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Would it be appropriate to post a photo and ask that people help identify visual cues that would help date the photo?

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Phew! I wondered what you meant by "dating" there. I had visions of this turning into an all together different type of site :-) – ACProctor Dec 7 '12 at 19:17
I changed the title to avoid more inappropriate visions. :-) – woman among men Dec 7 '12 at 19:22
I really like photo dating questions; others seem to also. – GeneJ Dec 7 '12 at 21:35
I would have left the title as it was. This SE site is a bit humourless at the moment. I don't care whether the rules & reg allow for humour - this was priceless though – ACProctor Dec 8 '12 at 10:38
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@ACProctor - Humor is okay as an aside. We all love a good laugh; it just can't be the only reason for your post. ;) – jmort253 Dec 9 '12 at 1:14

2 Answers

up vote 6 down vote

My opinion is yes. We already have three questions in the tag, all of which have a good amount of votes (one with 21) and no downvotes. I don't see any problem with them.

The only plausible argument is that they could be too localized. However, If I had a photo in question, I could look through the existing questions to see how it was done. If I still had problems, I would ask a new question, but my point is that these questions would help more people than just the asker.

As a side note, I find these questions quite interesting (not that I'm any good at identifying them, though). It would be a shame if they were declared off-topic.

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up vote 1 down vote

I think absolutely we should. The techniques are of general interest, even if the specific photo may not be.

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Given the strong support for "yes", should we consider "What supporting information should you post with the photo?" Place etc? – Fortiter Dec 8 '12 at 12:28
Ideas: Location, if known * Photographer's Marks, if present. Anything known about the photographer. * Anything that is on the back of the photo -- include image of both sides if appropriate * Anything that is not obvious from the picture: dimensions, embossing, type of paper, color of ink * Anything already known that can help narrow the date range – woman among men Dec 8 '12 at 13:58
@Fortiter et al, maybe the topic of supporting info deserves its own answer? – ColeValleyGirl♦ Dec 8 '12 at 14:32
@womanamongmen, maybe the topic of supporting info deserves its own answer? – ColeValleyGirl♦ Dec 8 '12 at 14:33

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