Are hardware (port, cable, etc.) visual identification questions allowed or not?

Question

Are hardware (port, cable, etc.) visual identification questions allowed or not? Specifically when it's basically just "What's this port?" and a picture.

Examples:

• What is a name of this port? And for what purpose can it be used?
• What is the name of this laptop port?
• What is this port/connector on my laptop?
• What kind of connector is this?
• What is this small port on my laptop?
• What are these "notches" on the side of the PCI Express connector?

I've looked at Are "Guessing Game" type questions allowed on SU?, and @Random's answer is:

These should be closed as "too localised", or in the cases where they only have just an image and want you to figure out what they're showing, "not a real question".

Neither of these are options to close anymore. :)

I also have seen Let’s Play The Guessing Game, but it doesn't really help clarify it for me, especially this many years later.

Should we flag as Close -> Other and put in a reason (as I did on the latest one, and a previous one) such as in the following?

This question appears to be off-topic because it is a "guessing-game" type question. See https://meta.superuser.com/a/6074/23133

Or are we allowing these now (one of the examples above was even protected by @nhinkle)?

In the past I've answered one or two of them myself, but since these questions aren't really searchable, are they useful enough to keep?

This is the only closed question of the same type/style I can (currently) find with some quick searching:

• What port is this, labeled with "I/F"?

Answer 1

I think, while some of the concerns are valid, that port identification questions are fundamentally different from the other sort of guessing game questions.

Firstly, it's a practical, answerable problem in many cases, especially when it's an exotic port. I've gotten baffled by things such as a 13W3 video output, or even from some older SCSI ports in the past.

I also think that it's a slight case of overspecialisation.

However, I also do think there's a certain degree of unsearchability, as @darthandroid said.

I think the answer might be to have a single, canonical post for port identification, have some basic information there, and link-back, and close other posts as duplicates of that. It may make sense to have the information about specific ports, and where they are found as part of the answer, or simply to link back to them. This has two advantages, firstly, that we retain this information and secondly, it gives us a chance to organise and make searchable these things.

I don't like losing these questions. To an extent, I don't think it's a huge problem, and it can be helpful. The big issue I see is that the current way of doing things is messy and single serving.

I've created a community FAQ question, referencing back to some of the answers referenced here. I've also added basic steps in identification, including RTFM, RTFW, and using your noggin ;p

Answer 2

I would argue against these types of questions being permitted because they are not searchable.

What I mean by that is should a second person come along with the same issue ("What is this port? [Picture of HDMI Port]"), they are unable to effectively search SU to see if the question has already been answered given the nature of the question. These questions contribute nothing to SU, and cost us time to answer (however small), and most importantly do not help future visitors.

Answer 3

They should not. Identify this X has been one of the headache of most communities around SE:

• Gaming https://gaming.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/identify-this-game
• Movie https://movies.meta.stackexchange.com/q/380/5901 https://movies.meta.stackexchange.com/q/967/5901
• Scifi: https://scifi.meta.stackexchange.com/q/1568/17287
• more!

Is not good to play the guessing game in the Q&A format that SE works over. Anyone can answer the question while being closed but ultimately it should be closed.

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Another solution:

Maybe we should ask, "how looks like this port/connector" with the name of the port... I don't like this but whatever. Or how to identify my system ports?

Answer 4

I agree that most questions asking What X is, without any sort of context, are just that: guessing games. These, as was discussed (and still is) by the community, is the kind of questions one seeks to discourage.

However, I would also argue that, if properly searched for (and most importantly, contextualized, with a descriptive title), those questions could be of value to the community. Of the top of my head come the following What is the purpose of the tiny ruler that I've just pulled out of the side of my Dell Latitude E6430? (OK it isn't a completely hardware-identification question but it is an identification).

Have to say however that the question about the notches wouldn't strike me as a guessing game: it can be (and was) factually answered.

I ask if this is really such a big problem here in SU, so big that we have to care for it? For the moment I think that the standard comment for more details, close as unclear suffices but if things get muddier, maybe a notice on the Tour (or on the list of askable topics) specifically discouraging decontextualized questions of this type.