27
Apr
The R community is so welcoming!
This is a sentiment I encounter almost every day in talks, on Twitter, and on personal blogs. And it’s a sentiment I agree with and feel. But I think in some ways it’s incomplete. Because at times the R community is not so welcoming. I also see people ranting, mostly on Twitter, about the horrible design or structural decisions people have made in their projects. Often these are high-profile, non-R projects, like publicly available datasets or poorly-made charts. And sometimes I feel an implicit threat in these posts: You’d better not make these same bad decisions, or you’ll be torn apart too.
Now, I don’t think the R community would actually do something like that to a beginner who’s just interested in learning, but I worry about the messages being sent to people early in their R journey. Because even though the community is incredibly warm and welcoming to people who want to learn, it can be harsh to those who are making a “bad” decision and sticking with it. But I also see the necessity of that harshness. If someone is intentionally propagating data analysis that is being used for harm, we must stand up against that. But maybe ranting on Twitter about how terrible Excel is isn’t the best way to do that?
And like pretty much everything, the R community is not a monolith. There will be those who are more welcoming and those who are less so. Terrible people can use R, and they can get on forums and spread hate if they want. On the whole, I love the R community so much. As a place to come and learn and grow, it is unrivaled. There are so many people who just want to help people along in their journey, and it constantly blows me away. But I don’t want to ignore this concern I have just for all the great things I see.