3

70s or 80s movie where woman has healing powers

So I don't get why after my question was answered, after it has received up-votes, and I verified with a YouTube link in a comment, that some people decide to take offense and mark the question as off-topic?

Seriously? I apparently provided enough information that somebody answered pretty quick (within a day?). The information I provided was pretty much all I remember as a kid when I saw this movie. But, I did provide a detail for a pretty meaningful scene near the end of the movie. The person answering the question specifically mentions that scene "really stuck with me".

I feel like if the question sat unanswered for days, then it might be ok to close it because the question is too vague. At the time of this post, not even 60 people saw the question. Yet here I sit with the answer to my question and I'm happy that "sfhq-sf" helped me out.

I get that stack exchange sites need to have moderators to keep the riff-raff from ruining everybody's favorite site, but give me a break! If somebody went the extra mile to help somebody else out, only to be rewarded by opinionated users admonishing the relevance of the question, then you're seriously going to lose users who genuinely want to help out AND lose users who really don't want to be told that their questions are not appreciated.

7

2 Answers 2

6

So, I'm going to address an inherent problem with Identify This X questions, and the reasons why we want as much detail as possible.

If the asker only remembers one scene from the movie, and doesn't remember anything else about the movie, either when it was filmed, when they saw it, etc, the scope that the movie falls in is huge. Just in 2016, Hollywood released well over 200 films. And this number doesn't include independent films or other countries. It also doesn't include TV releases.

So, by posting question without the country of origin, even with a date range, is asking for someone to have specifically seen one movie out of possible thousands. The chances are small that someone will straight up remember this. However, the question in particular got lucky.

So, as a measure of quality, we want ID questions to answer as many of the who, what, when, where, how, etc. as much as possible. Doing so allows us to narrow down our research. For example, with this question, I had enough information to start a more restricted search. I looked through a list, read through some descriptions, and got lucky enough to find it. I wouldn't have been able to do that if the question hadn't been so detailed.


We also have another issue with ID questions, is that they are ridiculously simple to ask if we don't force the askers to provide as much detail. We get roughly 10 of these types of questions a day, and most of them STILL don't meet the requirements we have set up, because new people generally see "hey, they allow id questions, I'll post this really vague memory I have" without reading what we require in the question, so they get put on hold and they usually don't come back to clean up their question

And I will say this, we are unceremoniously rude to ID questions as a community, and I personally think we need to be a lot better about it. There is a bit of a schism in the community as to ID questions, and new people are getting caught in it.

However, it does get exhausting when you're trying to prompt people to add more information so that their question meets site requirements. Some people play ball, some people get mad that they got challenged on what THEY perceived to be on-topic for the site.


So, to circle back to the particular question at hand. It has 2 plot points and a date range, but doesn't tell the country of origin, the language it was in, whether is was animated or live action, if you saw it on tv or in theatre, etc.

And here's another thing, a question that's put on hold can still be reopened if it gets edited to the point where it's of high enough quality for the site. Also, if the question has an upvoted answer, it won't be deleted off of the site by the automatic process. So, the question will stay, but has a mark that says "this isn't of high enough quality for the site".

4

I get that stack exchange sites need to have moderators to keep the riff-raff from ruining everybody's favorite site,

Your question was indicated as lacking the necessary level of detail to meet site standards by 5 users only one of which was a moderator.

The fact that a specific scene is enough to make the question meet those standard is a debated topic but, in general, the fact that a question is answerable is not enough.

..only to be rewarded by opinionated users admonishing the relevance of the question

Opinions as to quality is the Stack Exchange model and close voting will normally indicate those standards. In this case, enough users, including myself thought that there were enough details missing to make the question unacceptable.

By the same token, if you can rally enough users to have the question re-opened then you are welcome to use that opportunity.

I don't get why after my question was answered, after it has received up-votes,

Upvotes, on M & TV, in my experience are an indication of interest...not quality.

ID questions in general are a hot-button topic, allowing them at all is constantly under review as their usefulness to future users is not only debatable but debated frequently.

2
  • There's no point in re-opening the question because it has already been answered and I accepted it. Feel free to delete it for all it matters at this point if you feel that nobody else will benefit from the question and answer.
    – Tim Reddy
    Commented Feb 10, 2017 at 17:02
  • "There's no point in re-opening the question because it has already been answered and I accepted it." - <sigh> Exactly. :'(
    – Napoleon Wilson Mod
    Commented Feb 10, 2017 at 17:37

You must log in to answer this question.

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