Questions tagged [off-topic]
The off-topic tag has no usage guidance.
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Are squad tactics on topic?
I would like to ask about a military concept developed around 1337 but used to day. Politics.SE rightfully told me off, would it be OK here? MartialArts.SE sounds like a worse fit.
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Are questions asking for deciphering texts on paintings (or other objects) allowed?
This question, What's the text in "Mystische Jagd" by Martin Schongauer?, just got asked on Arts & Crafts SE.
The user presents us with a painting in which a Latin text in Gothic script ...
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2
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Do we need to clarify what we mean with "famous persons" on our ask/on-topic help page?
A recent question asked about family relatedness and relationship status combination of people: Is the former adviser to the prime minister Dominic Cummings related by marriage to Andrew Wakefield?
...
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Question about the historical language of a city
I wanted to ask a question about the language spoken in a city before it was conquered by another country. I wanted to know if this question is acceptable. Of course I tried to do my own research ...
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Is recent history on topic?
Everybody has read the What topics can I ask about here? page as we all need clarity on whether a question will be welcome before developing it. The rules forbid questions about "the future", they ...
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What is wrong with the question about rumors of unusual sexual practices in a specific ethnic group?
Has bestiality been noticeably prevalent among Muslim / Middle East people and for how long?
Question is put on hold with the following explanation:
"The primary purpose of this question appears ...
3
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Is it on-topic to ask for information/references on a person?
I am looking for references or information of a person who published a book about Christianity and Finance in 1932, in London. This person was from the military, achieving lieutenant-commander rank.
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A standard way/approach to handle questions that are better for other SE sites?
There is a tendency, i.e. in recent posts, to group almost every conceivable line of enquiry under History (because the subject is so broad). One could say, OP has no clear idea where to start and ...
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Should answerable Questions be closed as off-topic?
I've provided answers to several questions that were later marked as "Off Topic"; for example:
Before the advent of agriculture, was the whole world covered with forest?
Has Saudi Arabia ever been ...
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Why is it wrong to ask for sources?
I understand that most of us are looking for information about events or persons from the past, maybe motivations of their acts, causes or results of what they did.
We also have a "historiography" ...
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Questions about the authenticity of artifacts
Are questions about the authenticity of a given artifact off-topic? If so, are there any sites on SE for these types of questions?
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Off topic posts becoming endemic
I just counted 16 of the last 28 questions (57%) as put on hold due to being off topic.
One step towards not being a "beta" step might be to reduce the number of off topic posts. It doesn't look good ...
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Are questions about the current day off-topic?
If I asked the following question,
Why did Kabuki [a Japanese performing art] change from predominantly female to predominantly male?
I assume the question would be on-topic under "Cultures and ...
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4
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Questions concerning non-written history
It is unclear to me whether events not involving written history are considered on topic.
For example, various questions recently, such as Thule people migrating to Greenland, ask questions before ...
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2
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Are questions on ancient population control off-topic?
I was surfing though our questions this morning, and came across this one:
https://history.stackexchange.com/questions/14114/was-interruption-ever-accepted-in-jewish-culture
It caught my eye because ...
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2
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Keyword warning
The original stack overflow site has some "dirty" words and if you use them you get, I think, a warning before it lets you post. I think in some cases you cannot even post a question that has certain ...
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Query regarding on-topicness of 11169 and 11185
Are the questions Is History a subject where certain knowledge is accepted by all historians or can any event be a source for debate? and Are the following 5 tenets of historical record examination ...
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Preservation questions on topic?
I have a question about how to best preserve an object which is of some historical value - is that on topic here?
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Google it first: What does it mean?
Someone has suggested that one should engage in due diligence before asking a question: "Google it first." Perhaps this is even in the site guidelines.
Someone recently commented on one of my ...
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Can we have [counterfactual] (and a few other tags) blacklisted or deleted
Counterfactual questions are explicitly off-topic per the FAQ. However, there is currently a tag for it (counterfactual), which some users take to mean that it is on-topic. Can we have the tag ...
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Reopen request: "Why is our planet called Earth?"
I don't see why Why is our planet called Earth? is being considered off topic for this site. That it is about the history of a word doesn't make it off topic. Simply because there might be a better SE ...
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"Why does Europe have so few skyscrapers compared to Asia?" = history?
I'm curious to know why the question on skyscrapers is considered appropriate for history.se. To start with, the question is actually asked in the present tense :) Secondly, this is something that ...
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Is historical costuming / clothing on-topic here?
The clothes people wore in times before ours -- the materials and methods they would have used, the techniques, the sourcing even! -- is a rich part of history that Wikipedia can't cover well.
Are ...
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Can we ask off topic questions that are good for the site?
I've been wondering why China was able to unify and not Europe, and came up with some really good ideas. I was going to ask the question then answer it, but I realized that it wouldn't fit the Q&A ...
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Flamebait questions are not always intended that way
Note: this is not really a question but considering some of the recent debates on History SE I wanted a place to put this. So here it is on Meta. If it gets removed so be it, but it may help to have ...
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"What if" questions
I would say that questions that look at the "what if" of historical events are off topic. Is there a consensus on this?
Note that this comes from the World War II - Could The Axis Powers have won ...
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No-research questions
I sadly notice there are plenty of questions which are nothing more than some random uneducated curiosity, about which the asker hasn't even tried to do any kind of research.
This, paired with the ...
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Are language questions on-topic?
Are language questions such as "What language did the Hittites speak?" or "Why did Arabic replace Aramaic?" on topic?
Do they belong on the Linguistics beta site instead?
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Are questions about predicting the future based on historical trends on-topic?
Lets say that I found a strong and clear historical trend. Could I then ask a question about the continuation of this trend in the future on this Q&A. I understand that the question needs to be ...
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Is this site for purely Geo-Political History questions?
Today I asked a question on this site which was local history and discussed in this meta discussion.
In that discussion Robert from Stack Exchange provided this answer:
I assumed that History SE ...
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3
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What is an academic historical question?
My question: Was the Granny Smith Apple the first green skinned apple widely propagated?
Discusses something that is considered a large part of our local history and something that we celebrate every ...
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4
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Is the Easter island question off-topic?
Starting a discussion here to avoid a large number of comments.
This question:
How did people travel to remote islands like Easter Island?
Has three close votes and bunch of comments discussing why ...