Re: st: Responding to messages using the Statalist digest - a new FAQ?

[Nick Cox <njcoxstata@gmail.com>]

It's nice for a change to be told of something left out of the FAQ.
(Daily there is an implication that it is too long and complicated for
some list members to bother to read.)

This issue has arisen before on the list, although not recently, and
Paul's method is surely the best way for digest subscribers to reply.
You don't have any of the individual messages to reply to and we don't
want you to reply to the digest, at least not without editing it down
to the crucial part. As quite a few digest subscribers already use
this method and it's really the only one possible I didn't think
previously that this needed to be explained, but I welcome any further
views on this.

By the way, we often tinker with the FAQ without announcing it.
Recently we added some explicit advice in section 1 on what to read
before you post anything and moved up the section on the names "Stata"
and "Mata".

Nick

On Fri, Mar 23, 2012 at 10:06 AM, Seed, Paul <paul.seed@kcl.ac.uk> wrote:
> Dear Statalist,
>
> I am never quite sure what the best method is to contribute to a
> Statalist discussion I find in the Statalist digest.
> There does not seem to be anything in the Statalist FAQ on this,
> but I can't be the only person with this problem.
>
> It's all right with a new thread (like this).  However,
> when replying there are two dangers -
> including more of the digest in the response than intended
> (sometimes far more) - and not using an appropriate header,
> so that the message doesn't get threaded properly.
> Nick Cox mentioned a broken thread recently which might
> have been my fault.  General apologies if so.
>
> I think the answer (and the paragraph I would like to see in
> the Statalist FAQ) is:
>
> "Identify the start and end of the message you want to respond.
> Copy and paste it (removing unnecessary tail) from the digest
> into a new message addressed to Statalist
> (statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu).  Add > markers.
> Copy the subject, preceded by "Re:", into the Subject line.
> Write your response (and signature) at the head of the message."
>
> Apologies if this is so obvious to everyone else it doesn't even
> need a FAQ.
>
> BW
>
>
> Paul T Seed, Senior Lecturer in Medical Statistics,
> Division of Women's Health, King's College London
> Women's Health Academic Centre, KHP
> (+44) (0) 20 7188 3642.
>
>
>
>
>
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