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We have the tag, with the following tag info:

Which was the first movie/show to use a certain characteristic or technique?

Questions with this tag should be looking for the first time something was used either on screen (a special movie characteristic, plot device, etc.) or during production (e.g. cutting technique, special equipment, effects).

Depending on interpretation, this description more or less limits the kind of first appearances one can ask for. I can't, however, find any meta discussion about this tag or its scope specifically. The questions listed below discuss either incidentally and don't really add anything to this.

Do we have or want to create a scope for this type of question?

Somewhat related meta questions:

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    The [first-appearance] tag wiki seems pretty clear and straightforward to me. It's for 'What was the first show to...?' questions, covering all sorts of 'firsts' in TV and movies. You mentioned limitations - could you elaborate on what sort of restrictions you were thinking about?
    – galacticninja
    Commented Jul 22 at 9:39
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    Honestly, the tag is over-used IMO. The film element in question should, again IMO, be highly specific and unusual. In reality, it is used for the most banal items, scenes and tropes that have been seen thousands of times in the 140+ years of movie production. Tracking down something so ubiquitous in the possibly millions of movies produced in that time frame is quite often a ridiculous undertaking.
    – Paulie_D
    Commented Jul 22 at 12:14
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    @Paulie_D Exactly. "What is the first film to feature a baseball bat?" is just silly (and begs the question "what does 'feature' mean exactly?").
    – Joachim
    Commented Jul 22 at 14:28
  • @galacticninja and VTCers: I initially put some limitations into my question, but decided to leave them out, because my propensity to nitpick surfaced and tends to get condemned. I also don't see how that information is necessary to answer a question about scope, and I want to invite discussion, not a revision or evaluation of my interpretation. Of course, I will add it if it gets closed otherwise, but disagree with the rationale behind it :)
    – Joachim
    Commented Jul 22 at 14:39
  • @Joachim From what I've seen of how the tag is used and its tag wiki, the example you gave Paulie_D, "What is the first film to feature a baseball bat?" seems to fit. That said, I'm not suggesting it's a great question deserving of upvotes—just that it appears to be on-topic.
    – galacticninja
    Commented Jul 22 at 14:49
  • @galacticninja True, and especially the "something [..] used on screen" part of the wiki allows for any kind of first-appearance question. Part of the reason for this question: do we want to keep this anything-goes scope, or pose some limitation?
    – Joachim
    Commented Jul 22 at 14:54
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    @Joachim - But what was the first film to feature a baseball bat?
    – Valorum
    Commented Jul 22 at 19:46
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    @Joachim - First appearance is 1915, but that ain't a film; baseballhall.org/discover-more/stories/baseball-history/…
    – Valorum
    Commented Jul 22 at 19:48
  • @Paulie_D Several estimates of the total number of movies made over the whole world for all time is around half a million. IMDB lists fewer than 300,000.
    – Todd Wilcox
    Commented Jul 23 at 3:54
  • @ToddWilcox - Students churn out thousands of the things each month.
    – Valorum
    Commented Jul 23 at 16:26
  • @ToddWilcox Noted. I think that number (actually probably nearer 400/500K) on really relate to feature length movies. IMDB, while a valuable resource, is not a complete record of all movies worldwide and probably excludes short films, online video (YT) etc which are also covered by M&TV. Perhaps millions was hyperbolic but 1M is not out of bounds. ☺
    – Paulie_D
    Commented Jul 24 at 11:20

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The tag wiki for seems pretty clear and straightforward. It's for 'What was the first show to...?' questions, covering all sorts of 'firsts' in TV and movies. I don't see an immediate need to modify or restrict its scope. As the saying goes, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

It's worth noting that adding restrictions to not allow "trivial" first-appearance questions would conflict with our established policy. We've previously agreed not to close questions based on perceived triviality, as evidenced by several meta discussions:

Limiting the scope of questions runs the risk of contradicting these established policies. The current, open-ended nature of the tag aligns well with our community's approach to embracing a wide range of film and TV-related questions.

Unless there are specific issues arising from the current usage of the tag, it seems best to maintain its current scope. This allows for a diverse array of questions about firsts in the industry while staying true to our inclusive approach to content.

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    Please note I wasn't proposing changing the scope of the tag, just whining about how it's being used for (IMO) trivial things. I know we did away with the "trivia" close reason but that's another discussion. ☺
    – Paulie_D
    Commented Jul 24 at 11:15

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