Unfortunately, this is likely an off-topic question, but one which is about said off-topicness. Occasionally, when browsing through items, one comes upon a request for a story that is non-sci-fi with people suggesting going to the Literature Stack Exchange to ask. That section of the site was closed in 2012. So far, I've been resorting to TV Trope's YKTS board, but is there an SE location to ask such questions?

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    There is the Booksleuth Forum at abe.com. – user14111 Jun 27 '14 at 23:28
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    Try the tipofmytongue subreddit – System Down Jun 30 '14 at 23:03
  • Yahoo answers. Or Quora – Valorum Sep 5 '15 at 13:07
  • @FuzzyBoots what was that about part of Literature being closed? – Stormblessed Mar 16 '19 at 4:42
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    @Stormblessed: This isn't the first time Literature SE has been created. It kind of failed the first time due to lack of interest. – FuzzyBoots Mar 16 '19 at 13:30
  • I don't think this needs to be a full answer since it's just one resource; but the subreddit /r/whatsthatbook is pretty good for books. – JMac Apr 29 '19 at 16:54

There are actually quite a few sites that allow some type of identification question:

And it's also worth mentioning:

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For books? Nothing on Stack Exchange. There is now a Literature Stack Exchange which accepts (well-worded and detailed) identification requests.

For movies? There's Movies & TV.

For TV? There's Movies & TV.

For anime? There's Anime&Manga.SE. - they have now completely banned story-ID requests.

For video games? Nothing on Stack Exchange. There's Arqade, but only in the very specific case when you have an “artifact” (e.g. a screenshot).

Be sure to take the tour on each site to see the constraints they have on Story Identification questions, each of them has different expectations.

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    I know Arqade has unilaterally banned identification requests, for example. – FuzzyBoots Jun 27 '14 at 14:38
  • @SeanDuggan Whoops, last time I looked, they allowed ones with pictures. :3 – user1027 Jun 27 '14 at 14:39
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    @SeanDuggan A mod on Arqade says they allow ID questions, if they include 'an artifact', like a screenshot. – user1027 Jun 30 '14 at 23:21
  • Huh. Their documentation doesn't indicate that. Good to know. – FuzzyBoots Jul 1 '14 at 1:43
  • @SeanDuggan Yeah, it's baffling to me that their Tour is so definite, and so wrong. – user1027 Jul 1 '14 at 2:16
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    Movies have unilaterally banned story-ID questions. I've taken the liberty of striking that through for OP – Valorum Mar 14 '19 at 17:42

Unfortunately not. There isn't a place to ask such questions (yet).

There is a Literature Proposal on Area 51 that would suit your needs, but it is still on the Definition stage.

You can always ask around our chat. Someone might be able to help you.

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  • Is there a reason to think that Books SE would fare any better than (sadly) Literature SE did? – DVK-on-Ahch-To Jun 30 '14 at 15:17
  • @DVK I really don't know, but it is the only place that I think would suit OP's needs – Shevliaskovic Jun 30 '14 at 15:26
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    @DVK What happened to Literature SE? It's something sad about the internet community -- i.e. us -- that such a SE site cannot prosper, while Movies SE can :( – Andres F. Dec 8 '14 at 23:29

The English Wikipedia reference desk does take well-written identification questions, and can sometimes answer them. Here's an example question I asked, for which a user found the answer (Talk Down by Brian Lecomber (1978)). Ask book identification questions at the humanities desk, movie or TV series or video game identification questions at the entertainment desk. Don't ask the same question at multiple desks.

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In the 'Book Search' sub-forum of SFF Chronicles they accept occasional non genre book ID questions. Provided the same person doesn't keep banging non SF&F questions in there day after day after day and thus alienating dedicated SF&F fans.

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