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Disclaimer: I am not a regular participant in Cross Validated, but a moderator on Maths.

We received a flag stating that this question should be migrated here. It is of the form: "given a data set, I want to find a distribution that does blah". For future reference: are these types of questions on-topic here? Or should I just decline the migration request?

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I would say they are on-topic, but perhaps still likely to get closed here (either as not a real question or duplicate, depending on the circumstances), unless there is some additional context provided by the author.

The distributions tag will bring up some examples. This search narrows things down a little more.

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  • $\begingroup$ Okay, since there doesn't seem to be another opinion (yet), I'll migrate it over and let you guys deal with it. $\endgroup$
    – Willie Wong
    Mar 14, 2013 at 8:36
  • $\begingroup$ Or per current trends they might be closed as off-topic if like OPs example they are entirely computationally platform specific without general interest. $\endgroup$
    – russellpierce
    Mar 14, 2013 at 16:04
  • $\begingroup$ They also should tend to be closed as being too localized. $\endgroup$
    – russellpierce
    Mar 14, 2013 at 16:04
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    $\begingroup$ @Russell (et al.) I think we would have a stronger case for closing most such questions if we could point to one or two exemplary threads in which general principles and methods of fitting distributions are discussed with reasonable thoroughness. Any nominations? $\endgroup$
    – whuber Mod
    Mar 14, 2013 at 16:45
  • $\begingroup$ @whuber: I offer meta.stats.stackexchange.com/questions/1577/… as place where such evidence may be accumulated and discussed. $\endgroup$
    – russellpierce
    Mar 14, 2013 at 19:38
  • $\begingroup$ @Russell Thanks, but that does not address my question. I am not looking for a compendium of closing criteria; I am looking for a resource to which we may honorably point people when we claim their questions already have adequate answers. $\endgroup$
    – whuber Mod
    Mar 14, 2013 at 19:50
  • $\begingroup$ Could not the compendium of closing criterion easily contain such a resource? $\endgroup$
    – russellpierce
    Mar 14, 2013 at 19:51
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    $\begingroup$ @Russell I suppose it could be co-opted for such a use. But I was thinking of it as being organized by question rather than be "closing criteria" and as being focused on offering solutions rather than excuses. A thread about closing criteria does not, on the face of it, seem question-oriented. $\endgroup$
    – whuber Mod
    Mar 15, 2013 at 18:51

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