Unfortunately, this is likely an off-topic question, but one which is about said off-topicness. Occasionally, when browsing through story-identification items, one comes upon a request for a story that is non-sci-fi with people suggesting going to the Literature Stack Exchange to ask. That section of the site was closed in 2012. So far, I've been resorting to TV Trope's YKTS board, but is there an SE location to ask such questions?
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3There is the Booksleuth Forum at abe.com.– user14111Commented Jun 27, 2014 at 23:28
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3Try the tipofmytongue subreddit– System DownCommented Jun 30, 2014 at 23:03
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1Yahoo answers. Or Quora– Valorum ModCommented Sep 5, 2015 at 13:07
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3@FuzzyBoots what was that about part of Literature being closed?– StormblessedCommented Mar 16, 2019 at 4:42
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3@Stormblessed: This isn't the first time Literature SE has been created. It kind of failed the first time due to lack of interest.– FuzzyBootsCommented Mar 16, 2019 at 13:30
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I don't think this needs to be a full answer since it's just one resource; but the subreddit /r/whatsthatbook is pretty good for books.– JMacCommented Apr 29, 2019 at 16:54
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5 Answers
There are actually quite a few sites that allow some type of identification question:
Movies & TV: ID questions are once again on-topic. You can ask well-scoped questions to identify movies or TV shows.
They also have a list of external sites that you might find helpful.Literature: Literature ID questions are on-topic. You can ask about more than books: comics, manga, graphic novels, short stories, and poems are on-topic. (To clarify, this site was launched in 2017, long after the old Literature site closed in 2012.)
Arqade: Game ID questions are on-topic if a screenshot, audio file or other "artifact" of the game is included. Otherwise, they have this short list of external sites which may help you find games.
Retrocomputing: Game ID questions for retro games are on-topic.
Anime & Manga: Questions asking for the identification of anime or manga are now off-topic (but there is this answer to help in your search). Questions about identifying characters, episodes, or similar from a known series are on-topic, as are questions on identifying cosplay and merchandise when there's a good reason to believe it's from an anime/manga. (But it looks like no more music id.)
RPG: The tag product-identification is appropriate for most id questions, unless you're asking to identify something within a known game and then you want to use the content-identification tag. In any case, as long as you're asking for the identification of a tabletop RPG (not a video game), it's likely on topic.
Board & Card Games: This site accepts identification questions for anything matching the title of the site, using the identify-this-game tag. For identification of foreign Magic: The Gathering cards, there's a post with guidance on how to find the answer yourself.
And it's also worth mentioning:
- Music Fans: After many years of lukewarmly supporting them, no ID questions.
For books? Nothing on Stack Exchange. There is now a Literature Stack Exchange which accepts (well-worded and detailed) identification requests.
For movies? There's Movies & TV.
For TV? There's Movies & TV.
For anime? There's Anime&Manga.SE. - they have now completely banned story-ID requests.
For video games? Nothing on Stack Exchange. There's Arqade, but only in the very specific case when you have an “artifact” (e.g. a screenshot).
Be sure to take the tour on each site to see the constraints they have on Story Identification questions, each of them has different expectations.
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2I know Arqade has unilaterally banned identification requests, for example. Commented Jun 27, 2014 at 14:38
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@SeanDuggan Whoops, last time I looked, they allowed ones with pictures. :3– user1027Commented Jun 27, 2014 at 14:39
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1@SeanDuggan A mod on Arqade says they allow ID questions, if they include 'an artifact', like a screenshot.– user1027Commented Jun 30, 2014 at 23:21
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Huh. Their documentation doesn't indicate that. Good to know. Commented Jul 1, 2014 at 1:43
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@SeanDuggan Yeah, it's baffling to me that their Tour is so definite, and so wrong.– user1027Commented Jul 1, 2014 at 2:16
Unfortunately not. There isn't a place to ask such questions (yet).
There is a Literature Proposal on Area 51 that would suit your needs, but it is still on the Definition stage.
You can always ask around our chat. Someone might be able to help you.
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Is there a reason to think that Books SE would fare any better than (sadly) Literature SE did? Commented Jun 30, 2014 at 15:17
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@DVK I really don't know, but it is the only place that I think would suit OP's needs Commented Jun 30, 2014 at 15:26
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3@DVK What happened to Literature SE? It's something sad about the internet community -- i.e. us -- that such a SE site cannot prosper, while Movies SE can :( Commented Dec 8, 2014 at 23:29
The English Wikipedia reference desk does take well-written identification questions, and can sometimes answer them. Here's an example question I asked, for which a user found the answer (Talk Down by Brian Lecomber (1978)). Ask book identification questions at the humanities desk, movie or TV series or video game identification questions at the entertainment desk. Don't ask the same question at multiple desks.
In the 'Book Search' sub-forum of SFF Chronicles they accept occasional non genre book ID questions. Provided the same person doesn't keep banging non SF&F questions in there day after day after day and thus alienating dedicated SF&F fans.