Hi SAS-Lers,

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I think some posters and reponders use SAS-L as a forum to show their superior skills. I think the list should embrace just the opposite. I have posted questions that show my ignorance and the reponses to these questions have been the most useful for me. I have also posted reponses that contradict some other responders but rarely do those reponders admit or correct their responses, usually they make some excuses. I think comments like 'you obviously are not a statistician', 'you don't know what you are talking about' or 'are you serious' are not productive. Just respond with specific examples. Also a simple response like, I did not know that, thanks, goes along way to improve the list.

I think we should all throw our egos out the window and embrace the truth.

I have even had offine messages from SAS-L posters when I contradicted their post and somehow injured their ego.

I aso believe the best SAS programmers realize their SAS ignorance is much greater than their SAS knowledge. I cringe when I enter the world of SAS-FCMP, SAS-Java, SAS-AF, SAS-Regular Expressions, SAS- Hashes, module, modulen..., even though I have written and use those functions I cherish the reponses from SAS-Lers with more knowledge than me on these issues.

On the flip side I think editorial comment like the text above is ok for the list. As long as it is obvious it is editorial comment. But editorial comment should try to avoid inflammatory retoric, although fingers are not connected to the brain sometimes.

I do post messages like "Better Macro Quoting" and a Beter Interface for Macros" and I am not sure these techniques are sound and are best methods for production environments. My point is to open up a discussion with some out of the box thinking. Reponses to these post have been very useful and have lead to improvements

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