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.

Filter by
Sorted by
Tagged with
12 votes
5 answers
468 views

How much programming here?

Of course in context of R-versus-Clojure, I felt it needs external discussion. So, I believe that there are two possible sorts of such questions: An algorithmic question like, "How to implement X?" ...
user avatar
18 votes
10 answers
633 views

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 ...
russellpierce's user avatar
77 votes
11 answers
2k views

CV and Data Science: semi-identical twins?

I would like to reopen the discussion regarding CV and the Data Science beta. This question is related to this previous one: Data Science SE but now with a better view of where Data Science seems to ...
Marc Claesen's user avatar
  • 18.4k
39 votes
5 answers
2k views

Data Science SE

I noticed the ad on the main site today for the data science proposal, which evidently is 77% committed. Some of the people committed to the proposal are users on CV. Most of the questions listed ...
gung - Reinstate Monica'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
17 votes
3 answers
483 views

Should all "book recommendation" questions be classified as community wiki?

Recently I came across with a question that was asking for book recommendation in an expertise area related to statistic. Then, I was checking for duplicates and I realized among all book ...
Andre Silva's user avatar
  • 3,080
15 votes
2 answers
507 views

Are the "Machine Learning" questions on topic?

Please take a look at this proposal: Machine Learning > On Topic I would like your opinion if these on-topic questions would be welcomed on this site: I am using a neural network with the ...
Robert Cartaino's user avatar
15 votes
2 answers
457 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, ...
a_guest's user avatar
  • 161
20 votes
3 answers
934 views

ML questions: here or at Data Science?

Should questions about machine learning (ML) be asked here or at Data Science.SE? When Data Science was still a proposal, the discussion indicated these questions should be asked here. Later ...
WBT's user avatar
  • 225
11 votes
3 answers
255 views

Redirecting "looking for package in R" to SO

I noticed that multiple questions that ask about R packages are voted to migrate to SO (I also do this). This is consistent with the fact that CV is not about programming. On the other hand, "I am ...
Tim's user avatar
  • 138k
7 votes
9 answers
2k views

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 ...
user avatar
21 votes
1 answer
493 views

After Data Science SE: Artificial Intelligence SE

The Artificial Intelligence SE is now in private beta phase, and it looks like most questions asked there are on-topic here. There is already another SE with a large overlap, namely Data Science SE. ...
Franck Dernoncourt's user avatar
21 votes
3 answers
653 views

What does Cross Validated aim to be, who is it for?

There has been a lot of discussion about software-related questions on CV (see here or here for examples...). And yet there is still no clear idea and guidance on what CV is, what it strives to be and ...
Gavin Simpson's user avatar
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
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
6 votes
3 answers
208 views

Are probability questions on-topic?

The FAQ gives: Statistical Analysis - Stack Exchange is for statistical analysis, data mining, machine learning, data visualization and statistical computing. So, are questions about probability ...
Douglas S. Stones's user avatar
22 votes
5 answers
821 views

R-specific StackExchange site or greater integration of R community within CV?

There has been discussion over how more of the R community could be brought into the StackExchange fold. (See also this Question on SO Meta.) If I were to sum-up feelings expressed thus far, we are ...
Gavin Simpson's user avatar
22 votes
0 answers
301 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 ...
Stephan Kolassa's user avatar
16 votes
1 answer
259 views

Can any of the people involved in the migration of this question explain why?

This question was just migrated to stackoverflow (well, an hour ago). As far as I can see a great deal of it's pretty solidly on topic here. "What is this function called?" is not a SO question, it'...
Glen_b's user avatar
  • 282k
16 votes
2 answers
481 views

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 ...
Glen_b's user avatar
  • 282k
11 votes
2 answers
423 views

Policy on questions that read like, "How should I do my job?"

I was wondering what the policy is on questions which look like a commercial organisation is asking how to solve a business problem. It's totally understandable that everyone needs a hand from time ...
conjectures's user avatar
  • 4,226
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
8 votes
2 answers
191 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 ...
Sycorax's user avatar
  • 90.8k
7 votes
1 answer
723 views

Questions asking to check answers to end-of-chapter exercises. Appropriate or not?

I like to answer end-of-chapter exercises in various econometrics textbooks. Most of the time, there's no solution manual for me to check my answers. I wonder if it is appropriate for me to post such ...
Graeme Walsh's user avatar
  • 4,127
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
4 votes
1 answer
105 views

Create [analysis] tag? + Update 2017: Delete [analysis] tag?

A recurrent issue in our forum is applied analysis questions. Not only are there ample examples in the CV network, but it comes up in Meta repeatedly. I think questions of the nature are appropriate ...
AdamO's user avatar
  • 62.5k
1 vote
0 answers
81 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. ...
DeltaIV's user avatar
  • 17.9k
0 votes
6 answers
493 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 ...
Jeff Atwood's user avatar
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
21 votes
5 answers
988 views

Where can I ask questions about "operations research"?

Where should questions about operations research be asked? Is cross validated appropriate or are other sites within SE network better suited? I have had a look at https://www.or-exchange.org/...
kjetil b halvorsen's user avatar
19 votes
0 answers
249 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 ...
Weiwen Ng's user avatar
  • 1,418
18 votes
2 answers
312 views

Shall we add "this is just a software question" to our default close reasons?

Our community-modifiable default off-topic close reasons are Self-study questions (including textbook exercises, old exam papers, and homework) that seek to understand the concepts are welcome, but ...
whuber's user avatar
  • 322k
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
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
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
12 votes
1 answer
297 views

Which site is the best to ask about reinforcement learning?

Reinforcement learning is part of ML and I know ML is a good topic here. However, I know there is a data science and a computer science site (and maths etc). I was wondering, where would a ...
Charlie Parker's user avatar
10 votes
1 answer
269 views

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 ...
Silverfish's user avatar
  • 23.3k
10 votes
2 answers
235 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 ...
Tim's user avatar
  • 138k
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
9 votes
2 answers
338 views

Migrating software syntax to StackOverflow or DataScience?

This is a provocative question: should we send "How do I do this in R/SAS/Python/Stata/SPSS" questions to the DataScience, now that it's open? Data cleaning is never a programming question, as it ...
StasK's user avatar
  • 31.5k
8 votes
1 answer
245 views

Are "find the distribution" questions on topic?

Disclaimer: I am not a regular participant in Cross Validated, but a moderator on Maths. We received a flag stating that this question should be migrated here. It is of the form: "given a data set, ...
Willie Wong's user avatar
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
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
7 votes
2 answers
141 views

Are questions about terminology off topic?

I just discovered this site, and I had a question that has been bugging me for a while. My question isn't so much about a concept as it is about terminology, so I thought I'd check whether this kind ...
Asad Saeeduddin's user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
132 views

Question about recommended readings

I am trying to do a community talk about hypothesis testing and want to focus on significance testing and p-values in particular. They have been a bit in the news as well recently (with some journal ...
Luca's user avatar
  • 4,650
5 votes
1 answer
2k views

Data Sourcing: We need to make up our mind

Referencing this proposal on Area 51: http://area51.stackexchange.com/proposals/37195 and this post here: https://stats.stackexchange.com/questions/20788/what-is-the-income-distribution-in-the-u-s-in-...
Fomite's user avatar
  • 23.1k
5 votes
1 answer
163 views

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 ...
Tim's user avatar
  • 19.4k
2 votes
4 answers
187 views

How much can we ask about Speech Recognition

I am wondering, what can we ask about speech recognition on this site. This question indicates that machine learning is very much included in the site. So how about the following questions: How do I ...
Peter Smit's user avatar
  • 2,058
2 votes
1 answer
67 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, ...
WavesWashSands's user avatar
2 votes
2 answers
171 views

New proposal at Area51: R statistical computing

I think we could use a site dedicated to programming in R (similar to the Mathematica SE). I went ahead and made a proposal in Area 51 (link).
a06e's user avatar
  • 4,410