The list of off-topic things on our tour page is extremely long. There are eleven items on the list; no other Stack Exchange site has more than eight (Server Fault, WebApps, Programmers, and Apple lead the pack). The total amount of text we have is also crazy long, at 1721 characters (vs. just 774 characters on the next runner-up, Apple). (cf. raw data on pastebin)
This is kind of absurd. Now, granted, people don't often read the tour page, but if they do, they will see that we are a bunch of angry internet soup nazis who hate fun. While this is probably true to some extent, we don't need to throw that in new users' faces.
As such, I propose we remove the following items from the list of off-topic things:
- Questions about the Japanese language, which should be on Japanese Language
- People do ask these questions occasionally, but they're easy to deal with - we can just edit it to make it on topic if feasible; migrate to Japanese.SE if it's otherwise a good question; or close it if it isn't. I don't think this merits a spot in the list on the tour page.
- Questions about the gameplay of anime-related and/or manga-related games, which should be on Arqade
- We don't have issues with people asking this sort of question, as far as I know. This seems to be a relic from early 2013 or so.
- Questions on making your own anime or manga, as they involve specific expertise outside the scope of this community. See: Are Questions about "How to make Anime and Manga" off-topic?
- These questions are rare enough that I doubt this item needs to be in the list on the tour page. Its presence on this list probably stems from an early-beta fear that people would be overrunning this site with questions about how do I drawed manga; thankfully, that never came to pass.
- Asking for the lyrics of a piece of music
- This has never been a major issue
- Questions about fansubs or other fan-translations: When is X group going to do Y release for Z series in Q language?
- Nor has this.
- Shopping recommendations/discussions: Should I buy X or Y? or Where is the best place to buy X? See: How should we deal with questions asking for where to buy, watch, anime or manga media or such related merchandise?
– Note that there are plenty of questions about anime figures and other merchandise which are acceptable, but anything asking us to compare products or vendors isn't constructive.- This also doesn't seem to have ever been a major issue.
The following reasons, then, would remain:
- Anything not directly related to anime and manga: What's up with that weird emblem on Japanese mailboxes?
- This is kind of redundant, in my opinion, but it seems to be conventional across SE sites to have a line saying basically "things that are not on-topic for our site are off-topic", so I guess we can keep this.
- Questions calling for out-of-universe lists: What are all the anime that feature X? What are all the manga by Y? See: Good List vs. Bad List and How do we deal with out-of-universe questions?
- I'm not 100% sold on keeping this one, but it seems useful enough to keep around.
- Reading or watching recommendations: I liked X, what should I watch next?
– You're welcome to use our main chat room to ask about such topics- This one definitely needs to stay, since we get lots of these questions.
- Questions requesting illegal or copyrighted information: Where can I watch anime X online? Where can I download chapters of manga Y?
- This is also useful to keep, since we get a fair number of these questions.
- Questions about unannounced/speculative future events in regard to anime or manga production: Will manga X get an anime adaptation? Are they going to make a Nth season of Y anime? See: What do we do with questions about future events/releases?
- Same as above; we get a fair number of these.
Thoughts?
