[R] mailing list for basic questions - proposal

[Martin Wegmann]

sorry, that's the problem if I do not check my mails before sending one - I 
read the proposal of a wiki or forum and like these ideas, perhaps it is 
better than a new mailing list. 
Martin

P.S.: my summary of replies to the original idea where mainly based on 
off-list mails, sorry I should have mentioned that so that people are not 
spending hours searching the archive ;-)


On Wednesday 17 December 2003 18:29, Martin Wegmann wrote:
> Dear R-user,
>
> there have been already a lot of discussion with some good points against
> such a list and the opposite opinions as well.
>
> Well, I would like to propose that we start a testing phase either with
>
> - only "internal" membership, that means only people from this dept. +
> perhaps some other german universities can subscribe to list list and in 3
> month time, there will an evaluation and summary how this list behaved.
>
> - or an open "international" membership, where the language is english and
> everybody can subsribe and no approval is required.
>
> In both cases the R-beginner mailing list can be shut down after this
> period of time if it proves to be inefficient, too much work or leads to a
> wrong understanding of R lists as a "customer service".
>
> I would reckon that for this testing phase it is not important to setup a
> searchable archive or put lots of work into it but to monitor which kind of
> questions are asked, into which direction it leads, if it encouraged people
> to ask "do it for me" questions and so on.
>
> I would do it and would appreciate if some native-english speaker could
> join.
>
> I hope that this proposal is acceptable for everybody.
>
> thanks a lot for the discussion, it changed my view of a beginner mailing
> list considerably, now I see the problems behind it.
>
> best regards, Martin
>
> On Tuesday 16 December 2003 14:17, Martin Wegmann wrote:
> > 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