Thanks for your thoughts, Sarah and Jeff! I do appreciate the time and effort. I will refrain from posting a link to a GIST as the main part of my response. But I still like the idea, but I'm going to modify it a bit. For any replies that I make which are not 3 or 4 lines, I'm going to create a new GIST. This is be mainly for myself. But more often, if I see a technique that I really like (and I have seen some good stuff), I am going to create a GIST from that so that I have a good, "cloud" based place which contains it. That way, I'm less likely to totally forget how somebody else fixed a problem. Being a public archive, anybody here will be able to grab anything they want from if, should there be anything of any use to others. Being a bit anal about it, I will try very hard to keep the proper attribution of the poster's name (as logged here on the list). I don't want to claim credit (or blame, for that matter <grin>) for something that is not my work.
On Wed, Aug 13, 2014 at 5:14 PM, Jeff Newmiller <jdnew...@dcn.davis.ca.us> wrote: > Hear, hear. Getting the questioner to slow down and look at what they > really want is key, because if they don't know what they want then their > question will be unclear, and I hate answering a question that was never > really what the OP was looking for in the first place. > > One problem I have encountered is questions where key information is in a > linked web page that goes away, rendering the posting archive useless. I > suppose as long as gists don't "age out" they can be okay for some > questions, but I am still way less likely to go digging there to answer > questions in the first place. > --------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Jeff Newmiller The ..... ..... Go Live... > DCN:<jdnew...@dcn.davis.ca.us> Basics: ##.#. ##.#. Live > Go... > Live: OO#.. Dead: OO#.. Playing > Research Engineer (Solar/Batteries O.O#. #.O#. with > /Software/Embedded Controllers) .OO#. .OO#. rocks...1k > --------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Sent from my phone. Please excuse my brevity. > > On August 13, 2014 2:50:16 PM PDT, Sarah Goslee <sarah.gos...@gmail.com> > wrote: > >Hi John, > > > >People do sometimes link to external data and code, though I'm not > >sure I've seen any in that particular format. > > > >But, two things to consider. > > > >A. I'm lazy. If the problem is fully-formed in the email, I'm more > >likely to try to solve it than if I have to go download something and > >figure out what's in it. (Even leaving aside the potential issues with > >downloading random things.) > > > >B. A *small* reproducible example is usually a good thing. There are > >not that many cases where the whole big dataset is necessary. Further, > >the exercise of creating a small reproducible example is often enough > >to solve the problem, without ever needed to bother R-help at all. > > > >Granted, I'm also likely to skip posts to the list with enormous > >dput() data dumps too. I'm a big fan of the "small" part. > > > >Sarah > > > >On Wed, Aug 13, 2014 at 5:41 PM, John McKown > ><john.archie.mck...@gmail.com> wrote: > >> This is just a thought that has occurred to me. I don't know if it is > >> an "Oh, WOW!" or an "Are you KIDDING?!?" type thought. So I thought > >> I'd ask here. > >> > >> I use github for a few things. Nothing great, but maybe nice. Anyway, > >> one feature of GitHub is the GIST feature. What I am used to github > >> being for is a project consisting of many complete files. A gist can > >> contain many files, but is really for a set of snippets. Such as code > >> sequences. Or maybe the output from a dput(). > >> > >> If I have a "big" problem where I think that having all the data and > >> my attempted solutions available, I think it would be far kinder of > >me > >> to put a _good_ synopsis of the problem here on the list. And a > >> clickable URL to the gist I have created for the problem. That would > >> decrease the bandwidth on the email server. And save space on it. > >And, > >> lets face it, in many cases only a few people are going to really > >look > >> at any given problem "in depth", so why have a huge email go out to > >> the entire community? > >> > >> My idea may not be useful, I really am not sure. But my motive is > >> trying to keep everybody's inbox from overflowing. And make it easier > >> to supply really good data, but only to those who are interested. > >> > >> Thanks for any feedback. > >> > >> > > -- There is nothing more pleasant than traveling and meeting new people! Genghis Khan Maranatha! <>< John McKown -- There is nothing more pleasant than traveling and meeting new people! Genghis Khan Maranatha! <>< John McKown [[alternative HTML version deleted]] ______________________________________________ R-help@r-project.org mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.