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There's currently a question on the frontpage about client-relations (from the client's perspective) for freelance video production. I thought it was a valid question and provided an answer, but in the review queue I noticed that it received two close-votes for off-topic already. It has also gotten one downvote.

Link: Unhappy with wedding video production - what to do next?

I'm wondering why whoever cast those votes thinks the question is off-topic/inappropriate. Dealing with clients and managing relations between video editors and clients is a part of video production, after all.

I see two possible reasons why this would be considered off-topic:

  1. Because the asker in this case is the client, not the editor/producer. I don't think that's a good reason to close the question, but fair enough.
  2. Because it could be considered asking for legal advice, which would be better suited for law.SE. However, this specific question is not about the law in particular, rather the asker wants to know how he should proceed in dealing with the producing company and mentions a lawsuit as a possible proceeding.

If there's a discussion about whether or not client relations are on-topic for video.SE, I strongly suggest they are. For reference, this sort of question is quite common on graphicdesign.SE and they usually get many upvotes and answers formulating different perspectives. And, as I mentioned, it's an important part of the production process after all. Also, if we want to incentivise more intriguing questions, we shouldn't be too hasty to close questions that are a bit different from the usual. To be honest, I'm kinda fed up with all those 'how do I do this very basic thing in Premiere Pro, I am not capable of using Google' questions. So I believe it could be quite healthy to broaden the scope a bit in regards to what should be considered on-topic.

In the same sense, there should be a tag for these kinds of questions, something like ?

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I would definitely say that business relationships are a crucial part of video production and are definitely on-topic here as long as the question itself is directly related to video production and not a generic legal or business question that can be applied to every industry. As video production is a very broad spectrum the client perspective is definitely interesting for everyone as even editors can be clients to other production houses or be clients of freelancers.

I think the question is fine and should remain open.

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  • Good to know there's some consensus on that stance. I've created the tag (tag guidance proposal still needs approval though). There's three close votes on the question I mentioned already though, curious to see where this is going ...
    – MoritzLost
    Jan 23, 2017 at 13:22
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    Hmmmm - if I was not a mod, I would have voted to close, as I see the question as nothing to do with video production, and everything to do with contract law and expectations. You could replace video with various other topics and the question would be the same, as would your answer, Moritz - which tells me it is not on topic here.
    – Dr Mayhem Mod
    Jan 25, 2017 at 12:24
  • I disagree, the question also asks what to do with the material and how to approach to recover from the work that was done. That definitely goes into specifics of video production and is not a generic contract law question. It is borderline yes but I wouldn't vote to close.
    – timonsku
    Jan 25, 2017 at 22:37

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