There's a question (currently open) on the site: What charges/prison time would Jack Black realistically be looking at by the end of School of Rock?
This essentially asks for speculation on a hypothetical situation not depicted in the movie. In other words, it's a "What if ______ happened?" type of question, which the help center advises against asking: What types of questions should I avoid asking?
I voted to close this question because I believe it's both off-topic for this site and primarily opinion-based. The open-ended, hypothetical legal outcome would depend on various factors, like a judge or jury's interpretation of the law. While interesting to ponder, this falls more into the realm of jurisprudence than the stated scope of Movies & TV, which focuses on questions directly about movies and shows themselves.
Interestingly, though, a few other users, including a moderator, left it open in the review queue. And the OP even acknowledged that their question is speculative and arguably irrelevant, saying:
Lol, it's not opinion-based. Maybe speculative and sure, probably irrelevant but it's not opinion based. But feel free to close this 5 year old question. Keep on fightin' the good fight.
These are reasons to close a question as per the help center guidelines on what types of questions are allowed and not allowed here. Specifically:
Please note that the following subjects are considered off-topic here:
- Opinions about […] a movie or TV show
To prevent your question from being flagged and possibly removed, avoid asking subjective questions where … […]
- you are asking an open-ended, hypothetical question: “What if ______ happened?”
Some subjective questions are allowed, but “subjective” does not mean “anything goes”. All subjective questions are expected to be constructive. What does that mean? Constructive subjective questions:
[…]
- invite sharing experiences over opinions
My concern is that leaving a question like this open could lead to more low-quality, speculative "what if" questions pondering hypothetical legal consequences for characters' actions, like "What charges would the gang from It's Always Sunny face after [insert episode plot summary]?"
I enjoy a fun thought experiment as much as anyone, but do we want to open the floodgates for this type of question on the main site? I think a line needs to be drawn to preserve quality and stick to our stated topicality guidelines. What are your thoughts? Should we allow these kinds of hypothetical legal questions or keep them off-topic?
