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00:09
We typically get from half a dozen to a dozen profiles like this created every day. It's rare to see any subsequent activity at all on the accounts - once the profile's up the spammer's job is done.
 
7 hours later…
07:26
@Scortchi Yes, that is why I suggested implementing flags on accounts: meta.stackexchange.com/q/405569/256777. The workaround would be to flag one of my own posts and explain in the free text that it's about SEO spam accounts.
 
4 hours later…
11:01
Statistics is difficult, and empirical researchers who wish to analyze their data ought to solicit professional statistical advice rather than trying something for themselves. When I asked Sijtsma about this in person, he elaborated (I am paraphrasing here), "My recommendation was inspired by daily life. If my car breaks down, then I take it to a mechanic - I do not try to fix it myself. And if I have an issue with my teeth, I go and see a dentist rather than my neighbor."

- from a review of "Never Waste a Good Crisis: Lessons Learned from Data Fraud and Questionable Research Practices" by
 
1 hour later…
12:21
@Stephan Kolassa So as a non-statistician I shouldn't do anything statistical without getting a statistician's help? The ratio of statisticians to people using statistics in my university is something like 1 to 1000. So the idea fails as impractical. And their attitude (and I agree with them) is that they get evaluated on their own research and teaching, not on having an open door to the clueless or the confused.
12:32
@NickCox I'm not a statistician, either. I personally do not think it's the credentials that matter here, but whether one knows what they are doing. And yes, even someone uncredentialed but active on CV is better than a psychology grad student helplessly clicking through SPSS until a magic p<.05 pops up somewhere.
Re your last sentence: are you referring to statisticians? Sure, let research statisticians worry about statistical research and teaching. But there definitely is a niche for statistical consultants, who should indeed be evaluated neither on research, nor on teaching, but on the quality of their input into others' research. (Yes, I know that is hard to operationalize.)
 
1 hour later…
13:34
@StephanKolassa Thanks for your reply. Glad to learn that we do agree, pretty well! The people concerned have now died, or are unlikely to read this any way, but a while back I was witness to what looked like local statisticians advertising willingness to help others. In practice they were really only interested in identifying joint projects that would lead to grants and publications -- and that is precisely what they were under pressure to do.
 
2 hours later…
15:13
stats.stackexchange.com/questions/659197/… has been re-opened. Talk about hope triumphing over experience! [Samuel Johnson, Oscar Wilde, etc.]
16:07
@StephanKolassa well articulated 👏🏻
@NickCox hmm. I would have preferred to leave it closed. But if the community thinks otherwise, I respect that.

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