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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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 ...
whuberMod
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What is on topic on Cross Validated?
There have been many threads on CV-meta about whether questions are on-topic, off-topic, are too-localized, etc.
For example:
Are "find the distribution" questions on topic?
Is a ...
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Are we closing questions too fast?
It seems to me that we have been closing more and more questions, and that we are moving them into the close votes review queue very quickly. This seems to have evolved naturally, but I wonder if we ...
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Should the standards for closing questions be relaxed somewhat for old questions?
As I've started reviewing more this question keeps occurring to me. In my judgment there are three ordered categories of question quality: should definitely stay open, should definitely be closed, ...
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Should we close questions that can be easily answered by Wikipedia or Google?
Suppose, someone asks a question that can be answered very easily by using either a textbook or Wikipedia or Google etc. (See this question for an example). Should we close this type of question?
My ...
svadali
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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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Is this question really not related to "Statistical Analysis"?
Below question has been closed on Statistical Analysis web site. Is this really not a question for this site? I guess it the same as we ask Visual Studio question on stackoverflow, windows/mac ...
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Should we "unclose" computing questions
Following on from this question about extending scope, should we "unclose" previous computing questions. For example,
How can I get R to stop autocompleting my quotes/parens?
What code would you put ...
- 12.1k
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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
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A difficulty with self-study-like questions of the form "Is this correct?"
I've seen a spate of questions of a form more or less along the lines of "Is this working correct?" just lately.
While this is good from the point of view that the poster is clearly making a proper ...
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When we vote to close a question as "unclear" should we state why in a comment?
Some questions are completely unclear and it's fairly obvious that they need to be closed.
But I've seen some votes to close as unclear that could really use an explanation - and sometimes the person ...
- 104k
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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
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List of candidate questions to be closed [closed]
If you feel a question should be closed please provide the link to the question as an answer along with a brief rationale. Also ensure that you link to this meta thread as a comment on the main ...
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Is this question too local?
A question was recently asked about statistical classes in the NYC area. I automatically thought that it should be closed as it was too localised - unsurprisingly the questioner disagrees ;)
My ...
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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 ...
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I think we need to talk about the SO/CV interface again
Two hours ago (ish), a new user posted this question on two-tailed F-values - how to do them in R.
He (or she, but I'm going to say he) was told to take it to SO. So, he did what he can see to do -- ...
- 275k
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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 ...
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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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When should programming questions be closed as off-topic, and when migrated to SO?
Questions can be closed as off topic because they are not about statistics or focus on programming. This is distinct from questions which are about programming and belong on StackOverflow. There is ...
- 59.4k
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Customize criteria for automatic population to review queue?
I think we could dramatically improve the review queue process if we could auto-populate the queue with questions that are suspect for more refined reasons than currently exist. In the same vein as to ...
SycoraxMod
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What to do if a question is both unclear and about software?
Recently, I've seen several questions marked as "unclear what you are asking" when the question is both confusing and about software. If we mark it "unclear what you're asking" then the OP may try to ...
- 104k
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Should we consider grandfathering old R (and other programming-heavy) posts?
I have noticed quite a lot of too-old-to-migrate software-heavy questions (mostly R, but not entirely) coming through the close review queue.
They are often clearly off-topic by current standards ...
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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
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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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TimMod
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Does unanimity of reasons to close matter?
When I look to the close review queue I sometimes find that other voters have given a different reason to close from the one I has eventually decided on. Sometimes though I was only 60:40 in favour of ...
- 17.3k
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Can we clarify the off-topic closing options?
Evidently, when we vote to close a question as off-topic and appropriate for Stack Overflow, the thread will not actually be migrated unless we select:
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When dealing with old off-topic questions, should we close or lock them, and why?
Some topics that are now considered off-topic used to be tolerated in the early days of this site. Consequently, there exist old threads with lots of votes/views/answers that are off-topic under ...
- 101k
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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
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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 – ...
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Is this question off-topic?
I have asked about the disadvantage of hyperplanes for the linear congruent random number generator, and the post has received 4 votes as off-topic, one away from being closed. So I wonder if the ...
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Issues with trigger happy moderation
EDIT: I have now taken a bit of time to update the question, giving more detail into the origin and structure of the data. I hope it's more clear now.
It's important that the solution is generally ...
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Should we close old, outdated and off-topic questions?
Please consider the following question:
Good GUI for R suitable for a beginner wanting to learn programming in R?. I just voted to close it as off-topic. Besides being off-topic it is also outdated ...
TimMod
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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. ...
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Overzealous marking as duplicate
I think it is quite obvious (so long as you read it in its entirety) that this question has incorrectly been marked as duplicate. It is worth reading the comments too.
EDIT: Just to be clear, my ...
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Which close option to choose for this question
I believe this question should be closed:
Test accuracy much higher than training accuracy
It's impossible to answer it without looking at the code, so the only reasonable suggestion I can give to ...
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