Date: Thu, 28 Jun 2001 10:21:02 -0500
Reply-To: "Cheng, Harry" <HCheng@ERAC.COM>
Sender: "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From: "Cheng, Harry" <HCheng@ERAC.COM>
Subject: Re: Why this newsgroup? Just curious...
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="ISO-8859-1"
Bruce wrote:
Besides, we are paying dearly for this service through
the license fees. Why not take advantage of something we're paying
for already?
Just think you paid big(which is true!) and can call the tech support at any
time? I believed that SI had a policy that only allows the "site rep"s to
call in, not every Joe or Jane and they were pretty strict on that in the
past. Nowadays SI is pretty open to calls and emails, but I am not aware of
the policy change though.
I have been on this list for some years, learned a lot and cannot live
without it! It beats the SI-TS on quickness, open-mindedness(SI tends to
hide or downplay their software problems) and the patience to debug your
code for you.
Regards!
-Harry
-----Original Message-----
From: Brittain, James [mailto:zqr0@CDC.GOV]
Sent: Thursday, June 28, 2001 9:56 AM
To: SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: Why this newsgroup? Just curious...
I think most of the reasons that I would give have already been addressed
but I would like to put in my 2 pennies.
I am a fairly new programmer I have only been using SAS for 3-1/2 years.
For me, I like to read the questions that I may have in the future or been
pondering but weren't important enough for me to ask. I like to see the
many different ways to address a problem and see which is the most
efficient. I look at this list as a learning tool.
I think the biggest reason would be; as I quote Ron Fehd, "Check out our
most excellent archives". That is usually my second stop right after the
Online Docs and before posting a question. We have a database of years of
questions asked by all levels of programmers using SAS for all different
applications, a goldmine of useful information.
Being young and a newer SAS programmer and not having a lot of other SAS
programmers around me to ask questions of; this list allows me to get
information from hundreds or thousands of programmers from around the world.
Hopefully some day soon I will get a chance to go to a SUGI conference and
put some faces with the names and meet some of these gurus and mavens.
Also at times when I have less going on and I am eating lunch I can test
myself and try to give a good answer to someone else's problem. Someone
else mentioned show off your skills but it is even more than flexing your
SAS knowledge. It is a was to stimulate your mind to think of problems in
different ways instead of just asking a question and getting 1 answer.
Just my 2 - 2.5 cents,
Jim Brittain
-----Original Message-----
From: Bruce Erlichman [mailto:berlichman@NYC.RR.COM]
Sent: Wednesday, June 27, 2001 7:47 PM
To: SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Why this newsgroup? Just curious...
Why all the questions addressed to this group? Assuming one
has a valid SAS license (and maybe this is the answer), help is just
a phone call away (well, a long-distance call anyway).
Judging from the level of the questions asked, I would guess
that maybe 50 to 75% of the questions could be answered on the first
call. The tougher questions would, of course, get a tracking number.
My experience with the tracking number system is that a
helpful answer is usually e-mailed within 24 hours, sometimes even
the same day. Besides, we are paying dearly for this service through
the license fees. Why not take advantage of something we're paying
for already?
Is help faster via this group than from SI? Are the ques-
tioners embarrassed to talk to SI? Are the SI people manning the
phones inadaquately trained? What?
Just curious.
Bruce
