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.

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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 ...
StasK's user avatar
  • 31.5k
21 votes
5 answers
268 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 ...
Peter Flom's user avatar
  • 119k
7 votes
2 answers
177 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.
Abdu Magdy's user avatar
3 votes
0 answers
103 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 ...
Ildar Gabdrakhmanov's user avatar
6 votes
0 answers
158 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 ...
DeltaIV's user avatar
  • 17.9k
10 votes
2 answers
261 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 ...
Tim's user avatar
  • 138k
10 votes
2 answers
115 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 biasā€”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 ...
Mark White's user avatar
  • 10.3k
12 votes
1 answer
557 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" ...
AdamO's user avatar
  • 62.5k
7 votes
0 answers
78 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 ...
Stephan Kolassa's user avatar
7 votes
0 answers
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) ...
Alexis's user avatar
  • 29.8k
6 votes
2 answers
97 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?...
Stephan Kolassa's user avatar
23 votes
3 answers
1k 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 ...
Stephan Kolassa's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
81 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 ...
Clarinetist's user avatar
  • 4,957
1 vote
0 answers
106 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 ...
Tim's user avatar
  • 138k
14 votes
2 answers
251 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, ...
DeltaIV's user avatar
  • 17.9k
1 vote
1 answer
51 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 ...
DeltaIV's user avatar
  • 17.9k
6 votes
1 answer
107 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 ...
Robert Cartaino's user avatar
13 votes
2 answers
165 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 ...
Peter Flom's user avatar
  • 119k
7 votes
1 answer
864 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....
Ferdi's user avatar
  • 5,179
20 votes
1 answer
498 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 ...
Patty's user avatar
  • 1,759
0 votes
0 answers
65 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 ...
DeltaIV's user avatar
  • 17.9k
10 votes
1 answer
141 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 ...
amoeba's user avatar
  • 105k
4 votes
1 answer
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, ...
Stevoisiak's user avatar
4 votes
2 answers
84 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-...
Stephan Kolassa's user avatar
10 votes
2 answers
147 views

What is our stance on questions ā€œlooking for exercises to learn statistical concept X with library Yā€?

What is our stance on questions ā€œlooking for exercises to learn statistical concept X with library Yā€? Are they on-topic or off-topic? Example: Exercises to learn neural network with Tensorflow: I ...
Franck Dernoncourt's user avatar
7 votes
2 answers
201 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 ...
Tim's user avatar
  • 138k
5 votes
2 answers
559 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, ā€œCV is a statistical blog,ā€ what does this mean for the community? How is this to be interpreted? A literal interpretation might suggest that only those ...
Mike Hunter's user avatar
  • 10.6k
13 votes
2 answers
126 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 ...
Robert Columbia's user avatar
7 votes
2 answers
201 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 ...
DeltaIV's user avatar
  • 17.9k
8 votes
2 answers
90 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 ...
Jason C's user avatar
  • 153
8 votes
1 answer
235 views

Is «Does anyone have access to this paper?» a valid question?

Are the questions of the type Ā«Does anyone have access to this paper?Ā» valid at CV?
An old man in the sea.'s user avatar
9 votes
1 answer
165 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 ...
Glen_b's user avatar
  • 282k
7 votes
1 answer
175 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 (...
EngrStudent's user avatar
  • 9,365
9 votes
0 answers
144 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 ...
Franck Dernoncourt's user avatar
15 votes
0 answers
201 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 ...
user31264's user avatar
  • 1,754
9 votes
1 answer
147 views

What is our stance on questions ā€œWhere can I find an implementation of statistical algorithm X from scratch so that I can learn itā€?

What is our stance on questions ā€œWhere can I find an implementation of statistical algorithm X from scratch so that I can learn itā€? Are they on-topic or off-topic? Examples: Can anyone give me a ...
Franck Dernoncourt's user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
188 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: ...
EngrStudent's user avatar
  • 9,365
19 votes
2 answers
303 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 ...
DeltaIV's user avatar
  • 17.9k
2 votes
0 answers
68 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 (...
DeltaIV's user avatar
  • 17.9k
28 votes
2 answers
590 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 ...
not_bonferroni's user avatar
15 votes
1 answer
182 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, ...
Jeremy Miles's user avatar
  • 17.7k
5 votes
3 answers
258 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 ...
Leonardo Cordeiro's user avatar
9 votes
1 answer
121 views

Soliciting feedback vs asking a question

Is it ever appropriate to share one's thoughts on a topic as a way to garner constructive feedback and opinions from the community instead of asking a direct question, or is there another place for ...
ilanman's user avatar
  • 4,787
6 votes
1 answer
87 views

Are methodological questions concerning Crowdsourcing within the scope of CV?

Recently, I posted two questions about Crowdsourcing on CV. The first one asking for a general reference got upvoted, while the second specifically asking for a more specific reference concerning ...
Sven Büchel's user avatar
14 votes
2 answers
287 views

Are puzzles on-topic on CV?

On StackExchange.com we have puzzles-dedicated site https://puzzling.stackexchange.com/ and https://codegolf.stackexchange.com/ for coding puzzles, math puzzles appear on math.stackexchange.com and ...
Tim's user avatar
  • 138k
11 votes
1 answer
139 views

My question about visualization got on hold

I think that one question I asked recently (Showing a correlation and its p-value as a color) got incorrectly in hold. The reason is because: This question appears to be off-topic because EITHER it ...
llrs's user avatar
  • 585
-5 votes
1 answer
123 views

Question on plotting in Python closed very quickly

I have just noticed this question: https://stats.stackexchange.com/questions/243679/how-can-i-make-seaborn-plot-the-null-values The question have 9 views, and it is already voted to be closed by 5 ...
Uri Goren's user avatar
  • 1,811
10 votes
1 answer
404 views

Closed, later reopened, question on mgcv: how to review "niche" questions with substantial code content

The question R/mgcv: Why do te() and ti() tensor products produce different surfaces? has had a very interesting history. It was asked by a new user who may not be quite so aware of where we draw the (...
Silverfish's user avatar
  • 23.3k
2 votes
1 answer
56 views

Are questions concerning Apache Spark Mllib approach to cross validation acceptable on CV?

I have been reading on cross validation and wanted to experiment with Apache Spark's Mllib. I tried to read the provided material (link) but it is still very unintuitive and unclear to me how it works ...
A.Dumas's user avatar
  • 111
8 votes
1 answer
236 views

Question migrated from StackOverflow put on hold after 1 second with no comments?

As explained here, I asked a question on Stack Overflow. A user with high reputation suggested me to move the question to Cross-Validated, and since in meantime the question had received 3 votes to ...
DeltaIV's user avatar
  • 17.9k