Hi Chris Thank you for raising this concern. You’re correct that in recent months the R-sig-Epi archive has seen very few substantive discussions, and I understand how the steady stream of course announcements—even those that are free—can feel out of place if there’s little other activity. Instats certainly did not intend to crowd out valuable dialogue; our goal has always been to share research-focused workshops and events hosted by academics, universities, and learned societies, many of which come at no cost to participants.
That said, I apologize for contributing to what may seem like an imbalance. We appreciate the spirit of collaboration and knowledge exchange that R-sig-Epi was founded on, and we recognize that advertisements alone won’t sustain that mission. Going forward, Instats will reduce our posting frequency and only share events that are better aligned with the community’s interests. We’ll also explore ways to engage more deeply—whether that means helping to spark methodological discussions or supporting members with targeted resources—rather than relying on broad announcements. Thank you again for the feedback and for your commitment to keeping R-sig-Epi a vibrant, substantive forum. If you or other subscribers have suggestions for the types of topics or conversations you’d like to see, I’d welcome your input. We hope the list continues as a 'going concern' and that we can find a better balance between promoting training opportunities and fostering the rich dialogue that originally brought this community together. Best wishes Michael Zyphur Professor and Director Institute for Statistical and Data Science *instats.org <http://instats.org>* Follow Instats: Bluesky <https://bsky.app/profile/instats.bsky.social> Linkedin <https://www.linkedin.com/company/81837504/admin/dashboard/> Facebook <https://www.facebook.com/InstatsTraining/> On Wed, 4 Jun 2025 at 23:29, Christopher W. Ryan via R-sig-Epi < r-sig-epi@r-project.org> wrote: > My glance through the Archives of R-sig-epi revealed that the last > substantive message posted was in August 2024. In the 10 months since > then, every post has been an advertisement for a training course of some > kind, from either of two companies. Some were free offerings, some > entailed a fee. (There was also one request to unsubscribe and one > request for the advertising to cease.) > > I mean no disrespect to the business owners. I'm all for education, and > for private enterprise. I have a small consulting business myself. > Statistical work and training is valuable and should be remunerated. > However, as I understand it, R-sig-epi was never intended for this > degree of commercial activity. So I wonder if this is the place for this > type of advertising, especially in this volume. > > I've written twice to the List owner about this and received no reply. > > A corollary question would be: with no substantive posts in 10 months, > is R-sig-epi still a "going concern?" I hope so! I hope people have not > felt compelled to unsubscribe because of the advertising. > > Perhaps I'm misreading the situation. Perhaps List subscribers find > these course announcements useful, in which case I'll apologize for > raising the issue. What do other R-sig-epi subscribers think? > > Thanks. > > --Chris Ryan > > _______________________________________________ > R-sig-Epi@r-project.org mailing list > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-sig-epi > [[alternative HTML version deleted]] _______________________________________________ R-sig-Epi@r-project.org mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-sig-epi
