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I stumbled upon this question:

Does anyone have pictures from the ending?

I mean, I'm not a very active member of this site, so I'm not trying to speak like one, and therefor I can't see the down- and close-votes on that question...but is Gaming really a screenshot service?

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    I agree, it is an odd question for a Q&A site. For the record: 6 up, 3 down, and 3 close votes (not constructive), including mine. – a cat Sep 13 '11 at 19:18
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    I for one see nothing wrong with this question. Not the best question ever but... – badp Sep 14 '11 at 11:03
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    Pics, or it didn't happen. – GnomeSlice Oct 17 '11 at 16:06
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Edit: I have edited the question to be more of a question, instead of a screenshot request; check it out.

Edit 2: I really don't think the continuing to VTC without participating in the discussion was cool.

I don't mind it myself. The user has a real problem —they couldn't see what was happening, and were justifiably interested in it — that can be solved by us, due to our high-end gaming rigs allowing high-quality graphics and experience with taking screenshots or recording game videos :P

The question is quite clearly different from something like "Do you have screenshots of the new Deus Ex game? I want to look before I buy" or something of that nature, which would definitely not be acceptable. I understand the desire to categorically denounce all similar questions, and would not strongly oppose it, but I really don't think that the question in question is problematic.

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    It's a problem this person faced, but IMO it's not really a question. This is a Q&A site. If it was titled "Please give me screenshots of the Portal 2 ending", it'd probably be closed already. – a cat Sep 13 '11 at 19:28
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    @lunboks If it were asking what what shown without asking for pictures, a good answer would probably still have them. I don't see the difference. I'll rewrite it right now if that helps. – Matthew Read Sep 13 '11 at 19:39
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    It looks much better now, thank you! – juan Sep 13 '11 at 21:27
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    I voted to close after the edit because it's still a screenshot service question and it still sucks. The change was silly and minor, and didn't change the intent of the question at all nor did it prompt the answerers to change their wildly-up-voted-for-no-good-reason answers to something that actually explains the ending (like Wipqozn suggested the question could be about). – user3389 Sep 15 '11 at 17:08
  • @MarkTrapp You're conflating the asker's intent with what the question says. The asker's intent is immutable. The question now asks what's in the room, not for screenshots; a purely textual description would be perfectly adequate answer, though I've argued it wouldn't be as good as one that also included pictures or a video. If that sort of question and answer is unacceptable to you, that's fine, but at least focus on what it is now. We have several questions explaining various aspects of the ending; rewriting this to be another of those wouldn't make sense. It'd need to be a new question. – Matthew Read Sep 15 '11 at 17:31
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    Downvote for "Edit 2". Not everyone agrees with you all the time, and assuming that they do is pretty pretentious. – Invader Skoodge Sep 25 '11 at 22:05
  • @StrixVaria I have no problem with people disagreeing with me. What I don't like is that you and Mark voted to close without participating in the discussion. Your votes are yours to spend as you choose, but I hardly think that hoping you would do even as little as post a comment is pretentious. – Matthew Read Sep 25 '11 at 23:55
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I was divided at first on this question, however your question has really made me think more about it. My thoughts are that the root question isn't Please give me screenshots of the Portal 2 ending as @lunboks suggested, but either Can someone explain the Portal 2 ending to me? or What happens in the ending of Portal 2?. The user is just asking for this it be done through visual aids, instead of written aids.

To me, this is a perfectly valid problem: The user doesn't understand the ending. I agree he could probably have phrased it better, but we don't shut down valid questions for bad phrasing. We either improve it ourselves, or make suggestions to the user so he can improve it himself.

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  • That was my thought, hopefully my edit approaches what you think it should be. – Matthew Read Sep 13 '11 at 19:45
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    Well, I can sort of see where you're coming from, now. In light of @Matthew's edit, I've taken back my downvote. – a cat Sep 13 '11 at 20:05

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