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

[Duncan Murdoch]

On 26/01/2016 6:30 AM, S Ellison wrote:
>> Yet, the trend I've seen is one of increasing **R-not-help**, in that there are
>> many posts, often by new R users who get replies that not infrequently range
>> from just mildly off-putting to actively hostile:
>
> Slightly surprised that in a debate postulated on increasing 'meanness', no-one has yet pointed to Trey Causey's analysis of R-help's alleged meanness at
>
> http://badhessian.org/2013/04/has-r-help-gotten-meaner-over-time-and-what-does-mancur-olson-have-to-say-about-it/
>
> Up to 2013, it was apparently getting _less_ 'mean', not more.

I don't remember reading that article when it first appeared.  It's 
interesting, and mostly well done.  I'd only argue about one conclusion:

He attributes the increase of his category 2 (not a response) to 
dominance near the end of the period as due to a lot of questions going 
unanswered, but gives no apparent evidence for that.  I think anyone who 
has participated in this group for a long time would recognize that very 
few questions go unanswered; only the ones that are so badly posed that 
nobody can figure out what to say.

What is far more common is that discussion on threads goes off on a 
tangent that has nothing to do with questions or answers.  There are 
also threads like this one that contain no questions or answers, and are 
just full of hot air.

Thanks for posting the link.

Duncan Murdoch