On Fri, Jan 18, 2013 at 3:32 PM, Monte Milanuk <[email protected]> wrote: > Hello Bob, > > I'm one of those who follow the list mainly out of curiosity, not > because I have any connection with teaching stats. My goal was to > keep an eye out for some of the occasional posts where people post > useful links or material that they use in teaching... but I understand > the frustration with the frequent off-topic requests for help learning > R. > > I don't know if yet another mailing list would be worth considering... > but for comparison, in the Python world there is a SIG for Education, > very similar to this one... and there is a SIG/mailing list called > 'python-tutor', specifically for people asking beginner type > questions, or who maybe don't want to brave the 'main' list and its > denizens just yet because they still need/want some hand-holding. > There is very little off-topic discussion on the Edu list, and > neophytes have a kiddie pool that they feel welcome in. > > I know the R community seems to kind of enjoy the occasional > snarkiness on the main list by certain posters, and I've certainly > been around the 'Net long enough to have developed a thick enough skin > myself, but for new users it may be a bit intimidating. Maybe an > 'R-Novice' or 'R-Tutor' list would open up an intermediate ground for > beginners and reduce the 'pollution' of the R-Teaching list? >
It's a topic that's been discussed many times before on R-help, with the usual outcome being some feeling that it would lower the quality of responses that newbies get. I'm not sure it's an argument I buy, but if you want to raise the topic again, I can certainly promise to be active (enough) on R-Tutor. There might also be some value in thinking of an R-Statistics list (though under a much better name) where statistical questions are fair game -- it's always seemed odd to me that data munging is a fair topic on the various R lists, while data analysis isn't. Just throwing it out there, MW _______________________________________________ [email protected] mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-sig-teaching
