Quantum Forest

I am a big fan of Splus and R and I am often recommending these systems to colleagues. One of the many reasons I like the programs is their very active users’ communities. If one runs into trouble, there are always other users willing to help. Nevertheless, a while ago I started noticing a disturbing trend: one of the Splus/R language demigods was becoming increasingly arrogant—and rude—in his replies to fellow posters. What was even more surprising is that nobody seemed to care. As Eric Hoffer said:

Rudeness is the weak man’s imitation of strength.

I was uncomfortable, but the situation was below my ‘annoyance threshold’ until this reply to this post. I was so annoyed that submitted this message, which generated an interesting discussion that resulted in a ‘lawyer-style’ apology from the offender. The interesting thing is that—after my post—I received several personal emails from people that where equally uncomfortable with the situation, but felt uneasy challenging the ‘powers that be’. This seems to be yet another example of the issues faced by internet communities, where a few individuals can easily damage the quality of communication in a forum.

I think that after this experience we will go back to a much more respectful and welcoming email list, so people are not afraid of posting simple questions and being flamed in the process.