Should questions regarding aircraft identification be discouraged?

Question

I have noticed that in these two questions regarding airliner identification, the first thing the OP was expected to do was to Google the identification number.

• Which aircraft did I photograph
• Did I identify these aircraft correctly

While I do realize that this is the simplest answer, it seems to me, especially in the second question I listed, that learning to identify aircraft by shape, number of windows, placement of doors, etc. was almost discouraged.

So my question is, should our attitude towards this type of question be "Google before posting please", or should it be more like "Googling is obviously the simplest way, but this is how you could identify the plane in lieu of that"?

Answer 1

It's worth noting that the first comment suggests googling! while both answers are explanatory and would fit your second suggestion fairly well.

In my opinion, these questions are fine for now. The second one could've been written a little better - four photos of what appear to be the same airplane are probably not going to produce any surprises - but they are harmless and could encourage more non-pilots to participate.

Answer 2

I think they should be prohibited with a certain exception.

If we just leave the title as, "What kind of plane is this?", "What is this airplane?" etc., then it is not useful to anyone in the future except the original asker.

Maybe they should be prohibited or maybe upon resolution of those kinds of questions, the question should be changed to something like, "What does a Cessna 172 look like?", "What does a C-130 look like?" Etc.

Generally, those questions just aren't really useful to anyone for any practical or technical purpose and would be better suited for a forum style website.

Without a system, over a long enough time period we would have this question for every type of airplane known to man. Then how do you ID duplicates thereafter?