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Re: st: questions on using the list
On Apr 30, 2008, at 1:04 PM, Tunga Kantarci wrote:
1. What is the procedure to reply to a post?
How can I make it sure that the rely I send goes under the thread I
intend. Sometimes I see that "re:" comes before "st:" and
sometimes after "st:"... I use outlook to write messages here.
Given that, what is it t write to the subject line of the message
to make the message appear under the correct thread?
Different mailers handle threads in different ways, and, since I
don't use Outlook, I can't comment on how it behaves. My mailer
(Apple's Mail) threads first by Message Id, and then my subject
(using a pretty complicated algorithm, actually). WRT the latter,
the various subject prefixes (st:, Re:, RE:, etc.) and their order
appear to be irrelevant.
The most important thing you can do to increase the chances that your
message threads properly for other users is to always use your
mailer's "Reply" function to reply to a message, and make sure that
this is the message you are really replying to. IOW, do not (as many
often do) use "Reply" to reply to an irrelevant message and then try
to change the thread by changing the subject. That won't work.
Not all mailers handle Message Ids properly, so in these cases, being
able to fall back on the subject is helpful. For this reason, try
not to change the subject (though, as I said, the various prefixes
seem to be irrelevant, as least for my mailer). That said, changing
the subject is occasionally necessary (e.g., in cases where the
original poster used a lousy subject), but, in these cases, threading
will be left entirely to the Message Id.
2. I have to say that posting and replying to this list is not that
easy as it is in google groups for instance. To reply to a message
you have to go to your own email program and do things there rather
than to do it directly on the web page. Is there a plan to update
the web site of the list to make it more user friendly?
Statalist is an email list, not a web-based forum. The archives
available on Stata's site are a very nice resource, but they're just
that -- archives. Note that the archiving program also has its own
way of handling threads, but, if people follow the procedure I
described above, I've observed that it usually works pretty well.
3. Sometimes it takes quite a bit of time before my messages appear
on the list. S it because they are moderated before their
appearance? If yes, are we then restricted by how quickly they are
moderated by the person who does it?
Delays can be introduced by the mailserver where Statalist is hosted,
by your own mailserver, or by any of the mail servers in between. I
too occasionally experience delays, but at other times the response
is quite quick.
4. My final question is about stata. I do the following and I get
the warning that variable rep78 not found. Why would that be
happening? (I have asked this question in a previous message but
that message did not appear. If it will appear later, then please
excuse me repeating the question)
. sysuse auto
(1978 Automobile Data)
. catplot hbar rep78 mpg
works for me (using Nick's -catplot-), though I'm not sure what
you're trying to accomplish with this plot.
-- Phil
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