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I'm brand new to the site, but the first thing I noticed is that there are many 'identify-this' questions with a picture. Nowadays, there are reverse image search engines such as tineye which makes finding information from an image so much easier.

I took a random (honest) question of this type - here, went to tineye and searched for the image - results - went to one of the links, and found this. Boom! Identified. It's not so hard.

How can we make sure questions like these only get asked after the OP has had a genuine attempt at it. And how should we promote the use of tools like tineye to the community?

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    I don't disagree with this in general. I'm not sure this is a big issue with the site to be honest, certainly most identification questions don't have pictures, and many that do are from quizzes and we close these immediately anyway. I do tend to use image search tools, such as TinEye or Google Image Search here. I should point out that the question referred to here was asked before the link you found existed however.
    – iandotkelly Mod
    Mar 23 '14 at 5:25
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One of the best fixes I have seen for people who ask questions that could be answered with a simple Google Search is to locate their answer through a Google Search, then send them a link to their answer via Let Me Google That For You.

While there is no comparable Let Me Tin Eye That For You, the best thing you can do is to post an answer which is prefaced by a boilerplate sentence where you state outright that you used the Tin Eye website (with a link, preferably pre-loaded using the image they posted) to discover their answer, and then post their answer.

For example, using your question data:

I submitted your image to Tin Eye and via deductive reasoning determined it was movie name. {Additional info.}

That user and potential others who read your answer may then recognize Tin Eye as a tool for them to use as well, going forward.

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    I like this because I had a few ID questions based on screen shots and I wasn't aware that those kind of tools existed. So you're giving the OP the benefit of the doubt.
    – DustinDavis
    Mar 25 '14 at 23:32
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    Except that this passive aggressive behavior is widely considered rude and arrogant and has even been banned across the network. Why didn't you know that? Next time, try searching meta before posting, noob. <wink>
    – Robert Cartaino
    Apr 1 '14 at 15:35
  • Stop "hot-dogging" it, Rob. :P
    – JoshDM
    Apr 1 '14 at 15:41

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