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

[Sung, Iyue]

I think a separate list is redundant. 
Many basic questions do get answered.

My impression is that *who* is asking, determines the response.  
A poli-sci student asking the  same question as a more (presumably) 
technically resourceful, say CS person, is more likely to get a 
helpful response, vs a flame.

The simple questions doesn't bother me, I just ignore them.  
But, it's not my list and I can see how they may bother the 
list maintainers and 'regular' experts.  But I think it's futile 
(and not worth the raised blood pressure) to get too hot and
bothered about those postings. 

Just my opinion.

- Iyue

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Martin Wegmann [mailto:wegmann_mailinglist at gmx.net]
> Sent: Tuesday, December 16, 2003 8:18 AM
> To: R-list
> Subject: Re: [R] mailing list for basic questions - preliminary sum up
> 
> 
> 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 
>  
> 
> -- 
> 
> Neu: Preissenkung für MMS und FreeMMS! http://www.gmx.net
> 
> ______________________________________________
> R-help at stat.math.ethz.ch mailing list
> https://www.stat.math.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
> 

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