Questions like these are bad. All of us know that. They simply ask "what song is this", give almost no information about it, and offer no actual information to be given other then "this is the song". (Frustratingly, each of them also had a +1 on them before I saw them, leading me to believe someone's grinding for a badge - Civic Duty comes to mind - instead of legitimately earning it.) I have the fear this'll be downvoted to hell because of something I missed, but can we please do something to stop these questions popping up all over the site?
-
2Identifications have been on-topic for almost two months now, as a trial period. Maybe it is time to poll the experience so far, so I created a meta thread here: meta.musicfans.stackexchange.com/questions/243/…– NPN328Jul 16, 2015 at 20:10
-
3I honestly don't see what's bad about it. They provide a sample of the song they want to identify. What is so great about a Music Fan site that doesn't allow song identification questions?– sanpacoJul 16, 2015 at 20:36
-
2Because it turns the website into a butchered Google?– DJ AftershockJul 18, 2015 at 13:43
-
2Why don't they use Shazam?– BCdotWEBJul 22, 2015 at 14:04
Add a comment
|
2 Answers
This is one of the areas where the mods can't help all that much.
The problem, in a nutshell, is that beta sites are living, growing, changing sites. The decisions as to what is and is not on-topic are not set in stone. Because of this, mods often leave the problem of closing questions to users who have the vote-to-close privilege (500 rep) - unless the question clearly and blatantly violates the site scope.
A mod might cast the fifth and final vote, but they will rarely cast a vote any sooner than that. I know this makes it seem like mods are useless, but the reality is that a mod-vote is a big hammer. If they wield them carelessly, it could be seen as interference with the user community's collective ability to determine the site scope. There have been user rebellions against "high handed moderator interference".
ID questions have a long and colorful history on art-related SE sites with both fans and haters.
On this site, they were initially banned by strong acclaim. Then most of the people who banned them went inactive, and a new group brought them back. Currently, they are allowed.
So what can be done? Vote to close, encourage others to vote to close, and downvote. Chat rooms are a good place to coordinate votes-to-close.
-
1We are in a trial period regarding id questions. Maybe it's time to create a new meta discussion so we can share our experiences with them and decide if we keep them all, keep some, or get rid of them.– NPN328Jul 16, 2015 at 20:00
-
Created an update thread here: meta.musicfans.stackexchange.com/questions/243/…– NPN328Jul 16, 2015 at 20:10
The problem is, if we start to blast every newcomer with downvotes and closed questions, he will likely never come back. Are we trying to create an empty community?
I think the first thing would be to ask for more details in the comments if possible and try to edit the question to make it more complete. Then, only after a few days, or a few weeks, if the guy never comes back, doesn't even have the Informed Badge we can start downvoting and or close the question.
My point is we should first encourage a nice behaviour instead of blasting people out of this community... what message do we want to deliver with a downvote or a closed question ?
-
3"Are we trying to create an empty community?" - well, we've done a great job of it, whether we were trying or not!– user16Dec 3, 2016 at 11:16