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Voting is meant to separate good from bad answers. However, identify-this-game questions can only have one correct answer or none. There is no (potential) continuous answer quality level.

So, should voting be based on probability of it being the correct answer, which is indeed a quality of the answer, while they can still be wrong answers to the actual question.

In the end, we have answers of varying quality and voting levels, while there may actually only be one valid answer or none. This is kind of a gap, at least compared to other answers where there may be multiple correct, but slightly different answers.

On a broader view: Should such questions be even here?

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  • meta.gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/1455/…
    – badp
    Jul 1, 2011 at 15:00
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    No. No they shouldn't.
    – LessPop_MoreFizz
    Jul 1, 2011 at 15:06
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    Maybe asking about the broader view was a bad idea. I even hesitated before posting that as well. The question linked by badp is exactly on that topic.
    – Kissaki
    Jul 1, 2011 at 15:31
  • I’d still be interested in discussing the understanding of voting in that case. Or at least get my point across, that the actual question only has one single valid answer and no variety.
    – Kissaki
    Jul 1, 2011 at 15:32
  • 7
    The problem is that voting has no meaning on these questions; that's why your last question is more important, and may leave the question of the votes irrelevant.
    – juan
    Jul 1, 2011 at 15:44
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    @Juan I disagree that voting has no meaning - see my answer below. There are two relevant use cases: (1) the question is abandoned - in that case the most upvoted answer, if upvoted appropriately, is probably the most correct, and (2) someone is searching for a similar, but not identical, game - in that case highly-upvoted but not-accepted answers are a potential match for that someone.
    – Oak
    Jul 1, 2011 at 16:25
  • @Oak That second case sounds a little bit too much like trying to weasel a game-rec out of our site...
    – Invader Skoodge
    Jul 1, 2011 at 16:28
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    Lesson learned from all this: Don't argue with @Jeff meta.gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/1455/…
    – bwarner
    Jul 1, 2011 at 20:31
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    @Strix I think that there is a fundamental difference between game-recs and identify-this-game, they represent completely different use-cases.
    – Oak
    Jul 1, 2011 at 20:48
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    @Oak Yes, they do. If they are used in good faith. But you just suggested that itg can also function as game-rec, which is what the problem is.
    – Invader Skoodge
    Jul 2, 2011 at 0:39
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    @Strix I don't think it's that easy to disguise game-recs as itg, or at least as an itg which isn't too vague - since from my experience itg questions usually mention a lot of minor issues ("I remember the characters were yellow") which a game-rec question would actually want to avoid.
    – Oak
    Jul 2, 2011 at 15:26
  • Another thing: you can disguise a shopping recommendation as a "Help me remember" question.
    – John the Green
    Aug 3, 2011 at 1:55

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
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I upvote when it's an answer that I know fulfills all the requirements of the question.

I downvote (and often leave a comment) when I know the answer is, without any doubt, incorrect.

In both cases this depends on my knowledge of the game suggested in the answer - and if I know nothing about it, I don't vote either way.

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  • 2
    How do you handle cases where the OP comes back and adds additional requirements that now elminate the previously upvoted answer?
    – bwarner
    Jul 1, 2011 at 17:25
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    @bwarner don't recall that happening, I guess that if I notice that then I'll remove/change my vote.
    – Oak
    Jul 1, 2011 at 20:46
  • @bwarner: I'd handle it much like I would if some other person changed their question and made some answers obsolete.
    – Ullallulloo
    Jul 2, 2011 at 0:18
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    @Oak You can't remove your vote unless the answer is changed.
    – Invader Skoodge
    Jul 2, 2011 at 0:40
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    @Strix technically, I can dummy-edit the answer and change my vote... but in general the scenario your describe - a question edit making some answers incorrect - is not unique to identify-this-game questions. This relevant meta-question discusses what to do in those cases.
    – Oak
    Jul 2, 2011 at 9:16
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On a broader view: Should such questions be even here?

I was an original supporter of these questions, because I believe that prohibiting something leads to less traffic and mad users.
However, now I can see how it can hurt the site as a whole by degrading quality. Not to mention the obvious, which is that the engine is just not built for them.

Should we be more aggressive in closing these questions, and leave a helpful comment redirecting the users to chat? I'm liking this idea...

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  • I can see the need for it, and that this QA system, which is not built for it, can be misused for it in a, at least for the questioner, easy and good way. However, I doubt they are useful to others than the actual person. Maybe promoting a chatroom or other place for these types of questions would be an option? Although that will of course upset questioners. The current way is definitely the easiest for questioners.
    – Kissaki
    Jul 1, 2011 at 15:29
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    YES! PLEASE! KILL IT WITH FIRE!
    – LessPop_MoreFizz
    Jul 1, 2011 at 17:38
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    also, these game identification questions are a stupid waste of time. Welcome to the sane side of the table..
    – Jeff Atwood
    Jul 1, 2011 at 19:36
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    The only problem with relegating such questions to chat, Juan, is that I think more people (and thus more potential answerers) watch for new questions rather than go into chat to answer them. And @Jeff - the tag is the 5th most used tag on the site. They may be a waste of time, but many people seem to find it useful to ask.
    – Raven Dreamer
    Jul 2, 2011 at 22:45
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    @raven people also find sex and cartoons "useful", but that doesn't mean they belong here. Say yes to everything users want and you get Yahoo Answers.
    – Jeff Atwood
    Jul 2, 2011 at 22:52
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    I do wonder how many of the 1-rep users asking 'identify this game' actually follow through and become useful members of the community instead of disappearing.
    – Raven Dreamer
    Jul 2, 2011 at 22:59
  • @Raven perhaps we should use data.se to try and find how many itg askers have (>200 reputation OR >0 answers)
    – Oak
    Jul 3, 2011 at 13:04
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    @Oak meta.gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/1455/…
    – tzenes
    Jul 3, 2011 at 16:58
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    I don't see the point why itg should be prohibited here. They perfectly fit the Q&A formula - there is a more or less elaborate question, there is only 1 correct answer, based 100% on facts. ITG questions are in my opinion much more suitable for Q&A than 'recommend good tactics' or 'please post successful character builds' - these are almost as suitable as game recommendations...
    – acalypso
    Jul 5, 2011 at 7:52
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    @sarmackie The main problem is they are only helpful to that user and that user alone, after the question is answered it just sits there wasting space on the site. Even if someone else is looking for the same game as a current ITG this game question chances are they won't find that question, since the descriptions are often so vague and what each person remebers is so different it's highly unlikely they would come across the other question. This meta question contains a perfect example.
    – Wipqozn Mod
    Jul 7, 2011 at 10:33
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    @sarmackie, I don't think you've been around for very long so I'm going to repeat something that should guide you in this decision: the cost of a question is non-trivial. By which, I do not mean the cost to servers or databases, I mean the cost to the community and growing it. Every question has an inherent cost to our community, and it must provide a greater benefit than it's cost. If ITG is costing us more than it gives us then it is a drain on our system and need to be removed.
    – tzenes
    Jul 7, 2011 at 15:40
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Avoiding the question of whether or not we should be allowing these questions, I would say voting on answers should be interpreted as follows

Upvote - I was trying to remember this game also, and this is the correct one.

Downvote - I was trying to remember this game also, and this is not the correct one.

Basically, unless you had the same question as the original user, don't vote either way. This has the effect that most ITG answers will only ever get one vote, which seems perfectly fine.

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  • 2
    That almost seems to me like a reason to exclude such questions from the site: if only one person is likely to be able to judge answers properly, then it doesn't seem like those questions are a good fit for this system. It's not like you can flag votes or have a mod remove them ... if the questions are allowed, some of us might vote as you suggest, but I suspect most users will not, and that doesn't seem to change things much.
    – Dave DuPlantis
    Jul 1, 2011 at 20:27

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