<p><a href="https://stats.stackexchange.com/q/38928/2485">This question</a> seeking example datasets was recently closed as off-topic.  Per the <a href="https://stats.stackexchange.com/faq">FAQ</a>, </p>

<blockquote>
  <p>Questions about <strong>obtaining particular datasets</strong> are off-topic (they are too specialized).</p>
</blockquote>

<p>As I interpret things though, that does not apply in this case.  The FAQ seems concerned with questions like "Where can I find historical data about stock prices for the S&amp;P 500?" or "Where I can find economic data about the GDP of every country in 2012?".  Those questions are indeed about particular datasets and not really about data analysis, so those are the types of outlawed questions that I imagine when reading the FAQ.  I believe those types were also the focus of these related Meta questions <a href="https://stats.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/486/suitable-venue-to-help-find-specific-statistical-data">here</a> and <a href="https://stats.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/1298/what-is-a-good-place-for-how-where-do-i-get-data-on-x-questions">here</a>.</p>

<p>However, the linked question <em>is</em> about data analysis.  In particular, the asker is trying to develop new types of data analysis and asks for help in evaluating new algorithms.  The asker is not looking for <em>particular</em> datasets but rather datasets with particular attributes as they relate to machine learning.  Nothing in the FAQ forbids this.</p>

<p>There also seems to be a precedent that this type of question is actually fine.  See <a href="https://stats.stackexchange.com/questions/7/locating-freely-available-data-samples">here</a>, <a href="https://stats.stackexchange.com/questions/38874/classification-datasets-with-categorical-features-and-a-lot-of-classes">here</a>, and <a href="https://stats.stackexchange.com/questions/24261/benchmark-dataset-for-decision-tree-algorithm">here</a> for a few examples.  Of course this is not a duplicate of those as this question has specific requirements (lots of attributes and suitable for regression).</p>

<p>So should this question be re-opened?  I think it is useful, interesting, and within the scope and therefore should be re-opened.  If it should <em>not</em> be re-opened, then the FAQ needs to be clarified and lots of other questions need to be closed as well.</p>
