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(This article was first published on <strong><a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/JonCaldersRBlog/~3/Xvl8LbQBuCA/"> Jon Calder's R Blog</a></strong>, and kindly contributed to <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.r-bloggers.com/">R-bloggers)</a> </div>
<p>Tal Galili, empowering bloggers to empower other R users – </p>
<p>Hooray! I am now part of the <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://www.r-bloggers.com/">R-bloggers</a> community!</p>
<p><img title="R-bloggers Logo" alt="R-bloggers logo" src="https://i2.wp.com/jonmcalder.github.io/img/small-imgs/r-bloggers.png?w=456&ssl=1" data-recalc-dims="1"></p>
<p>R-bloggers is a blog aggregator for content created by the <code>Rstats</code> community.<br>
It was founded by <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://www.r-statistics.com/">Tal Galili</a> towards the<br>
<a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://www.r-statistics.com/2009/12/announcing-r-bloggers-com-a-new-r-news-site-for-bloggers-by-bloggers/">end of 2009</a>, in order to help connect R bloggers with R users (and each<br>
other).</p>
<p>I came across R-bloggers relatively soon after it got going and have benefitted<br>
so greatly from it over the years. It has been quite something to see how it has<br>
grown and flourished in this time. Just take a look at Tal’s annual<br>
retrospectives between 2010 and 2012 which highlight the early growth of<br>
R-bloggers and you’ll see what I mean:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p><a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://www.r-statistics.com/2009/12/announcing-r-bloggers-com-a-new-r-news-site-for-bloggers-by-bloggers/">2009</a>: R-bloggers gets up and running, 17 contributing blogs</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://www.r-statistics.com/2011/01/r-bloggers-in-2010-top-14-r-posts-site-statistics-and-invitation-for-sponsors/">2010</a>: 143 contributing blogs, 3000 posts, 600 000 visits from over 200 countries</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://www.r-statistics.com/2012/01/top-20-r-posts-of-2011-and-some-r-bloggers-statistics/">2011</a>: almost 300 contributing blogs, over 1.4 million visits</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://www.r-statistics.com/2013/01/100-most-read-r-posts-for-2012-stats-from-r-bloggers-big-data-visualization-data-manipulation-and-other-languages/">2012</a>: over 400 contributing blogs, 2.7 million visits by over 1.1 million people</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>These days R-bloggers continues to serve a large global audience with over 600<br>
contributing bloggers. It is the go-to place for R news and tutorials and one of<br>
the core spokes of the R community.</p>
<p>Tal, I’m sure I speak for many in the R community when I say thank you for<br>
continuing to invest in and develop this resource which we all benefit from on a<br>
daily basis. Having appreciated content from R-bloggers for so many years I now<br>
look forward to being able to contribute some of my own and hope that I will be<br>
able to add value for others in the process.</p>
<p>Eduardo from Data Science LA did a really nice <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="http://datascience.la/a-conversation-with-tal-galili-at-user-2014/">interview with Tal</a> at the<br>
<a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="http://user2014.stat.ucla.edu/">useR conference</a> back in 2014. They discussed<br>
how he came to start R-bloggers, his thoughts on and involvement with R and the<br>
community, as well as another of his projects, <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://www.r-users.com/">R-Users</a>:<br>
“A job board for people and companies looking to hire R users”.</p>
<p>Listening to it again now, two years later, I was struck by how much of their<br>
discussion is still so relevant, and Tal has some great insight and advice to<br>
share (e.g. don’t get too caught up with newer tech developments<br>
before they’re ready, unless they really solve a problem that you have).</p>
<p>Two of the things he mentions in particular I would like to highlight:</p>
<ul>
<li>learn to create R packages as soon as possible</li>
<li>supplement your R and stats knowledge with some C++ (i.e. learn to use Rcpp)</li>
</ul>
<p>These are two areas which have been really pivotal for me in terms of improving<br>
my knowledge and understanding of R, and empowering myself to dig deeper and do<br>
more with it. If you’re looking for good learning resources in either of these<br>
areas, I highly recommend Hadley Wickham’s books<br>
<a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="http://r-pkgs.had.co.nz/">R packages</a> and <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="http://adv-r.had.co.nz/">Advanced R</a><br>
(which has a great<br>
<a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="http://adv-r.had.co.nz/Rcpp.html">chapter on Rcpp</a>).</p>
<p>When asked what his advice would be to an R user back in 2007, I had to chuckle<br>
at Tal’s remark not to invest in <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="http://nbcgib.uesc.br/lec/software/editores/tinn-r/en">Tinn-R</a><br>
because it won’t be around much longer <img alt="🙂" class="wp-smiley" src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/2/72x72/1f642.png"></p>
<p>But jokes aside, whether you are a new or long time R user, it’s a great<br>
interview that is worth a listen.</p>
<p><iframe height="315" width="560" allowfullscreen src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/S2kIM08QBtI"></iframe><img height="1" alt="" width="1" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/JonCaldersRBlog/~4/Xvl8LbQBuCA"></p>
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<div>To <strong>leave a comment</strong> for the author, please follow the link and comment on their blog: <strong><a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/JonCaldersRBlog/~3/Xvl8LbQBuCA/"> Jon Calder's R Blog</a></strong>.</div>
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