[R] draft of posting guide

[Spencer Graves]

      I don't study carefully every piece of available documentation for 
everything (anything?) I do.  A major challenge is how to provide a 
guide that will get used and will in the process improve the quality of 
questions and answers. 

      Best Wishes,
      spencer graves

Rolf Turner wrote:

>This is in response to Gabor Grothendieck's commentary on Tony
>Plate's draft guidelines for question-askers, which was posted a
>couple of days ago.
>
>I disagree, from mildly to vehemently with just about everything in
>Grothendieck's posting.  E.g. the ``tone'' of the draft should not
>be ``friendlier''.  The purpose of the guidelines is to encourage
>the asking of well-thought out questions and discourage the asking
>of stupid ones.  This politically correct ``don't damage their
>self esteem attitude'' has no place in the r-help list.
>
>A propos of bugs, for the uneducated beginner to assert that there is
>a ``bug'' in software designed by some of the best and most
>knowledgeable minds in the discipline, when the software works as
>documented, is the height of presumptuous arrogance.
>
>The guide is and should be a guide for the question-askers.  The
>responders who are voluntarily giving of their time and (often deep)
>experise need not be constrained.  The R package and this help list
>are free services provided voluntarily by some great people.  If
>someone asks a stupid question and dislikes being told so in so many
>words, well, that person is free to take his or her business
>elsewhere.
>
>The one point I ***agree*** with is that questions about statistical
>methodology should not be discouraged in any way, even if they are
>not directly R-related.  There is always some sort of relationship,
>such questions are interesting, and there is almost always some
>insight to be gained by thinking about them in an R context.
>
>				cheers,
>
>					Rolf Turner
>
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