[R] ICD9 codes

[(Ted Harding)]

It is perhaps time to bring to people's general attention that
there is an issue with postings from gmail.com addresses being
held for moderation because "The headers matched a filter rule".
It is not only gmail.com, but there is a marked excess of these.
Vishwanath (@gmail.com) is one of many victims.

There is a group of about a dozen people who act as moderators,
approving or discarding messages which have been held. Reasons
for holding are almost always either "Posting from Non-Member"
or "Matched a Filter Rule". We do this somewhat non-systematically,
looking at the list of held messages on a "convenience" basis.
However, it would be unlikely that any valid message would be
held for more than an hour or so; usually it would be less.

The situation has been discussed recently amongst the moderators,
including the list manager Martin Maechler. We are undecided
about the best action (if any) -- while the excessive false
trapping of gmail.com postings is at least an inconvenience
for the trapped, and sometimes leads to visible distress or
embarrassment, the presence of the filter rules does prevent
spam from reaching the list.

Vishwanath's reaction in repeatedly re-posting is perhaps
understandable on the part of someone who is not familiar with
how the moderation system operates. In fact he posted the same
message 4 times (morning & evening on 27 May, and again on 28 May)
as can be seen from the archives. He is subscribed to the list,
so would normally receive copies of his own postings via the list
(and therefore know that it had got through) unless he has opted
to not receive his own postings. In that case, having received
the "held for moderation" message, not receiving his posting via
the list, and not thinking of looking in the archives, he could
form the impression that it/they had vanished into a black hole,
and try again.

Since we began to discuss this about a fortnight ago, I have
been keeping a count of those held messages which I have seen
myself. Not counting true spam, only genuine messages, the results
are as follows. "NM" denote a posting from a non-member, "FR"
denotes a posting that matched a filter rule, "GM" denotes a
posting from a gmail.com address, "NGM" one not from gmail.com.

      FR     NM
----+-----+-----
GM  | 45  |   4
----+-----+-----
NGM | 19  |  24

Fisher test: P=7.3e-07, OR=13.7, CI=(4.0, 62.0)

About 30% of R-help subscribers have gmail.com addresses, so they
are clearly over-represented in the "FR" group (70%)!

It is suspected that the gmail.com "filter rule" may perhaps be
triggered by HTML, though the reason is not yet clear.

Meanwhile, a reminder to people who receive notification that
their posting has been held for moderation: Please check the
archives to see whether your message has reached the list within
a reasonable time (say 2 hours -- there can be a delay before a
message is placed in the archives) beforetrying to do anything
about it: https://stat.ethz.ch/pipermail/r-help

Hoping this helps to clarify an issue which can lead to unwanted
consequences.

Ted.

On 29-May-10 05:42:27, Vishwanath Sindagi wrote:
> Dear Prof Frank Harrel:
> 
> I am extremely sorry for having reposted the same question numerous
> times. Earlier when I had posted I got  replies stating that my post
> had matched a filter rule and hence was being held by the moderator.
> So I assumed that the question was never posted and I reposted with
> different subject lines just to make sure that it gets posted.
> 
> I sincerely apologise for the inconvenience caused.
> 
> Regards,
> Vishwanath
> 
> On Sat, May 29, 2010 at 4:10 AM, Frank E Harrell Jr
> <f.harrell at vanderbilt.edu> wrote:
>> Your notes are bordering on harassment. _Do you expect that everyone
>> who
>> reads this list will reply "I do not have anything that will help you"
>> if
>> they don't? _By my count this is your 4th note asking for this help.
>>
>> That being said I hope that you do find help somewhere or implement it
>> yourself and share the result, as your question is an important one.
>>
>> Also, please be sure to state your affiliation on your notes.
>>
>> Frank
>>
>> On 05/28/2010 02:19 PM, Vishwanath Sindagi wrote:
>>>
>>> Hello:
>>>
>>> I am working on getting some statistics related to clinical trials
>>> and
>>> stuff. I have to work with ICD9 codes.
>>>
>>> Is anyone aware of any R method that deals with ICD9 codes
>>> verification and manipulation.
>>>
>>> Thanks
>>> Vishwanath
>>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Frank E Harrell Jr _ Professor and Chairman _ _ _ _School of Medicine
>> _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Department of Biostatistics _ Vanderbilt
>> University
>>
> 
> ______________________________________________
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> 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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E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding at manchester.ac.uk>
Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861
Date: 29-May-10                                       Time: 11:43:23
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