Why do some people ask questions totally unrelated to travel on Travel.SE?

Question

I was wondering yesterday, what are the things that lead people ask questions totally unrelated to travel on Travel.SE, I am not talking about normal off-topic questions, I am talking about people who ask about programming, or cellphone contracts, etc.

Is there something in the design or so that lead these people to ask such questions in a site about travel? where nothing obvious at least to my eyes that can cause such confusion, the logo and the title and the tags are totally clear. Even more, the site colors are totally unique and does not match any of the programming sites in SE network, so there is no way that people mistaken for this, plus most of these people are new to SE in general.

What could be the reason behind this? is it something so obvious but we are missing it because we are just used to the site? or is it as simple as innocent mistakes from these people?

Samples:

• General Inquiry for programming (deleted, only for 10k users)
• Am I legaly entitled to my share of the tips jar
• which is the best dating site for chatting?

There were many similar question, but most of them were deleted automatically by the system because they were closed and with los scores. So I can't find many now.

Answer 1

For really totally unrelated questions that would fit on other SE sites ... maybe ...

The mobile version of the StackExchange sites do seem to all use the exactly same generic StackExchange theme.

stackoverflow looks exactly the same as travel, etc. Just click on the "mobile" link at the bottom of the page.

Maybe some people get confused by this.

Answer 2

I have a theory (but no idea how to test it!) “A Q&A site that is free, quick, relatively reliable, little advertising, does not demand personal details etc? This is not the real world!” – at which point logical reference points fly out the window and the fantasy of a fairy godmother (who can fix everything) takes over *.

But it is also some practical considerations. If English is not the OP’s first language the message received will not be as clear as otherwise and there is a lot less incentive to read the details of what is and what is not on topic, etc. (May account for example for a question on SO about where to buy a particular brand of cigarettes.)

Site confusion is still a possibility. The design aspects you mention help to make the context clear but lose some of that impact for anyone “at home” at more than one SE site. I know this is the case as I flit between two or three and on one recently the OP readily admitted it was purely his mistake as he had never intended to post where he did. (If you have a problem, don’t really know what it is, are struggling with how to express it and with formatting and trying to comply with all the various conventions all at once your mind might be distracted – the style is familiar, but for the wrong reason!)

More seriously, in my view, but perhaps convenient that it is the most under Travel.SE’s control, is the “normal” in “normal off-topic questions”. I have not noticed many programming questions here (I’d be interested in an example) but certainly have seen a few about cellphones. Are these really not-normal off-topic questions? At present “cellphone closed:0” returns 14 results with around net +85 votes between them and ~30 answers. “mobile closed:0” 85 results, though at least a couple of these do not concern telephony and I’d expect for some any comms aspect is more incidental than core.

Travel.SE is clearly distinct in nature from the Trilogy, where technical questions and answers are more easily categorised. Answers in particular tend to be either right or wrong and there is little “grey”. (So, thankfully, less scope for differences of opinion and where emotions do not run as high.) The Trilogy of course has had longer to reach something of a consensus about what is and what is not on topic. Travel.SE is clearly a long way short of that at present. You have your idea of what is related to and not related to travel here but others quite often do not agree with you. “totally unrelated” should be easier to agree on but I suggest it is part of the same continuum, just crops up less frequently but will still sometimes do so.

the reason behind this?

No one thing, there are several.

we are just used to the site

Possibly the main ‘problem’. You are convinced it works one way, others are equally convinced it works another (slightly different). Some at least of the people who “ask questions totally unrelated to travel” are, in my opinion, being sent mixed messages as a result and not reading them the way you think they should.

innocent mistakes

I think that is part of it, in particular where questions may be on topic or close to being on topic at Aviation or Expatriates or The Great Outdoors.

* This question might be an example of belief in supernatural powers for TSE: “I am going to Germanh and taking a box with a chair in it. how much extra would I pay, and is it allowable”. Apart from a Title and [luggage] tag that’s all, no other details provided whatsoever.

Answer 3

Cell phone questions do not seem particularly difficult to account for as we already have many of those! Obviously, to insiders, they are only OK if there is a travel angle to them but it might not be the most salient thing for a newcomer. Asking a slightly different cell phone question on a site where there are already many cell phone questions does seem quite logical. Innocent mistakes are therefore very likely (and a big and bright logo is the easiest thing to overlook, cf. “banner blindness”).

More generally, some people have questions that are not quite on topic here, on expatriates or on money but do seem vaguely related to question we already have. We have all gotten so used to closing off-topic question by pointing out to another site that there seems to be an implicit expectations that all questions following general SE rules about subjectivity and the like must fit somewhere. Thus it becomes tempting to post the question on the site with the “least bad” fit or to bounce them between various sites without realizing that there is currently no place for them in the SE galaxy.

That, or people do realize it's a long shot but try anyway on the off chance that they get some useful tip out of it. What's the downside for the poster?