To: All Dr. Math Doctors
From: Ian Underwood 
Subject: Ask Dr. Math in June

Hi Math Doctors,

In June, more than 40 math doctors combined to answer a phenomenal
65% of the nearly 5000 questions that we received.  (We averaged 
163 questions and 106 answers per day.)  

Special thanks go to the following:

 Avg/
 day
 
 20 |
    | 
    | 
    | Peterson
    |
 15 |
    |
    |
    |
    |
 10 |   
    | 
    | 
    | Roy
    |  
  5 | Anthony, Douglas, Fenton
    | Jerry, Rick
    | Dotty, George, Greenie, Jacques, Rob, Robert, Tom
    | Shawn, Wilkinson
    | Achilles, Gareth, Hans, Jaffee, Jeremiah, Mike, Mitteldorf, 
      Pat, Paul, Pete, Samus, Schwa, White
    /
 1/ | Aileen, Ameis, Cannon, Chita, Edwin, Floor, Marshall, 
 wk | Nemo, Pepper

Welcome to Doctor Cannon!


Selected Answers to Common Questions
------------------------------------

There is a new link at the top of the FAQ page:

  Selected answers to common questions
  http://mathforum.org/library/drmath/sets/select/

Following the link will take you to a page with about 100 links
in about a dozen categories.  Each link leads to a collection of 
answers to a particular kind of question that comes up often 
enough that we've answered it a number of times, in a number 
of different ways.

Our archivist, Dr. Sarah, has been collecting these, and encourages
you to highlight answers that you'd like to see grouped together 
in this kind of resource.  You can do that in a memo (put the word
'archivist' in the title), or by sending email to 

  dr.math-arch@mathforum.org

I encourage you to take a few moments to at least look over the
list, since sending a patient to one of these collections will often
be more helpful than simply citing a single answer from the archive.
(One of our greatest strengths is that we approach questions from 
lots of different directions.  These collections play to that
strength.)


New 'Ask' Pages
---------------

In February, we redesigned the series of pages leading up to the 
page where patients submit their questions.  In June, we did it 
again, in an attempt to try to present the major points (please
check the archives, don't ask us to do your homework, and so on)
in a way that wouldn't encourage people to just start looking
around for the 'Continue' button.  

As always, it's _your_ site, so any feedback on the content or
form of the pages is more than welcome.  I'm especially interested
in any perceptions you might have about whether the quality of 
the questions being asked has been affected by the change (e.g., 
whether patients seem to be more or less inclined to include 
useful information in the Difficulties and Thoughts sections of 
the submission form).  


Secure Talk Area 
----------------

The Dr. Math Talk area, 

  http://mathforum.org/discuss/dr.math-talk/

is now password-protected, so we shouldn't have to deal with 
outsiders dropping in with homework questions.  Please let 
me know if you have any problems accessing it. 
 

That's it for now!  Go forth, be fruitful, and teach kids to
multiply...

Dr. Ian
Attending Physician
Ask Dr. Math