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I have noticed that sometimes there are questions that are opened despite being not related to the scope of this site in the slightest way.

As an example: this one and this one. I'm sure to have noticed some more in the past, but I'm pointing at those because they are the most recent cases and I don't really want to do a deep digging.

I've flagged them both, and I did it because it was clear to me that they were off topic without any possible doubt.

I'm wondering if we should state the scope of the site in a clearer and more visible way; right now I can only find this information here, and it required some navigation of the help center to find it.

Maybe we should promote this also on the homepage, maybe with a more direct link, a picture, or something else. Maybe it will be easier for newcomers to evaluate if this is the right place for their questions. What do you think, could this be an useful improvement? Or those that are not bothering to look in the help center are likely to ignore also more visible link or picture on the homepage?

Also, right now that page is very concise, it states the scope of the site briefly; I think that its contents are adequate and fully understandable for everyone that bothers to read it, but maybe it can be improved as well.

EDIT: a new one just today! :)

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I agree; we need to clarify the scope. In fact, I have been meaning to work on it for a while. I just made some edits to the "on-topic" Help page. I'm sure it can be better, so please feel free to make or suggest additional edits.

I also added a couple of links to the Tour page. Again, please suggest edits or improvements!

I think it's worth pointing out the obvious for anyone else who reads this question: the site's traffic is still steadily growing, and we are going to keep attracting new users. Over time, like all Stack Exchange sites, the site's scope will crystallize as we test the limits of what is and is not on-topic. Even Stack Overflow has gone through several major changes in policy in this area. We'll get there!

Anyway, thanks for teeing up this issue; it's past time for us to start dealing with it.

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    I'm glad to be of help, thanks to you for your work. The "on topic" page seems to be improved a lot, but I would add on the off-topic list also that every question about the literary content of the book, instead of its technical aspects, do not pertain here. Another thing (then I'll stop being so nitpicker, I swear ;) ), I see that on some sites like scifi.stackexchange.com on the right column there are some sort of pictured advertisements to other sites of the network; do you think that it will be possible to have something similar but pointing to the FAQ and/or the "on topic" page?
    – Sekhemty
    Jan 10, 2015 at 16:00
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    I added "Questions about the content of particular books" to the off-topic list; thanks. I'm not sure about the right-side matter. I was trying to figure that out, but I think it requires SE intervention. I'm going to tee it up for the staff.
    – elixenide
    Jan 10, 2015 at 16:02

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