Use this tag when examining what is on-topic or off-topic, and why, and how to deal with off-topic questions.
6
votes
1answer
92 views
Should I ask this mathematical statistics question here or on math.se?
I would like to ask the following question:
if $M$ is a $m\times n$ constant matrix and $\eta\sim\mathcal{N}(0,I)$, then does $$\mathbf{E}_{\eta\sim\mathcal{N}}\left[\frac{\lVert M\eta\rVert}{\...
14
votes
1answer
193 views
Is optimization off-topic?
I came across this thread today.
Why not use the third derivative?
It has a very good discussion both in the comments and in the answers, yet it was closed as off-topic because it is about ...
24
votes
3answers
441 views
“Help I have some data and need to analyse it what do I dooo?”
I have been on this stackexchange long enough now to see there is quite a lot of questions along the lines of:
Help, I'm a data science intern/amateur statistician and I've been given a load of ...
0
votes
4answers
275 views
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 ...
2
votes
1answer
51 views
Should I ask questions about interpreting printouts from a statistical package here or on SO?
There's a function from a statistical package whose printout I'm slightly confused about. Should I ask about it on SO or here? On the one hand, it doesn't have anything to do with coding/programming, ...
11
votes
8answers
471 views
Dealing with “do my professional work for me” questions?
There has been some discussion on CV Meta of how to deal with homework questions and also job-related questions. Either can be unreasonable in certain cases, but the latter really annoy me, since they ...
8
votes
1answer
283 views
Is CV the right site for this question?
I just asked the following question:
What are attention mechanism exactly?
It seems that attention-related questions haven't received answers on this site. Is this the right site for these questions?...
1
vote
0answers
64 views
How to improve the following question
A new user asked this question:
Neural Network for Foreign Exchange Prediction
In my opinion it's quite good as a first question, but it's hard to answer. I'd like the help the OP improve it. ...
6
votes
3answers
280 views
Should the mailing list on structural equation modeling (SEMNET) consider moving to CV?
I am subscribed to SEMNET, a list on structural equation and latent variable modeling, and it is undergoing some sort of an existential crisis. The talk there is about moving to a forum/website -- it ...
20
votes
5answers
235 views
Should questions about comparing the output from different statistical software be on topic here?
For instance, this question asks about why R and SAS give different results in a multi-level model. I think this sort of question is more likely to get an answer here than elsewhere. R list users may ...
7
votes
2answers
152 views
Does this question violate any of the community rules?
I'm new to Cross Validated SE. I've asked this question and got 2 down votes. So, I'm asking if it was an off-topic question or if there is a better way to ask it.
2
votes
0answers
100 views
What is the best online place (forum, board etc.) to *discuss* a statistical question?
The official rule on CrossValidated is:
How to Ask
Is your question about statistics?
We prefer questions that can be answered, not just discussed.
Provide details. Share your research.
What ...
6
votes
0answers
100 views
What to do when a question can be answered in a good, on-topic way, but the OP clearly seems to be interested in a off-topic answer?
Thread
Are questions about solving practical data science problems (memory etc.) on topic?
here on Meta is discussing the interesting problem of questions which lie at the boundary between on-topic ...
10
votes
2answers
222 views
Are questions about solving practical data science problems (memory etc.) on topic?
Are questions like How to resolve Error: cannot allocate vector of size 1.1 GB for glmnet in R on topic? On one hand, it asks about software, on another, this is about solving a practical data science ...
10
votes
2answers
108 views
Is it on topic to ask a question looking for authoritative/canonical references to read on a topic?
I am trying to learn about non-response/dropout bias—and how to correct for it. I do not know this area well. Is it on-topic to ask for authoritative/canonical/highly-cited/classic references on this ...
12
votes
1answer
326 views
Is “data-preprocessing” on topic for CV?
I was reviewing first post questions and came across one seeming totally off-topic tagged data-preprocessing. Curious, I found a lot of ML questions invoking this tag. My gut says "data-preprocessing" ...
7
votes
0answers
68 views
Course or what to study recommendation questions on-topic?
What should we do with "how to learn statistics/machine learning" questions?
For instance:
Mathematician wants the equivalent knowledge to a quality stats degree is pretty highly upvoted, community ...
7
votes
0answers
102 views
Are contest-type questions appropriate for CV?
It occurred to me that creating a contest, where (1) a statistical challenge or problem was completely defined, (2) judging criteria were unambiguously defined in terms of the winning answer, and (3) ...
5
votes
2answers
90 views
“Where to publish” questions: on-topic?
Are questions asking about venues for publishing statistical or machine learning-related articles on-topic at CV? Here is an example: Where to publish reasonable article in Deep Reinforcement Learning?...
22
votes
3answers
333 views
What to do about “wrong” questions?
We sometimes get what I would describe as "wrong" questions.
For instance, a perennial favorite seems to be questions about binning continuous variables, like What is a best way of binning non-finite ...
4
votes
1answer
78 views
Is this machine learning + matrix manipulation question on topic?
I just put a bounty on Calculating Linear Discriminant Analysis Coefficients before seeing the ML discussions on Meta, so I apologize for not asking about this beforehand. I'll be sure to make a ...
2
votes
0answers
98 views
As machine learning gets more programming-oriented, should we get more programming oriented?
If you look at the online courses, books, blogs on machine learning, many of them seem to focus on "programming the algorithms", often in those resources you see more Python code then mathematical ...
14
votes
2answers
228 views
Are machine learning questions about an incorrectly working piece of code considered on-topic?
I've seen a few questions like this lately:
Backpropagation in multi-layer perceptron (MLP) doesn't converge
They don't seem programming questions to me: the code is syntactically correct, ...
1
vote
1answer
49 views
Any way to make this question on processing tracking data on-topic?
I used the chat to ask a question which is IMO clearly off-topic here, but looking at the chat history I realized that there is very little traffic, so I'm going to ask suggestions to make it on-topic ...
6
votes
1answer
101 views
Is Complex Networks and analysis a new site, or predominantly on topic here?
We have a proposal for new a site covering complex network and analysis. I need your help. Please have a look through the example questions linked below. Do you see a preponderance of questions that ...
13
votes
2answers
105 views
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 ...
7
votes
1answer
755 views
Is it on-topic to ask which statistical models are applied in E-Commerce?
I would like to gather experience which statistical models are used in specific businesses/ sectors. For example I would like to know which statistical models are applied in E-Commerce or in Marketing....
20
votes
1answer
373 views
Does advanced probability theory belong on stats or math stackexchange?
Obviously probability is discussed often on CrossValidated, as it's a solid foundation of both frequentest and Bayesian statistics.
However, when someone wants to ask a question concerned with more ...
0
votes
0answers
60 views
How can the same post be closed as 'opinion-based' and marked as community wiki? [duplicate]
I have to admit that I don't know much about the Community Wiki concept. I thought it would denote questions that were either particularly interesting, or which by their own nature would attract a lot ...
9
votes
1answer
122 views
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 ...
4
votes
1answer
49 views
Would questions about finding a statistic be on-topic?
I've been trying to find statistics about how many people the average person interacts with in a single day. I'm doing this as part of my research on the spread of infectious diseases.
Specifically, ...
4
votes
2answers
67 views
Are questions on how to simulate data on-topic?
I'm coming from this question, where the OP asks about how to simulate data following a certain pattern, for teaching.
We have a closure reason:
Questions about obtaining specific datasets are off-...
10
votes
2answers
127 views
What is our stance on questions “looking for exercises to learn statistical concept X with library Y”?
What is our stance on questions “looking for exercises to learn statistical concept X with library Y”? Are they on-topic or off-topic?
Example: Exercises to learn neural network with Tensorflow:
I ...
5
votes
1answer
113 views
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 ...
5
votes
2answers
477 views
“CV is a statistical blog” - is it true and if so, what does it mean? What is on-topic here?
When a senior CV participant comments, “CV is a statistical blog,” what does this mean for the community? How is this to be interpreted? A literal interpretation might suggest that only those ...
13
votes
2answers
104 views
Are questions about data definitions and research demographics in scope?
My interest in statistics is less on the math side but more on the use and misuse of objectively-valid statistics for political and economic purposes. Are non-math questions that involve issues of how ...
7
votes
2answers
188 views
Should I answer a question that seems off-topic here?
I have what I feel is a very good answer for question Summary of manyglm model objects running too slowly in R; can I speed them up?. However, this does look like a question for Stack Overflow, more ...
8
votes
2answers
80 views
Can I ask for a recommended analysis technique?
I don't know much about statistics, and I don't know enough to know e.g. terms to search for in a web search. However, I have a specific data set, and a list of goals I'd like to achieve in an ...
8
votes
1answer
138 views
Is «Does anyone have access to this paper?» a valid question?
Are the questions of the type «Does anyone have access to this paper?» valid at CV?
9
votes
1answer
139 views
What are the criteria applied to conclude this migrated Q was off topic? How do we draw the line?
This post was migrated to mathematics:
https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/2166949/deriving-a-1-alpha100-confidence-interval-for-theta-pivotal-quantity
(Its revision history on CV can be seen ...
7
votes
1answer
166 views
Right forum for stats grad school questions?
I know it isn't stats, but it is academia.
Which forum is most appropriate for stats-centric grad-school related questions?
There is a masters program that I am very interested in attending (...
8
votes
0answers
114 views
Closing a terminology question as primarily opinion-based vs. writing an answer explaining why it is primarily opinion-based?
If a terminology question asks about a subjective term, is it preferable to close it as primarily opinion-based or to write an answer explaining why it is primarily opinion-based?
Example: What is ...
15
votes
0answers
185 views
My question (on R/C/C++ libraries for a specific task) wrongfully put as off-topic
My question Libraries for Siamese networks put on hold as off-topic because, as gung claims, "questions asking for software, libraries, or code are off topic here".
There is no sentence "questions ...
9
votes
1answer
132 views
What is our stance on questions “Where can I find an implementation of statistical algorithm X from scratch so that I can learn it”?
What is our stance on questions “Where can I find an implementation of statistical algorithm X from scratch so that I can learn it”? Are they on-topic or off-topic?
Examples:
Can anyone give me a ...
6
votes
1answer
159 views
Appropriate forum for moneyball-related questions
Moneyball was a movie, a book, and a statistical revolution in sabermetrics.
If I wanted to ask a question like the following, which forum is best for it? Would it be on topic on CV?
Background: ...
18
votes
2answers
259 views
Where to learn about R packages?
Questions about R packages are off-topic on SO, and since programming questions are off-topic on CV, a fortiori packages questions, which are about programming (in R) are off-topic on CV. That's why I ...
2
votes
0answers
64 views
Do you think the question “Advanced MCMC samplers in R for calibration of a computer model” belong on SO, CV or nowhere on SE? [duplicate]
I try to never ask R-related questions on Cross Validated. However, I asked the question Advanced MCMC samplers in R for calibration of a computer model on SO and apparently it wasn't well-received (...
28
votes
2answers
535 views
Are very elementary questions off topic on CrossValidated?
In a thread on the main site someone said very elementary questions are off topic
It looks like someone upvoted his comment so maybe he's right. Around that same time @gung told me to be cautious ...
14
votes
1answer
154 views
Answering off-topic questions. Appropriate?
Sometimes I see off topic questions which have a very simple answer. Here's an example: https://stats.stackexchange.com/questions/254623/confidence-interval-for-anova-in-spss. It's clearly off topic, ...
5
votes
3answers
196 views
Should a “Neural Network” Stackexchange site be created?
Currently, many questions related to artificial neural networks and deep learning are hosted in the CrossValidated site. However, it seems to me that both the quality and quantity of answers to these ...
