Should Questions on List of Movies be allowed ? Like for Example
- List of movies with star crossed lovers
- List of movies with Disease as the main theme.
- Movies That have only 2 characters
- List of indie movies on relationships
and so on.
Many list questions may solicit opinions, but that's not the reason list questions are bad. List questions are bad because they don't fit a question/answer format well. A list question is one that solicits multiple correct answers, rather than a single correct answer. When there are multiple correct answers, it's impossible to select the correct answer; and SE is all about finding good, correct answers to expert-level questions. If we allow questions that cannot have correct answers, it's not fulfilling the goal of the SE network.
List questions are considered off-topic on every other SE site (as far as I know), and should be off-topic here, as well.
List questions almost always are soliciting opinions, or asking for shopping advice. They're off-topic for being not constructive.
However, questions asking for lists may be on-topic. These are questions where there is a single correct list that can be contained in a single answer. An example is, "List of scenes in this movie?" (assuming question isn't general reference)
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If
List of scenes in this moviecan be allowed , Then as per your argument , There may be some list questions with a short number of items on the list , Then they may also be allowed also because they can be contained in a single answer. – Gautam Dec 19 '11 at 1:06 -
@GautamK That would require dedicated moderation per question to make sure users are following the format. – phwd Dec 19 '11 at 1:08
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well according to your answer this should not be closed movies.stackexchange.com/questions/27512/… as the list I was requiring is a fixed list of shows and movies that is not opinion based and with only possible answer – John Demetriou Nov 26 '14 at 10:03
Short answer: NO!
Long answer: List questions generate very little meaningful content to the network, and are generally a pain to get much info out of. It’s hard to get a good answer to a question if you have to read through 10+ answers. Another inherent issue is time. List questions are usually open to time, so people will fly by and add the new hotness, making it that much longer.
Simple answer: No, they have no value.
I think you would just have to have moderation to differentiate between
"List of directors who put numbers in their movies (http://movies.stackexchange.com/questions/821/are-there-any-other-directors-other-than-george-lucas-that-have-a-specific-num/824#824)" (I realize this isn't a list of movies question, but it's in the same vein, I was trying to find a specific example)
and
"List your top three Sidney Lumet movies"
I think there are a lot of movie questions (see the link above) that implicity ask for lists without asking directly. A lot of questions can be answered with lists. Banning list questions altogether seems ill-advised.
I guess if anybody feels like getting a list based on a property or want to know "If there is a movie where X is shown", we might want to just ask him to join in a friendly chat to discuss about this. I think chat can give the answer in the best possible way!
