<p>Thread</p>

<p><a href="https://stats.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/5170/are-questions-about-solving-practical-data-science-problems-memory-etc-on-top">Are questions about solving practical data science problems (memory etc.) on topic?</a></p>

<p>here on Meta is discussing the interesting problem of questions which lie at the boundary between on-topic and off-topic, because they ask for software, but they can be answered in a more general way, which intersperses the discussion of a statistical method, with some code showing a practical application.</p>

<p>This is an instance of a more general problem: if we see a question where it looks like that the OP is principally interested in an answer which would be off-topic (for example, code only, but it could be off-topic for other reasons), but which can be answered in a way that the OP probably wouldn't like, but which can be very useful for generic users, what do we do? For me it's a difficult problem:</p>

<ol>
<li>giving the on-topic answer seems "the right thing to do". However, the OP will probably complain and/or not accept it. This may lead to 1) an increase of off-topic questions and 2) an increase of unanswered questions, which I think is bad for what it concerns the site statistics.</li>
<li>just closing the question might be a bit of  missed opportunity for the whole community, which would have benefited from such an answer.</li>
<li>write another, better question and answer it myself? Possible, but not completely satisfying.</li>
</ol>
