Questions that are only tangentially related to music itself:

Question

On the site, there are endless examples of questions such as these:

Alesis SamplePad resets itself / possible ground loop?

This question really has nothing at all to do with music - it's a question about how to repair an electronic device. That same question could be asked with respect to countless devices that have no connection to music at all, and a technician with no knowledge whatsoever about music could answer it. Because this particular electronic device is used for making music doesn't make it question about music.

Natural-finish electric guitar maintenance

Another question that has nothing at all to do with music - it's a question about how maintain a wood finish. That same question could be asked with respect to a coffee table or computer desk, and could be answered by someone knowledgeable about furniture and wood finishes, but entirely ignorant about music.

Why does music sound slightly sharper when played through headphones?

Once again nothing at all to do with music - it's a question about our hearing ability and the properties of headphones. That same question could be asked with respect to headphones used only for voice - ham radio and CB operators discuss such questions all the time because clarity and emphasis on different ranges of sound is very important when trying to pick out faint, distant signals in a cloud of background noise. It could be answered by a "sound guy" or an acoustic engineer or perhaps an otolaryngologist (ear doctor) who is entirely ignorant of music.

I have flagged several such questions as being "off topic" and all my flags have been declined.

Why are such questions allowed on this site? They are distracting and entirely off the topic of the stated purpose of the site:

music practice, performance, composition, technique, theory, or history.

AFAIK, the term MUSIC does not include maintaining wood finishes, repairing faulty electronic devices, or how our ears generally work in various situations.

(There is another question - could not find it now - about the speed/range of low pitched vs higher pitched instruments. That is a question about music although one needn't necessarily be musician to answer it: It has musical implications for musicians, conductors, etc, as is explained on that thread.)

If this is a duplicate question, my apologies - I am a relative new-comer to the site.

Answer 1

I agree that a question on caring for wood, for example, would be very well suited to the Arts and Crafts Stack Exchange, however the community here will likely know much more about what guitars are made of / coated with etc., so it has benefit here. Additionally, someone wanting to find that out in future is more likely to look at a music site. If it doesn't get suitable answers here I have no problem with migrating it.

Similarly, questions on maintenance of electronic instruments are on topic here. Many would also be suitable on Electrical Engineering Stack Exchange though.

The music through headphones one is definitely on topic here though (as well as potentially being on topic on Sound Design Stack Exchange) as for many musicians it is a key element of practice.

From the help page:

Music: Practice & Theory Stack Exchange is for musicians, students, and enthusiasts. If you have a question about...

• practice or performance technique
• music theory, notation, history, or composition
• technical analysis of a specific, complete work, or well defined section thereof
• instrument maintenance or repair
• usage of specific music software or hardware

If they do annoy you, you can block specific tags from ever appearing in your feed (I do this on Arqade, as there are so many questions there on computer games I have no interest in)