[R] wicked wikis for R

[J Dougherty]

On Monday 09 January 2006 05:16, 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.
>
>
The real issue is indexing and cross-referencing.  Quite often requestors HAVE 
tried the manuals, but without a real clue about where to look, that can be 
unproductive.  On the other hand, being pulled up short and Ripleyed can have 
a salutary effect on analyzing the problem first and researching carefully 
before posting a clueless query.  You could see as a useful part of the 
learning process.

JD