<p>In forecasting, comparing a proposed new method against a benchmark is fundamental, for <a href="https://stats.stackexchange.com/a/312784/1352">the reasons I describe here</a>. (My impression is that the analogue is not equally common in Machine Learning, but I may well be misinformed here.) So it's an <em>important</em> point.</p>

<p>However, I don't see it as a <em>big</em> topic. There is really not all that more to it than what I wrote in the link above, plus <a href="https://stats.stackexchange.com/q/163164/1352">this thread</a> (which ironically enough doesn't have the tag) and maybe a few threads on relative error measures like the <a href="https://stats.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/mase" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged &#39;mase&#39;" rel="tag">mase</a>.</p>

<p>I don't think <a href="https://stats.stackexchange.com/questions/296723/how-to-best-report-code-benchmarking-results">a question on how to report performance on software benchmarks</a> should carry a "benchmark" tag - any more than a question on how to analyze apple yields should carry an "apples" tag.</p>

<p>Bottom line: I'd suggest we remove the tag and possibly burninate it. It doesn't seem to be worth the housekeeping. If this answer gets upvoted enough and no mods weigh in, I'll start removing it in small batches.</p>
