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Reply to list policy

4 messages · Martyn Plummer, Peter Dalgaard, A.J. Rossini +1 more

Martyn Plummer
# 
I wonder if it isn't time to change the reply-to-list policy of R-help
and adopt the alternative convention of replying to the author and asking
him/her to summarize to the list.

Recently R-help has been too busy for me to keep up with.  There were
quite a few identical responses in the "Finding indices with a certain
property" thread, rather than an extended discussion.  I think this 
illustrates the need for a reply to author policy.

Does anybody else feel the same way?

Martyn
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Peter Dalgaard
# 
Martyn Plummer <plummer at iarc.fr> writes:
Not me.

- people often don't get around to summarizing

- you don't see whether anyone else replied, so either people get zero
  responses or responses from everyone. Todays minor storm was an
  exception to that effect: people replying before responses of others
  got in.

- it is manageable with filtering and threading. (e.g. procmail or
  gnus)
A.J. Rossini
# 
PDB> Martyn Plummer <plummer at iarc.fr> writes:
    >> I wonder if it isn't time to change the reply-to-list policy of
    >> R-help and adopt the alternative convention of replying to the
    >> author and asking him/her to summarize to the list.
    >>
    >> Recently R-help has been too busy for me to keep up with.
    >> There were quite a few identical responses in the "Finding
    >> indices with a certain property" thread, rather than an
    >> extended discussion.  I think this illustrates the need for a
    >> reply to author policy.
    >>
    >> Does anybody else feel the same way?

    PDB> Not me.

Not me, either.  Peter summarized my feelings precisely.

    PDB> - people often don't get around to summarizing

    PDB> - you don't see whether anyone else replied, so either people
    PDB>   get zero responses or responses from everyone. Todays minor
    PDB>   storm was an exception to that effect: people replying
    PDB>   before responses of others got in.

    PDB> - it is manageable with filtering and
    PDB>   threading. (e.g. procmail or gnus)
Jonathan Rougier
#
On Tue, 7 Dec 1999, Martyn Plummer wrote:

            

      
      
      
    

        
I do, at least a bit.  I expect many people operate an informal reply to
author policy anyhow.  For example, my response to the which() question
would normally have gone only to the author, but I find which() to be a
very useful function and was myself unaware of it until quite recently.  
Hence I also mailed back to r-help.  I don't think we would need to
formalise such an arrangement, but it is important to encourage posting of
summaries if r-help does not carry a comprehensive answer.

Cheers, Jonathan.

Jonathan Rougier                       Science Laboratories
Department of Mathematical Sciences    South Road
University of Durham                   Durham DH1 3LE

"[B]egin upon the precept ... that the things we see are to be 
 weighed in the scale with what we know"  (Meredith, 1879, The Egoist)

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