[R] wicked wikis for R

[Frank E Harrell Jr]

Jean-Christophe BOUETTE wrote:
>>From: "Arin Basu" <dataanalytics at rediffmail.com>
>>To: r-help at stat.math.ethz.ch
>>Date: 8 Jan 2006 19:18:17 -0000
>>Subject: [R] wicked wikis for R
>>
>>>Message: 41
>>>Date: Sun, 08 Jan 2006 13:52:33 +1100
>>>From: paul sorenson <sourceforge at metrak.com>
>>>Subject: Re: [R] Wikis etc.
>>>To: Frank E Harrell Jr <f.harrell at vanderbilt.edu>,     r-help
>>>      <r-help at stat.math.ethz.ch>
> 
> 
> -snip-
> 
> 
>>Among others, here's one long-term benefit for the newbies. Instead of people getting admonished/thrashed with harsh expressions/advices like "go see the mailing list publishing etiquettes", or "you should search the archives and help files, and read all manuals, and ask others first before posting here..." (which can turn away many a newcomer from posting or using the mailing list or using R for that matter), wiki could make life a little easy for newbies/less experienced who could then receive more polite one liners like, "please check the wikipages...", or "solution #xyz in the wikipages for the solution".
> 
> 
> Sorry, I don't get the point here. Some people will keep feeling
> offensed when they're just told to read the man/wiki pages, and others
> will simply change their answers from RTFM to RTFW.
> Nobody can force people into reading the manuals, or reading the
> posting guide. This is definitely one problem that the wiki will not
> solve.
> 
> I like the idea of the wiki, but we have to consider pragmatically,
> not as a panacea from problems beyond its scope.

That would be an excellent comment if people seeking help were paying 
for a service.  But they are not.

Frank

> 
> Regards,
> Jean-Christophe Bouëtté.


-- 
Frank E Harrell Jr   Professor and Chair           School of Medicine
                      Department of Biostatistics   Vanderbilt University