Re: st: A Statalist glossary

[Roger Harbord <rmharbord@gmail.com>]

With apologies to Dr Suess (and thanks to Baron May of Oxford for
reminding me of his genius):

C is the letter we use to spell Cox.
If Stata's your bag then you'll know Nick Cox rocks.
He lives up in Durham (in England, not NC).
His dress is quite modest, his language not fancy,
But when others' words are too US-specific,
He'll say so in one of his posts so prolific.
All Statalist newbies soon learn there's nonesuch.
So let's raise a glass to thank Nick very much.

Happy New Year to Nick and all,
Roger.
-- 
Roger Harbord
http://harbord.org

On 1 January 2011 10:56, Nick Cox <njcoxstata@gmail.com> wrote:
> Best wishes to Statalist members for 2011 and for your uses of Stata
> to do good statistical science.
>
> As new people are always joining the list, and most old and new
> posters appear to be unwilling to read so stiff and structured a
> document as the FAQ, I thought I would reissue this glossary from 2010
> (with some revisions) as a more informal guide to what we (should) do
> on this list.
>
> Nick Cox
>
> Re-reading the entire set of manuals for fun, as one does, it struck me
> that StataCorp has been including more glossary sections over recent
> versions. That seems like a good idea for this list, so here goes:
>
> A is for advice. All advice, here and elsewhere, is based on one
> over-arching principle: Whatever promotes clear, complete and correct
> answers delivered quickly is good. (There's a converse....)
>
> A is also for amusement. Don't assume from the stern and stiff opening
> of this glossary that it is entirely composed of straight-faced
> commentary.
>
> A is also for archives, as in "use the archives". But first read the
> help, the manual and the FAQs.
>
> A is also for ASCII, or plain text, which is expected on Statalist.
>
> A is also for attachments, which should not be sent to Statalist.
>
> B is for basics, which means CDE:
>
> C is for code or commands used. Show us exact code. Do not merely say
> that you used some command, or worse, not even specify what command
> you used.
>
> D is for data. Show us examples of your problem with datasets everyone
> can use (see -help dta_contents-) or with small fake datasets. If you
> can't do that, give us an example of your data.
>
> E is for examples. A concrete example of your problem is worth a
> thousand words of arm-waving explanation or speculation, and worth much,
> much more than a report that something "didn't work", which could mean
> about twenty different things.
>
> F is for FAQ. You should read
> <http://www.stata.com/support/faqs/res/statalist.html> before posting.
> See also StataCorp's own FAQs: <http://www.stata.com/support/faqs/>
>
> f is also for -findit-. -findit- is your friend. (Don't know about
> -findit- yet? Then do read the help.)
>
> G is for Gould. See William.
>
> G is also for Gutierrez. Bobby Gutierrez is Director of Statistics at
> StataCorp. When he writes, pay attention!
>
> g is also for -gllamm-. In Klingon that means "quick".
>
> H is for help. Did you read the help carefully?
>
> H is also for hyphens, as in references to some Stata -commandname-. The
> hyphen convention is a Gould idea.
>
> IVs is for instrumental variables, or sometimes independent variables.
> If you didn't know that, this won't help (bad news), or you're not an
> economist (good news).
>
> J is for jokes. There are plenty of in-jokes on Statalist, but you
> shouldn't expect me to explain them here. If someone's sense of humour
> appears a bit weird to you, you are almost certainly correct. See also
> J.
>
> K is for Kit Baum, as in "Thanks, as usual, to Kit Baum". He does much
> of the real work around here, like maintaining SSC.
>
> K is also for Kolenikov. Not to be confused with Kalashnikov. See also
> J.
>
> L is for lousy subjects for your postings, such as "help" or "problem"
> or something only a little more informative than that. Be specific!
>
> L is also for lousy or lazy literature references, as in "I want to use
> the test of Sue, Grabbit and Runne (1989)". Full details please!
>
> M is for moderator, meaning Marcello Pagano, sine quo non and primus
> inter pares. If he gets annoyed, you've been really bad. He also does
> much of the real work around here.
>
> M is also for Maarten Buis, who has been dispensing excellent advice
> on this list for some years.
> It came as a small shock to some in 2010 that all that time he had
> been a graduate student yet
> to finish his doctorate. Now he has it!
>
> M is also for Manual, as in Read The Fine.
>
> N is for nice, as in "be nice", and as in "even if people appear to be
> nasty when you are a bit naughty, they are really nice underneath, and
> are doing it in everyone's best interests".
>
> N is also for Nick, which is probably a coincidence. See also J.
>
> O is for "official", which means "whatever code StataCorp admit
> responsibility for". (This is not a joke, unless it is.)
>
> O is also for operating system, which you should make explicit if it's
> relevant. Don't assume that the whole world uses Windows!
>
> P is for pedantry. As Bertrand Russell almost said, a pedant is a person
> who prefers to be correct. Not a dirty word on this list.
>
> p is for pweights, problem, plague, pestilence, pain, and, more
> fortunately, Pitblado.
>
> Q is for questions. See BCDE again, or for the first time.
>
> R is for R. No one's agin it (really!). Its value far exceeds its price.
>
> R is also for re-posting your question. Disapproved.
>
> S is for Stata, silly. By the way, some of us get a bit irritated if you
> spell it STATA, which is wrong, or at the very least a couple of decades
> out-of-date. See also P.
>
> S also signals Some Alternative Software (originally Some Athenian
> Software).
>
> S is also for SMCL, which means SMCL Makes Cooler Logs.
>
> S is also for survey statistics and Steve Samuels. Fancy that.
>
> T is for technicalities. We love them.
>
> U is for -update-, which keeps your Stata up-to-date (surprise). By
> extension, see also -adoupdate-.
>
> U is also for "user-written", as in "do explain where user-written software
> you refer to comes from".
>
> V is for version. If you are using an out-of-date version (especially 10.1 or
> earlier), then say so. Being out-of-date is not a sin; but declaring it
> increases your chance of being told of a solution you can use.
>
> V is for Vice-Presidents. Alan Riley and Vince Wiggins are
> Vice-Presidents of StataCorp. When they write, pay attention!
>
> W is for William Gould, President of StataCorp. When he writes, pay
> double attention! He probably throws away more good programs in a
> typical week than anyone else writes in a good year.
>
> x is for predictors or covariates. (Are you still saying independent
> variables?)
>
> y is for response or outcome. (Are you still saying dependent variable?)
>
> Z is the end of the English, meaning British, alphabet.
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