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Are questions that ask if such-and-such a thing exists in their locale ontopic?

Examples: Are there any safrut teachers in Boston? Who has a toiveling service in Los Angeles?

In the past, this probably would have been too localized, but that's gone.

So, should they be kept or not?

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    FTR, they would not have been closed as "Too Localized," since that was meant to mean "cannot possibly be answered because nobody participating in the site is likely to know the answer, and even if it were answered, nobody else would care," not "has to do with a locale."
    – Isaac Moses Mod
    Jan 7, 2015 at 15:15
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    I'm not going to vote on your answers just yet, because I haven't had time to think about it; but FYI I posted a similar Meta Q on MLH, and Robert Cartaino deleted my "polling answers."
    – MTL
    Jan 7, 2015 at 16:06

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Yes, they should be.

These aren't too different from other s, which are allowed.

Also, someone else may be searching for this information on the internet, which is clearly unavailable at the moment. Putting it here would help those people find what they're looking for.

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    Long-tail questions that are only of interest to a thousand people here or there are one of our raisons d'etre.
    – Isaac Moses Mod
    Jan 7, 2015 at 15:32
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    I'd say they're on-topic, but they don't have to be high-quality. You can choose not to vote up those questions if you like.
    – MTL
    Jan 8, 2015 at 16:32
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This seems like a hot topic and I would be tempted to lean towards saying this should be off topic.

However, I have found a few times that the answers referring to a locale other than where I live still interest me. People travel, or know others that will or might go to the other place. Thus, knowing about what is available somewhere else may be useful to this segment. And, we have no way of knowing how large this segment may be.

I live in NYC area. If I ask "Where can I find a Jewish book store in Bangor, ME?" perhaps no reader lives in Bangor, and maybe there aren't any book stores there. But if there are, there may be 10 readers that may want to know.

Not to "nudge" the issue, but I will, anyway ... when you answer any other question, aren't you pretty much gearing your answer to the O.P. or are you really concerned with how many people will find this question interesting? If it's the second reason (interest), O.K. - give me a firm number, and if I think my question won't interest that many, bli neder, you'll see me ask a lot less, because I wouldn't want to bore people. Excuse my sarcasm, but I think you get my point.

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    I think you are grossly mistaken in your last paragraph. Questions on MY regularly get thousands of views from all over the place and they will be in place for years and years to come. The OP is in a sense the least of our worries. Just because a question is off the front page doesn't mean it isn't still being viewed.
    – Double AA Mod
    Jan 22, 2015 at 17:19
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No, they are not.

While we allow s, those are generally applicable to a large population of people. We have things like books, web services, studies... Real life services local to a specific place is not necessarily something that we on Mi Yodeya will know, and might be better asking someone local.

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  • This is where i personally lean to.
    – Scimonster
    Jan 7, 2015 at 15:09
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    "Observant Jews in Los Angeles" is a large population of people, probably of a similar order of magnitude as people who want to know the Ritva's position on a particular idea.
    – Isaac Moses Mod
    Jan 7, 2015 at 15:20

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