Date: Tue, 18 Oct 2005 06:28:58 -0400
Reply-To: Peter Flom <flom@NDRI.ORG>
Sender: "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From: Peter Flom <flom@NDRI.ORG>
Subject: Re: Pet peeve: please explain what you want in words
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Peter L. Flom, PhD
Assistant Director, Statistics and Data Analysis Core
Center for Drug Use and HIV Research
National Development and Research Institutes
71 W. 23rd St
http://cduhr.ndri.org
www.peterflom.com
New York, NY 10010
(212) 845-4485 (voice)
(917) 438-0894 (fax)
>>> David L Cassell <davidlcassell@MSN.COM> 10/17/05 10:59 PM >>>
<<<
We'd all like that. But it simply isn't that easy. I've seen lots of
newsgroups and mailing lists and bulletin boards (and on and on) try,
with a general lack of success.
If someone is new to programming (as many SAS users are) and doesn't
know how to solve their SAS problem, the reason is
likely to be inexperience. And an inexperienced SAS user is
perhaps not going to have enough experience to know how to formulate a
question, or what resources to look at before
posting a question.
My feeling is that if a post makes me so irritated that I want to bite
their head off, then I just don't reply. It's that simple. And all the
people who still have their heads attached to their necks are walking
around, carefree, thinking SAS-L is a nice place to seek help. :-) :-)
>>>
I think there are two alternatives. 1) Make the list less friendly.
Give answers like "That's in the manual" (maybe with a page number) or
even more hostile. Don't give details. Don't be nice.
2) Learn to live with some questions that irritiate you. The delete key
is there for a reason :-).
SAS-L is definitely in the #2 group. I, for one, like it that way. I
am also on groups that fall into the #1 category. I hesitate to ask
questions there. And I don't learn as much by reading the posts.
Peter
David
--
David L. Cassell
mathematical statistician
Design Pathways
3115 NW Norwood Pl.
Corvallis OR 97330
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