There are two primary discussion forums for RATS users available—one email-based and one web-based. The email discussion list has been around for many years, while the web forum was introduced in November 2006.
Both forums provide convenient ways for RATS users to discuss programming ideas and econometric issues, share examples and procedures, and exchange ideas. The support staff at Estima are active participants in both forums—we often post code and examples on the forums before they appear anywhere else, and make an effort to respond to questions when possible.
Our discussion forum is located here:
Guests may view any of the posts on the forum, but may not post their own messages.
To post your own messages, you will need to register as a user on the forum. Registration is restricted to users with legal, licensed copies of our RATS software. In order to register, you will need to provide:
The web-based forum has one key advantage: messages posted there continue to remain visible, making it easier for newcomers to find answers to previously asked questions as well as posted sample code, procedures, announcements, and other information.
The RATS Internet Mailing list ("RATS-L") is an an e-mail discussion group devoted to the use of the RATS software. This email list was created and is maintained by Rob Trevor, a very experienced RATS user from Sydney, Australia. Our thanks to Rob for all his efforts.
For more information, including instructions on subscribing to the list, see:
The RATS Internet Mailing List
The email forum has the advantage that all of the posts to the forum are delivered directly to subscriber's email inboxes. Some users still prefer this sort of interaction, which doesn't require them to actively visit a forum to discover new messages.