According to Timothy J. Wade:
|>
|>
|> Sorry.
|>
|> I didn't mean to create this flood of turmoil and discontent. I really
|> think this mailing list is an incredible resource but I personally am
|> always in need of programming help, tips and pointers and was curious why I
|> rarely see "answers" to some very interesting programming conundrums.
As someone once said: Don't attribute to malice what could be
attributed to ignorance. The fact that others could be interested in
the same question is an idea that just doesn't enter the head of some,
and some of them get very embarrassed when it is pointed out.
How to subset a matrix or data frame is a common question. About 18
months ago, someone asked several questions of that type in a short
space of time, one of which I answered directly. I received no
acknowledgement of my answer but continued to see further questions from
the same poster without any summaries. I drew the attention of the
poster to the idea of acknowledging contributions and of summaries to
the list. I never saw another posting from that source again. Many
other things could have happened, of course, but it appears to me that
embarrassment was the reason for the sudden cessation of postings.
|> Perhaps if people could be a bit more conscientious about summarizing the
|> answers they get and reposting them we don't need to respond group-wide to
|> every message.
Yes, it would be nice if summaries were made to acknowledge the help
and make it available to others interested in the same question, but
ignorance will always be with us (as well as an attribute of us). We
can chip away at it.
best
Patrick
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