<p><sub> This is <strong>not</strong> about closing questions labeled as big-list.</sub></p>

<p><strong>What could we do about the tag <a href="https://stats.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/big-list" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged &#39;big-list&#39;" rel="tag">big-list</a> (x38)?</strong> It excerpt says:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>Used to tag questions (often Community Wiki) where a collection of replies is requested, such as a list of references, of quotations, etc.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>This tag has been used mostly* in the sense of making a list of <a href="https://stats.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/references" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged &#39;references&#39;" rel="tag">references</a> (x 303), such as books (and related), papers, algorithms, software (and packages), datasets and quotations. <sub>(*see examples in the end of this question)</sub></p>

<p>Reference tag excerpts says:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>"References" is our generic tag for questions seeking information about books, papers, presentations, videos of lectures, on-line tutorials, etc., regarding any subject matter that is on-topic for Cross Validated.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>However, as pointed by @gung the tag <code>big-list</code> is not solely about "references". It is also about: lists asking how to use and not to use statistics, questions to use in an job interview, and others.</p>

<p>Some problems I see with this tag:</p>

<ul>
<li>There are many other questions (asking for references) which are big lists (or potential to become a big list) and they are not tagged with it;</li>
<li>Nowadays, big lists threads are not the focus of CV SE;</li>
<li>SE discourage the use of <a href="https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/18878/how-do-i-correctly-tag-my-questions">meta-tags</a> on main sites. <a href="http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2010/08/the-death-of-meta-tags/">Here</a> is the argument explaining why.<br>
<sub>It is different with <a href="https://stats.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/self-study" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged &#39;self-study&#39;" rel="tag">self-study</a> tag, which is a on-topic subject of our site and there is specific policy designed to it</sub></li>
</ul>

<p>Counter-arguments which I can visualize are:</p>

<ul>
<li>Retaggings (specially in old threads) are always a problem, mainly because this action bumps old questions to the active tab, and takes aways the attention of new answers on the <a href="https://stats.stackexchange.com/questions?sort=active">active question tab</a>.</li>
</ul>

<p>Some solutions could involve: </p>

<ul>
<li>let <code>big-list</code> the way it is;  </li>
<li>rewrite/improve tag excerpts and tag wikis to avoid confusion and to narrow down how to use it correctly;  </li>
<li>blacklist/burninate the tag;  </li>
<li>make it a synonym of tag <code>references</code>;  </li>
<li>other and combinations of above. </li>
</ul>

<p>Some statistics about the 38 threads labeled as <code>big-list</code>:</p>

<ul>
<li>Nº of threads with Community-wiki status  = 25  </li>
<li>Nº of threads tagged only with <code>big-list</code> tag = 03  </li>
<li>Closed (or duplicated) = 02  </li>
</ul>

<hr>

<p>In an attempt to facilitate the discussion (answers and proposals), the 38 threads where grouped into categories and sub-categories to depict into what context they
are inserted.</p>

<p>Inside each topic links are ranked as: newest (top) to oldest (bottom)</p>

<p>1 - Big-list related to references.</p>

<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;1.1 - also tagged with references (or actual synonyms)</p>  

<ul>
<li><p>algorithms:  </p>

<p><a href="https://stats.stackexchange.com/questions/66330/lesser-known-but-powerful-probabilistic-inference-algorithms">Lesser-known but powerful probabilistic inference algorithms</a></p></li>
<li><p>books and related (textbook and handbook):  </p>

<p><a href="https://stats.stackexchange.com/questions/72799/what-are-good-econometrics-handbooks">Good econometrics handbooks?</a><br>
<a href="https://stats.stackexchange.com/questions/41726/are-there-any-good-popular-science-book-about-statistics-or-machine-learning">Are there any good popular science book about statistics or machine learning?</a><br>
<a href="https://stats.stackexchange.com/questions/29066/books-on-non-parametric-theory-with-correlated-data">Books on non-parametric theory with correlated data</a><br>
<a href="https://stats.stackexchange.com/questions/26372/introductory-book-for-multivariate-statistics">Introductory book for multivariate statistics</a><br>
<a href="https://stats.stackexchange.com/questions/25608/non-linear-regression-references">References on non-linear regression analysis</a><br>
<a href="https://stats.stackexchange.com/questions/21346/what-is-a-good-reference-book-for-the-matrix-algebra-linear-algebra-used-a-lot-i">Reference book for linear algebra applied to statistics?</a><br>
<a href="https://stats.stackexchange.com/questions/15692/probability-theory-books-for-self-study">Probability theory books for self-study</a><br>
<a href="https://stats.stackexchange.com/questions/13069/book-for-getting-a-broad-conceptual-overview-of-statistical-methods">Book for broad and conceptual overview of statistical methods</a><br>
<a href="https://stats.stackexchange.com/questions/9292/which-books-would-you-recommend-for-mixed-distributions-continuous-and-discrete">Books for mixed distributions (continuous and discrete)?</a><br>
<a href="https://stats.stackexchange.com/questions/4612/good-econometrics-textbooks">Econometrics textbooks?</a><br>
<a href="https://stats.stackexchange.com/questions/4347/good-fuzzy-textbook">Fuzzy textbooks</a><br>
<a href="https://stats.stackexchange.com/questions/3294/resources-for-learning-markov-chain-and-hidden-markov-models">Resources for learning Markov chain and hidden Markov models</a><br>
<a href="https://stats.stackexchange.com/questions/3291/building-a-statistics-library-with-knapsack-constraint">Statistics library with knapsack constraint</a><br>
<a href="https://stats.stackexchange.com/questions/3281/statistics-based-on-fractal-mathematics">Statistics based on fractal mathematics</a><br>
<a href="https://stats.stackexchange.com/questions/1053/references-for-survival-analysis">References for survival analysis</a><br>
<a href="https://stats.stackexchange.com/questions/290/resources-for-learning-stata">Resources for learning Stata</a>  </p></li>
<li><p>other (can be a mixture of books, paper, software, etc):  </p>

<p><a href="https://stats.stackexchange.com/questions/6176/readable-introduction-to-measure-theory">Introduction to measure theory</a>  </p>

<p>-software/packages:  </p>

<p><a href="https://stats.stackexchange.com/questions/12670/data-apis-feeds-available-as-packages-in-r">Data APIs/feeds available as packages in R</a>  </p></li>
</ul>

<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;1.2 - not labeled with references or any of its synonyms</p>  

<ul>
<li><p>algorithms:  </p>

<p><a href="https://stats.stackexchange.com/questions/12288/what-is-a-message-passing-method">What is a &#39;message passing method&#39;?</a></p></li>
<li><p>papers:  </p>

<p><a href="https://stats.stackexchange.com/questions/10510/what-are-good-references-containing-arguments-against-null-hypothesis-significan">References containing arguments against null hypothesis significance testing?</a><br>
<a href="https://stats.stackexchange.com/questions/9365/what-are-some-interesting-and-well-written-applied-statistics-papers">What are some interesting and well-written applied statistics papers?</a>  </p></li>
<li><p>quotations:    </p>

<p><a href="https://stats.stackexchange.com/questions/726/famous-statistician-quotes">Famous statistical quotations</a>  </p></li>
<li><p>other (can be a mixture of books, paper, software, etc):  </p>

<p><a href="https://stats.stackexchange.com/questions/9456/what-are-some-good-hard-exemplary-problem-sets-to-work-through-to-solidify-my-un">Hard exemplary problem sets to work through to solidify my understanding of statistical concepts?</a><br>
<a href="https://stats.stackexchange.com/questions/9190/graphics-encyclopedia">Graphics encyclopedia</a><br>
<a href="https://stats.stackexchange.com/questions/5937/tiny-real-datasets-for-giving-examples-in-class">Tiny (real) datasets for giving examples in class?</a><br>
<a href="https://stats.stackexchange.com/questions/3413/hurst-exponent-calculation-methodology">Hurst exponent calculation methodology</a><br>
<a href="https://stats.stackexchange.com/questions/1980/complete-substantive-examples-of-reproducible-research-using-r">Complete substantive examples of reproducible research using R</a>  </p></li>
<li><p>software/packages:  </p>

<p><a href="https://stats.stackexchange.com/questions/12681/software-for-making-semi-variograms-and-analyses">Software for making semi variograms and analyses?</a>  </p></li>
</ul>

<p>2 - Big-list <strong>not</strong> related to references.</p>

<ul>
<li><p>correct or incorrect use of statistics methods (pitfalls,sins,etc):  </p>

<p><a href="https://stats.stackexchange.com/questions/27146/pitfalls-in-time-series-analysis">Pitfalls in time series analysis</a><br>
<a href="https://stats.stackexchange.com/questions/10680/how-to-not-use-statistics">How to NOT use statistics</a><br>
<a href="https://stats.stackexchange.com/questions/4551/what-are-common-statistical-sins">What are common statistical sins?</a><br>
<a href="https://stats.stackexchange.com/questions/3814/how-to-annoy-a-statistical-referee">How to annoy a statistical referee?</a>    </p></li>
<li><p>other:    </p>

<p><a href="https://stats.stackexchange.com/questions/5465/statistics-interview-questions">Statistics interview questions</a><br>
<a href="https://stats.stackexchange.com/questions/2379/what-are-the-big-problems-in-statistics">What are the &#39;big problems&#39; in statistics?</a><br>
<a href="https://stats.stackexchange.com/questions/1883/revolutions-in-statistics-for-the-last-50-years">Revolutions in statistics for the last 50 years?</a>   </p></li>
</ul>

<p>3 - Big-list misused (meaning "list of data")</p>

<ul>
<li><p>any size of data:  </p>

<p><a href="https://stats.stackexchange.com/questions/60197/how-to-manage-correlation-coefficients-spearman-kendall-with-lists-of-differe">How to manage correlation coefficients (Spearman, Kendall) with lists of different dimensions?</a>  </p></li>
<li><p>large-data:  </p>

<p><a href="https://stats.stackexchange.com/questions/24619/resampling-dataset-size">Resampling large dataset</a>  </p></li>
</ul>
