Questions tagged [on-topic]
Use this tag when examining what is on-topic or off-topic, and why, and how to deal with off-topic questions.
164
questions
11
votes
2answers
147 views
Is asking for help finding relevant research off topic?
I have trouble finding relevant research in a specific sub-field. Is it off topic for Cross Validated to either ask for such research or ask for help in finding it? How could I make it a better fit ...
18
votes
0answers
173 views
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 ...
3
votes
1answer
103 views
Can we ask questions related to R Programming?
Questions related to programming/coding is mostly related to Stackoverflow.
R is a programming language for statistical computing. Can we ask questions related to R-programming??
5
votes
1answer
113 views
Is Cross Validated an appropriate place to ask for examples of meta-analysis done well?
I'm teaching myself how to do meta-analysis, and as a beginner to the subject I would like to read journal article examples of meta-analysis done well.
It's easy enough to find examples of meta-...
8
votes
0answers
100 views
Is it on topic for a question to ask for a canonical example?
I want to ask a question with the title Is there a canonical example demonstrating the difference between predictive and explanatory models?
I have ideas about the body of this question, with some ...
6
votes
1answer
126 views
Is this question about categorical features on-topic?
The question Suggestions on using model in production 1 test at a time was closed as off-topic.
To my mind, the question content is squarely about the generalizability of a specific kind of feature (...
1
vote
1answer
82 views
Is there a machine learning StackExchange?
Is there a research-level machine learning site in the StackExchange universe? I don't like Reddit's formatting system.
11
votes
2answers
347 views
Why is my question about replicating a figure from Hastie et al. not appropriate?
I asked this question earlier today but was quickly put on hold with a generic comment. I can only assume the question is on hold as it has been interpreted as being a coding question. It is clear ...
9
votes
2answers
265 views
Would this dice question be on topic if it were posted or migrated here?
RPG.SE is currently having a bit of a vigorous discussion about this question about dice rolling (meta thereupon), in which this stack was brought up as a potential migrate target. There is a dice ...
14
votes
1answer
178 views
Question about math notation closed as off-topic
The question "What is sigma function in the YOLO object detector?" has been closed as off-topic with the usual explanation:
This question appears to be off-topic because EITHER it is not about ...
5
votes
0answers
98 views
Are questions concerning deployment best practices on-topic?
I have a model built with time series data that I want to deploy. Sadly, I haven't found a lot of resources for this and I wanted to ask how to best approach this. The answer I am hoping for contains ...
13
votes
3answers
354 views
Shouldn't CV be a valid resource on how to implement non-trivial statistical models in different software?
Currently the Help Center > Asking states that questions are on-topic if they're about "statistical analysis, applied or theoretical", and whenever it's about programming "if it needs statistical ...
15
votes
3answers
328 views
This opinion-based question must be closed
The question What must someone know in statistics and machine learning? is not suitable for the stats.SE format because it is primarily opinion-based. I believe that much is obvious on its face.
OP's ...
16
votes
0answers
160 views
Are “stats-review” questions on-topic?
I'm dealing with a question on Stack Overflow that's really a "stats review" -- not technically a code review ("is this code OK?"), but "is this statistical approach OK?"
This strikes me as ...
10
votes
2answers
218 views
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
...
9
votes
1answer
203 views
Are “What is State of the Art for Machine Learning in X” on topic?
I often need to discern what the State of the Art (SOTA) is for certain Machine Learning Applications, which I currently ask on the Fast.ai forums. For example:
How does Deep Learning deal with ...
9
votes
2answers
201 views
If OP asks for a software referral, and a referral *doesn't* exist, may we answer with the code they asked for?
If an OP asks for a R library recommendation (policy under debate in another meta thread, I realize), and no acceptable recommendation exists, what is the policy regarding writing and posting code ...
6
votes
1answer
144 views
Is this question mentioning Keras off-topic?
Image classification with large images in R keras
OP mentions keras a couple time, but to their credit, they don't include code. I'd like to answer the question, but I wonder if I should comment ...
19
votes
0answers
238 views
Questions asking for statistical package recommendations: how do we differentiate in vs out of bounds for CV?
Recently, I asked for a recommendation for R packages that were capable of doing latent class analysis with mixed indicator types and were capable of doing latent class regression (i.e. treat the ...
8
votes
2answers
168 views
Do we need a canonical thread about stock trading? What would it address?
I've noticed that stock trading is a prominent theme among reinforcement-learning and neural-networks and deep-learning questions. I think this is because (1) stock trading is an easy problem to ...
13
votes
2answers
367 views
Overlap with ai.stackexchange and datascience.stackexchange
I found that quite a few tags are present at each of these sites in the SE universe:
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Data Science (DS)
Cross Validated (CV)
For example:
reinforcement-learning (AI, DS, ...
5
votes
1answer
69 views
What is our stance on website recommendation questions?
What is our stance on website recommendation questions? Are they on-topic or off-topic? Assume that the website recommendation pertains to statistics / machine learning.
Example:
Is there any web-...
12
votes
0answers
55 views
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.
...
8
votes
1answer
115 views
(How) can I make an on-topic question from this?
I posted this question on Software Recommendations. As it is getting no response, I think that I might try to make a meaningful chart for my friend, in Excel .
Actually, I would prefer someone else ...
6
votes
1answer
136 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}{\...
5
votes
1answer
102 views
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 ...
15
votes
1answer
207 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 ...
27
votes
3answers
513 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 ...
1
vote
6answers
427 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 ...
3
votes
1answer
61 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, ...
13
votes
8answers
572 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 ...
9
votes
1answer
285 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
70 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
477 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 ...
21
votes
5answers
242 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
175 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.
3
votes
0answers
102 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 is the ...
6
votes
0answers
156 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
240 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
113 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
445 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
72 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
104 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) ...
6
votes
2answers
95 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?...
23
votes
3answers
546 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
79 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 ...
1
vote
0answers
101 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
239 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
103 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 ...
