I have been a member for only a few days but I find the tone of some responses are inappropriate for a list dubbing itself a "help list". I also completely understand that traffic needs to be kept at a modest level to keep advanced users interested; therefore, I suggest that a second help list be created to deal with "advanced R help". Belong to both lists if you wish and filter your email for cursory glances or a detailed reading. Users must judge themselves the level of their queries and perhaps a note saying something like "requests to the advanced list are generally made by users who already have a very good working knowledge of R" or some very rough benchmark for judging your level like 2 years.
I do not know how much work this would involve or resources available for this - it is a blind proposal. I think it might deal with many of the problems both beginner and advanced users have with the present list. Daniel ________________________ Daniel E. Duplisea Fisheries and Oceans/Pêches et Océans Canada Institut Maurice-Lamontagne 850 route de la mer Mont-Joli, QC Canada G5H 3Z4 tel: (418) 775-0881 fax: (418) 775-0740 [EMAIL PROTECTED] -----Original Message----- From: roger koenker [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: 1 décembre 2004 12:26 To: James Foadi Cc: Robert Brown FM CEFAS; R mailing list Subject: Re: [R] Protocol for answering basic questions Maybe it would be helpful to think of R-help as something more than the Oracle of Delphi. Questions, ideally, should be framed in such a way that they might lead to improvements in R: extensions of the code or, more frequently clarifications or extensions of the documentation. Indeed the R-help archive itself serves this function and could profitably be searched prior to firing off a question to R-help. As traffic on R-help increases there is a delicate balance that must be maintained in order to keep knowledgeable users interested in the list. url: www.econ.uiuc.edu/~roger Roger Koenker email [EMAIL PROTECTED] Department of Economics vox: 217-333-4558 University of Illinois fax: 217-244-6678 Champaign, IL 61820 On Dec 1, 2004, at 10:56 AM, James Foadi wrote: > On Wednesday 01 Dec 2004 4:46 pm, Robert Brown FM CEFAS wrote: > >> Understandable but not a recipe to encourage the use of R by other >> than >> experts. The R community needs to decide of they really only want >> expert >> statisticians users and make this clear if it is the case. >> Alternatively >> if they are to encourage novices the present approach is not the way >> to do >> it. > > I perfectly agree with Robert Brown. Althogh I have been captivated by > "R", > and will keep using it, I would appreciate if "R" gurus could make > this clear. > > Thanks > > James > -- > Dr James Foadi > Structural Biology Laboratory > Department of Chemistry > University of York > YORK YO10 5YW > UK > > ______________________________________________ > [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help > PLEASE do read the posting guide! > http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html ______________________________________________ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help PLEASE do read the posting guide! http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html ______________________________________________ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help PLEASE do read the posting guide! http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html