Please note that as of May 8, 2016, ALL identification-request questions are now off-topic.
However, such question are still welcome in our main chat for users with with at least 20 rep (globally on StackExchange).
The following is outdated and exists solely for archival purposes
Hey you! You're probably here, because you asked an identification-request question that was "put on hold" or "closed."
If you would care to know why, please take sometime to read this meta.
In short, these guidelines are here to help us help you find what you're looking for. We realize you can't remember everything, but every bit of detail you can remember (no matter how insignificant it may seem) can be a lot of help. All we ask for you to fulfill, at minimum, three (3) of these guidelines.
If you are unsure of what you need to include, please look over the checklist in this meta.
Please note that questions with ONLY an image(s), audio, and/or video(s) are off-topic.
Please please try to doing a reverse image search yourself, instead of asking us to find it.
Taking cues from sites like TV & Movies.SE, Sci-Fi.SE, and Arqade, I've come up with the following guidelines:
An identification-request should have as many of the following points as possible:
- Any description of the leading/recurring character(s) (i.e. physical description, behavior, etc.)
- Any description of any distinctive features, including the plot and related elements (e.g. girls who are soda cans that do battle, or i.e., the setting, the plot)
- What the genre or cinematic style was (e.g. mecha, sci-fi, fantasy, shonen, shoujo, seinen, noir, cyberpunk, etc.)
- What the drawing/animation style is like
- When and where you saw it (if you saw it when you were a kid, don't give your age, give the approximate year, and month if possible)
- Who the publisher, licensor, and/or distributor was
- Type of media: TV show, OVA, movie, manga, web-series, one-shot, etc.
- Any image(s), audio, or video(s) related to the series (an exception may be made for questions with one or more of these items)
If you are unsure of what you need to include, please look over the checklist in this meta.
For a detailed example and explanation of how to properly ask for identification-request questions w/o any audio-visual artefacts, please read this answer.
For a more in-depth explanation of the why we're asking you to provide such details, refer to this post.
In addition to the above guidelines, here are some suggestions to improve the quality of your identification-request questions:
Make Sure To Have A Descriptive Title
All identification-request questions should have a title that is phrased or edited to be phrased as a question containing at least one pertinent detail from the body of the question. Vague titles like "Requesting an anime identification" or "What is this anime show?" will lower the visibility of your question by fellow users since they'll have to click on it to find out what it's about. This shows a lack of effort on your part. Why should someone make an effort to help you if you can't properly format the question in your title?
Don't Ask Too Much All At Once
Please limit your identification-request questions to ask for only one series or piece per question. Questions asking us to identify multiple unrelated media will only dilute the quality of responses with partial answers.
Try Searching For The Image First
Please questions with ONLY an image(s), audio, and/or video(s) are off-topic. If you're looking for the source of an anime image try doing a reverse image search search yourself.
We want to maintain a consistent quality for identification-request question and have no choice but to enforce a minimum standard of acceptable quality.
We're not asking you to write an essay, but we expect you to at least make an attempt to fulfill the bare minimum, so we have some solid leads to go on:
The Bare Minimum
As a bare minimum your question needs meet three of these guidelines. If you are unsure of what you need to include, please look over the checklist in this meta.
Questions with ONLY an image(s), audio, and/or video(s) are off-topic. Please try to doing a reverse image search yourself.
Even if the aforementioned minimum guidelines are met, if the description provided is determined to be too ambiguous or generic, it will be put on hold as:
- "Off-Topic: This question does not meet our minimum standard for identification-based questions."
Even if you question has been closed, it doesn't mean that it's the end of the line. Please try to review your question and make an attempt to addition details.
If you are unsure of what you need to include, please look over the checklist in this meta.
If you need help, feel free to reach out to the moderators or other users. We'll try to help you as best we can.
Reopening a Closed/On-Hold Question
If your question has been "put on hold" or "closed", it's not too late to edit your question to include more details, we'll be more than happy to reopen your question once other users have reviewed and determined that there is sufficient detail to go about to helping you identify what you're looking for.
