Should General Reference Questions be Allowed?

Question

Proposal: Italian Language & Usage

Similar to the English Language and Usage SE, should questions that can be answered by using general reference resources not be allowed?

Answer 1

This is something to discuss on the meta site once the site is created, not on Area 51.

However, there's something that applies to all Stack Exchange sites: the purpose is not to have everything on Stack Exchange. If it's less effort to look up something in a general reference resource than to ask and answer on Stack Exchange, then asking on Stack Exchange is a waste of time.

For example, “what is the meaning of cane?” or “how do you say dog in Italian?” are not useful questions, because the answer can easily be found in any dictionary (bilingual dictionary for the second question). New language sites do not get the “general reference” close reason that EL&U has, but such questions can be closed as “too localized” — because they would only ever help the asker (any sane person would consult a dictionary instead). We do use “too localized” on French Language & Usage.

It's up to each community to evolve standards for which questions are not useful.

A more important question which you should think about early, even during the Area 51 phase, is whether your target audience is native speakers or learners. In particular, do you want questions and answers to be in English, in Italian, or either? At the moment, all of the existing language sites allow both English and the topical language, but some encourage one or the other.