trivia question, when the OP has no idea what movie/series it's from, but we consider identify-this-movie questions to be perfectly fine. Still, all opinions are valid and all that jazz, so it'll be interesting to see what actually happens from this rather extended discussion!
    – Andrew Martin
    Commented May 25, 2014 at 20:58
  • "I feel many arguments against these questions are equally applicable to the other identify-this questions" - Well, yes they are. There might even be rather good id-this-image questions, but I doubt they're just good because they're easily answerable, which seems to be the main point of this answer and which I don't agree with as the primary reason that they're bad. "but we consider identify-this-movie questions to be perfectly fine." - I for a certain would distance myself at least from the "perfectly" in there, which might be the reason for my even stronger opinion in this case.
    – Napoleon Wilson
    Commented May 25, 2014 at 20:58
  • Yeah. I wonder if someone ought to just open a new question and ask if ALL the identify-this questions should be off topic. I wonder out of curiosity how many questions that would rid the site of though.
    – Andrew Martin
    Commented May 25, 2014 at 21:14
  • People have already asked this, the are numerous discussions on this. And the Community consens seems to be that they're "fine".
    – Napoleon Wilson
    Commented May 25, 2014 at 21:55
  • "I wonder out of curiosity how many questions that would rid the site of though." - Quite easy to check: ~1200 = ~25%.
    – Napoleon Wilson
    Commented May 25, 2014 at 22:27
  • Interesting to know. No chance of removing them then. Ach I don't really mind them. They're not my faves, but as the community wants them, so be it.
    – Andrew Martin
    Commented May 25, 2014 at 22:34

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