Once this question was considered on-topic here: If I have the Comixology app, do I need the publisher ones?
Today, I asked a similar question: How does unlimited subscription of Marvel Comics work? which is closed as off-topic. Why?
Once this question was considered on-topic here: If I have the Comixology app, do I need the publisher ones?
Today, I asked a similar question: How does unlimited subscription of Marvel Comics work? which is closed as off-topic. Why?
Those questions don't have anything to do with Science Fiction or Fantasy. It has to do with the distribution of (potentially) SciFi/Fantasy works.
Similarily a question like "How do I buy a comic book from a grocery store" would be closed as off topic. Just because you mentioned a comic book doesn't mean it is on topic. The question is about the logistics of purchasing a magazine. It has nothing to do with this genre.
To me these questions are no different than asking "How do I buy a ticket to see Prometheus at my local cinema?", or "How do I stream Battlestar Galactica on Netflix"?
Are they about science fiction? Only peripherally. They're not about the content, or the creation, or the fandom culture, or speculation. They're about buying and downloading -- the content happens to be Sci-Fi in this case. But the same answers would apply if I asked about downloading Archie comics or Downton Abbey episodes. Those are fine things - but they're not Sci-Fi/Fantasy.
It's clearly on-topic (although it doesn't seem like a good question; as a comment says, it seems very likely that the terms of use would answer it).
The FAQ states that questions about:
Behind-the-scenes and fandom information
are on-topic. These questions are those. However, these questions are rare, and so can easily get closed as off-topic simply because they don't fit the dull trivia-contest or wild-speculation question format questions that users are expecting.
The best way to figure out whether something is off-topic (other than referring to the FAQ and meta questions) is to ask "is this something that requires the expertise likely to be found on this site?" - i.e. does it require expertise in science fiction/fantasy. Here, given that the vast majority of the material sold through these applications consists of on-topic material here (i.e. it's scifi/fantasy), it seems clear that the users here are likely to have the expertise to answer the question.
Related to this is another question: would the users of this site be expected to find this question interesting and useful: the answer is again clearly "yes" - the users are likely to be consuming science-fiction/fantasy with these applications, and knowing more about how to best do that would be both useful and interesting.
These questions aren't any different in nature than a question asking what you need to know to try and find a rare translation of a scifi/fantasy book (shopping questions in general are off-topic, of course). WRT to shopping questions, the general guideline is:
Thus, when it comes to shopping questions, don’t ask us what you should buy — ask us what you need to learn to tell what you should buy.
That's exactly this question: asking what needs to be learnt (how the different models work for purchasing this scifi/fantasy content), not asking what needs to be bought.
I agree that it's on topic. I think, due to the factors that are asked, extant users of the license in question are far better able to answer - such behaviors as mentioned are seldom covered in the Terms of Use for many such services, and when they are, often not in plain English.