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In my other question on this topic, found here, I gave three suggestions for handling questions:

Scrap ALL questions with NO exceptions.

OR

Scrap any question which doesn't include a description/title of the movie/tv series the actor was in - regardless of whether the post includes a picture or not.

OR

Keep ALL questions, regardless of whether they consist of single pictures/single descriptions etc.

Now, at the time of writing, just two days before the poll closes, the last suggestion has -6 votes and it seems unlikely that will improve. It seems clear that the community does not want every question to remain. However, what does the community want to remain? Where is the line drawn?

Initially the feedback to the other two suggestions was more positive and I was hoping we would get a definitive answer. However, they are both current sitting on -1 votes and thus clearly neither solution seems to be what a sizable portion community wants.

In my opinion, there is no clear, right answer. Regardless of what we end up keeping, some people are going to disagree - and that's okay. But we do need consensus on the site regarding how to handle these questions, as currently some are downvoted for being poor, others get close votes within minutes, whilst the OP doesn't actually know what's allowed because, let's face it, we don't know what's allowed!

So whereas the previous question asked people to vote on preset answers, this time I'd love people to comment/add their own answers etc to this post so we can really find out, once and for all, what the most popular, or dare I say, least unpopular opinion on the issue is.

Once we know this, we can try and apply it consistently throughout the site and get rid of the confusion surrounding good use of the tag currently.

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  • 2
    While I don't argue the value of this question, it might have been a good idea to wait until the end of the poll.
    – magnattic
    Commented May 30, 2014 at 13:44
  • I don't see why. It was obvious poll result, for these questions, wasn't changing.
    – Andrew Martin
    Commented Jun 1, 2014 at 11:13
  • 2
    I'm against limiting the scope of this ghost town of a site any further (I voted to keep all, probably alone), though I don't think the outcome of the vote really matters because those questions will all just be slammed with -1s until the author deletes them anyway.
    – Crow T Robot
    Commented Jun 2, 2014 at 13:15
  • 1
    @MrLore: You're harsh calling it a ghost town of a site. I think it's the largest Stack site in Beta, with over 15,000 unique daily visitors. But I agree with your other point about the -1s. I just want consensus among at least the core users of the site. That way, we can tackle/combat downvoters and close votes on valid questions and hopefully help the community recognise what we're after.
    – Andrew Martin
    Commented Jun 2, 2014 at 14:34
  • 1
    That way, we can tackle/combat downvoters and close votes on valid questions - There is no policy on voting, everyone is free to vote as they like, so "tackling downvoters" seems like a dubious goal. Votes are about question quality, so if someone thinks a question is trivial or uninteresting, they are free to downvote it, even if we decide the question is on-topic. The discussion here is solely about scope (and consequently about close votes), so talking about -1s makes only partial sense I think. Of course, finding a consensus might shift the way people see the questions.
    – magnattic
    Commented Jun 2, 2014 at 16:06
  • Your last line is what I was really aiming for.
    – Andrew Martin
    Commented Jun 2, 2014 at 16:20
  • @MrLore You're not alone. I have no problem with them either. We might be the only two, though.
    – Meat Trademark
    Commented Jun 8, 2014 at 17:40
  • I always answer my identify this actor or movie questions using Google. And 99% of the times I succeed.
    – Etack Sxchange
    Commented Aug 8, 2023 at 13:14

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
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It has been a week since this discussion was opened and from what I can see we have not made much progress, other than saying we need to discuss it more.

So here goes:

The poll seems to indicate that almost nobody wants to keep "identify-this-actor" questions without any restrictions. (option 4c) However the community is split on what exactly to do with those questions.

A slightly larger part wants to keep those identify-this-actor questions around that provide enough information about the movie the actor played in. (4b)

The other part of the community wants to get rid of them completely. (4a)

I was in the latter group, but I can totally live with option 4b for now. It is definitely a better option than the "everything goes" approach we had before and provides a reasonable level of quality control to keep out questions like "I found this pic of the web, which actor is it?", which I think most people had a problem with.

I have a feeling that many people who also voted for 4a would agree with me in this regard. Therefore I suggest to go with option 4b until further notice.

Scrap any identify-this-actor question which doesn't include a description/title of the movie/tv series the actor was in - regardless of whether the post includes a picture or not.

It might not be the option everyone is completely happy with, but it seems to be the lowest common denominator right now.

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  • +1: This is exactly what my thinking on the issue was. It's not got two thirds, or even "majority" support - but it's the least offensive option as things stand and we can all get behind it whilst we decide on a better option.
    – Andrew Martin
    Commented Jun 6, 2014 at 8:28
  • From my own point of view, I've already downvoted and voted to close picture only questions (e.g. this question.)
    – Andrew Martin
    Commented Jun 6, 2014 at 8:30
  • Unfortunately though, as long as people keep answering them/attempting to answer them, we'll likely keep getting them.
    – Andrew Martin
    Commented Jun 6, 2014 at 8:30
-1

Unilateral action has been taken and though it ended up with negative votes, 4b has been chosen apparently because it was the least disliked option, though I believe this shows opinions are not in favour of taking any action regards with regards to and thus things should remain the same, and perhaps take another vote when the site graduates or in a year (whichever comes first).

Those who cannot stand (the quality of) these questions should ignore the tag.

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  • I think we have to do something. Currently things aren't working which is why I tried to set up votes. People posting don't know what is acceptable or unacceptable. I don't think waiting is a solution as the confusion will just continue. Even if it is the least objected to option, if we can at least all apply it (site regulars at least) until a better solution is created, that's progress.
    – Andrew Martin
    Commented Jun 2, 2014 at 15:32
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    Those who cannot stand (the quality of) these questions should ignore the tag. - Ignoring problematic tags is not a solution. (Believe me, I tried.) We can't just close our eyes and hope the problem goes away. If the avid users ignore low quality questions, the problem just gets worse as the questions are not being cleaned up. Meanwhile all the other visitors see them, which makes the site unattractive. It's a goal of the site to attract experts. To do that, we have to maintain quality.
    – magnattic
    Commented Jun 2, 2014 at 16:12
  • I believe this shows opinions are not in favour of taking any action regards with regards to identify-this-actor No offense, but you are completely ignoring that "everything should stay as it is" was the most downvoted option in the poll (4c). You can't simply declare that as the winner, just because there was no clear winner among the other options. The poll shows that "no action" is certainly not in the sense of the community.
    – magnattic
    Commented Jun 2, 2014 at 16:23
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    @atticae In this case the whole poll seems to have been ill-posed, since it wasn't entirely clear that any of those options has to prevail and that in case everything gets dismissed by the community suddenly the least non-voted option gets declared as the voted one. I tend to fear those poll-style things even more when suddenly a +7/-8 answer is the choice of the Community and single votes can decide over such important decisions. If the community is split among the topic, then be it so, that doesn't mean one can produce a decision out of the hat like rabbit.
    – Napoleon Wilson
    Commented Jun 2, 2014 at 16:27
  • @NapoleonWilson But if the list of options is exhaustive, how can any option not prevail? If you have "do nothing" as an option and you end up doing nothing, basically that is the option that was taken in the end. If that option was the least favorite one, I would think it is correct to say that doing nothing is not in our best interest. (I am not advocating to go with 4b here, I personally voted against it. I am just saying we should not just do nothing.)
    – magnattic
    Commented Jun 2, 2014 at 16:32
  • If none of the options was able to get the necessary support, that could just mean we have to discuss the issue further and find a solution that is ok with most people. That could either mean an entirely new solution, or it could mean that the different point of views have to be further explained until one finds a majority. (Alternatively we just decide that democracy does not work and we need a king. ;D)
    – magnattic
    Commented Jun 2, 2014 at 16:35
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    @atticae "If none of the options was able to get the necessary support, that could just mean we have to discuss the issue further and find a solution that is ok with most people." - Indeed, but that doesn't seem to have been the approach taken.
    – Napoleon Wilson
    Commented Jun 2, 2014 at 16:48

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