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What should we do with questions regrading future events or releases? This question for instance: https://anime.stackexchange.com/questions/37/will-bleach-air-again cannot be seriously answered, because there's no way for us to know (Unless Tite Kubo suddenly decides to drop in and share his insights).

How should we handle questions like those? What do we close them as? Not Constructive?

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My personal thought pattern is that things about "what is to happen in the future" is something that should be kept off-topic. While I can cite that Arqade has these marked off-topic, there's still some back-and-forth on the subject matter. So for now I'd like to just lend my personal reasoning on the matter.

There are many kinds of information outlets on the internet. Knowledge is what we as a Q&A site provide, by giving authoritative and complete answers to questions. We're here to share understanding and comprehension. News is a completely different kind of information. Yes, it is something people certainly ask questions, and knowing an answer is certainly, well, knowing. But it's a different kind of information, and one that I don't think we're properly suited to handling. It's about what is up and coming, what is the happenings of the world.

A news outlet needs to be on top of their topic, they need to be proactive about their information before the masses even know they should ask about it. We're restricted on this front because we are a reactive service - we provide answers only in so far as people come in to our service. Which means that our ability to provide updates and news is only reflective of those who ask about it on our site. We don't have a motivation to seek out the latest and hottest out there because it's not in our mission to distribute this manner of information.

We also have internal content competition because all of this "news" will be held in the same pool of content as the rest of our Q&A. The front page may be news stuff, it may be Q&A, it could be a mesh of both. Either one will push the other aside, and with popular and new releases they would both have the potential to obscure extremely notable content of each other.

News is a valuable form of information, and our ultimate job as not just this site, but as a network, is to improve the internet and the relay of information. However, I think that our system is very inefficient for this kind of distribution. It would be wiser for us to leave the distribution of news to other sites, and keep our strength at Q&A knowledge.

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    Aye, though I argue the vote should be Not Constructive, rather than "Off Topic". It is on topic, OP is asking about a Manga/Anime. It's just that the question cannot be answered, as there is no absolute information regarding it. In that case, one might only speculate, resulting in a debate.
    – Madara's Ghost
    Dec 11, 2012 at 22:16
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    Another thing to consider is that answers to such questions might be out-dated very fast, so I agree that they should be off-topic.
    – Xeo
    Dec 11, 2012 at 22:16
  • Good point about this site not being a news outlet! Had not thought of it this way.
    – Veger
    Dec 11, 2012 at 22:19
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    See also What should our FAQ contain?
    – Alenanno
    Dec 11, 2012 at 22:21
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    @MadaraUchiha Regarding close reasons, I feel that Off Topic is the best here. While you're right in that it is technically about manga/anime, voting to close something as anything except Off Topic usually implies that with some cleanup/rewording/etc., the question could be reopened (as closing is often a temporary state, not a permanent one). Closing something specifically as Off Topic will send a clearer message to users about the acceptable scope of the site and let them know that this particular area is not allowed.
    – FAE
    Dec 11, 2012 at 22:35
  • @FAE: I see you (very valid) point.
    – Madara's Ghost
    Dec 11, 2012 at 22:38

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