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Here's our current definition of the off-topic reason "trivia" from the "What topics can I ask about here?" help page:

Unimportant trivia that does not add to the understanding or appreciation of the title.

This definition is not very useful as what one person's feeling on whether it "adds to the understanding or appreciation" could vastly differ from another's. Clearly, if someone asked the question, they care about the topic, so it must be "important" to them in some way.

Additionally, not all of our questions are about "a title"... we have many questions that don't relate to a specific film or TV show.

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  • Well, I think asking about movie goofs and bloopers can also be considered "trivia". Are they on-topic?
    – Etack Sxchange
    Feb 18, 2021 at 18:32

3 Answers 3

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I'd rather trivia of all sorts be allowed and instead we judge the question on quality. Granted, quality is subjective, but that's why we have votes.

Just me personally, but some of the trivia I really enjoy on this site is genre-based or technology-based. Things like 'what is the longest continuous scene filmed without cuts'.

So, with that said, maybe trivia that is not narrowed down to one film could be on topic (as trivia narrowed to the individual film is already handled fairly well by IMDB).

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    I agree that we should let the votes do the talking, and perhaps add a trivia tag so people who are annoyed by trivia can filter it out.
    – Erik
    Oct 14, 2015 at 15:14
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    @Erik We are not going to create a meta tag just so that people can filter out trivia. Not going to happen.
    – Catija StaffMod
    Oct 14, 2015 at 15:21
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If you have a better way of describing what trivia is without it being a giant wall of text, feel free to offer something. Here are the main things that I've seen that I personally consider trivia:

I had to dig back a bit over six months to even find a question that was closed as trivia. IMHO it's not a big issue now as it used to be. I personally believe that the current rule works well.

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    I don't think the rule works well. It caused this question to be closed, but the type of knot turned out to be relevant to the character's development stage at that point in the film (beginner sailor).
    – Dan Dascalescu
    Feb 13, 2020 at 13:09
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I suggest we redefine trivia as:

  • Trivia is a factoid about a larger subject that would fit within a game show like Jeopardy, or within a board game like Trivial Pursuit.

And then add the following bullet point:

  • If you're looking for a fact that isn't substantive to the overall plot you're usually asking a trivia question.
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    That seems to be a very odd and inappropriate definition (and one that isn't any clearer at all). (The last bullet point seems a little bit more reasonable, though, but that's pretty much what we already have afterall.)
    – Napoleon Wilson Mod
    Oct 14, 2015 at 18:09
  • @NapoleonWilson I thought it would be helpful to provide a touchstone, and considering this is Movies and TV a TV touchstone seemed relevant. I agree the second bullet point is effectively what is there now. I think it is less legalese than "understanding and appreciation". The second bullet point also supports the first in case the touchstones in bullet one aren't familiar.
    – Erik
    Oct 14, 2015 at 18:25
  • I could certainly just be wrong though.
    – Erik
    Oct 14, 2015 at 18:26

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