sorry, that's the problem if I do not check my mails before sending one - I read the proposal of a wiki or forum and like these ideas, perhaps it is better than a new mailing list. Martin
P.S.: my summary of replies to the original idea where mainly based on off-list mails, sorry I should have mentioned that so that people are not spending hours searching the archive ;-) On Wednesday 17 December 2003 18:29, Martin Wegmann wrote: > Dear R-user, > > there have been already a lot of discussion with some good points against > such a list and the opposite opinions as well. > > Well, I would like to propose that we start a testing phase either with > > - only "internal" membership, that means only people from this dept. + > perhaps some other german universities can subscribe to list list and in 3 > month time, there will an evaluation and summary how this list behaved. > > - or an open "international" membership, where the language is english and > everybody can subsribe and no approval is required. > > In both cases the R-beginner mailing list can be shut down after this > period of time if it proves to be inefficient, too much work or leads to a > wrong understanding of R lists as a "customer service". > > I would reckon that for this testing phase it is not important to setup a > searchable archive or put lots of work into it but to monitor which kind of > questions are asked, into which direction it leads, if it encouraged people > to ask "do it for me" questions and so on. > > I would do it and would appreciate if some native-english speaker could > join. > > I hope that this proposal is acceptable for everybody. > > thanks a lot for the discussion, it changed my view of a beginner mailing > list considerably, now I see the problems behind it. > > best regards, Martin > > On Tuesday 16 December 2003 14:17, Martin Wegmann wrote: > > Dear R-user, > > > > I already received quite a lot of replies to this mail and like to do a > > preliminary sum up. > > > > A few were sceptical about the use of such a beginner mailing list. > > The arguments were that people starting with R will only stay subscribed > > for a short time > > until they reached the R-help "level" and therefore only beginner will > > teach beginner how to > > use R. > > > > But as far as I can judge, the majority of people who replied to this > > mail are medium to > > experienced user who like to help beginner but does not call themselves > > highly > > experienced user as the main "answerers" on the R-help mailing list. > > > > Therefore I assume that, even though some answers might be wrong, the > > threat of > > possibly wrong answers might be minimal, due to various experienced users > > who like to > > subsribe to this list. > > > > The majority of replies were positive about such a list and welcomed the > > idea to > > encourage new user by providing a basic R mailing list, like the already > > existent > > corresponding manuals in the contributed documentation at r-project.org. > > > > And again, this list shall only provide a basic and smooth introduction > > into R and its > > capabilities. > > Questions like; "How do I make my labels in a graphic bigger? - How do I > > change the > > colour? - etc." are welcome and surely would annoy the majority of R-help > > user because it > > is mentioned somewhere on the first 10 pages of every manual, but people > > who are used > > to click on a graphic and change it in a second would not be convinced > > that R can do > > great graphics. > > > > well, I would welcome if there would be more discussion about it or to > > give it a try > > (perhaps mention it on the r-project web-site) and look how productive > > this mailing list > > proves to be. > > The address of the R-beginner mailing list is: > > > > https://lists.uni-wuerzburg.de/mailman/listinfo/r-beginner > > > > best regards, Martin ______________________________________________ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list https://www.stat.math.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
