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Tips for asking Story Identification questions
As one of the site's top answerers of story-identification questions, I'd like to offer the following suggestions to anyone thinking of posting a question in this tag:
No detail is too insignificant. ...
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Tips for asking Story Identification questions
Questions must have as much detail as possible, including, but not limited to:
Media (short story collection, magazine, novel, TV, film, animated, website) Was it part of a series?
Original year of ...
38
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How to find a story-ID answer?
A couple of weeks ago someone asked the same in chat, and I gave some tips (see transcript). I'll try to whip that up into a more or less clear guide below. Still in writing.
Disclaimer: all examples ...
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Let's talk about Story ID requests for erotica
They should be allowed.
As long as it's SFF, it's fine.
We are a site about science fiction and fantasy. And, let's face it... there are very often explicit scenes in SFF. And sometimes there is a ...
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Let's talk about Story ID requests for erotica
If a question is overtly offensive, it should be flagged as such.
Gratuitous NSFW pictures, links to porn, unnecessarily graphic language ... all of these are at best things to be edited out of a ...
Rand al'ThorMod
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Can ChatGPT Answer Story Identification Questions?
No.
We've had scenarios where people used AI tools like ChatGPT to answer story-ID questions, and the results were... not good. AI likes to invent things that don't necessarily exist in order to ...
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Can ChatGPT Answer Story Identification Questions?
Hmm. The best way to work something out is by conducting an experiment.
Since ChatGPT is limited (at present) to data generated before September 2021 we can happily work with story-id questions posted ...
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How to ask a good (anime/manga) Story-ID question?
With gratitude to Hakase's answer on Meta.Anime
In addition to the elements we've already discussed in How to ask a good story-ID question?, anime- and manga-specific questions that the poster could ...
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How often is it polite to ask for a story-identification
Ask them as often as you want. Asking a high volume of good quality questions is not only allowed but encouraged. Good content is what these sites thrive on.
However, you may want to slow down your ...
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Can I ask about identifying a sci-fi puzzle book?
As long as there was a consistent science fiction theme throughout, these books would be perfectly well on topic.
We've had other questions about puzzle books (typically of the CYOA variety) as well ...
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20
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Can I add a note to my own incorrect story ID answer, explaining why it is incorrect?
The user who asked the question should be encouraged to accept the correct answer
If the user who asked the question accepts the correct answer then no notice on your incorrect answer is necessary. A ...
NullMod
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Is it bad form to ask the same story-id question here and elsewhere?
It's not bad form.
You should absolutely feel free to cross-post your story-id question to as many sites as possible, with the exception of posting it elsewhere within the Stack Exchange Network.
...
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We have more than 1,200 unresolved [story-identification] questions >3 months old. Is that a problem?
No, we should not care.
There's no real limit to the number of unresolved questions we can keep lying around. These are not bad questions, and their presence does not harm the site. If we do the ...
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Are secondhand story ID questions OK?
Yes
Because, more rep These questions are fine and totally on-topic. In fact, we've had some good ones too:
B-Movie. Spaceship uses chickens as a power-source. Planets shaped like butts
sci-fi book ...
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CW answers for story-ID questions where the OP has found the answer?
I don't see any need for new rules/procedures, the generally-accepted guidance from meta.SE is that if you see an answer posted in comments, it's fair game to "steal" it and post it yourself.
e.g. ...
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Late acceptances of story-identification answers
As it turns out, these records have been broken.
Our current overall record is over 10 years:
Were there two elves named Glorfindel?
And our current record for story-identification is over 9 years:
...
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How to write a good story-ID answer?
As one of the site's top answerers of story-identification questions (by volume), I tend to follow a very simple process when answering.
Movie ID
Indicate the name of the film
Indicate the year of ...
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Are users allowed to add information when editing a Story-Identification question?
Information added to a story ID question by another user may change the meaning of the question because the other user (editor) may be recalling a similar but different story. According to the help ...
NullMod
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Why was I asked to provide information already included in my question?
You weren't grilled harshly, you were asked to provide some basic information we generally ask of all story-identification requests. If you don't believe me, go through that tag and look at the ...
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Is there an alternate place to ask for story identification for non-sci-fi?
There are actually quite a few sites that allow some type of identification question:
Literature: Literature ID questions are on-topic. You can ask about more than books: comics, manga, graphic ...
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Which ID questions do we want from Movies & TV?
All of the questions below meet our main criteria for an acceptable migration candidate;
That there's discernible SF/F content
That they're uniquely identifiable
https://movies.stackexchange.com/...
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How to ask a good (fan fiction) Story-ID question?
On top of Valorum's list, it is also helpful to describe the relationship between the fic and the original:
Tone and narrative voice - Is the fic written in the same overall style? For example, A ...
- 9,423
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Would a western video game identification question be on-topic?
Same as always (though I don't remember the exact meta at the time).
If you're positive it has sci-fi/fantasy elements, and can provide them, sure, it's on topic;
If you can't remember its SFF parts ...
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Are old school Martial arts films considered SciFi/Fantasy?
The answer is a qualified yes.
Obviously, there are martial arts that are completely mundane, such as those that are actually practiced in the real world. Some films make use of these, and they are ...
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I'm asking a Story-ID question. Should I include spoilers?
You should definitely include spoilers. The two biggest reasons that I can think of are:
The spoilers or plot twists are usually very memorable if done well. This means that the spoiler or plot ...
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How to ask a good (fan fiction) Story-ID question?
In addition to the elements we've already discussed in How to ask a good story-ID question?, fanfic-specific elements that the poster could identify include:
The site that you viewed it on, ...
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Is there a consensus on tagging solved story ID's with the name of the author/story?
We shouldn't.
For the same reason as we shouldn't edit the answer into any question once it's solved. For story-ID questions, the story title is part of the answer, not the question. Editing it into ...
Rand al'ThorMod
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How to find a story-ID answer?
Some useful web sites for researching story-ID questions.
Web searches:
DuckDuckGo
Start Page
SF Data Bases:
The Internet Speculative Fiction Data Base
SF Encyclopedias:
The Encyclopedia of Science ...
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Where, Exactly, can the Works Searched for by This Exchange be Found?
A lot of us find copies of the old magazines on archive.org, books.google.com, or random sites on the internet once we have a phrase to go off of (although, of course, we try to avoid posting links to ...
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I mixed two stories in a story-identification question. Found one of them. What do I do now?
We typically don't like it when an edit invalidates existing answers. But your question doesn't have any existing answers, so this is pretty straightforward. I would recommend the following:
Edit the ...
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Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible