I quote from the FAQ:
===== begin extract
0.1 What is Statalist for?
The appropriate subjects for discussion on Statalist are
Stata
statistics
Postings on anything to do with Stata are welcome, such as
how to do something in Stata
difficulties in using and understanding Stata
apparent bugs or limitations in Stata
areas for future additions to or improvements to Stata
neat tricks in Stata that others may appreciate
new Stata ado-files
announcement of Stata-related meetings or material.
Once a statistical topic is mentioned, comments on the
statistical or scientific merits and demerits of different
approaches are legitimate. Statalisters want to use Stata
to do good statistical science, and many members value
Statalist for the broader material it includes.
While you should refrain from asking questions that have
absolutely no Stata content or implications, statistical
questions concerning interpretation, applicability, and the
like, are acceptable and even encouraged.
===== end extract
In recent weeks, there seems to be have been an upward
drift in the fraction of questions that are totally
statistical, including the two main forms
(a) how should I analyse something?
(b) is this kind of analysis correct?
In many cases, the posters appear to be relatively new
to Statalist.
I suggest strongly that while a mix of Stata and statistical
issues is often both natural and fascinating, we should
resist any morphing of Statalist into a list that takes
a large fraction of purely statistical questions with no
Stata content. Not only is the amount of traffic on Statalist
quite large enough for most tastes, other lists exist for these purposes.
In practice, experienced Statalisters often ignore
questions of types (a) and (b), especially if they get
the impression that the poster needs to exert a little
more self-help. This posting therefore is a personal plea
* to those experienced listers to hold the line _whenever_
the most appropriate answer is probably "for goodness'
sake, do some reading, or get some guidance from people
locally who know more than you do". (If the question
is more advanced, it is often very interesting, but
that's very different!)
* to newer list members to note that, in essence,
Statalist is about the statistical software Stata
and not a hold-your-hand list for basic statistical
help.
Nick
[email protected]
*
* For searches and help try:
* http://www.stata.com/support/faqs/res/findit.html
* http://www.stata.com/support/statalist/faq
* http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/stata/
