6

I noticed recently that one question posted about song that appears to be in a movie (movie appears to be Indian) was put on hold. Here's the link to it:
https://movies.stackexchange.com/questions/31127/what-is-this-song-from-humgama-a-2003-bollywood-film
The reason it's put on hold is - "This question appears to be off-topic"

While I notice that there are other questions asking for the same thing, for example this one below is based on Dexter, the American TV show:
What's that song at the end of Dexter S08E08?

Both questions ask for the same kind of information, while the first one is on hold, the second one has a good deal of comments, edits and answers. Comments go to show that there is enough awareness that such a question exists.

Why the disparity then? The Dexter question seems to be much older than the Bollywood one.

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
4

Simply put, because things have changed since then.

There was a lot of discussion within the last year, as we approached site graduation, regarding what questions to allow. There were lots of debates and eventually a few things were decided (see here and here):

  • A question solely asking to identify a piece of music is off-topic. This is because we're a film site. We're not a music site. In your post, the Dexter question should have been closed (and still can be).
  • A question asking to identify a piece of music to understand why it was used and what purpose it had or why it was juxtapositioned where it was is on-topic. This is because these questions can lead to greater understanding and appreciation of the film and scene in question, which a simple identification question cannot do.

Now, obviously this is a community and so things can change over time as the community changes and develops. However, despite the odd dissenting voice, we've largely stuck fairly well to that. There will always be people who'll post answers on questions if they know it, but we're trying hard to maintain good quality questions here and "identify this song at 1.09 minutes" doesn't pass that test.

So, as a final answer - if a question similar to the Dexter one was posted today, I'd vote to close it as trivia.

4
  • The policies of the site don't apply to older questions then? Shouldn't it? The Dexter question right now can continue having discussions around it, shouldn't that be put on hold too? I understand policies have changed now but should apply equally regardless of when a question was raised, no?
    – John
    Commented Feb 17, 2015 at 12:26
  • @Tivep: I agree totally. If you've been on that question, you'll notice it now has two close votes (myself and someone else). All members with 3,000k rep will have that question added to their review queue and can choose to close/open it, so it will likely be closed v soon.
    – Andrew Martin
    Commented Feb 17, 2015 at 12:30
  • got it. Thanks for that info.
    – John
    Commented Feb 17, 2015 at 12:31
  • @AndrewMartin this is a nice summary.
    – DA.
    Commented Feb 17, 2015 at 23:37

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .