Questions tagged [closing-questions]
This tag is for general questions about questions that have been closed because they are off-topic or otherwise do not meet the criteria defined in the FAQ.
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What's the difference between needs more details or clarity vs. needs more focus?
I often get locked into comment stalemates trying to get specific conditions on open-ended questions so that there is a clear answer or two to address the question. The problem arises when posters ...
- 17.3k
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How can we encourage new users to edit their closed posts?
New or inexperienced users are sometimes faced with their question (or answer) being closed without any detailed feedback, or even without any comments on their post.
While this is definitely the way ...
- 53.1k
9
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0
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Programming or data request confusion
I haven't been reviewing long, but it seems like almost daily I see questions closed due to programming or data requests. But to me the majority of these are more often statistical questions rather ...
- 6,041
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2
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Why was this question closed if they are not directly asking for the answer of their homework?
As the title suggests, I saw this question from a new user here. The question was closed as self-study and I can understand why...on the surface it appears to be asking for someone to solve the ...
SycoraxMod
- 87.6k
12
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2
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How to ask a good [references] question?
It's very common for users to want to find references about a specific topic in machine learning, statistics, or probability. Often, these questions start from a place where the user doesn't know what ...
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Why are these blog recommendations questions considered off-topic?
There are a few Mathematical Statistics/Statistical Learning Theory blogs I enjoy reading, and wanted to ask on the main site for recommendations of similar theory-focused Statistics/ML blogs, as I ...
- 53.1k
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Top $k$ List of Reasons to Close a Question Immediately
This is intended to be a "humorous and friendly thread on how to ask a horrible question" (amoeba) which can help new users understand how to write good questions.
We hope you will ...
- 17.2k
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2
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Should we reduce the vote threshold for closing questions?
Currently, it takes 5 close votes from users with the vote-to-close privilege ($\ge3000$ reputation), or 1 vote from a moderator, to close a question. If the question is being closed as a duplicate ...
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Why does the “programming” closure message not mention Stack Overflow?
When we close questions that appear to be about programming, a message appears that links to Open Data or to a CV Meta post about software support.
Not mentioning Stack Overflow seems like a gigantic ...
SycoraxMod
- 87.6k
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3
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Problem with moderators trying to keep my question closed
I respect the moderators in general but this time their behaviour is just super weird to me. Please read these 2 links nn.embedding similar general purpose for float values how nn.Embedding algorithm ...
- 68.3k
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3-vote close - how's it going?
UPDATE: While the testing period has ended, this change has been well-received by the community so we have opted to not reset the votes needed to close/reopen to 5 while we look at data.
Please let me ...
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Why can some people close others answer
So , it has been quite some time i started using this platform , and I was just looking at few questions that showed " this question is not accepting any answers " which means it must have ...
- 10.7k
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How do I know if I added enough detail to satisfy the "question needs details or clarity" after being closed?
I recently asked this question: Why is the two-sample test giving me inconsistent results?
It was closed afterwards and a comment was left requesting more details. I updated the question, but I'm not ...
- 53.1k
5
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1
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How to make the question about the relation between statistics and set theory clearer?
Question in question: Is there any relation between intersection in set theory and correlation in statistics?
It is closed as lacking details or clarity. According to one mod, the question "might ...
whuberMod
- 313k
0
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Favorite "data analysis" cartoon question should be closed
This question
What is your favorite "data analysis" cartoon?
Should really be closed, as it's sending a negative signal about what is allowed on the site, per the comment:
According to ...
SycoraxMod
- 87.6k
10
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Should we replace the "data set request" with distinct "this is an off-topic software question" and "this is not about statistics" closure reasons?
This is a follow up to Should we retire the "data set request" closure reason?
My interpretation of the votes and answers on that thread is that there is some support for retiring the "...
SycoraxMod
- 87.6k
9
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2
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Should we retire the "data set request" closure reason?
Our community has 3 custom closure options (self-study, either not stats or about software, data set requests), plus two immutable closure options (migration, other/leave a comment).
Users with more ...
SycoraxMod
- 87.6k
12
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3
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Handling of cross-posted questions when flagged
I have been flagging questions that are cross-posted. Usually this leads to the question being closed; sometimes, my flag is marked helpful but no action is taken and the question is left open. Can ...
- 28.7k
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Why is motivation important
Why should questions contain motivation and why does the absence of motivation make questions ambiguous?
I wrote this question Probability Mass Function making the Truncated Normal Discrete and it was ...
- 53.1k
3
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1
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Are closed questions eventually deleted?
I asked a question about a derivation once, and someone supplied an answer to it. Soon after, the question was closed, however, but I was still discussing and referring to that person's answer there. ...
- 28.7k
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Closing "software questions"
TL;DR: Recently, it seems to me like we have been a little trigger-happy about closing questions as "only about software/programming". I ask that we please ease off a bit.
Our help page on ...
- 115k
17
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Question closed, user asks it again
I made an interesting observation today. A user asked a question which was closed some time later, because the question needed more focus. As I scroll up, I see the same question being asked again ...
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I object to the closing of the following question
I see no other forum to raise this, so I'm raising it here.
Question: Is there any consensus or literature on the proportion of font parameters within plots?
I feel that this is a reasonable thing to ...
whuberMod
- 313k
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Why was my flag declined while the question was closed for the flag reason?
I flagged this post as "needs details or clarity"; my flag was declined, while the question was closed as such.
Am I missing something?
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Should we have a close reason like 'low value/level or trivial question'
It is nice that people can ask questions and get answers to whatever question they have. However, we tend to close and deleted questions when they are out of the bounds of the website (not interesting ...
- 28.7k
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0
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My question was closed, why? [closed]
I'd like to know why my question (Quadratic terms in glmer) was closed here.
I think my question is not off-topic because it's about statistics and not about the programming itself. My question is ...
2
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1
answer
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Why was the question closed?
The post, General expression for $\hat \beta_1$ in multiple linear expression is asking for a closed form expression of part of the coefficient vector in a linear regression model. Nevertheless it has ...
CommunityBot
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Quant.SE is no longer in Beta. Can we add it as a migration target?
Occasionally we get questions with no statistical content, such as
Return on bonds and stocks
So our choices are to either close as off-topic or migrate. But right now, only a mod could migrate ...
- 5,141
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0
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Homework question put on hold for "demanding an answer" even though, I did show what my own thinking/approach to the problem was?
This post about a question that came up in a test was put on hold, presumably because I am "demanding an answer". But I'm not, I clearly explained what my thinking was and how it differed from the ...
- 5,141
19
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Community moderating vs systemic attacks
I see a lot of programming questions here. I remind people that programming questions are off-topic here, that they could be useful for Stack Overflow, and that the requirements are a minimal working ...
- 53.1k
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2
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Should we remove the "datasets" close reason from the list?
Our recent proposal for adding one more close reason was declined. The reason was that we could re-use the "datasets" reason
Questions about obtaining specific datasets are off-topic on Cross
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Computing questions: ggplot2
Pursuant to the recent apparent consensus (How much programming here?) that this site should accept some questions on programming statistical computations, I would like to inquire whether the site ...
- 101k
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2
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Extract software-specific default close reason
Almost four years ago there was a discussion on Meta that lead to formulating the "not about statistics" default close reason description as following:
This question appears to be off-topic because ...
TimMod
- 134k
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2
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Question titles cannot be similar to those of a closed question
I wish to ask a question with a similar (or identical) title to a question that is closed. But I'm not able to do this.
It seems to me that this is a mistake.
If the previous question is closed ...
- 53.1k
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Is my closed question without merit?
As per the moderator my question isn't appropriate: Variance formula amplify outlier instead ignoring it!
I am learning stats and I tried many resources over internet and books but I could not get ...
- 101k
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Can we fix up the "Should we trust statistics?" question
I was just writing up an answer to this question when it was decided that it should be closed.
I understand why it is closed; the title alone makes it seem both a bit inflammatory and opinion based, ...
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Why do we close programming questions instead of migrating them to SO?
I have the (possibility wrong) impression that most programming questions are closed with the motivation "this is not about stats, but about programming, or etc.", rather than being migrated to SO. ...
- 101k
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Do you flag absolute nonsense questions?
Here:
https://stats.stackexchange.com/questions/381309/cobbler-needed-right-now
Is a "question" from a bot or a troll.
Do we ever bypass "vote to close" and use the flag function if a Q is complete ...
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How can we discourage downvoting when inappropriate?
Note the approximately equal opinions +16/-13 on this question. Clearly, this question divides our site members into approximately equal groups of opinions for downvoting. To those who would prefer a ...
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Do we have an authoritative answer on why validation accuracy can oscillate or even increase, when validation loss keeps increasing?
I know that accuracy is an improper scoring rule, thus it shouldn't be used to choose among classifiers. In particular, it should not be used to choose the best hyperparameters for a NN. However, ...
SycoraxMod
- 87.6k
5
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2
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Are moderators notified by votes to close a question?
Question: Do moderators receive any sort of notification when a vote to close is submitted by a user with 3000+ reputation?
It appears that if a user with 3000+ chooses to flag and picks "doesn't ...
- 5,141
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What to do with a question which is a duplicate of a question on Math SE
This question
What is a distribution over functions?
is a duplicate of
https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/2297424/extending-a-distribution-over-samples-to-a-distribution-over-functions
but I ...
- 28.7k
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What's wrong with this question about datasets?
This question seeking example datasets was recently closed as off-topic. Per the FAQ,
Questions about obtaining particular datasets are off-topic (they are too specialized).
As I interpret ...
- 5,141
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Improve closure-to-migrate voting
We often get questions that focus on how to do something using R (or Python, rarely SAS, MS Excel or others), with little to no statistical content. Such questions are off-topic and should be closed.
...
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What to do with a question which asks about R packages and how to fit RBF networks
This question
How to fit a RBF network in R?
asks an off-topic question (which R package to use to fit RBF networks) and a question which, while on-topic, is very likely a duplicate. Should I close ...
- 5,141
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What should we do with HW questions where the person says "I have no idea how to start"?
Our guidelines for homework question say to use the self-study tag and tell what you've tried. But what about when a person says, "I have no idea where to start?"
Should such questions be closed? ...
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Is there a generic question to which we can redirect questions of the type "why does my neural network not generalize well?"
Thanks to Sycorax, we have an excellent question which can be used to close as duplicate (most of) those questions about neural networks which can't overfit the training set:
What should I do when my ...
- 17.3k
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Should we have a canonical question about coincidences?
Right now, this question is marked for closing as a duplicate of this one. Yet the titles and subjects are totally different at first glance - and someone searching for something similar will have ...
- 73.6k
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When closing old unanswered but upvoted questions, consider downvoting down to zero (right?)
Some of us are actively scavenging old questions and voting to close some of them as off-topic or unclear. This is great. If such a question has zero score, then it will be automatically deleted ...
SycoraxMod
- 87.6k
6
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1
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Is this question in the reopen queue and if not, why not?
This question was edited while being on hold by me. This should have pushed it to the reopen queue. However, this does not seem to be the case:
A reopen review task does not appear in its timeline – ...
CommunityBot
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