4
$\begingroup$

This was my question https://stats.stackexchange.com/questions/374062/least-square-estimators-for-beta-0-and-beta-1-and-uncorrelated-relation-b

I am surprised that was deleted because there is nothing wrong there.

I asked a question, added my solution and asked people to verify if it was correct (so fits the rules of the site) and puff! it's gone. Why?

$\endgroup$
11
  • 9
    $\begingroup$ meta.stackexchange.com/help/roomba $\endgroup$
    – Glen_b
    Dec 8, 2018 at 6:59
  • 8
    $\begingroup$ Just to clarify a possible misperception: We are not a homework-checking site, so at best this Community-deleted question was skating at the very edge of the rules concerning what is on topic. (We probably were too lenient in not closing it.) I'm sure that's why there were no responses. $\endgroup$
    – whuber Mod
    Dec 8, 2018 at 15:01
  • $\begingroup$ @whuber Why do you think that was homework? Could not be possible that I am just curious about regression and I want to learn about it? Or that I am interested in it as a discipline? $\endgroup$
    – g.a.l.l.e.t.a
    Dec 16, 2018 at 0:12
  • 6
    $\begingroup$ I am using the term in the sense of our self-study tag wiki. We don't mean to suggest we have no respect for studying or learning. The problem is that homework-style questions tend to be extremely different than actual statistical questions people face: they are usually based on artificial assumptions, devoid of realistic context, and--most importantly--are phrased as imperatives: "show this," "prove that," etc. Consequently they require very different kinds of responses. $\endgroup$
    – whuber Mod
    Dec 16, 2018 at 20:57
  • $\begingroup$ @whuber Ah. In other words this site is for professionals in statistics and related topics ? $\endgroup$
    – g.a.l.l.e.t.a
    Dec 19, 2018 at 0:05
  • 3
    $\begingroup$ I don't see how you arrived at that conclusion based on what I wrote. I contended that routine textbook exercises are answered in a different manner than other questions arising out of real applications and research and pointed to some of the ways they differ. I did not say that they were out of bounds or even that they aren't used by professionals. (Indeed, I am a professional and I solve routine problems every day as part of my ongoing learning.) $\endgroup$
    – whuber Mod
    Dec 19, 2018 at 1:38
  • $\begingroup$ @whuber The thing is that I still consider that was unfair the deletion of my question. Clearly was about regression analysis, so about statistics, so fits here in this site. It's ok if no one answer my question (might be considered silly or out of interesting) but it's not ok to delete it. Could not be possible that someday someone would answer it? Or someone could learn from it in the future :)? $\endgroup$
    – g.a.l.l.e.t.a
    Dec 19, 2018 at 3:16
  • 4
    $\begingroup$ I'm sorry, but this site is not for every question that might mention "statistics." Our help center offers an overview of what it is about. As far as the deletion goes, the answer by Sycorax explains that the StackExchange system itself deleted your question, essentially because it attracted no interest from users of this site. That automatic deletion is not something we can change through any amount of discussion here. You are welcome to take this issue up on the SE Meta site, but beware that your quest will be perceived as quixotic. $\endgroup$
    – whuber Mod
    Dec 19, 2018 at 15:40
  • 4
    $\begingroup$ @user459663 It seems necessary to underscore that this website's software deleted your question because the question satisfied a set of rules. No one is singling out you or your question. In the specific sense of your question having satisfied a list of criteria, your question was not "unfairly" deleted -- every question which satisfies these criteria is deleted automatically. $\endgroup$
    – Sycorax Mod
    Dec 20, 2018 at 17:41
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ Just out of curiosity what you called 'puff!' is known in the Stack Exchange network as 'roomba'. See here and here. More on this here. $\endgroup$
    – Andre Silva
    Jan 9, 2019 at 2:10
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ @AndreSilva aha though I like more puff! (reminds me of mrs. puff) :P $\endgroup$
    – g.a.l.l.e.t.a
    Jan 13, 2019 at 2:20

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
7
$\begingroup$

Just expanding on comments so that this has a answer...

Your post satisfied the requirements for the automated deletion by StackExchange after a certain amount of time had passed.

Specifically, your question failed the RemoveDeadQuestions script, which will delete questions if all of the following apply:

  • question is older than 30 days;
  • has −1 or lower score;
  • has no answers;
  • is not locked.
$\endgroup$
10
  • $\begingroup$ My question was deleted because the level was too low? $\endgroup$
    – g.a.l.l.e.t.a
    Dec 16, 2018 at 0:18
  • $\begingroup$ @user459663 what do you mean by level? Do you mean it’s score? Did you read the link in my answer? $\endgroup$
    – Sycorax Mod
    Dec 16, 2018 at 1:30
  • $\begingroup$ I meant that didn't receive answer and it doesn't fit here because it was misinterpreted as homework-check. Does it look like homework? I still cannot understand why was deleted. $\endgroup$
    – g.a.l.l.e.t.a
    Dec 16, 2018 at 2:27
  • $\begingroup$ No, I'll read it in a few moments $\endgroup$
    – g.a.l.l.e.t.a
    Dec 16, 2018 at 2:27
  • 4
    $\begingroup$ It was deleted by a bot (a program, a piece of software). No person anywhere decided to delete it, and as far as I am aware, nobody here on CV even had any input into the criteria used by that program. The first comment under your question makes it explicit and describes the criteria that apply. $\endgroup$
    – Glen_b
    Dec 21, 2018 at 7:45
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ @AndreSilva Thank you! Looks great. $\endgroup$
    – Sycorax Mod
    Jan 9, 2019 at 1:00
  • $\begingroup$ @Glen_b Yes I can understand that. thought its still not fair.. it took me time to write it and effort to think about it. $\endgroup$
    – g.a.l.l.e.t.a
    Jan 13, 2019 at 0:11
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ Nobody here has anything to do with it. You're free to take it to meta.stackexchange.com . $\endgroup$
    – Glen_b
    Jan 13, 2019 at 0:32
  • $\begingroup$ well maybe though the other mod said 'beware that your quest will be perceived as quixotic.' $\endgroup$
    – g.a.l.l.e.t.a
    Jan 13, 2019 at 2:18
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ @user459663 pursuing the issue in the comments on this thread is no less quixotic. $\endgroup$
    – Sycorax Mod
    Jan 13, 2019 at 2:28
4
$\begingroup$

Taking advantage of this subject, if anyone is interested:

I wrote a query in Stack Exchange Data Explorer to evaluate borderline questions to the RemoveDeadQuestions script, the one which automatically deleted the OP's question in the main site (see Sycorax's answer).

What the query does is to find questions which are one vote shorter from meeting automatic deletion. However, it serves both ways:

  • i) prevent an interesting question from being deleted (just edit it for quality and also upvote it; posting a valuable answer would be even better).
  • ii) make not complete, not interesting questions to go away.

The advantage of ii is that a single user can make the difference. With one downvote, it can be automatically deleted in a few days. No need to spend resources from other users reviewing and closing it in the queue (not that they were not reviewed before and failed to collect answers or upvotes). Moreover, deleting less interesting content, makes the top questions and answers in quality easier to find (I think this is the main point).

This may be a harsh approach, but I have reviewed such questions in another Stack Exchange site and from my initial experience at least 80% of them were clearly indeed abandoned by OP or lacking details, etc.

I started reviewing by the oldest ones, which I think are the ones more likely to not meet current standards. I also realized while reviewing that questions from inactive users were even more likely to be the ones unclear and/or abandoned, so I tweaked the query setting default parameters to find those.

Running the query for CV SE yielded 3.482 borderline questions from inactive users.

$\endgroup$
2
  • 3
    $\begingroup$ (+1) This is very useful but might not be easy to subsequently find because of the title of this question. Perhaps it would be worth asking a new, more targetted meta question and answering it yourself? $\endgroup$
    – mkt
    Feb 10, 2019 at 10:39
  • $\begingroup$ @mkt, tks for taking interest. With time, as other users also find this query helpful (or not), we can escalate the subject to a separate Q/A. Maybe you can do that after reviewing some of those questions and add your own feedback from such experience. $\endgroup$
    – Andre Silva
    Feb 10, 2019 at 16:36

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .