I think I knew the difference between Stack Overflow and Cross Validated, and there has been a previous question about it, whose answer says,

So, questions about statistics and data belong on CV, questions about programming issues belong on SO.

However, Cross Validated is also about machine learning, and I observe that in practice, it is harder to draw the line between both sites for questions on this topic. Quite a few questions that look to me like good candidates for Cross Validated, are posted on Stack Overflow; here is the latest example that comes to my mind. What's more, my flags on this kind of questions, when they are good questions (like in this example), are usually ignored or dismissed.

I guess the line is harder to draw than say statistics because unlike statistics, you indeed cannot do much machine learning without some form of programming. There are also questions, although still of general interest, that contains a piece of code to illustrate it or ask for a solution in a specific framework, like perhaps this one: I guess those are even fewer candidates for a move due to the programmatical orientation that the OP gave to their questions.

So where is the line in practice? Are there many machine learning questions that are moved from Stack Overflow to Cross Validated, and what makes them different from other (good) questions that are meant to remain here?

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  • Keep in mind the criteria for migration is not based on where a question is on-topic, as that can be on multiple sites. Migration should only be considered if the question seems valuable but is definitely off-topic on the current site it is on. – rene Jun 8 '17 at 7:38

This isn't a direct answer to the "where to draw the line between CV and SO", but it is a general answer to the question about migration.

The simple answer is you are overthinking it. There is no solid black line between SO and any of the sites in which it has overlapping scopes. The mere presence of a site with an overlapping scope doesn't automatically make it off-topic on Stack Overflow.

So rather than worrying about where the line is ask yourself

  1. Is this question off-topic on Stack Overflow per the help center. Don't worry about if it is on-topic on another site at this point
  2. Is this a really good, clear, and interesting question that contains all of the elements of being answerable without being too broad or opinion-based?

Only if the answer to both question is yes is time to think about migration. And then you can worry about which site is the question on-topic.

So this does mean that it is possible that a question would be on-topic on 2 different sites. This is by-design. Sometimes the user isn't aware of the other site. Sometimes the user is cross-posting the same question on multiple sites (which is a problem, especially if they are just spamming the same exact question across multiple sites), and sometimes the user just wants an answer from the perspective of the community in which they asked the question. You are likely going to get a different answer from a statistician on CV vs a programmer on SO. And that's ok.

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