Timeline for Are story identification questions still appropriate?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
14 events
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| May 23, 2015 at 17:30 | comment | added | ThePopMachine | @Gilles: Hyperbolically carrying on. If I ask, What's the story that uses the word buffalo exactly five times more than it uses the word elevator?, is this a good question? No. It is basically asking to match a story to a totally random set of facts: in one case what I remember and in another case an arbitrary property of the text. This is not a question anyone else is going to ask or look up because no one else has your experiences and memories. (Out of universe, anyhow, that is.) | |
| May 23, 2015 at 17:26 | comment | added | ThePopMachine | @Gilles: Here is a random set of facts that I happen to remember about something I was exposed to a long time ago. Find me the story that I happen to have associated with that random set of facts and that's the right answer. --Oh, oh, me too, I happen to remember exactly the same facts??? No! How is this possibly a good question? | |
| May 22, 2015 at 22:38 | comment | added | user56 | @ThePopMachine The logic behind what? The only logic I've heard to oppose story identification is that they're not appropriate for Stack Exchange because they're only useful to the asker. I understand and agree with that logic. However, it relies on the empirical determination that story identification are only useful for the asker. Experimentally, this is false: story identification questions get plenty of “me too” answers. Since the premise is false, the implication is not relevant. Since there is no reason to ban story identification, why would it be banned? | |
| May 22, 2015 at 22:34 | comment | added | ThePopMachine | and again -- I'm most certainly not saying there doesn't appear to be the stats. I'm saying I literally can't understand why a number of very high-rep users, generally held in high esteem, think this position makes sense. There's a difference between agreeing with a position and understanding the logic behind it, and in this case it totally eludes me. | |
| May 22, 2015 at 22:31 | comment | added | ThePopMachine | and neither is @DVK (Sorry for the name drop.) | |
| May 22, 2015 at 22:30 | comment | added | ThePopMachine | @Gilles-- I read this argument elsewhere but I fail to see why debug-my-code on SO is any kind of argument at all about what should happen in SFSE. And I may not have 21k rep, but it's not like I don't participate and I'm no newbie. | |
| May 21, 2015 at 21:52 | comment | added | user56 | @ThePopMachine Story identification questions are useful to more people than, say, debug-my-code questions on SO. I've seen many “me too” answers on story identification questions. This “too localized” idea is something that a number of people who don't participate here keep saying, but the facts don't agree. | |
| May 21, 2015 at 15:01 | comment | added | ThePopMachine | @Gilles: Late to the party, and I'm sure this is covered elsewhere, but there's too much history for me to wade through. Can you explain in short (Or point me to) why you a [story-identification] question is a good question? Basically to me it is "too localized" -- in this case localized to the particular user's brain! (Yes I realize there's no 'too localized' anymore). What is the practical use of "What is a work that satisfies the following random set of elements?" except to OP?? I'm sort of dumbfounded the community seems to think this makes sense. | |
| Nov 4, 2013 at 19:18 | history | edited | user56 | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Mar 1, 2012 at 0:56 | history | edited | user56 | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Mar 1, 2012 at 0:52 | comment | added | Matthew Read | That's quite the strong support then. Thanks for clarifying ... the thing with hyperbole is that the degree of it isn't obvious. | |
| Mar 1, 2012 at 0:51 | comment | added | user56 | @MatthewRead Yeah, so that was hyperbole. I would definitely resign my ♦ over this. I might keep my account on the site. | |
| Mar 1, 2012 at 0:47 | comment | added | Matthew Read | I'm sure some people will take issue with this unless you plan on suicide if the community decides against you. (Even more people are surely against your suicide, so I recommend a less extreme position!) | |
| Mar 1, 2012 at 0:40 | history | answered | user56 | CC BY-SA 3.0 |