[R-wiki] exhortation & question about FAQ

[Philippe Grosjean]

Martin Maechler wrote:
>>>>>>"Ben" == Ben Bolker <bolker at zoo.ufl.edu>
>>>>>>    on Fri, 24 Mar 2006 13:30:38 -0500 writes:
> 
> 
>     Ben> [first sent to r-sig-wiki-request by accident]
> 
>     Ben> now that the FAQ has gone public (more or less) it
>     Ben> would be great if we could get some more content up ...
>     Ben> thanks to Phillipe Grosjean and Romain Francois
>     Ben> (and whoever "129.132.58.30" is ... Olivier Powell???)
> 
> [ 129.132.50.30 is my (hopefully pretty well firewalled) desktop..  
>   I have a problem logging in *and* registering, since it seems
>  "maechler" has a login already, but I don't know the password :-\ 
> ]
> 
>     Ben> and a question/comment:
> 
>     Ben> FAQ:plotting-faq
> 
>     Ben> looks to me like it should go under tips:graphics-base ;
>     Ben> I'm worried that material is going to start getting duplicated/
>     Ben> separated in a "FAQ" section and a "Tips" section.  Opinions?

Yes, I agree. We should move this to Tips. I'll do that as soon as possible.

> Initially I didn't like the idea to have a FAQ section in the
> Wiki at all, since there's the official R FAQ and "R for windows
> FAQ" already and we (R core) really want people to read (and
> re-read!) these officials FAQ lists.  I've then seen that you
> (Philippe) were aiming for a different ``mostly orthogonal'' FAQ
> list and could well live with that.
> Still I'd like to reconsider calling these 'Tips / Hints / .." FAQ.

Indeed, we initially added FAQ as a subsection of getting-started. Its 
there, but empty. My idea was to put a wikified version of the official 
FAQs there, with a possibility for Wiki discussion. That's all! I also 
consider that there is no place for duplicated FAQ. It is already 
difficult enough to make people read the official FAQ. So, why should we 
add more here?

> BTW, relatedly, when looking for "Introduction" in the Wiki,
> I've been unable to even *find* a hint to the official "Introduction to R";
> something that we (R core) would *really* want people to know
> about and take time to read *before* asking FAQs ..

I have added a paragraph pointing to the official R documentation at the 
very beginning of the 'Start' page.

> If the above sounds negative, I want to divert those sentiments
> and express my tremendous gratitude towards Philippe Grosjean
> principally but also to several other thoughtful and active Wiki
> writers and discussants!
> 
> Martin Maechler, ETH Zurich

Thank you Martin. I would like to warmly thank the current contributors 
that improved the site organization a lot from my initial (bad) scheme 
and that started to contribute pages. I hope that many others will "join 
the team"!
Best,

Philippe Grosjean