Are Identify-this-questions too localized?

Question

First of all, I really like this questions - most of them are really interesting. Our community has much travel experience and these questions got good answers.
But would these questions also help future visitors?
IMHO an example for a good identify-this questions is What town is in the Samsung Galaxy S default wallpaper? because if someone google "samsung galaxy s default wallpaper" could find the answer on Travel SE.
But What city is this? would hardly help any future visitor. Should we close these questions as too localized?

Answer 1

I've not thought about it like that, and you raise a good point.

The Samsung question's original title was 'What town is in this photo?" which was just as useless to future users, so at the time I changed its title to be more beneficial - as you've described. However, how to do this for the Hong Kong one? I'm not sure.

This has come up in the past and we surmised that we need to strike a balance. Yes, we can vote to close as too localised, but others it may be useful for. So if someone has a photo of a waterfall somewhere in Venezuela and wants to visit it, why not? Or a temple in Mongolia that's on the cover of a book, they may need help identifying it. We can certainly reword those.

However, the city one? The one POTENTIAL benefit is that someone searching with google images or tineye may then find our site when matching it, and will see the description. So it can still help future users that way.

Answer 2

These identify-this questions are good and tolerated even though they are too localized for two reasons (in my opinion):

• They are like quizzes, and who doesn't like quizzes?
• They give good tips to people on where to travel, most of them are interesting or bizarre places.

Answer 3

Identify-this questions have a history on Stack Exchange. On Gaming, they were controversial for a long time, with the site founder hating them. After much debate, they were eventually banned following a vote with a short majority in favor of the ban. The issue remains controversial.

On Science Fiction and Fantasy, identification questions have always been allowed and are overwhelmingly well-received by the community. This hasn't changed over time. Identification questions are also welcome on Movies & TV and Anime & Manga, though with perhaps a little more opposition than on SF&F.

In order to determine whether identification questions are too localized, there are two aspects to consider.

• Will others have the same question?
  There has to be some element of notability about the thing that is being identified. It should be a historical monument or geographic feature, or at least it should have characteristic architecture. If I post a picture of my house and ask you the street address, it's too localized, nobody else will care. But if it's a recognizable monument or a distinctive landform, there's a good chance that others will search for it.
  From my experience as a moderator on SF&F, I can tell you that identification questions get plenty of “me too” answers. There are other people who search for book or movie plot elements and are happy enough to find the answer that they let us know. These people don't tend to stick around, however.

• Will the people who have this question be able to find it in a search?
  This may be more difficult to ensure. On SF&F and M&T and A&M, most identification questions are based on plot elements. Those are expressed in words that people search for. Searches based on pictures are a lot harder. Search engines let you search based on the exact same picture, or simple transformations like cropping and color corrections, but take a picture from a different angle and it won't be found.

On this basis, I think that identification questions are ok, but must be held to a standard of searchability. There has to be something beyond the photo. Often a description of the photo would provide enough search fodder, so if you see an identification question with little more than a photo, please edit it to add a description of the salient elements of the photo.