[R] Connecting R-help and Google Groups?

Ranjan Maitra maitra at iastate.edu
Thu Mar 15 00:30:53 CET 2007


I agree with Bert on this one! Any commercial entity's future policies will not be decided by some group's past understanding. Everything can be explained in terms of shareholder value.

I don't see any advantages with tying up to Google groups. We get enough posts every day here to keep us all busy with even a fraction of them. I also think people should be encouraged to follow the policies such as read the basics "An Intro" etc, before running off and posting. Besides, and most importantly, I prefer having statisticians or those interested in statistics applied to their problems discuss their issues and software, and I learn a lot in this mailing list even in lurk mode. I could do without random posters. 

Btw, anyone using R should be encouraged to use RSiteSearch to search this mailing list on some topic.

Best,
Ranjan



On Wed, 14 Mar 2007 13:36:33 -0400 "Paul Lynch" <plynchnlm at gmail.com> wrote:

> Well, I don't see what danger could arise from the fact that Google
> Groups is owned by a company.  Google Groups provides access to all of
> usenet, plus many mailing lists (e.g. the ruby-talk mailing list for
> Ruby programmers).  They don't control any of the newgroups or mailing
> lists that they provide access to.  It is a free service, supported by
> advertising.
> 
> As for the issue of whether there might be future access problems
> (e.g. if Google goes bankrupt, which currently seems unlikely)  R
> users would still have access to the r-help list through the means
> that they have now.  I am not recommending replacing any of the
> current means of access to the r-help list; I am just asking about
> adding an additional means of access.
> 
>       --Paul
> 
> On 3/14/07, Bert Gunter <gunter.berton at gene.com> wrote:
> > I know nothing about Google Groups, but FWIW, I think it would be most
> > unwise for R/CRAN to hook up to **any** commercially sponsored web portals.
> > Future changes in their policies, interfaces,or access conditions may make
> > them inaccessible or unfreindly to R users. So long as we have folks willing
> > and able to host and maintain our lists as part of the CRAN infrastructure,
> > CRAN maintains control. I think this is wise and prudent.
> >
> > I am happy to be educated to the contrary if I misunderstand how this would
> > work.
> >
> > Bert Gunter
> > Genentech Nonclinical Statistics
> > South San Francisco, CA 94404
> > 650-467-7374
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: r-help-bounces at stat.math.ethz.ch
> > [mailto:r-help-bounces at stat.math.ethz.ch] On Behalf Of Paul Lynch
> > Sent: Wednesday, March 14, 2007 8:48 AM
> > To: R-help at stat.math.ethz.ch
> > Subject: [R] Connecting R-help and Google Groups?
> >
> > This morning I tried to see if I could find the r-help mailing list on
> > Google Groups, which has an interface that I like.  I found three
> > Google Groups ("The R Project for Statistical Computing", "rproject",
> > and "rhelp") but none of them are connected to the r-help list.
> >
> > Is there perhaps some reason why it wouldn't be a good thing for there
> > to be a connected Google Group?  I think it should be possible to set
> > things up so that a post to the Google Group goes to the r-help
> > mailing list, and vice-versa.
> >
> > Also, does anyone know why the three existing R Google Groups failed
> > to get connected to r-help?  It might require some action on the part
> > of the r-help list administrator.
> >
> > Thanks,
> >     --Paul
> >
> > --
> > Paul Lynch
> > Aquilent, Inc.
> > National Library of Medicine (Contractor)
> >
> > ______________________________________________
> > R-help at stat.math.ethz.ch mailing list
> > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
> > PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
> > and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
> >
> >
> 
> 
> -- 
> Paul Lynch
> Aquilent, Inc.
> National Library of Medicine (Contractor)
> 
> ______________________________________________
> R-help at stat.math.ethz.ch mailing list
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
> PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
>



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