Quarterly Data Question

[lana johnson]

I got assistance elsewhere please ignore this post.

[Jared Greathouse]

No. Statalist is a public forum. I'm 25 years old. I've used Stata since I was an undergraduate in college, and I still do as a fully grown Ph.D student who studies econometrics. Statalist has helped me in more ways than words can possibly describe, because the information is public. So, even if you got your answer elsewhere, others could possibly benefit from whatever it was you originally asked. But now... they can't.

What was the original issue you ran into?

[Nick Cox]

Jared Greathouse's answer was manifestly personal, but the essence is no more than advice we give already.

See https://www.statalist.org/forums/help#closure

In the early years of Statalist as a web forum there was some scope to delete your own posts, but not only was this abused more often than it was used to good purpose, it was a disservice to anyone who replied -- as their posts were often rendered unintelligible. Even if you think you have some kind of moral right to ownership of your own posts, that doesn't carry over to the posts of people who reply. But that detail is irrelevant here.

So, the administrators at StataCorp pulled back on that, and you can't unilaterally delete posts.

The main point remains Jared's point, which is that even if you realise that your question was trivial, or don't care about getting an answer, because you solved it, someone else may have the same problem and find the thread interesting or useful. So, as the FAQ Advice already says at https://www.statalist.org/forums/help#closure

You cannot delete a post, but the forum allows for a one hour edit window. This allows fixes of many kinds, such as typo corrections, extra detail, or improved wording. Please don't mangle your own posts, even if you solved your problem yourself or realised that the question was silly. Explain the solution, even if it was trivial. Often someone else will have the same problem.