Since the announcement that sasCommunity.org was winding down, SAS users have been worried about the potential loss of that most precious of SAS-related currencies: the SAS tip. In response, we've created a new SAS Tips board to house those useful nuggets of knowledge that users love to trade at (and in-between) SAS user events.
Read some SAS Tips!
If you enjoyed the sasCommunity.org Tip of the Day, you will find that the new board has familiar features:
- A featured tip on the landing page that changes (at least) once per day.
- A fun button that, with a single click, will transport you to a random* tip within the library.
We have ported hundreds of existing SAS tips from sasCommunity.org, and also added new tips furnished by WUSS 2017 presenters. You should expect to see the "Tip-o-meter" increase as new and existing tips are prepared for this new home.
Like any board on the community, community members can subscribe to the SAS Tips board to receive notifications when new tips are added. You can also use an RSS feed to track new tips.
Who can submit a SAS tip
One of the hallmarks of the sasCommunity.org tips -- and the WUSS tips too -- is their high-quality and relevance. This has always been achieved by curation and peer-review. Like a good wine, no tip was published before it was ready. Unfortunately, a side effect of this process is that new tips could be slow in making their public debut.
On the SAS Support Communities, we are looking to "cut the red tape" a bit. But we aren't ready to compromise on tip quality. Therefore, we are managing this by allowing just certain members -- SAS experts with a proven record -- to publish new tips at this time. Lest you think that this will result in a sort of Tip Aristocracy, let me assure you that we have a wide array of contributors. These will include community Super Users and PROC Stars, sasCommunity.org board members (yes, still around!), and SAS employees who have a keen sense for what SAS users want to know.
This is not a closed group. If you want to be among the contributors, simply post a reply here saying so, at-mention a SAS community manager, or send a note to communities@sas.com.
How to submit a SAS tip
Before we cover the mechanics of creating a tip, let's talk about the ingredients that make a tip useful and successful.
- A good title. Our convention is to use "SAS Tip:" as a prefix, then a no-nonsense topic name for the tip. It can be tempting to be clever, but your tips are most likely to be found by someone who is searching on the Internet. So "Export your SAS report to Microsoft Excel" will do better than "Make your Excel jockeys happy". If that seems boring, just console yourself with all of the additional views/likes your tip receives.
- Keep it short. A good tip is not a tutorial and not a substitute for documentation. The goal is to make readers aware of a technique that is new to them. A sentence or two that highlights a feature and its use should be enough. If appropriate, include a small code snippet for illustration. And always link to SAS documentation or a conference paper or some more comprehensive resource for more information.
- Include a picture. Not appropriate for every tip, but if your topic addresses something visual, then it's good to include a graph or screenshot. Use the Photos button in the message editor to add this.
- Include an acknowledgement. If you're adding a tip that shares information from another author, feel free to at-mention that person (if on the community) or call him/her out by name. It's a nice touch.
The process for creating a tip is simple: on the SAS Tips board, click New Message to begin. You can start this process only if you have the permission to add a tip (see "Who can submit a SAS tip", above). After that, add a proper title and other elements per the guidelines you've just read. It's just like posting any other message.
For now, we don't allow replies/discussion on these SAS Tips. If you have a question (or an opinion or even a dispute) about a particular tip, you can send a private message to the author, begin a new topic in one of the relevant discussion boards, or provide feedback here on this post.
* Dear statisticians: it's not really random -- it's pseudorandom at its most basic. However, each subsequent click on the button should select a different tip for your continued education.
