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In response to IandotKelly's suggestion that I quit whining and start being pro-active about the pedantry on this site (my words, not his by the way!), I'd like to request that we disregard the closure of questions for being 'too localised' whatever that possibly means.

This Question, recently re-opened, is a prime example of such pedantry. The question is of the 'Identify' variety, and goes to great length to explain as much as possible. This is a Brilliant example of a new user getting things right, or nearly right anyway, and we've closed it down...much to the Users distress, and confusion.

I see that Tylershads has commented that there was a big break in user activity and it was deemed to be abandoned, but;

  1. What is the point in the 'Unanswered' section, if these posts are deleted after a few months of inactivity? when there aren't any recent questions to answer, I frequently go back through the archives to see if there are any older questions worth my time. that's the point, no?

  2. the user did eventually come back, only to be confused as to why the question didn't meet the criteria. He since hasn't come back, and I don't blame him. Why do we even have a cut off? we're just limiting our contribution as a whole, and possible engagement for future users.

How can an identify question be, 'Too Localized'? it was cited as being too narrow in scope to be helpful to anyone other than the OP...AND? what's the problem with that, exactly? how is that any different to any other Identify questions?

I'm relatively new to this site, but hope my contributions have been sufficient for people to take me seriously.

One of my real gripes about this site is the amount of pedantry that seems to exist, and how so many people are content to detract with little tangible contribution.

There are plenty of Mods and users who 'are hip' to this concern, and there's people who are actively welcoming and engaging new users, but there are others that just quickly bring down the axe, and its terrifying and intimditaing for someone unfamilair with the site.

I know the purpose of Meta is to discuss these issues and create some kind of codified constitution, and we're all aware of this: but new users aren't. They've just come here for help, and we're too keen to throw the book at them.

It seems to me we're driving more people away than we're retaining, I wince every time I see a rule enforced without delicacy and without discretion, simply because the rule 'exists'.

I know there's nothing much to be physically done about this issue, I just think it merits bringing to people's attention and hopefully folks can be a little more aware of it.

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    Hey thanks for taking the time to ask this.... I should point out however that 'Too Localized' has already been removed. Your question is however still valid, but you might want to edit it to remove the focus on that phrase. Nowadays there is a reason that states: 'Movie identification questions must contain sufficient detail to be answerable. For help writing a good identification question, see: Identify-This-X Questions. Identification questions without an accepted answer will be deleted after 14 days.'
    – iandotkelly Mod
    Dec 13, 2013 at 20:42
  • Thanks, but why are questions without an accepted answer deleted after 14 days? shouldn't we give people a larger, if not indefinate window to find answers to these?
    – John Smith Optional
    Dec 13, 2013 at 20:45
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    You would have to dig back in meta to find some posts on this. Basically a lot of people here think that Identify This is a necessary evil - it doesn't 'add much' to the community, it just helps one person, but it does attract people to the side. Basically the argument is that it doesn't move the site in the direction of more interesting stuff, and a repository of interesting Q&A if it just becomes a quiz to identify a movie for someone.
    – iandotkelly Mod
    Dec 13, 2013 at 20:49
  • This is probably the most useful question to start with ... meta.movies.stackexchange.com/questions/443/…
    – iandotkelly Mod
    Dec 13, 2013 at 20:53
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    @JohnSmithOptional "why are questions without an accepted answer deleted after 14 days?" - Not questions, identify questions.
    – Napoleon Wilson Mod
    Dec 13, 2013 at 23:21
  • Sorry Christian, I thought that was implied. Whilst we're on the subject of poor quality 'Identify This X' questions, is there any way to find out if these two questions are by the same poster, using different accounts? it seems to me an odd co-incidence, or should I be posting to Skeptics? ..Jokes.
    – John Smith Optional
    Dec 14, 2013 at 1:28
  • @JohnSmithOptional There is, flag em with a custom reason, and we get the notification to look at them. Considering that's been done here I will investigate.
    – Tablemaker
    Dec 15, 2013 at 5:24

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