[R] R-help mailing list activity / R-not-help?

[Peter Alspach]

I think this would be re-defining the role of the moderators for list, which is essentially to filter out spam.  Only new members are subject to this moderation, and if a message is genuine then their moderator flag is cleared (i.e., they are no longer subject to moderation).  Thus the list isn't moderated in the 'usual' sense.

That said, I have occasionally asked a new poster to reword their question (or simply add a subject line) and explained that this helps ensure they get a good answer, and not a rude one.  Mostly people seem to appreciate that.

Peter Alspach
(one of the 'moderators')

-----Original Message-----
From: R-help [mailto:r-help-bounces at r-project.org] On Behalf Of Oliver Keyes
Sent: Tuesday, 26 January 2016 10:23 a.m.
To: Duncan Murdoch <murdoch.duncan at gmail.com>
Cc: r-help <r-help at r-project.org>
Subject: Re: [R] R-help mailing list activity / R-not-help?

Sorry, poor phrasing on my part; on the occasions where someone is rude, all I see is...

I agree the public cautioning should be done by moderators, yes.

On 25 January 2016 at 16:13, Duncan Murdoch <murdoch.duncan at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 25/01/2016 3:33 PM, Hasan Diwan wrote:
>>
>> There exists a fine line between being unintentionally rude, but 
>> helpful and purposely putting someone down. -- H
>
>
> I'm afraid I don't think your point is relevant.  I didn't claim all 
> the people who were rude did it unintentionally.  However,  I don't 
> know anyone on the list who is always rude and never helpful. Oliver 
> claimed almost everyone is like that.
>
> I actually agree with a weaker version of John's proposal (which I cut 
> out of my reply to Oliver).  I can imagine a public reprimand from one 
> of the moderators would be appropriate.  It would never be appropriate 
> from general list members; that's what leads to flame wars.
>
> I'm not a moderator, so I would not publicly "remind the poster to 
> reply in a more moderate tone", and neither should you (unless you're a moderator).
> It would be much better if one or both of us posted a more helpful 
> response when we saw a rude, unhelpful one.
>
> Duncan Murdoch
>
>
>>
>> On 25 January 2016 at 12:07, Duncan Murdoch 
>> <murdoch.duncan at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>> > On 25/01/2016 2:45 PM, Oliver Keyes wrote:
>> >
>> >> I disagree, and would argue that fails to take a systemic view of 
>> >> this kind of behaviour.
>> >>
>> >> If individual commentators are acerbic and are only privately 
>> >> reprimanded, from the perspective of everyone else it looks like 
>> >> the acerbic reply was A-OK. Someone said something unnecessarily 
>> >> hostile and the response was...nada. That creates an environment 
>> >> where there are no clear examples of what crosses a line and no 
>> >> clear expectation that moderation is even a thing that happens. 
>> >> Indeed, I was shocked to discover this list _was_ moderated 
>> >> precisely because all I see is people being mean and nothing much else happening.
>> >>
>> >
>> > Why would you bother to read it if that's all you see?  I think 
>> > there are examples of posts here which are not at all helpful, and 
>> > others which are rude, but the majority are actually helpful (even 
>> > some of the rude ones).
>> >
>> > Duncan Murdoch
>> >
>> >
>> > ______________________________________________
>> > R-help at r-project.org mailing list -- To UNSUBSCRIBE and more, see 
>> > 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.
>> >
>>
>>
>>
>
> ______________________________________________
> R-help at r-project.org mailing list -- To UNSUBSCRIBE and more, see 
> 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.



--
Oliver Keyes
Count Logula
Wikimedia Foundation

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