[AUUG-Talk]: Personal Contributions - AUUG's Value Add

[David Newall]

Dave Horsfall wrote:
> On Thu, 28 Sep 2006, David Newall wrote:
>
>   
>>>> Web
>>>> Hack (ie 'research')
>>>> Books
>>>>         
>>> Hopefully in reverse order of importance..
>>>       
>> Not particularly.  I'm very self-reliant.  Web has pushed Books from first to
>> third place.  I thought it was a trick question (ie the answer was web) until
>> I saw the sample answers.
>>     
>
> Well, that's an odd definition of "self-reliant", relying upon 
> unsubstantiated sources etc.
>
> For my part, I use peer-reviewed sources such as books and mailing lists,
> with the web stuff coming a distant third.
>   
I can see that you place great value on an academic process.  Your 
phrase "unsubstantiated source" (to which I take objection) reveals this 
as much as "peer-reviewed".  I don't think mailing lists are 
particularly peer-reviewed; and in their absence the sense one is left 
with, "I use peer-reviewed sources such as books", reinforces the 
impression.

You listed two of the same three sources as me, books and web (but in 
opposite order), differing only in that you ask others where I 
experiment.  This, perhaps, will help you understand my exception to 
"unsubstantiated source."