<p>Is someone really going to struggle to find the <a href="http://bit.ly/1ko278V" rel="nofollow">Iris data-set</a> or whatever if they already know the name of it? The current wording of the off-topic reason is</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>Questions about obtaining specific datasets are off-topic because they are too specialized and narrow in scope.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>which I read as allowing requests for non-specific data-sets that can be used to make some statistical point.</p>

<p>So IMO</p>

<ul>
<li><p>Request for US macroeconomic indicators by year&mdash;off-topic.</p></li>
<li><p>Request for dataset to test regression procedures with nearly collinear predictors&mdash;on-topic.</p></li>
<li><p>Request for Longley data&mdash;lack of research.</p></li>
</ul>
