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Newsgroups: bionet.announce Last-modified: mostly 9 December 1999; partial update June 2006This document supplements the BIOSCI Newsgroups Information Sheet and provides details on how to participate in BIOSCI forums. Both documents are available for anonymous FTP and web retrieval from net.bio.net. The text version of the FAQ is found in pub/BIOSCI/doc/biosci.FAQ. This document is also available using the World Wide Web at http://www.bio.net/docs/biosci.FAQ.html.
From: BIOSCI Administrator <biosci-help@net.bio.net> Reply-To: biosci-help@net.bio.net Subject: BIOSCI/bionet Frequently Asked Questions BIOSCI/bionet Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) ----------------------------------------------
BIOSCI messages are distributed without editorial intervention in most cases. Dissemination is by both electronic mail and 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. As of October 1992, 59% of our readers used Usenet news software instead of e-mail.
You may find much more detailed and up to date information concerning Usenet in the news.announce.newusers newsgroup. These articles are also available using anonymous FTP from rtfm.mit.edu, in the /pub/usenet/news.announce.newusers directory. You may be specifically interested in the following articles:
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-help@net.bio.net, while the latter may be requested from biosci@hgmp.mrc.ac.uk.
A few guidelines on specific newsgroups:
A thumbnail description for each Bionet group is listed at http://www.bio.net/, the Bionet main website. Find in the Charters folder, details for most newsgroups on the desired discussion topics.
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. We recommend that ALL participants subscribe to this newsgroup to keep up with the items above and also to receive the latest information about changes to BIOSCI/bionet.
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 through a discussion in this forum. Be aware that this newsgroup is by design one of the most "chatty" forums in the BIOSCI network.
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.
EMPLOYMENT: These are the posting regulations for EMPLOYMENT/bionet.jobs as formulated by the U.S. National Science Foundation. Readers outside of the U.S. should check with their local network authorities to determine what rules apply to their usage. EMPLOYMENT/bionet.jobs is to be used for the posting of job openings in the biological sciences or professional level jobs that support the work of biological scientists (such as for computer/systems programming/support). There are no restrictions on the content of the postings if these jobs are in the non-profit sector. Individuals regardless of their place of employment may post their CVs/resumes to this newsgroup or simply place a request for work if they are looking for jobs in this area of endeavor. Commercial companies can post jobs intended for professional people in the areas just mentioned provided that the postings are limited to the format described below. Extended commercial job/benefit descriptions and promotional material are not allowed, nor may commercial firms post openings for non-professional positions (if in doubt about the appropriateness of a posting, please check with biosci-help@net.bio.net before proceeding).
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 we used to think, but it appears that perhaps economic hard times have taken their toll on sobriety 8-).
NOTE: To understand what 8-) means tilt your head to the left; other variants: :-) and :-(. These symbols try to add emotional connotations to the electrons such as "that's a joke, son!"
Bionet news and discussion has been archived for public use since its inception in the 1980s, with archives available for rereading and searching via the Internet search engines, Yahoo, Google, and others. The Bionet archives provide important references to science discussions and knowledge to many scientists and lay people.
Those who read and respond to your discussion have expectations of knowing who they are interacting with. If you are concerned with personal privacy please read here:
"The fact that opinions shared in Usenet newsgroups are ... like little bylined editorials published in one of the most widely read newspapers on Earth, is not news." Your Thoughts: A Permanent Public Record, Wired, 1998
"... privacy discourages information sharing between individuals which in turn can lead to mistrust and intolerance amongst people and perpetuate false information. If information can be shared widely then facts can generally be verified through many different sources and there are less chances of inaccuracies." wikipedia/Privacy
* The major issue is that of credibility. The other readers will probably take you more seriously and it is easier to build a genuine reputation around a true identity. Anonymous postings are ignored more readily than overt ones.
* Asking for help and advice on the Usenet? You'll get it more readily if the readers know who is asking.
Anonymous Usenet posting, another view
Bionet and other Usenet groups are archived at various placed around the 'Net, including Google. One needs to understand from the nature of Bionet, Usenet and public science discussions that personal privacy is at odds with use of these public discussion groups.
As Google and the related search engines have become a common tool to discover the Internet presence of people, usually for various good uses, some of Bionet's contributors who did not fully understand these issues request editing and removal of posts from the public archives. The Bionet staff will accept such requests (see email address above), and are understanding of the importance of personal privacy issues. We cannot however promise to act on such requests, due to both the public policy that is an integral part of Bionet and Usenet, and limited resources to manage such requests. We ask that requestors have an understanding and accept that this public policy is a long standing part of science discourse and Bionet.
As noted in the first FAQ item, Bionet is for biology science discussion. Personal issues including requests for medical advice, legal advice, and such are not desired topics, and are among those where personal privacy is likely to become important to the requestor. Caveat emptor, you should be aware before you make use of Bionet groups whether your questions are suited to a public forum.
To those who ask for removal or edits of their public postings, please
consider this analogy: one places a classified ad in the New York
Times newspaper, then years later asks that all public libraries
with archived copies of the Times remove this ad. Differences between
this case and Bionet postings are that one received the value of
Bionet's public news distribution for free, and Google may not yet
be searching newspaper archives.
Bionet has published these archives, and notices of these
regularly since 1992 at bionet.announce in the BIOSCI/bionet
Frequently Asked Questions; see e.g.
http://groups.google.com/group/bionet.announce/browse_frm/month/1993-01
Commercial activities on BIOSCI are in general prohibited except as
noted below. People at for-profit organizations are free to read all
postings made to the BIOSCI/bionet newsgroups, but must ensure that
their postings to the newsgroups do not violate our guidelines.
Commercial organizations may post job openings on
EMPLOYMENT/bionet.jobs subject to the format restrictions for that
group. Commercial job posting format restrictions for the
EMPLOYMENT/bionet.jobs newsgroup are described above under the
question "Where should I post my messages?" Users who violate these
format restrictions consciously risk losing their network access.
BIOSCI readers without any financial connections to a company or a
product may discuss and/or post endorsements of a commercial product.
However, it is standard Internet practice to include in the posting a
disclaimer of any financial interest in the product/company. Note
that postings to newsgroups are subject to libel laws. BIOSCI advises
readers to think twice before taking potshots at products that they do
not like.
BIOSCI users often post general questions about problems that might be
solved through the use of a commercial product. It is EXTREMELY
IMPORTANT, however, that such general questions not be answered by
people affiliated with the product or company that might stand to gain
a sale as a result. For example, user X may ask, "Is there a product
that will allow me to separate protein A from protein B given the
following properties ...?", but, if user Y works at company Z which
sells a product that can accomplish this task, user Y does NOT have
permission to respond to the question. Responses can only be posted
by other scientists who might have experience in solving the problem
in question and who do not stand to gain financially by promoting the
product in question, i.e., they are not employees, consultants, or
connected to the company via other financial ties. As noted above,
postings endorsing commercial products should contain a customary
disclaimer stating the absence of financial ties of the poster to the
product/company.
Commercial companies MAY RESPOND to a public BIOSCI newsgroup if a
BIOSCI user asks a question directly about one of their products,
e.g., mentions it by name. The response should be limited to a
factual answer of the question posed and should avoid any hint of
advertising hype. Comparisons with competitors' products should be
avoided completely.
Finally, as a general rule, if you are unsure about the
appropriateness of your posting, before you post anything please send
a copy of what you propose to post to the BIOSCI adminstrator at
biosci-help@net.bio.net for review.
BIOSCI will takes steps to terminate network access to any reader who
willfully violates our commercial use policies.
If you are using e-mail, first select the newsgroup that you wish to
post to and find the mailing address in the BIOSCI info sheet for your
region. For example, to post to the METHODS-AND-REAGENTS newsgroup
you would use one of the following two addresses depending upon your
location:
The BIOSCI information sheet containing the latest list of e-mail
addresses for each of the above regions can be requested from
biosci@net.bio.net or biosci@hgmp.mrc.ac.uk respectively.
Please note that software safeguards in our system which prevent
mailing loops also make it difficult to use news software to both
crosspost to different newsgroups AND simultaneously mail to all
associated mailing lists. If you absolutely must distribute a
message to different newsgroups AND their associated mailing lists,
the way to do this is to e-mail a separate copy of your message to
each newsgroup e-mail posting address. Including multiple mailing
addresses on a single e-mail message will not crosspost to all mailing
lists. Please be aware that many people read multiple groups by mail
and be assured that, if two groups are related, many people who are
interested in one will obviously sign up for the other group, too.
Before crossposting, be certain that your message is so important that
it really warrants sending multiple copies to a large number of
people.
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@hgmp.mrc.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@hgmp.mrc.ac.uk." The "From:"
line in the mail header indicates who sent the message. In most
cases, if you want to reply only to the author of the message, use the
address on the "From:" line, and, if you want to reply to everyone on
the newsgroup, use the address on the "To:" line (but please read the
following sections on the BIOSCI-REQUEST address and replying to
BIOSCI postings for additional information).
Please note that replies to BIOSCI messages are not automatically
sent back to the newsgroup address. The default reply on most mail
systems (your local mail configuration may differ) will be to reply 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).
If you are replying to an e-mail message from BIOSCI, be sure to look
carefully at the To: and Cc: lines of your reply message before
sending it off. If you want the reply to be PRIVATE, only the address
of the person who posted the original message (and perhaps your
address and/or that of other individuals) should be on the To: and Cc:
address lines. If you want the reply to be PUBLIC, be sure that the
newsgroup posting address appears on either the To: or Cc: line of
your response. If your mail system is a bit unorthodox and puts the
"BIOSCI-REQUEST" address in your response (see the section about
BIOSCI-REQUEST above), please be sure to correct this before sending
your message (ask your systems administrator how to edit the To: and
Cc: lines of your mail messages before sending if you do not know how
to do this).
Now that you have read about all of these problems with using e-mail
to participate in BIOSCI, why don't you get news software installed at
your site and make life easy for yourself instead of using e-mail
8-)!! Let's look at Usenet news next!
Please note that all new BIOSCI/bionet newsgroups are announced on
BIONEWS/bionet.announce as soon as they are ready for use. If you see
this announcement, this means that the BIOSCI staff has tested the
group and is (1) sure that it works, and (2) knows that it has
propagated to at least some other sites in both North America and
Europe. We obviously can not check for propagation to the thousands
of sites on Usenet. Depending upon your source of Usenet news, there
may be a delay of several days before the newgroup message reaches
your site. The announcement of the newsgroup availability, however,
is always sent to bionet.announce after the newgroup message has
been sent and after system tests have been run.
What are the restrictions on commercial activities in the
BIOSCI/bionet newsgroups?
BIOSCI is funded in part by the National Science Foundation (NSF)
which supports the Internet in the U.S. with U.S. taxpayer dollars.
NSF is responsible for setting Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) for the the
NSFNet backbone section of the Internet of which BIOSCI makes
extensive use. Because of these reasons, BIOSCI users should adhere
to the following guidelines.
How does one post a message?
If you use Usenet, run your posting program (e.g., postnews or e.g.,
use the ":post" command in nn) and follow the prompts. Please check
with your local systems administrator for details on using your local
news software; general information on Usenet and how to get news
software is provided further below but each news program is different.
When prompted, enter the appropriate newsgroup name from the list of
Usenet names in the BIOSCI info sheet. 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. (sometimes! - on occasion these
distribution limiting features don't work for a variety of reasons).
Usually pressing "?" or "h" at the Distribution: prompt will show you
your options. After entering your options, you are usually placed in
an editor to compose your message. After saving it and exiting the
editor, one typically enters a "send" command to complete the posting
process.
Address Serving
------- -------
methods@net.bio.net The planet Earth
Once you have entered the newsgroup mailing address on the To: line of
your mail message, the rest of the process is the same as composing
and sending any e-mail message. Your message will be automatically
distributed to all mail recipients on the list and also distributed by
Usenet news.
Should I post my message to more than one 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 multiple copies of a message if they are on the
mailing lists for the groups that receive the crosspostings.
Sorting out mail - which newsgroup did an e-mail message come from?
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 merely by chronological order of posting and you must be a
little discerning to follow discussions.
Why do all of my postings come from "BIOSCI-REQUEST?"
Unfortunately some mail systems make all BIOSCI postings appear to
come from someone named "BIOSCI-REQUEST." 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 do I reply to a BIOSCI posting?
If you are using news software, there are usually two types of reply
commands. One command sends a private reply to the author of the
original posting; the second sends a "followup" posting to everyone on
the newsgroup. Press ? or h in your news software to find these
commands. They are often noted by "r" and "R" or "r" and "f"
respectively.
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 transmit messages without loss and also to avoid possible
mail loops and other errors which plague simple electronic mail
"broadcasting." 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. With news software, you can
browse the discussion topics easily, read what you want and discard
the rest. Why subject yourself to having to page through a
disorganized mail file message-by-message unless you really have no
other choice?? News software makes the use of BIOSCI pleasant and
efficient. It's time to get your organization "into the 20th Century"
before it turns into the 21st Century!
How can I get news software at my site?
Contact biosci-help@net.bio.net for information on getting started with
Usenet. News software can be obtained free of charge from anonymous FTP
sources. Note, however (yes, here's the unfortunate catch), that news
software should be installed and maintained by a trained systems
administrator in most cases; it is not a task for a computer novice. You
can find detailed information about Usenet using anonymous FTP from
rtfm.mit.edu [18.181.0.24, but please always reference the hostname
rtfm.mit.edu, as IP addresses and canonical names will change in the
future, but rtfm.mit.edu will remain correct], in the
/pub/usenet/news.announce.newusers directory. You may be specifically
interested in the following articles:
How can I test my news or mail software?
Please DO NOT post test messages to any of the BIOSCI/bionet Usenet
newsgroups. If you are unsure about whether or not your mail is
working, please send test mail messages to either of our two
administrative addresses, but NOT to newsgroup mailing addresses:
Address for tests Location
----------------- --------
biosci@net.bio.net the planet Earth
If you need to test your Usenet news software, please post test
messages to the Usenet newsgroup misc.test which was created solely
for this purpose.
I hear that a new bionet newsgroup was created but why isn't it at
my site yet?
This could happen for a variety of reasons. When we create a new
Usenet newsgroup, a "newgroup" message is sent out from net.bio.net to
news administrators at Usenet sites around the world. Many sites are
configured so that such newgroup messages are acted upon automatically
and the group is established without human intervention. However, due
to the growing volume of Usenet newsgroups, many sites have turned off
automatic newgroup creation and require human intervention to create a
new Usenet group in response to a newgroup message. If you know from
reading BIONEWS/bionet.announce or from contacting the BIOSCI staff at
biosci-help@net.bio.net that a new bionet newsgroup should be in
existance, please contact your local news administrator and ask them
if they acted on the newgroup message. Newgroup messages can
sometimes be simply overlooked by the news administrator and sometimes
they may not be received if a Usenet site upstream on the net from you
had a problem and did not pass on the message. Please let your news
adminstrator know that a bionet "checkgroup" message is posted on the
first of each month to bionet.announce. Your news administrator can
use the contents of that message to update your local list of bionet
Usenet newsgroups.
A new bionet Usenet group has been created at my site but there are
no messages in it. However, I see that messages are being sent out to
the mailing list. Why do the contents differ?
If you experience the problem above, please contact your local news
administrator and have them check with the site that sends you your
bionet Usenet news feed. We explained in a question above that new
Usenet newsgroups are created in response to a "newgroup" message
which is sent out to all Usenet news administrators. It is possible
that your news administrator acted on the message to create the group,
but that the site which sends you bionet Usenet news did not. Having
your Usenet news administrator contact the administrator at the
upstream site can usually resolve the problem. If you have a problem
getting a reliable bionet Usenet news feed, please contact
biosci-help@net.bio.net.
How do I request or cancel e-mail subscriptions to BIOSCI newsgroups?
See the unsubscribe section for lists at
http://www.bio.net/biomail/listinfo/
{listname}
All the Bionet newsgroup postings since December 1991 are stored for Gopher searching and retrieval and anonymous ftp at ftp.bio.indiana.edu, the IUBIO Archive maintained by Don Gilbert. The directory in the anonymous FTP account is usenet/bionet. This site also contains an outstanding collection of biological software and databases.
Note, however, that maintaining such a FAQ is a gargantuan task. We also recommend searching the METHODS archives for keywords as described in the "archives" question above.
In each issue of "Trends in Biochemical Sciences" since November 1993, Dr. Hengen writes a monthly digest column of the METHODS newsgroup. This column highlights topics of special interest which were discussed recently on the newsgroup.
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.
As of December 1999, there's only a single node, at the HGMP Resouyrce Center in Hinxton, near Cambridge, England. The previous paragraph is historical.
As of June 2005, Bionet/BIOSCI has moved to IUBio Archive, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana.
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.
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.
The mailing lists will be maintained initially only at net.bio.net instead of at both BIOSCI sites. 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 hgmp.mrc.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-help@net.bio.net.
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
+++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++++++
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:
net<1>ftp net.bio.net ### connect to the BIOSCI computer
---------------
Connected to net.bio.net.
220 net.bio.net FTP server (Version wu-2.6.0(1) Fri Oct 22 14:11:53 BST 1999) ready.
Name (net.bio.net:kristoff): anonymous ### login as anonymous
---------
331 Guest login ok, send your complete e-mail address as password.
Password: ### enter any password; typically your e-mail address
----------
230 Guest login ok, access restrictions apply.
ftp> ls ### display the directories. sometimes "dir" is used here
--
200 PORT command successful.
150 Opening ASCII mode data connection for /bin/ls (134.172.2.69,3225)
total 10
bin
dev
etc
pub
usr
226 ASCII Transfer complete.
271 bytes received in 0.024 seconds (10.96 Kbytes/s)
ftp> cd pub ### change to the "pub" public directory. Most FTP
------ ### sites place public material in this directory
250 CWD command successful.
ftp> dir ### list the files again. BIOSCI archives are in BIOSCI 8-)
-- ### Be sure to strictly follow upper/lower case in filenames
### when accessing FTP sites running UNIX such as net.bio.net
200 PORT command successful.
150 ASCII data connection for /bin/ls (134.172.2.69,3227) (0 bytes).
BIOSCI
README
doc
dos
mac
unix
vms
226 ASCII Transfer complete.
42 bytes received in 0.05 seconds (0.82 Kbytes/s)
ftp> cd BIOSCI
---------
250 CWD command successful.
ftp> ls
--
200 PORT command successful.
150 ASCII data connection for /bin/ls (134.172.2.69,3228) (0 bytes).
ADDRESSES
AGEING
AGROFORESTRY
ARABIDOPSIS
BIO-INFO
BIO-JOURNALS
BIO-MATRIX
BIO-SOFTWARE
BIOFORUM
BIONEWS
CHROMOSOME-22
COMPUTATIONAL-BIOLOGY
EMBL-DATABANK
EMPLOYMENT
GDB
GENBANK-BB
GENETIC-LINKAGE
HIV-BIOL
HUMAN-GENOME
IMMUNOLOGY
JRNLNOTE
METHDS-REAGNTS
MOLECULAR-EVOLUTION
NEUROSCIENCE
PLANT-BIOLOGY
POPULATION-BIOLOGY
PROTEIN-ANALYSIS
PROTEIN-CRYSTALLOGRAPHY
SCIENCE-RESOURCES
TROPICAL-BIOLOGY
VIROLOGY
WOMENINBIOLOGY
biosci-uk.infosheet
biosci-us.infosheet
biosci.FAQ
226 ASCII Transfer complete.
562 bytes received in 0.1 seconds (5.5 Kbytes/s)
ftp> cd PROTEIN-ANALYSIS ### We want to look at PROTEIN-ANALYSIS archives
-------------------
250 CWD command successful.
ftp> ls
--
200 PORT command successful.
150 ASCII data connection for /bin/ls (134.172.2.69,3233) (0 bytes).
8912
9001
9002
9003
9004
9005
9006
9007
9008
9009
9010
9011
9012
9101
9102
9103
9104
9105
9106
9107
9108
9109
9110
9111
9112
9201
9202
9203
9204
9205
9206
9207
9208
9209
9210
9211
current
226 ASCII Transfer complete.
225 bytes received in 0.12 seconds (1.8 Kbytes/s)
ftp> get 9211 ### Retrieve the file for November 1992.
--------
200 PORT command successful.
150 ASCII data connection for 9211 (134.172.2.69,3234) (208763 bytes).
226 ASCII Transfer complete.
local: 9211 remote: 9211
213849 bytes received in 1.4 seconds (1.5e+02 Kbytes/s)
ftp> bye ### End the FTP session. Some systems use quit or exit.
---
221 Goodbye.
Liberal use of the ? key and help at the ftp> prompt will provide
information on other options.
The second easy route is to post your request to the BIONAUTS/bionet.users.addresses newsgroup managed by Rob Harper. Odds are that you will get a response fairly promptly, but, if not, there are other routes described below.
If the person in question has posted to BIOSCI/bionet or another Usenet newsgroup, they will be listed in the "usenet-addresses" WAIS source. If you are on the Internet, telnet to quake.think.com and login as "wais" (lowercase). After entering your terminal type, select the usenet-addresses source from the list presented to you (use the up-arrow key to get there more quickly since it is near the end of a long list). When the source is highlighted, press the return key and then enter the person's surname at the Keywords: prompt to begin the search. Available commands are listed at the bottom of the screen. When finished, press "s" to return to the source menu and then "q" to quit.
For those who do not have access to the Internet, the usenet-addresses source can also be accessed by e-mail. Please send mail to mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu with "help" in the body of the message in order to receive more information.
Another source of information for finding Internet, but not BITNET, addresses is netfind. Use the command
telnet bruno.cs.colorado.edu
and login as "netfind" without a password. The program is menu-driven
and pretty self-explanatory. Unfortunately it is not available to
people on BITNET. Gopher is also useful in the address search. For example, Dan Jacobson provides access to several directories of biologists at his gopher hole on merlot.gdb.org.
None of the above methods is guaranteed to return you an answer, so you may still have to resort to the telephone or (groan) regular mail to make contact 8-(.
Brookhaven Protein Data Bank bionet.xtallography
PIR or SWISS-PROT bionet.molbio.proteins
NCBI GenBank DataBank bionet.molbio.genbank
EMBL Databank bionet.molbio.embldatabank
Human Genome Database (GDB) bionet.molbio.gdb
Museums and Herbaria bionet.plants, or private inquiry
to beach@huh.harvard.edu
Since staff members of these databases usually monitor the
corresponding newsgroups fairly closely, a posting about a problem on
the appropriate board will usually get a response from someone on a
database staff fairly quickly. Problems that might not be of general
interest or corrections to particular entries should be directed as
follows.
Database address -------- ------- Brookhaven pdb@chm.chm.bnl.gov, pdb@bnlchm.bitnet PIR postmaster@nbrf.georgetown.edu, postmast@gunbrf.bitnet SWISS-PROT bairoch@cmu.unige.ch GenBank update@ncbi.nlm.nih.gov EMBL update@embl-heidelberg.de GDB help@welch.jhu.edu Herbaria beach@huh.harvard.edu
Researchers should submit nucleotide sequence data directly to GenBank or EMBL for assignment of an accession number prior to publication. Derived amino acid sequence data may also be included at the same time. Amino acid sequence data submitted in this way to GenBank, EMBL or DDBJ is eventually passed on to PIR, and need not be submitted separately to PIR. This is done so correct cross-references can be made between nucleotide and protein sequence accession numbers. All other determined amino acid sequences may be submitted directly to PIR when the authors permit their public release prior to publication.
Authors are strongly urged to use the sequence submission software package AUTHORIN to submit their sequence data to the databanks; a free copy (for either the IBM PC or Macintosh) can be obtained by sending your request and regular postal mailing address to:
authorin@ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Please be sure to specify the IBM or Mac version when sending your request.
Japanese authors who use the NEC 9801 PC should communicate directly with DDBJ, as these machines use a version of DOS that is significantly different enough to render the discs unreadable on MS-DOS computers here. The staff at DDBJ will forward the data to the appropriate databank via electronic mail. DDBJ may be contacted at:
ddbjsubs@flat.nig.ac.jp
The address for GenBank submissions is:
U.S. mail (for submissions on diskette, indicate whether Mac or PC):
GenBank Submissions
National Center for Biotechnology Information
Bldg. 38A, Room 8N-803
8600 Rockville Pike
Bethesda, MD 20894
E-mail submission of new sequences: gb-sub@ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
E-mail submission of updates: update@ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
The address for EMBL submissions is:
EMBL Data Submissions Postfach 10.2209 D-6900, Heidelburg Federal Republic of Germany Telephone (+49) 6221-387-258 Electronic mail: DATASUBS@EMBL-Heidelberg.DEThe address for DDBJ submissions is:
DNA Database of Japan Center for Genetic Information Research National Institute of Genetics 111 Yata Mishima, Shizuoka 411 JAPAN Telephone (+81) 559-75-3651 Electronic mail: ddbjsubs@flat.nig.ac.jpThe address for PIR submissions is:
PIR Submissions National Biomedical Research Foundation 3900 Reservoir Road, NW Washington, DC 20007 U.S.A. Telephone: (202) 687-2121 Electronic mail: FILESERV@GUNBRF.BITNET, FILESERV@NBRF.Georgetown.EDUWhile we would again urge that AUTHORIN be used as the first choice in data submission tools, the GenBank/EMBL/PIR Data Submission Form can be obtained by sending a message consisting of the words
SEND SUBFORMto the PIR FILESERV address. This form can be filled in using any text editor, saved in ASCII (text) format, and mailed electronically or on disk to the databanks.
Please, do not submit data either by electronic mail or on disk in files that are formatted for word processing programs. Such files are almost always unreadable except by systems with the same configuration of computer, operating system and word-processing program. For files sent by disk, either DOS or Mac formatted disks can be used but regular "double density" disks are preferred to "high density" disks.