Thanks, Michael, for your note.
1)I did not say *I* would unsubsribe. I suggested others who contribute a
lot of stuff one cannot get on other lists might unsubscribe (and I used
the eloquent "de-subscribe" form of the verb for emphasis) :-) .
2)Whether something is increasing or not is an empirical question.
However, I submit it is easier for someone who does not need the
information to track trends than someone who does. As you use the program
and therefore can use some of that info, and may also be on other better
lists for that info, your apprehension of its incidence on statalist may
be dulled from its usual sharpness. BUT, this is an empirical question,
not a matter of principle. We can check the trends if we want.
3)I would not put your posting of your programming in the "not relevant"
list. I thought that was a very helpful piece of engineering about the
interface of two programs, one of which was stata. I would not put the
recent posting about "how to make the stata windows re-size in XP" on the
irrelevant list either--however, I did want to remark that I wanted stata
to focus on stats, not window size. But, I submit, it is getting a bit
off topic for someone to say "I don't have time to learn how to do this in
stata, can someone on statalist tell me how to do this in MSWord." I
would think that is pretty much off topic, and that is the basis of my
concern.
Respectfully,
Sam
On Thu, 1 Jul 2004, Michael Blasnik wrote:
> Speaking as someone, also from the US East Coast, who has participated in a
> few discussions involving MS Word recently, but also as one of those "people
> who provide that help" (a frequent contributor to Statalist on many Stata
> topics and writer of several ado files on SSC), I don't think the evidence
> will back up your somewhat dramatic assertions/predictions
>
> > Anyway, I assume the MSWord clutter will continue. And, eventually, all
> > the really helpful advice on stats will stop. Because the people who
> > provide that help--not me--will become so tired of getting e-mails about
> > what to click on in MSWord to make something happen, they will
> > de-subscribe.
> >
> > And, once again, the commons will be destroyed because people could not
> > regulate themselves. I hope I am wrong, but nothing in the trend over the
> > archives suggests I am. (Of course, one could analyze that by modelling
> > the (suspected) increase in MSWord-related questions over time; my guess
> > is it is following a classic diffusion curve, the incidence is still low,
> > there is still a chance to nip this tendency in the bud, but it is
> > increasing exponentially and thus time is running out.)
> >
> > Respectfully,
> >
> > Sam
>
> I don't believe there is any exponential increase in MS Word postings any
> more than there is an increase in people posting queries that can be readily
> answered by using -help- (I find the latter even more annoying). Some level
> of off-topic and/or RTFM messages is inevitable and the delete key makes it
> relatively easy to deal with them as long as the majority of posts are
> worthwhile.
>
> I too was thinking of responding to the recent MS Word query as "why don't
> you check an MS Word listserver?", but I decided to instead suggest that
> they check MS Word help. I think that Statalist has a remarkably low
> percentage of off-topic messages and some messages straddle the border. I
> recently posted about how I used Stata code to automate the process of
> creating a report with many graphics (in MS Word). I considered it on-topic
> since it had to do with Stata and how I used it productively with another
> application -- one that many people use (and I had quite a few off-list
> queries and thank yous about it). For the convenience of those who despise
> everything MS, I also included "MS Word" in the subject to allow for quick
> deletion.
>
> If you choose to stop subscribing to every listserve that has any messages
> that you consider off-topic, you wouldn't subscribe to many, if any. If you
> have any questions about using Stata or writing Stata code or care to
> contribute messages on things other than how you don't like messages about
> MS Word, I'd be more than happy to participate or help. But if you
> unsubscribed, that would be fine as well.
>
> Michael Blasnik
> [email protected]
>
>
>
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>
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