This question was asked earlier today: https://aviation.stackexchange.com/q/943/167
Are questions like this appropriate for Aviation.SE?
This question was asked earlier today: https://aviation.stackexchange.com/q/943/167
Are questions like this appropriate for Aviation.SE?
No.
Experts and professionals fly commercially just like everyone else, and they'll be just as annoyed if their snow globe gets confiscated. But this question doesn't require expert knowledge, and (in and of itself) won't attract experts to the site.
Not sustainably.
There are a number of items that are not allowed on airline flights, and the list changes and evolves over time.
Good questions don't bring traffic to the site, good answers do. If the answer that we provide is out of date, any traffic that sees it will not just get zero value, they'll get negative value.
To avoid this, the answer will need to be consistently updated over time. Is this possible? Yes. Is it likely? From my own personal experience with the Stack Exchange system, no. It won't be fast enough.
I say no.
My views mirror those of Tim Post, in his answer here:
In short, avoid asking questions that are easily found and answered elsewhere just for the sake of getting content into the site. If a new person arrives and asks one of these, nail that question with fantastic answers that show the depth and craft of this community.
I agree that it should be removed, but only because of (deleted) comments on the post that suggest that it would be a better fit for travel.se. I hadn't thought of that when I created the question/CW answer, but it would be more appropriate there.
I do still feel that list-type answers like this would be in scope otherwise though as long as the are community wiki.
I'm going to go ahead and delete the post (since it is mine) now.
I think whether or not this question is on topic is debatable - obviously, since this question exists - but my opinion is that it belongs on http://travel.stackexchange.com rather than here.
I admit that it's partly a question of taste, but what a passenger brings on board is largely irrelevant to actually conducting to the flight. It may affect the weight and balance, and there may be specific rules for stowing and handling hazmat but whether or not a passenger has a golf club in the cabin or not just doesn't seem to make any difference from an aviation point of view. It's more about the passenger experience and how passengers are treated, and the decisions are made and enforced on the ground before the passengers get to the aircraft anyway.
Some variations that would be on on-topic in my opinion are:
I think this type of question is fine, so long as it's CW, for the reason the @lnafziger pointed out in a comment on his question:
List type questions like this are allowed as community wiki questions because everybody can help out with it! People here will go through security and see a new item that isn't allowed and will add it to the list, etc.
A follow-up chat message shows he's not just rehashing Wikipedia:
There isn't an external resource that has everything. Even the TSA site refers people to www.faa.gov for info on HAZMAT items. Go ahead, go to that site and find the HAZMAT list. I dare you. And then imagine what a non-pilot will go through.