I would rather see emails about 'help..', that we can all learn from, rather than being bombarded with emails asking for participation in studies! Just delete the email if you don't like - worse things can happen!
AJ
__________________________
From: Research of postgraduate psychologists. [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Ben Haysom-Newport [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 11 December 2010 14:02
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Requests for help
Hi
I think the idea of a new list for help is an excellent idea
Thanks
Ben
On 11 December 2010 13:58, Richard Morrisroe <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:
Dear All,
Apologies to all whom this does not concern.
I think there's a tension here between a number of competing objectives:
1) People want help with all kinds of things: stats, finding questionnaires, general viva advice.
2) People want to be informed about upcoming events etc
3) People want to keep in contact with their discipline and feel like they are part of a community etc.
Now, the question, is how are all these objectives to be met through the use of this list?
To respond to the suggestion by Hester on the use of the boards: the boards apparently have 52 members, while the list has 726, which implies that most people on the list are not on the board, which would seem to argue against moving these kinds of questions onto that forum.
One solution to these problems could be to seperate the lists into Psych-postgrads-events and Psych-postgrad-help, and leave it up to people to decide which of these lists they would like to be a part of. Another solution would be to tag messages with [stats] [events] [viva] etc.
To be honest, much of what comes on the list is irrelevant to me as I work in Ireland, so the only thing i get from this is notices of conferences and stats questions (which i like to help with). I do normally attempt to reply only to the people concerned, except in cases (such as this) where more people might benefit.
In summation, I would agree with Alice that if a question has had more than 3 replies then it should probably be moved off list, but to be honest its really up to the administrators (PsyPag i assume) to decide on this. I know that i wont be replying to all in the future with help questions (which is sad, as I have learned much from the questions and answers posted here over the years).
In any case, let me finish by apologising to any who have felt bombarded by the succession of emails on statistics.
Best Wishes,
Richie.
On Sat, Dec 11, 2010 at 1:34 PM, Ben Haysom-Newport <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:
Alice
How is it antisocial to have a discussion that may help other members of the list? So far I only know of one possibly two people complaining out of 726 - I think that's more of a minority.
The nature of the questions fall back to what I said - experts would not look at a separate website.
--
Many thanks
Ben Haysom-Newport BSc (Hons), MBPsS, MSc
On 11 December 2010 13:27, Alice Gee <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:
I disagree, it is extremely anti-social to send 17 emails in 24hrs on one topic and I don't think it is up to other people to change their email settings just to suit the needs of an exclusive minority.
Please learn to use the forums properly - this is the case with all other mailing lists I know of and people have no problem going "off-list" and discussing particular areas of interest independently. This is basic email etiquette and most people know that if there are more than 3-4 emails on a topic then it should probably be discussed elsewhere.
Thanks,
A
On Sat, Dec 11, 2010 at 1:20 PM, Ben Haysom-Newport <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:
Hi Hester
The problem with that is it's effort to go to that website, and the people able to answer questions probably won't have time to look at it. If it's a question in their inbox they are much more likely to respond.
I still say people who don't want so many emails should switch to the daily digest.
--
Many thanks
Ben Haysom-Newport BSc (Hons), MBPsS, MSc
On 11 December 2010 13:14, Hester Duffy <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:
Hi all,
We've had a few people raising concerns recently over the number of
mails on this list asking for stats help and then discussing the
requests. Obviously this list is a valuable resource for many people,
but it has traditionally had fairly low traffic, and obviously many
people would prefer to keep it that way. On the other hand, the
discussions about statistics or other experimental issues can
obviously be helpful to people other than the original poster. The
weakness of the email list, though, is that receiving numerous emails
annoys those to whom they're not relevant, and can be hard to find at
a later date for those to whom they are.
This is one of the reasons we set up the discussion forum on PsyPAG's
website (http://www.psypag.co.uk/forum#/). The forum allows people to
post their questions and discuss other people's questions without
overloading anyone's mailbox, and the posts and comments then remain
available, making it easy to go back and find answers at a later date.
The forum also allows you to choose whether to have responses to a
post emailed to you, so if you want to keep a close eye on a thread,
you can receive responses as they're posted, but if you'd rather not,
you won't receive any mails and can just check in on the website as
and when you like.
So if you have questions about statistics or methodology, or you have
the answers to other people's questions, please do check out the forum
(particularly the trouble-shooting section), and consider posting
there rather than using the email list!
Many thanks,
Hester
(PsyPAG Communications Officer)
--
IRCHSS Scholar 2009-10
Department of Applied Psychology, University College Cork.
--
Many thanks
Ben Haysom-Newport BSc (Hons), MBPsS, MSc
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