[R] draft of posting guide

[Rolf Turner]

This is in response to Gabor Grothendieck's commentary on Tony
Plate's draft guidelines for question-askers, which was posted a
couple of days ago.

I disagree, from mildly to vehemently with just about everything in
Grothendieck's posting.  E.g. the ``tone'' of the draft should not
be ``friendlier''.  The purpose of the guidelines is to encourage
the asking of well-thought out questions and discourage the asking
of stupid ones.  This politically correct ``don't damage their
self esteem attitude'' has no place in the r-help list.

A propos of bugs, for the uneducated beginner to assert that there is
a ``bug'' in software designed by some of the best and most
knowledgeable minds in the discipline, when the software works as
documented, is the height of presumptuous arrogance.

The guide is and should be a guide for the question-askers.  The
responders who are voluntarily giving of their time and (often deep)
experise need not be constrained.  The R package and this help list
are free services provided voluntarily by some great people.  If
someone asks a stupid question and dislikes being told so in so many
words, well, that person is free to take his or her business
elsewhere.

The one point I ***agree*** with is that questions about statistical
methodology should not be discouraged in any way, even if they are
not directly R-related.  There is always some sort of relationship,
such questions are interesting, and there is almost always some
insight to be gained by thinking about them in an R context.

				cheers,

					Rolf Turner