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The reason why I first found out about this site was because I asked this question on the https://scifi.stackexchange.com/ site, but as the answer would not be supported by hard factual evidence, it was closed, and then migrated here, and as it was not closed here, I assumed that this was the new place for my crazy questions, and that I had found my place to fit in with finally.

So I then asked this question which became the most popular across all of the SE networks:

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And got loads of upvotes, however after 9 days of it being open, the site decided that it was off-topic, even though it was so popular, and closed it.

So does this mean then that this is not the place for my crazy Towel questions and the like and that I should find a new place for them or create my own crazy SE site if they are not on-topic here?

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    $\begingroup$ You can ask your towel questions. Just make sure they're on topic. If I recall correctly, when I voted to close I voted to close based on Idea Generation. It may have been "majority" vote that moved it to a different close reason. $\endgroup$ – Aify Aug 4 '15 at 23:33
  • $\begingroup$ Did you see the conversation in chat about it? $\endgroup$ – HDE 226868♦ Aug 4 '15 at 23:44
  • $\begingroup$ @HDE226868: No, I heard about it, but I missed it... Could you give me a a link to the transcript of the chat at that time? $\endgroup$ – user10622 Aug 5 '15 at 9:55
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    $\begingroup$ In fact, the question isn't about worldbuilding. You are not trying to build a world, or at least this question isn't about it. Furthermore it is broad. You don't have any objective criteria to decide which is the best answer. As HDE mentioned, you can read the relevant chat conversation. Why did we do it 9 days later? Is because we liked it, and wanted to read the answers. But when the subjectivity faded, we noted that objectively it wasn't for worldbuilding. Crazy questions are welcome here, but only as long as they are about worldbuilding. $\endgroup$ – clem steredenn Aug 5 '15 at 10:00
  • $\begingroup$ @bilbo_pingouin: I know it's not really about worldbuilding, however the only reason why I asked it here was because my boghog question was migrated here, and as that wasn't closed as off-topic, I decided this was the place for my crazy questions... In future though I will try to be more on-topic about my questions and less broad. $\endgroup$ – user10622 Aug 5 '15 at 10:04
  • $\begingroup$ @ParanoidPanda, your Towel question is a perfect illustration: we aren't perfect. And as for the fact that it was migrated here, we had yesterday a question migrated here which got closed upon arrival. Sometimes the moderators from other sites are not completely familiar with the criteria used here. $\endgroup$ – clem steredenn Aug 5 '15 at 10:07
  • $\begingroup$ and in any case, your Boghog question was more, IMHO, on-topic on this site, and much less broad. $\endgroup$ – clem steredenn Aug 5 '15 at 10:11
  • $\begingroup$ @ParanoidPanda It started about here. $\endgroup$ – HDE 226868♦ Aug 5 '15 at 18:01
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Ignoring the humorous tone of the question, (that probably didn't help) it was closed because it was about the optimization of a particular object and not about how it would affect the world around it. It took some time to close the question because the line is not always clearly defined between what is on-topic and off-topic. This is a problem on this site that other site in the Stack-exchange might not have: subjectivity. Some people will think that a question is acceptable while others will disapprove base on the same criteria.

I have mixed feelings about the question. Because I know that although it's more about the towel than the world around it, the towel could have an impact on the world (in warfare for example). Then yes it could be about worldbuilding but it's not explicitly mentioned.

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