4

My question posted here: Where can one find a list of players ranked by achievement points?

was closed as "Off Topic" and I fail to see how a question about a game, and the scoring system within is off topic to a gaming website.

Some form of explanation would be wonderful too, not just a random closure.

4
  • 11
    Considering what early stage we are in and how we are continuing to get more and more new users, many of whom are unfamiliar with the Stack Exchange Network, it is increasingly important that we actually explain close votes with more than just the standard closing message.
    – Grace Note StaffMod
    Aug 19, 2010 at 20:54
  • jblaske - in addition to my answer below, I would recommend you change the original question title to something like "where can I see a list of players with the most achievements" or something like that.
    – Oak
    Aug 19, 2010 at 21:24
  • @Oak thanks for the suggestion, I have updated the title to more directly reflect the question within.
    – jblaske
    Aug 19, 2010 at 21:37
  • This is a growing problem where what seems on topic will weeks later get a downvote plus a close vote. It also doesnt help when people do close valid questions, since most valid question is what brings traffic.
    – Virusboy
    Apr 6, 2015 at 21:58

4 Answers 4

Reset to default
11

In my opinion, I agree this is not off-topic. It's true the question is more about gamers than about games, but then again we have other questions that deal with matters which could be said to be "around" video games, though not directly about them - for example, a video recording question or watching video replays.

I feel that while your answer is not directly about a game, it is definitely about gaming, and should be deemed on-topic.

3
  • If it's not off topic, then it's too localized. The question of which player has the most achievements is meaningless on its own. There could be other similar questions, such as "Which achievements are hardest to earn?" etc., that would be more in line with what I would expect on this site.
    – Invader Skoodge
    Aug 19, 2010 at 21:16
  • 4
    @Strix: the question title sounds localized, but the first sentence is actually "Is there a site that you can go to that lists out users ranked by achievement?". So he is asking about a resource which ranks players by achievement, and it seems obvious to me that he is talking about a dynamically-updating resource. I agree the question title should be changed, though.
    – Oak
    Aug 19, 2010 at 21:20
  • I've argued that topics like this have been on topic for a while
    – tzenes
    Aug 19, 2010 at 21:56
3

I think the question is not off topic. It is of interest to gamers. You're not talking about gaming directly, but it is of interest to gamers. I think the question is not off topic.

Having said that. I think that particular question could use some wording improvements (and there was some ambiguity that prevented me from editing) but that's a topic for the comments of this question.

1

This is a website for people to ask experts questions that have definite answers about games, where the experts' knowledge and experience can aid them in answering the questions that the askers can't know or would not be able to learn using reasonable effort on their own.

The problems arise thusly:

  1. Your question is not about a game. It's about the players of the game.
  2. Your question can be answered more easily by searching yourself than calling upon expert help, as in this case the experts have no advantage.
  3. Your question holds little interest for most users of the site.
4
  • I agree, I think the combination of (1) and (3) is what caused users to vote to close the question.
    – Oak
    Aug 19, 2010 at 20:55
  • 3
    I'll give you number 1, but Achievement is a huge part of the game for me, and playing the game for me to an extent, is about finding out who has more achievement and trying to beat that. Just like people use the ranking system and ladders to help them advance. 2 is moot, because its not easy to find information. 3 is just a bad idea for a reason, thats leaving a huge hole open for people with questions about games that are disliked, or unwanted. Just because 5 out of 3000 people don't want to answer it, does not mean it holds little interest for most users of the site.
    – jblaske
    Aug 19, 2010 at 21:07
  • @jblaske The idea of the reputation system is that users with more reputation have more of an idea what is and is not representative of the community's opinions. It's not a random 5 of 3000 people, it's 5 representatives of the community.
    – Invader Skoodge
    Aug 19, 2010 at 21:09
  • 6
    As a niche gamer and an import gamer, I have to stand against the "interest for most users of the site". The number of users that represent a topic is irrelevant to whether it belongs. Ideally, when it comes to things which we do consider on topic, it is more important to be welcoming to those topics that are under-represented.
    – Grace Note StaffMod
    Aug 19, 2010 at 21:12
0

Well, let's look at the FAQ

Gaming - Stack Exchange is for passionate videogamers from all platforms, including consoles and computers. If your question generally covers …

  • PC video gaming
  • Xbox, PS3, Wii gaming
  • Nintendo DS, PSP, iPhone gaming

… then you're in the right place to ask your question!

So, is your question about gaming? Well, not really. Its actually about people who do game. So the question then becomes, why not include information about gamers?

This is a controversial topic which has come up a couple times on different questions. On this site we use a democratic processes to decide these sorts of gray areas. In this case people can vote to close, or vote to reopen. These 5 people felt that this question was far enough off topic that it wasn't relevant to the site. Now 5 other people can vote to reopen the question as they see fit.

An important note about voting: Because we don't want people just going out and finding 5 friends to endlessly wage open/close wars, we do restrict reopen/close votes to people who have distinguished themselves as being part of the community. We do this through the system of rep. In this case it takes 500 rep before you can vote to close/reopen a question.

1
  • For reference I am not advocating closing this question and actually voted to reopen
    – tzenes
    Aug 28, 2010 at 19:56

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .