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To this riddle one shall add "meta"
Like a program and an SE site
For the answer you have some data
Yet not always you will get it right

Trying out an "ABAB" rhyming scheme here.

I guess I'm not good at judging difficulty, so please excuse me if this is too easy or too hard.

Hint 1:

The answer itself contains no "meta", nor will it make sense if it does.

Hint 2:

"Data" means raw, unprocessed information, it may or may not be computer data.

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  • $\begingroup$ Are you looking for a number? Because to me I'm headed to the SE data explorer and looking for something at programmers.SE $\endgroup$
    – Raystafarian
    Commented Feb 4, 2016 at 17:43
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    $\begingroup$ @Raystafarian Nope. It has nothing to do with programmers.SE, and data means raw, unprocessed information, not computer data. $\endgroup$
    – busukxuan
    Commented Feb 4, 2016 at 17:57

6 Answers 6

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My answer is:

This riddle

To this riddle one shall add "meta"

Meta means self-referencing. This riddle is referencing itself.

Like a program and an SE site

Could be referring to this and this.

For the answer you have some data

The clues are data.

Yet not always you will get it right

I sure get most riddles wrong! :P

Hint 1:

Anyone heard of a meta-riddle?

Hint 2:

The clues directly from a riddle are quite "raw" in the sense that it takes a lot of processing to understand them.

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Here's my guess:

Analysis

Reasoning:

Line 1:
To this riddle one shall add "meta"

You can add "meta" to analysis to get "meta-analysis", a type of statistical analysis.

Line 2:
Like a program and an SE site

There's a program at meta-analysis.com for meta-analyses of data. There's also a "meta" site on SE and a number of SE sites that are devoted to data analysis.

Line 3:
For the answer you have some data

You need data in order to do an analysis

Line 4:
Yet not always you will get it right

Analyses are not always right. In fact, many analyses use a p-value of .05, which (sort of) means that you'll be wrong about 5% of the time. (That's a simplification, but we'll roll with it for now.)

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  • $\begingroup$ I like it, plus it matches up with mine a bit. $\endgroup$
    – Raystafarian
    Commented Feb 4, 2016 at 18:42
  • $\begingroup$ You can also add meta to data for other types of analysis $\endgroup$
    – LinkBerest Left - SO is AI Now
    Commented Feb 5, 2016 at 4:54
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Bit of a long shot, but I think the answer is:

Estimate

To this riddle one shall add "meta"

'est' or 'esti' translates as 'this' in some languages and 'mate' is an anagram of 'meta', so depending on whether or not we use the 'one' in the clue we have 'est'+'i'+'mate' or 'esti'+'mate'.

Like a program and an SE site

programme is like program in how it's pronounced and in some definitions but with an extra 'me'. Adding to 'an', we get 'mean' (this part may need more explanation). SE refers to Standard Error and a mean and standard error are part and parcel of an estimate. The word 'site' can also combine with 'meta' to make 'estimate', playing into the theme of a 'meta' riddle.

For the answer you have some data

An estimate needs some input data. The riddle's first two lines also yield words useful for creating the 'estimate' anagram. Also, 'at' is some of data which we can combine with letters yielded from the last line.

Yet not always you will get it right

If you estimate, you don't always get it right. Also, 'not always' could be a synonym for sometimes and the 'right' of sometimes could be 'etimes'. Combining this with the 'at' of line three we can rearrange to again get 'estimate'.

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    $\begingroup$ It's not the correct answer, but it's very amazing how you can put these things together, albeit a little far-fetched. $\endgroup$
    – busukxuan
    Commented Feb 4, 2016 at 18:04
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If the last line Yet not always you will get it right indicates the whole world including meta, then my answer is

Metaphor

I don't get it right all the times.

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  • $\begingroup$ Sry but it took me long enough. I added a hint, I guess your answer is because of a misunderstanding so it should be fine to make a second guess. $\endgroup$
    – busukxuan
    Commented Feb 4, 2016 at 13:54
  • $\begingroup$ @busukxuan Does adding meta to answer makes a sensible word? $\endgroup$
    – Laschet Jain
    Commented Feb 4, 2016 at 13:56
  • $\begingroup$ Well, not really $\endgroup$
    – busukxuan
    Commented Feb 4, 2016 at 14:10
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I'm going with

reference

To this riddle one shall add "meta"
Like a program and an SE site

Adding meta to something makes it about itself. SE sites are all *.SE.com

For the answer you have some data 
Yet not always you will get it right

Referencing data in a hypothesis is required - but doesn't make the hypothesis correct.

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My guess is:

Physics

To this riddle one shall add "meta"
Like a program and an SE site

If you prepend "meta" to "physics", you get "metaphysics".

For the answer you have some data
Yet not always you will get it right

In "metaphysics", you have some data but it is not always facts and you often come up with scientific theories. Thus, you are not always right.

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