NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #31

home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search

/ NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #31 / NN_1992_31.iso / spool / bionet / general / 2003 < prev next >

Wrap

Internet Message Format | 1992-12-22 | 38.6 KB

Path: sparky!uunet!biosci!NET.BIO.NET!kristoff From: kristoff@NET.BIO.NET (Dave Kristofferson) Newsgroups: bionet.general Subject: FAQ II Message-ID: <CMM.0.90.2.725057867.kristoff@net.bio.net> Date: 22 Dec 92 20:57:47 GMT Sender: kristoff@net.bio.net Distribution: bionet Lines: 803 Newsgroups: bionet.announce From: Dave Kristofferson <kristoff@net.bio.net> Subject: Bionet (BIOSCI) FAQ II (usage and technical issues) Approved: bionews-moderator@net.bio.net BIOSCI/bionet Frequently Asked Questions II (FAQ) ------------------------------------------------- (last revised - 12/22/92) This is the second of two BIOSCI/bionet FAQs. FAQ I describes the general purpose and uses of the BIOSCI/bionet newsgroups. FAQ II provides details on how to participate in these forums. Both of these FAQs are available for anonymous FTP from net.bio.net [134.172.2.69] in pub/BIOSCI/biosci1.FAQ and pub/BIOSCI/biosci2.FAQ, the latter being this article. They may also be requested by e-mail to biosci@net.bio.net. Contents -------- * What is BIOSCI and bionet? * What newsgroups are available on BIOSCI/bionet? * What is USENET? * How can I get news software at my site? * How do I request or cancel e-mail subscriptions to BIOSCI newsgroups? * Why are BIOSCI e-mail subscription requests not processed by machine? * Why are there two BIOSCI sites? * How does one know to which newsgroup a message was posted? * What is the "BIOSCI-REQUEST" address? * How does one post a message? * How can I get a list of newsgroups or my subscriptions? * Why have I stopped getting messages? * I posted a message and got back an error message from a daemon!! * Where (and how many times) should I post my messages? * How do I find back issues of BIOSCI postings? * Is there a summary of METHODS-AND-REAGENTS postings? * How does one start a new BIOSCI newsgroup/mailing list? * Who are the discussion leaders for the various newsgroups? * What journals are available on BIO-JOURNALS? How can one locate articles? * Why didn't my USENET posting show up elsewhere? * Why are my messages are going to bionet.followup? What is BIOSCI and bionet? -------------------------- Please see biosci1.FAQ mentioned above for more details. We briefly recap our purpose here: We'll spare you the fascinating historical details and say simply that BIOSCI is a series of freely accessible electronic communication forums (i.e., electronic bulletin boards or "newsgroups") for use by biological scientists worldwide. No fees are charged for the service. The system is intended to promote communication between professionals in the biological sciences. All postings to the newsgroups should be made in that spirit. BIOSCI messages are distributed without editorial intervention in most cases. Dissemination is by normal electronic mail and also over USENET in the form of the "bionet" newsgroups (see below for USENET details). The contents of the electronic mail distribution is identical to the USENET news distribution, but we encourage BIOSCI users to access the system through USENET news software whenever possible. E-mail distributions may eventually be phased out. What newsgroups are available on BIOSCI/bionet? ----------------------------------------------- This is the list of the mailing lists and the corresponding USENET newsgroup names as of 12/92. A posting of the latest list of newsgroups and other information about subscribing/unsubscribing, etc., to BIOSCI (the "BIOSCI info sheet") is posted the first of each month on the BIONEWS/bionet.announce newsgroup along with this FAQ posting. Two versions of the BIOSCI info sheet are available, one for the Americas and the Pacific Rim countries, and the second for Europe, Africa, and Central Asia. The former may be requested by e-mail to biosci@net.bio.net, while the latter may be requested from biosci@daresbury.ac.uk. NEWSGROUP NAME USENET Newsgroup Name -------------- --------------------- AGEING bionet.molbio.ageing AGROFORESTRY bionet.agroforestry ARABIDOPSIS bionet.genome.arabidopsis BIOFORUM bionet.general BIO-INFORMATION-THEORY + bionet.info-theory BIONAUTS bionet.users.addresses BIONEWS ** bionet.announce BIO-JOURNALS bionet.journals.contents BIO-MATRIX bionet.molbio.bio-matrix BIO-SOFTWARE bionet.software CHROMOSOME-22 bionet.genome.chrom22 COMPUTATIONAL-BIOLOGY ** bionet.biology.computational EMBL-DATABANK bionet.molbio.embldatabank EMPLOYMENT bionet.jobs GDB bionet.molbio.gdb GENBANK-BB bionet.molbio.genbank GENETIC-LINKAGE bionet.molbio.gene-linkage HIV-MOLECULAR-BIOLOGY bionet.molbio.hiv HUMAN-GENOME-PROGRAM bionet.molbio.genome-program IMMUNOLOGY bionet.immunology JOURNAL-NOTES bionet.journals.note METHODS-AND-REAGENTS bionet.molbio.methds-reagnts MOLECULAR-EVOLUTION bionet.molbio.evolution NEUROSCIENCE bionet.neuroscience PLANT-BIOLOGY bionet.plants POPULATION-BIOLOGY bionet.population-bio PROTEIN-ANALYSIS bionet.molbio.proteins PROTEIN-CRYSTALLOGRAPHY bionet.xtallography SCIENCE-RESOURCES bionet.sci-resources TROPICAL-BIOLOGY bionet.biology.tropical VIROLOGY bionet.virology WOMEN-IN-BIOLOGY bionet.women-in-bio + full name is BIOLOGICAL-INFORMATION-THEORY-AND-CHOWDER-SOCIETY ** Note that newsgroups flagged with ** are moderated, i.e., postings are directed to a moderator (editor) who later forwards messages (possibly edited or condensed) to the newsgroup. NEWSGROUP NAME TOPIC -------------- ----- AGEING Discussions about ageing research AGROFORESTRY Discussions about agroforestry research ARABIDOPSIS Newsgroup for the Arabidopsis Genome Project BIOFORUM Discussions about biological topics for which there is not yet a dedicated newsgroup BIOLOGICAL-INFORMATION- THEORY-AND-CHOWDER-SOCIETY Applications of information theory to biology BIONAUTS Question/answer forum for help using electronic networks, locating e-mail addresses, etc. BIONEWS ** General announcements of widespread interest to biologists BIO-JOURNALS Tables of Contents of biological journals BIO-MATRIX Applications of computers to biological databases BIO-SOFTWARE Information on software for the biological sciences CHROMOSOME-22 Mapping and Sequencing of Human Chromosome 22 COMPUTATIONAL-BIOLOGY ** Mathematical and computer applications in biology EMBL-DATABANK Messages to and from the EMBL database staff EMPLOYMENT Job opportunities GDB Messages to and from the Genome Data Bank staff GENBANK-BB Messages to and from the GenBank database staff GENETIC-LINKAGE Newsgroup for genetic linkage analysis HIV-MOLECULAR-BIOLOGY Discussions about the molecular biology of HIV HUMAN-GENOME-PROGRAM NIH-sponsored newsgroup on human genome issues IMMUNOLOGY Discussions about research in immunology JOURNAL-NOTES Practical advice on dealing with professional journals METHODS-AND-REAGENTS Requests for information and lab reagents MOLECULAR-EVOLUTION Discussions about research in molecular evolution NEUROSCIENCE Discussions about research in the neurosciences PLANT-BIOLOGY Discussions about research in plant biology POPULATION-BIOLOGY Discussions about research in population biology PROTEIN-ANALYSIS Discussions about research on proteins and messages for the PIR and SWISS-PROT databank staffs. PROTEIN-CRYSTALLOGRAPHY Discussion about crystallography of macromolecules and messages for the PDB staff SCIENCE-RESOURCES Information from/about scientific funding agencies TROPICAL-BIOLOGY Discussions about research in tropical biology VIROLOGY Discussions about research in virology WOMEN-IN-BIOLOGY Discussions about issues concerning women biologists ** Note that newsgroups flagged with ** are moderated, i.e., postings are directed to a moderator (editor) who later forwards messages (possibly edited or condensed) to the newsgroup. What is USENET? --------------- USENET (short for Users Network) is an electronic bulletin board network which utilizes various public domain versions of the "netnews" software for message transmission. The software can operate over physical networks ranging from as simple as a telephone UUCP link (via modem) to networks as sophisticated as the Internet. Netnews has been optimized to tranmit messages without loss and also to avoid possible mail loops and other errors which plague simple electronic mail "broadcasting." It is for this reason that we strongly encourage our users to adopt netnews software at their sites as soon as possible. News software also keeps messages segregated into their respective newsgroups, making it easier to follow the thread of a discussion. If you only use e-mail, messages from all of the newsgroups to which you subscribe will be sent to your one personal e-mail address and will be mixed in with each other and with your other personal messages. This is obviously a suboptimal means of organizing messages. How can I get news software at my site? --------------------------------------- Contact biosci@net.bio.net for information on getting started with USENET. News software can be obtained free of charge from anonymous FTP sources. How do I request or cancel e-mail subscriptions to BIOSCI newsgroups? --------------------------------------------------------------------- If you have access to USENET news software, then YOU DO NOT NEED AN E-MAIL SUBSCRIPTION! Only those people who need to receive postings by e-mail must request to be added to the mailing lists. USENET users can simply read the various bionet newsgroups using their news software. If your site has USENET news but does not get the bionet newsgroups, please request help by sending a message to biosci@net.bio.net. For those who need e-mail subscriptions or who want to cancel current e-mail subscriptions, please send a request to one of the following addresses. Please choose the site that serves your location. Simply pick the newsgroup(s) from the list above that you wish to subscribe to and request that your address be added to the chosen mailing lists. Please use plain English; no special message syntax is required in your subscription or cancellation request. Address Serving ------- ------- biosci@net.bio.net The Americas and Pacific Rim biosci@daresbury.ac.uk Europe, Africa, and Central Asia ****If you are changing e-mail addresses****, please be sure to send a message to your appropriate biosci address above and request that your subscriptions be changed or canceled!! Why are BIOSCI e-mail subscription requests not processed by machine? --------------------------------------------------------------------- To date the daily volume of BIOSCI subscription requests is small and can typically be handled in under 15 minutes a day. We have preferred to handle requests through the use of semi-automated scripts at the two BIOSCI distribution nodes instead of requiring our readers to learn a special syntax for processing subscriptions automatically. Use of the newsgroups is rapidly growing, however, so we are taking steps to provide automated subscription handling in the future. Why are there two BIOSCI sites? ------------------------------- Originally there were *four* BIOSCI distribution sites (nodes), but due to administrative complexities, the number of nodes was scaled back to two. Although 99% of you never have to pay for any BIOSCI messages, rest assured that network resources are not free and should not be squandered. We established BIOSCI distribution sites on each side of the Atlantic to minimize network e-mail traffic. For example, if a message is posted to the U.S. site, only one copy is sent on to the U.K. site **via netnews software, not by mail** before being "exploded" for mail distribution to all of the final e-mail destinations on the "other side of the pond." This is more efficient than sending hundreds of copies of the same message across the Atlantic. A trade-off for this efficiency is slightly increased complexity in the distribution network, i.e., the mailing lists for each newsgroup are split between two sites. In the past BIOSCI experienced sporadic problems with "bounced" mail, but the reduction in the number of BIOSCI distribution sites and the implementation of U.S. to U.K. message transfer via news rather than by e-mail has eliminated this problem. Everyone would be better served if USENET news was used exclusively, and we have the eventual elimination of e-mail subscriptions as a **long term** goal. Currently, however, too many biologists still have no other means of access to BIOSCI other than through e-mail. How does one know to which newsgroup a message was posted? ---------------------------------------------------------- If you use USENET news software, all messages are sorted by newsgroup so there is no problem identifying the source. If you receive BIOSCI postings in your mail file, all postings are funneled into your one mail file and you must be a little discerning. The best way to determine the news forum is to look at the line in the mail header that starts with "To:". For example, if you see "To: arab-gen@net.bio.net" or "To: arab-gen@daresbury.ac.uk" then you know that the address for sending a reply to everyone on the newsgroup is "arab-gen@net.bio.net" or "arab-gen@daresbury.ac.uk." The "From:" line in the mail header indicates who sent the message. If you want to reply only to the author of the message, use the address on the "From:" line. If you want to reply to everyone on the newsgroup, use the address on the "To:" line. Please note that replies to BIOSCI messages are *not* automatically sent back to the newsgroup address. The default reply will be (in most cases, your local mail configuration might alter this) to the address that you see on the "From:" line, i.e., only to the person who posted the original message. You must consciously decide to send a copy of your reply to the newsgroup by including the newsgroup posting address in your e-mail response. This default reply (to the original sender only) is an Internet newsgroup standard and is the opposite of that used by the BITNET LISTSERV software (for those who may be familiar with the latter; the Internet standard is designed to minimize wasted network bandwidth, i.e., to avoid the *automatic, unthinking* posting by many people of the same answer to a particular question). What is the "BIOSCI-REQUEST" address? ------------------------------------- The BIOSCI-REQUEST@net.bio.net address was established to trap mailing error messages ("bouncers"). The address is not normally seen by BIOSCI readers in the messages that they receive. Unfortunately some proprietary (read "VMS") and other oddball mail systems misread the information used to transmit Internet e-mail messages and may end up putting the BIOSCI-REQUEST address on the From: line in the mail that you may receive. If this happens at your site and you want to reply to a message, please use either the newsgroup address on the To: line of the message or try to find the author's e-mail address elsewhere in the message (people often append this at the end of their text in their "signature"). If you send a message back to BIOSCI-REQUEST@net.bio.net, the BIOSCI managers at net.bio.net will be the only ones who will see it (we will try to forward it to the appropriate newsgroup, but would appreciate it if you would determine the correct address yourself first). How does one post a message? ---------------------------- If you use USENET, run your posting program (e.g., postnews, please check with your local systems administrator) and follow the prompts. Enter the appropriate newsgroup from the list of USENET names (above) when prompted. Be sure to set your news distribution to "world" (or "bionet" if the option is available) if you want your message to be seen by others. Some USENET systems may default to "local" which means that only people on your local computer will see the message. You can limit the extent of distribution of your message by choosing other distribution options, e.g., "usa" distributes only to the U.S.A. Usually pressing "?" or "h" at the Distribution: prompt will show you your options. If you are using e-mail, first select the newsgroup that you wish to post to from the list above and find the mailing address. The latest list of mailing addresses is found in the BIOSCI info sheet for your region. For example, to post to BIO-SOFTWARE you would use one of the following two addresses depending upon your location: Address Serving ------- ------- bio-soft@net.bio.net The Americas and Pacific Rim bio-soft@daresbury.ac.uk Europe, Africa, and Central Asia How can I get a list of newsgroups or my subscriptions? ------------------------------------------------------- As with any other subscription correspondence, simply send a request to your appropriate BIOSCI distribution site: Address Serving ------- ------- biosci@net.bio.net The Americas and Pacific Rim biosci@daresbury.ac.uk Europe, Africa, and Central Asia The most recent list of BIOSCI newsgroups/mailing addresses and the latest revisions of the BIOSCI/bionet FAQs are posted the first of each month on the BIONEWS/bionet.announce newsgroup. You should save these postings for future reference. Why have I stopped getting messages? ------------------------------------ If your computer or network connection is down, mail sent to your address will "bounce" back to the sender of the message and often to the BIOSCI-REQUEST address at net.bio.net. Given the number of people using BIOSCI around the world, this can become quite a problem, so we have to take prompt action to eliminate troublesome addresses from our mailing lists. Offending addresses are "commented out" of the mailing lists. If your system is down, there may be no way to reach you, so it is your responsibility to contact your BIOSCI distribution site and request reinstatement if you notice a lapse in distribution. There is an automatic reminder system at net.bio.net in the U.S. that sends a message to all "commented out" addresses on the mailing lists at net.bio.net each Monday for three weeks. After that if no response is received to biosci@net.bio.net, the bad addresses are completely removed from the mailing lists. I posted a message and got back an error message from a daemon!! ---------------------------------------------------------------- Don't panic!! The devil is not in the employ of BIOSCI! It is a rare day when every single computer and e-mail address in the world is functional. Mail systems are programmed to alert you if mail does not go through to a particular address which could be on any of our BIOSCI lists. Rest assured that your message was received by the *vast majority* of readers. You may either just delete these "bouncers" or send them on to your local BIOSCI distribution node (in most cases we will probably be aware of them already). It is not uncommon to receive one or two bouncers for any e-mail posting that you make. Note once again that if everyone used news software and if we didn't have to bridge so many incompatible e-mail networks to bring the biology community together, we wouldn't have to deal with this problem. Note that the BIOSCI-REQUEST address at net.bio.net was established to trap daemon bouncers instead of passing them back to the person who posts a message. Unfortunately due to network incompatibilities, the BIOSCI-REQUEST trapping mechanism is often disabled when the bad address is not on the Internet. Where (and how many times) should I post my messages? ----------------------------------------------------- The list of newsgroups above gives a brief description of the purpose of each newsgroup. Please select the appropriate forum for your posting with the newsgroup's purpose in mind. The groups designated as "Scientific Interest Group" are for discussions of professional interest in the area designated by the newsgroup name, i.e., population biology issues should obviously be directed to the POPULATION-BIOLOGY newsgroup. Generally only one copy of a message should be posted to the most appropriate forum. Crossposting the same message to multiple newsgroups can aggravate readers who participate by e-mail. These people will receive mulitple copies of a message if they are on the mailing lists for the groups that receive the crosspostings. A few guidelines on some of the other newsgroups: BIONAUTS/bionet.users.addresses: This newsgroup was designed to help biologists "voyaging" into the new world of electronic networking. This is also the appropriate forum for requesting electronic mail addresses of other biologists (no guarantees they'll respond personally, of course, but someone else might; e-mail directory services still leave much to be desired). In addition, this forum can be used for asking questions if you need any help with mail and news software or other aspects of electronic networking, e.g. "What is WAIS, gopher, and all of these other newfangled things that I have been hearing about?" (see the other BIOSCI/bionet FAQ for answers to this last question!). BIONEWS/bionet.announce: This is a moderated newsgroup designed to be low-volume, high content and intended primarily for announcements of interest to most users on the network, e.g., for general announcements such as for scientific meetings, courses, etc. BIOFORUM/bionet.general: BIOFORUM is intended for discussions on topics that do not fit in to any of the specialty newsgroups. If you want to start a new newsgroup, you might begin by trying to raise interest by opening up a discussion in this forum. BIO-JOURNALS/bionet.journals.contents: This newsgroup is not for postings by readers. It is used to distribute the Table of Contents for the following journals approximately a week or two in advance of publication: Applied and Environmental Microbiology CABIOS EMBO Journal Journal of Bacteriology Journal of Biological Chemistry Journal of Virology Molecular and Cellular Biology Molecular Microbiology Nucleic Acids Research BIO-SOFTWARE: Intended for discussions about software in the biological sciences. There are other USENET newsgroups and mailing lists for questions about word processors, etc., i.e., for general purpose software. BIO-SOFTWARE is intended for discussions about software for biologists. For USENET users only, please note that there is an accompanying newsgroup bionet.software.sources used for distributing biological software source code and binaries. This service is *not* available by e-mail. COMPUTATIONAL-BIOLOGY: This newsgroup is moderated, i.e., postings made to the group are reviewed by a moderator before being distributed. You can post messages without editorial intervention to other BIOSCI/bionet newsgroups. EMPLOYMENT: Because of network regulations (many of our distribution routes are subsidized at taxpayer expense) commercial job postings are currently NOT ALLOWED on this newsgroup. Please post only non-profit jobs in the biological sciences. SCIENCE-RESOURCES: This newgroup is used solely to distribute funding agency announcements such as the "NIH Guide for Grants and Contracts" and is not to be used for postings by readers. Most other BIOSCI newsgroups are dedicated to professional discussions in the area defined by the name of the newsgroup. You are free to post anything of interest within the specialty served by the newsgroup. Please note that the lack of face-to-face contact often emboldens some of our readers. While we can wish that everyone learned manners in grade school or at home, please be aware that discussions can sometimes become a bit more heated than a new user might be accustomed to (our readership is usually composed of "sober" Ph.D.s, or so I used to think 8-). NOTE: To understand what 8-) means tilt your head to the left; other variants: :-) and :-(. These symbols try to add emotional conotations to the electrons such as "that's a joke, son!" How do I find back issues of BIOSCI postings? --------------------------------------------- The BIOSCI node at net.bio.net maintains the entire collection of BIOSCI/bionet messages. They are available via WAIS (biosci.src and biology-journal-contents.src) and anonymous ftp from net.bio.net [134.172.2.69]. Gopher retrieval will also be available soon. Contact biosci@net.bio.net for further help. If you do not have WAIS software running locally, but do have access to the Internet, try telnet quake.think.com and login in as "wais" to experiment with the software. Both of our WAIS sources, biosci.src and biology-journal-contents.src, may be selected from the menu for searching. All the Bionet newsgroup postings since December 1991 are also stored in an anonymous ftp archive at ftp.bio.indiana.edu, in the directory usenet/bionet and are also available at this site (IUBIO archive) for Gopher searching and retrieval. Is there a summary of METHODS-AND-REAGENTS postings? ---------------------------------------------------- Yes. A FAQ for the METHODS newsgroup was created by Paul Hengen of Frederick Cancer Research and Development Center. It can be obtained via anaoymous FTP from net.bio.net in pub/BIOSCI/METHDS-REAGNTS/METHODS.FAQ or from ncifcrf.gov in pub/methods/FAQlist. Note, however, that maintaining such a FAQ is a gargantuan task. We also recommend searching the METHODS archives for keywords through the use of the WAIS and Gopher software as described in the "archives" question above. How does one start a new BIOSCI newsgroup/mailing list? ------------------------------------------------------- BIOSCI's goal is to promote the use of electronic coomunications among biologists and we are here to assist you in establishing new forums at no charge. There are currently two options - create a full newsgroup or a prototype (mailing lists only): For full-fledged BIOSCI newsgroup status: Proposals for new groups must contain a statement of purpose for the group and the name of a person designated as discussion leader unless the group is in the service category such as METHODS, EMPLOYMENT, etc. Discussion leaders are responsible for ensuring that a reasonable level of activity is sustained on the newsgroup (see Newsgroup Termination Policy below). The discussion leader can also propose the creation of moderated newsgroups if he/she agrees to serve as moderator (this requires access to USENET news software at the moderator's site). Proposals should be sent to biosci@net.bio.net. When a proposal is received it will be posted on BIONEWS/bionet.announce. A ten day period for discussion on BIOFORUM/bionet.general will follow and precede the call for votes. After the discussion, the person proposing the newsgroup may modify or withdraw the proposal prior to the call for votes. The modified proposal will then be included in a call for votes on BIONEWS/bionet.announce. The proposal must collect 80 YES votes in 30 days and the number of YES votes must exceed the number of NO votes by at least 40 to pass. BIOSCI management must be informed in advance of any intended efforts to advertise the newsgroup proposal in other forums. While BIOSCI wishes to inform potential users of the creation of newsgroups that might be of interest to them, promotional efforts should be focussed in forums likely to be utilized by professionals in the subject area covered by the newsgroup proposal, and should seek participation in the discussion of the proposal within bionet.general/BIOFORUM rather than promoting separate discussions in other forums to which portions of the BIOSCI readership may not have ready access. If a proposal is not passed by the readers, there will be a three month period before it can be brought up for another vote. Newsgroup Termination Policy Any group with less than 52 msgs in the previous calendar year will be put on notice by posting an announcement to the newsgroup (not to bionet.announce) that it faces cancellation. It can be reprieved if 80 readers respond within two weeks (this policy will be stated in the termination announcement). It then has two months to reach a usage level of one message per 3 days or else it will be abolished. Appeals to the BIOSCI management about high content albeit low volume on the group will be considered. BIOSCI "prototype" newsgroup creation policy We will be happy to establish and administer a straight *mailing* list *without* an associated USENET newsgroup for a six month trial period for anyone that wants to try to form a new electronic community in the biological sciences (We stress that the topics are limited to professional communications though.). The mailing lists will be maintained *initially* only at net.bio.net instead of at both BIOSCI sites, and will not be added to the BIOSCI information sheet listing. It will be the responsibility of the person who proposes the list to get it up and running within the six month period. They will have to handle promotion; our involvement at BIOSCI at net.bio.net will be limited to creating the list, putting out one announcement about it, and handling subscription requests. After six months, the list will be put out for discussion and a vote according to our procedures for full-fledged newsgroups above (unless the organizer decides to bow out). If it passes it will become a full-fledged BIOSCI newsgroup at both net.bio.net and daresbury.ac.uk and will also have a parallel USENET newsgroup. If it fails, the prototype mailing list at net.bio.net will be shut down. Note that this service does not preclude people who have an idea that has widespread appeal from following our current newsgroup creation policy and going to a vote after a 10 day discussion. If you have an idea for a prototype newsgroup, please send it to biosci@net.bio.net. Who are the discussion leaders for the various newsgroups? ---------------------------------------------------------- Most scientific specialty newsgroups (except for a few created several years ago) have individuals who are responsible for stimulating discussion on the newsgroup. General purpose forums such as METHODS-AND-REAGENTS do not have discussion leaders. If a group that you are interested in does not seem to have much activity recently, please contact the discussion leader and ask why 8-). NEWSGROUP NAME Discussion Leader and their e-mail address -------------- ------------------------------------------ AGEING Sydney Shall (bafa1@central.sussex.ac.uk) AGROFORESTRY Gerry Lawson (F_GJL@vaxa.nerc-bush.ac.uk) ARABIDOPSIS Chris Somerville (21847CRS@msu.edu) BIOFORUM None BIOLOGICAL-INFORMATION- THEORY-AND-CHOWDER-SOCIETY Tom Schneider (toms@ncifcrf.gov) BIONAUTS Rob Harper (harper@convex.csc.fi) BIONEWS ** David Kristofferson (kristoff@net.bio.net) BIO-JOURNALS David Kristofferson (kristoff@net.bio.net) BIO-MATRIX Dan Davison (davison@uh.edu) BIO-SOFTWARE None CHROMOSOME-22 Robert L. Nussbaum (nussbaum@a1.mscf.upenn.edu) COMPUTATIONAL-BIOLOGY ** Phil J. Curtiss (curtiss@umiacs.umd.edu) EMBL-DATABANK None (datalib@embl-heidelberg.de) EMPLOYMENT None GDB Kerryn Brandt (kab@welchgate.welch.jhu.edu) GENBANK-BB Dennis Benson (benson@ncbi.nlm.nih.gov) GENETIC-LINKAGE Steve Bryant (s_bryant@icrf.ac.uk) HIV-MOLECULAR-BIOLOGY Mika Salminen (msalminen@nphi.fi) HUMAN-GENOME-PROGRAM Jane Peterson (jp2@cu.nih.gov) IMMUNOLOGY Donald Forsdyke (forsdyke@qucdn.queensu.ca) JOURNAL-NOTES Donald Forsdyke (forsdyke@qucdn.queensu.ca) METHODS-AND-REAGENTS None MOLECULAR-EVOLUTION Dan Davison (davison@uh.edu) NEUROSCIENCE Vincent A Mazzarella (vamg6792@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu) PLANT-BIOLOGY Tony Travis (ajt@rri.sari.ac.uk) POPULATION-BIOLOGY None PROTEIN-ANALYSIS Amos Bairoch (BAIROCH@cmu.unige.ch) and John Garavelli (garavelli@nbrf.georgetown.edu) PROTEIN-CRYSTALLOGRAPHY Morten Kjeldgaard (morten@oase.kemi.aau.dk) SCIENCE-RESOURCES David Kristofferson (kristoff@net.bio.net) TROPICAL-BIOLOGY Matti Nummelin (saarikko@cc.helsinki.fi) VIROLOGY Robert Coelen (robert@arbo.microbiol.uwa.oz.au) WOMEN-IN-BIOLOGY Cassandra Smith (cls@buenga.bu.edu) What journals are available on BIO-JOURNALS? How can one locate articles? -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The following journals appear regularly. This list will be expanded in 1993. Applied and Environmental Microbiology CABIOS EMBO Journal Journal of Bacteriology Journal of Biological Chemistry Journal of Virology Molecular and Cellular Biology Molecular Microbiology Nucleic Acids Research Table of Contents for the journals above are available for FTP from net.bio.net in pub/BIOSCI/BIO-JOURNALS. One can use the WAIS source biology-journal-contents.src at net.bio.net to retrieve individual article references from the journals above. If you do not have WAIS software running locally, but do have access to the Internet, try telnet quake.think.com and login in as "wais" to experiment with the software. Both of our WAIS sources, biosci.src and biology-journal-contents.src, may be selected from the menu for searching. Why didn't my USENET posting show up elsewhere? ----------------------------------------------- Your local USENET software may have defaulted to "local" distribution. If this option is selected, only other readers of the bionet newsgroups on your local computer will see your posting. If you want your message to be delivered to all BIOSCI/bionet readers, please be sure to specify "world" or "bionet" when prompted for the Distribution:. Generally, if you press "?" or "h" when prompted, you will see your options for controlling the distribution of your messages on USENET. If your message does not reach one of the two BIOSCI nodes in the U.S. or the U.K. it will not be distributed to people who participate in BIOSCI by e-mail. Why are my messages are going to bionet.followup? ------------------------------------------------- This is a problem that might plague users of older versions of the "rn" newsreading program when they try to reply to messages on BIOFORUM/bionet.general. bionet.followup is a non-existant newsgroup. In the "good old days" there was a newsgroup called "net.general" and replies to net.general were posted to "net.followup." Unfortunately the USENET name of the BIOFORUM newsgroup, bionet.general, contains the text "net.general" as a subset. Older versions of news software can latch on to this text string and redirect replies to bionet.general messages to bionet.followup. If you are plagued by this problem, please call the following fixes, provided by Roy Smith and Wayne Rindone, to the attention of your local systems manager: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The problem is indeed in the rn sources, specifically in intrp.c. In the version I have (intrp.c,v 4.3.2.11 90/12/31 11:47:44 sob Exp), It's the following code at lines 664-670: if (h = instr(s,"net.general")) { off = h-s; strncpy(scrbuf,s,off+4); strcpy(scrbuf+off+4,"followup"); safecpy(scrbuf+off+12,h+11,sizeof(scrbuf)); s = scrbuf; } What's going on is that there used to be the convention that followups to articles in the newsgroup net.general (which doesn't exist anymore and hasn't for something like 5 years) should be placed in net.followup. For better or for worse, the rn code attempted to enforce this convention. What's going on in the above code is that the string "net.general" in the Newsgroups line of an article being follow-ed-up to gets changed to "net.followup". Unfortunately, that means "bionet.general" gets changed to "bionet.followup". I would suggest simply deleting the above code entirely. I'm not even sure why it's still there, other than nobody bothered to take it out, and until bionet.general came around, it never bit anybody. Old code never dies. It simply gets integrated into the host genome of the program it's part of waiting for the right environmental conditions to appear. -- roy@alanine.phri.nyu.edu (Roy Smith) Public Health Research Institute 455 First Avenue, New York, NY 10016, USA "Arcane? Did you say arcane? It wouldn't be Unix if it wasn't arcane!" ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Wayne Rindone <wrindone@BBN.COM> Subject: Another source of bionet.followup problem Thought you might like to know that there are other potential reasons for the appearance of the bogus bionet.followup group name. A couple of months ago, I installed rn 4.4 on my workstation, expecting that to fix the bionet.followup problem, among other things. I was very surprised to discover that I still had bionet.followup appearing, even though it was quite clear there was nothing in the new rn sources to account for that. It turned out that the following lines were included in /usr/local/news/rn/Pnews.header: case $ng in *net.general*) follow=`echo "$ng" | sed 's/net\.general/net.followup/g'` ;; *) follow="" ;; esac Once these were removed the problem disappeared. I have no idea if this logic was created locally at BBN or not, or if it came from elsewhere or had wider dissemination beyond BBN. Although the problem is solved for me, I have a bad feeling that it will turn up many places around the world for many years to come. Feel free to mention Pnews.header as another potential source of the problem the next time someone asks if you think that helpful. Wayne Rindone, BBN ----------------------------------------------------------------------