[R] Need help for a statistical problem ("See the posting guide")

Brett Magill magillb at sbcglobal.net
Fri Dec 16 16:38:00 CET 2005


In response to a thread where a statistical question
unrelated to R was asked, Uwe Ligges wrote:

> PLEASE do read the posting guide! 
> http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
> 
> Please ask a local statistical consultant for help.
> 
> Uwe Ligges

Perhaps Uwe's admonition to "do read the posting
guide" was just a knee jerk reaction to an
unrecognized poster's name.  Of course, if the poster
did read the posting guide, they would have learned
that : 

"Questions about statistics: The R mailing lists are
primarily intended for questions and discussion about
the R software. However, questions about statistical
methodology are sometimes posted. If the question is
well-asked and of interest to someone on the list, it
may elicit an informative up-to-date answer. See also
the Usenet groups sci.stat.consult (applied statistics
and consulting) and sci.stat.math (mathematical stat
and probability)."

The language here is so equivocal!  OK, it is really
for R, but statistical questions are asked and you
might get an "informative and up-to-date answer" if
you do it well.  Sounds good to me!  I might start
using r-help for my statistical questions.  Thanks for
referring me to the posting guide Uwe (though I am not
sure why it was relevant the the original post).

My point: If r-help does not want statistical
questions, and people who ask statistical questions
are referred to the posting guide, shouldn't the
posting guide *actually* say no statistical questions!

Brett




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