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I'm editting the content of my question to better reflect what I want to ask.

I would like to know how many and what spells did a character cast in the entire story, which would obviously require a list of the spells as an answer, for example "What spells did Dumbledore cast during Harry Potter books?" (Although this isn't the character I have in mind, nor the story)

Would that be ok question to ask?

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  • Btw, if you have a specific question in mind, then it’s fine to ask on Meta and/or in the chat “would question X be okay to ask here?”.
    – alexwlchan
    Commented Jun 9, 2014 at 23:20
  • ah alright, I wasn't sure of that, so should I edit my title and content to the question I have in mind?
    – IamVeryCuriousIndeed
    Commented Jun 9, 2014 at 23:21
  • If you wanted. I probably couldn’t answer (because I don’t ask questions, so I have a less-good feel for what makes a good question), but it might get you constructive feedback, and help you make sure the question was well-received on the main site. Just my two cents.
    – alexwlchan
    Commented Jun 9, 2014 at 23:23

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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A short finite list which isn't like to change is okay.

An open ended list is bad. One person answers with a few things, then another person adds something more, and the number of answers keeps trickling up forever, and no complete answer is like to come out of it. Those are the kinds of lists that are discouraged.

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  • so if I were to ask, for example "in the books, how many times did Katniss kiss Peta" would it be ok? (I'm not going to ask this question but the format is close to what I want to ask)
    – IamVeryCuriousIndeed
    Commented Jun 9, 2014 at 22:24
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    @IamVeryCuriousIndeed Technically yes, as it's a short and finite list. Of course, being a list isn't the only possible close reason, so questions such as "how many times did X happen" might be considered too localized, or pointless trivia, unless you explain why you want to know.
    – Avner Shahar-Kashtan
    Commented Jun 10, 2014 at 4:25
  • The other problem with lists is where the type of question invites potential answers to be composed of the answerer's own personal favourites, rather than anything that can be specifically pin-pointed in the source work(s).
    – user8719
    Commented Jun 10, 2014 at 9:55
  • @AvnerShahar-Kashtan Too Localized is no longer a close reason (same as General Reference), and the whole site is practically based around "pointless trivia". We also don't close questions for being "too trivial".
    – phantom42
    Commented Jun 10, 2014 at 12:41

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