[R] draft of posting guide

[Peter Dalgaard]

Tony Plate <tplate at acm.org> writes:

> <h3>Common posting mistakes</h3>
> 
> Doing any of the following may result in you getting a
> response that you may find rude or insulting.  (However,
> such a response may be justified in the eyes of some because
> you have wasted people's time or unjustly insulted people's
> work.)
> 
> * Not doing your homework before posting a question.
> 
> * Asking R-help to do your classroom homework for you
>   (remember that many of the subscribers of R-help are
>   university professors and can recognize homework questions
>   with great speed and accuracy)
> 
> * Claiming that something is a bug when in fact the software
>   is working as intended and documented, just not in the way
>   you first expected.
> 
> * Claiming that some commonly used function is not behaving
>   in what you think is a sensible manner (it's far more
>   productive and polite to just ask why it behaves the way
>   it does if you think it is odd -- but only after reading
>   all the relevant documentation!)

* Threatening not to use the software if you cannot get your question
  answered. Even when intended as a statement of fact, it tends to
  create negative attitudes.

-- 
   O__  ---- Peter Dalgaard             Blegdamsvej 3  
  c/ /'_ --- Dept. of Biostatistics     2200 Cph. N   
 (*) \(*) -- University of Copenhagen   Denmark      Ph: (+45) 35327918
~~~~~~~~~~ - (p.dalgaard at biostat.ku.dk)             FAX: (+45) 35327907