I'd say that a question which might be seen as obscure is a lot more likely to be accepted if some context is given.

At first glance, this question would appear to be a very picky number question, the kind of thing we have ample evidence nobody likes. Some indication, in either the way the question is asked, or in the info section, that this is not the case, makes it a lot easier for an editor to make that judgement call.

"Obscurity" can be a function of several factors.

"Who was standing to the left of Character A when he bought his coffee in Episode B of the series 'C'?" is obscure for anyone except dedicated fans of the series "C", and should be disallowed, IMO.

For me, pretty much any question involving sports is difficult, because it's not an area of interest for me. Personal strengths and weaknesses shouldn't, of course, be a criterion for labeling a question "obscure."

What's common knowledge in one country is a mystery in another, as in the case of the "Railway Cuttings East Cheam" question. In that case, my opinion is that it should have been allowed, as FunTrivia is an international site and should contain questions appropriate for all members. If I, as an American, miss the question, it's my opportunity to walk in the shoes of non-Americans dealing with questions regarding "I Love Lucy."

Unfortunately this is a bit unlikely to happen. "Too obscure", "too difficult", "too easy", etc. are all very subjective things - there's no yardstick we can look too that tells everyone universally "yep, that's too ____, no doubt about it". There are something like 20 different editors who accept/reject questions, from all over the world, who all specialize in different topics. There will be some inconsistency on these subjective matters. I personally make it a point to accept more than reject if I'm unsure on one of these subjective points, but I can't speak for everyone.

This is something that's been brought up before. We (the staff) decided that while we do try our best to be on the same page, we are all our own people. I have an extensive knowledge of Video Games; a lot of our editors do not. What's super easy for me is going to be very difficult for another editor. A question asked about a Japanese version of a game could be completely different from the American version...or the European version.

All that can be said is that we do try our best to uphold a certain standard. With the single questions it can be a bit harder to maintain the same consistency simply because they are a whole other beast unto themselves.

EVERYTHING is obscure for me, heheheh

What rating causes a question to disappear? (I have been submitting more questions lately - because of the Daily Challenge - and can see from the ratings that my submissions have a way to go.)

I think any that finish with a negative ( less than zero) rating isn't used further

It depends on the game. In "easy" rated games, questions with low difficulty and high ratings are added. There is actually a pretty good correlation between difficulty and ratings.

As far as the subjective nature of the whole thing... yep, it's subjective.

Pretty much, I ask editors to ask themselves if a question has a hope of ever being useful in any FT game. If it's so obscure or weird that you wouldn't want to see it in "who's the smartest", then it's probably better rejecting it than subjecting it to players in the new player game where it will ultimately fail to be used anyway.

Could we have a new button for the New Questions then please?: Obscure :p

I have had some doozies recently

I'm a bit confused. Is a score of 0.3650 considered above or below zero?

Above. A below zero score would be a negative number.