Executive summary: Please don't ask Stata or statistical questions using private messages to active individuals.
Many members will have noticed that messages may be sent to specified individuals. The purpose of this post is to make some suggestions about proper and not so proper uses of messages. If there are different points of view, then naturally I want to hear them. But my immediate motive is just to write something, so that I can refer to it in the future.
Normally this should not need or deserve comment. You can send personal or private messages to your friends in the Stata community, or people you think you know well, and in those what you say is of interest only to the parties concerned. If you don't know who your friends are, it is not my role to sort that out for you! If you don't, as yet, have any friends who also use Statalist, that need not be a problem. It's a technical forum, any way.
The major point, however, that does deserve flagging is that new members sometimes ask Stata or statistical questions through private messages. I know this because they sometimes ask me and I know from other messages and from comments in public threads that active members (meaning principally, those who answer many questions) often get such messages.
Perhaps this use of messages to ask Stata or statistical questions may arise because new members are confused about the difference between questions and messages. We try as hard as possible to ensure that this doesn't happen. Messages aren't even mentioned in the FAQ Advice, which all members are asked to read before posting. Any way, if anyone is still confused, we didn't do a good enough job (*). If you are new to Statalist and want to ask something, use whichever forum is best suited for your question. Almost always, this will be the General forum. If you post in another forum that is unsuitable, then people watch all the forums and you will get asked to post in another forum. Not understanding what goes where at worst will add some delay before getting a good answer. (If no-one wants to answer your question, sorry about that.)
My personal policy is to decline to answer Stata or statistical questions posted in private messages, even when I know the answer. I ask that people post their question in a public forum. Just as much of the benefit of a forum with publicly visible threads is that discussions may be of use or interest to quite different people, so also that benefit is lost if a question is posted in a private message. Even more important, a public thread is visible to many people and may get different answers, less subject to the caprice of who is watching the forum and who is busy, asleep, on vacation or planning to move over to some alternative software.
As said, this is a personal policy and in no sense binding on others. But individuals I have discussed this with are in strong agreement on the point. We don't want to seem unfriendly; we just want to make the best use of our time in the forum and to ensure the best visibility for your question.
I'd also suggest that being embarrassed about being a learner or asking an elementary question makes no difference to this policy. Nor does wanting to hire a consultant make a difference.
(*) That is assuming that you did read the FAQ Advice like a sensible person.
Many members will have noticed that messages may be sent to specified individuals. The purpose of this post is to make some suggestions about proper and not so proper uses of messages. If there are different points of view, then naturally I want to hear them. But my immediate motive is just to write something, so that I can refer to it in the future.
Normally this should not need or deserve comment. You can send personal or private messages to your friends in the Stata community, or people you think you know well, and in those what you say is of interest only to the parties concerned. If you don't know who your friends are, it is not my role to sort that out for you! If you don't, as yet, have any friends who also use Statalist, that need not be a problem. It's a technical forum, any way.
The major point, however, that does deserve flagging is that new members sometimes ask Stata or statistical questions through private messages. I know this because they sometimes ask me and I know from other messages and from comments in public threads that active members (meaning principally, those who answer many questions) often get such messages.
Perhaps this use of messages to ask Stata or statistical questions may arise because new members are confused about the difference between questions and messages. We try as hard as possible to ensure that this doesn't happen. Messages aren't even mentioned in the FAQ Advice, which all members are asked to read before posting. Any way, if anyone is still confused, we didn't do a good enough job (*). If you are new to Statalist and want to ask something, use whichever forum is best suited for your question. Almost always, this will be the General forum. If you post in another forum that is unsuitable, then people watch all the forums and you will get asked to post in another forum. Not understanding what goes where at worst will add some delay before getting a good answer. (If no-one wants to answer your question, sorry about that.)
My personal policy is to decline to answer Stata or statistical questions posted in private messages, even when I know the answer. I ask that people post their question in a public forum. Just as much of the benefit of a forum with publicly visible threads is that discussions may be of use or interest to quite different people, so also that benefit is lost if a question is posted in a private message. Even more important, a public thread is visible to many people and may get different answers, less subject to the caprice of who is watching the forum and who is busy, asleep, on vacation or planning to move over to some alternative software.
As said, this is a personal policy and in no sense binding on others. But individuals I have discussed this with are in strong agreement on the point. We don't want to seem unfriendly; we just want to make the best use of our time in the forum and to ensure the best visibility for your question.
I'd also suggest that being embarrassed about being a learner or asking an elementary question makes no difference to this policy. Nor does wanting to hire a consultant make a difference.
(*) That is assuming that you did read the FAQ Advice like a sensible person.
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