Dealing with "Sources Questions" and or "Community Lists"

Question

It just struck me that I closed a question, related to data source request for specific information, as a duplicate.

However there is no guarantee that the data source answer lies in the community list of "what data sources are available online", referenced as the duplicate question.

In fact that thread is so generalist it might be quite difficult to parse. And the chance of anyone by chance happening to update the "community list" rather than directly respond to the question is quite slim.

Did I do the wrong thing.. starting to think I did really.

Answer 1

I might be able to shine some light on historical practices since I was one of the inaugural moderators when the site first started. We wanted a community for people who actually work in quantitative finance, which was a stark contrast to other forums.

I ended-up being the primary FAQ author at that time. In consultation with the other members, I banned three types of questions:

• How do I become a quant?
• What programming language should I use?
• Where can I find free data online?

The first two I still stand by. The third one is a bit tricky since there are legitimate questions from professionals, but there were a ton of hobbyists who asked that as well.

So it's definitely a topic the current users could revisit.

By the way, there are two things I am most proud of regarding making the site. The first is that the homepage is filled with jargon that only experts would understand. The second is that something like 100% of the top users had a PhD or CFA in those early years. We made a community whose caliber was completely unlike anything on the web for quantitative finance.