Scope reconsideration: scope defined by user base expertise?

Question

As a result of my last question, I had a short discussion with fixer1234 that brought up another matter I think is important for demarcating a potential scope reformation.

I'm not sure it matters, but it was this question, "Why does my Cricut cut some images in the right place, and some off to the left?", that got us to think about it: it hasn't received any answers, which is possibly due to a lack of experts among our more active users.

We were arguing whether a lack of expertise of our (active) user base can be grounds to consider an (already grey) area off-topic, or if the germaneness of questions should not be determined by that common expertise.

In short, should user expertise be a determining factor for our website's scope?

I would like to hear more opinions on this, and on how it could affect our website('s subject matter).

Answer 1

In short: No.

The scope of a site should be determined what the community considers as such. There will always be discussions about limitations and borders, but the fact that at some point in time there seems no expertise available in the active user base doesn’t affect the scope.

Sites with low traffic will often run into the “interesting question, no idea” situation. That doesn’t mean that the scope of the site needs to be adjusted. In the best scenario, you have a new user join later today and answer it. Or the asker figures out how to solve the problem and self-answers their question. Been there, done that. Unless the question attracts nonsense or spam answers (which then will lead to community or moderator activities), unanswered questions are not a problem, it happens often enough.

In short: The site can not lose, only win by defining the scope focusing on what topics they want to accept. Users join and leave all the time. And in small sites, this can also mean gain or loss of expertise in specific knowledge areas. Adjusting the scope to reflect that fluctuations is not a good approach.