[R] mailing list for basic questions - preliminary sum up

[Martin Wegmann]

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 
 

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