This is a new "miniFAQ" designed to answer the questions that come up
the *most frequently*. The main BIOSCI FAQ (Frequently Asked
Questions) is accessible on the World Wide Web at URL
http://www.bio.net/.
Contents:
--------
1) What to do about "spams," i.e., junk mail, ads, etc.
2) Examples of subscribing and unsubscribing to the mailing lists.
3) How to access BIOSCI/bionet newsgroup archives.
4) The BIOSCI user address and research interest directory.
1) What to do about "spams," i.e., junk mail, ads, etc.
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BIOSCI is a set of parallel USENET newsgroups (the "bionet" groups)
and mailing lists. The same postings are distributed on both media
(except for a small number of mailing-list-only groups at
net.bio.net). Unfortunately it is becoming a despicable practice on
the Internet (by a few people out to make a fast buck) to do automated
mass postings to thousands of newsgroups and mailing lists. These
attempts to grab free advertising are refered to as "spams" in the
usual, somewhat boneheaded, net terminology. USENET is more
susceptible to this practice, and many spams originate on the USENET
groups and then are passed on to the mailing lists. However, spammers
also get lists of mailing addresses and hit these too, so neither
medium is immune.
What should you do personally if you get junk mail?
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Just delete it and move on without reading it further. Filing a
protest is becoming increasingly useless because spammers are often
disguising the addresses where the messages are sent from. Unless you
really understand Internet mail systems, your attempt at protest by
sending replies to the message will often end up being sent to the
address of an innocent person that the spammer is victimizing.
What can BIOSCI/bionet do to protect its newsgroups?
----------------------------------------------------
The only solution currently available is to moderate the newsgroup.
If this newsgroup is already moderated, then you are in good shape.
Moderation protects the newsgroups from about 95% of the spams that
are being sent to date. This means that someone has to take the time
to review each message before it goes out. We have set up software
here that simply allows the moderator to forward to an address at
net.bio.net messages that (s)he wishes to have distributed. This
takes no more time than that needed to read the message and pass it
on, say about 1 min. per message.
Most newsgroups currently have a discussion leader who is responsible
for their newsgroup. The discussions leaders and their e-mail
addresses are listed in the BIOSCI Information Sheet which is
available on the Web at http://www.bio.net/. If a newsgroup is being
hit with too many junk postings, please contact the discussion leader
for that group and see if there is interest in moderating the group.
Please do not assume that by simply posting a complaint to the
newsgroup itself, anyone on the BIOSCI staff will act on your
complaint. With close to 100 newsgroups to run, the BIOSCI staff has
to rely on the discussion leaders of each newsgroup to report problems
directly to us at biosci-help at net.bio.net.
We will moderate any of our newsgroups if the discussion leader tells
us that the readership of the group wishes to do so and if a moderator
is willing to do the work. For most BIOSCI/bionet groups, this
entails only a few minutes of work each day.
Moderating a newsgroup will resolve probably 95% of the junk postings.
Unfortunately there are easy ways for determined spammers to override
the moderation mechanism. We are working on new systems to provide
access to our newsgroups over the WWW. These should be available
soon, probably November 1995, and will allow you to use your Web
browser to look at the news postings. While this will not stop
spammers from trying to post to the groups, this will give you yet
another way, besides using USENET news, to keep the junk out of your
personal mail files.
2) Examples of subscribing and unsubscribing to the mailing lists.
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PLEASE NOTE: The BIOSCI management does NOT act on
subscription/unsubscription requests that are posted improperly to the
newsgroups and mailing lists. People who do this only bother everyone
on the lists to no avail. Please be sure to follow the proper
procedures below.
Gory details are in the BIOSCI Information sheets on the Web at
http://www.bio.net. Below we give an example utilizing the
METHODS-AND-REAGENTS list at both of our two BIOSCI sites:
Users in the Americas and Pacific Rim countries who use the BIOSCI
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node at computer net.bio.net:
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A) Determine the "listname" which is the <=8 character mail address
^^^^^^^^^^^^^
for the group. These can be found in the BIOSCI Info. Sheet. For
the METHODS-AND-REAGENTS group the mailing address is
methods at net.bio.net. The listname is the portion of the address to
the left of the @ sign, i.e., "methods". The listname is used with
the "subscribe" and "unsubscribe" commands illustrated below.
B) Mail all commands in the body of a mail message addressed to
biosci-server at net.bio.net. Do NOT send commands to the newsgroup
posting addresses! Leave the Subject: line blank, any text on it
will be ignored.
C) In the body of your message put one or more of the following
commands with an "end" command on the last line, e.g.,
subscribe methods
unsubscribe methods
end
Do NOT put your e-mail address or other text on these lines. The
server only allows you to cancel your subscription if the address
on your mail header matches the address on our mailing list.
Please ask for help at biosci-help at net.bio.net if your address has
changed, e.g., if you know you are on the list but the server tells
you that you are not a member.
Users in Europe, Africa, and Central Asia who use the BIOSCI node at
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computer daresbury.ac.uk (also known as dl.ac.uk):
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To subscribe and unsubscribe to/from the BIOSCI lists, you need to
specify the full USENET newsgroup name with "bionet-news." prepended.
The USENET newsgroup names are listed in the BIOSCI Information sheet
on the Web at http://www.bio.net/. For the METHODS-AND-REAGENTS list
the USENET newsgroup name is bionet.molbio.methds-reagnts, thus the
appropriate commands are
sub bionet-news.bionet.molbio.methds-reagnts
unsub bionet-news.bionet.molbio.methds-reagnts
These commands are included in a message addressed to mxt at dl.ac.uk,
NOT to the newsgroup mailing addresses. As usual, include the text in
the body of the message as text on the Subject: line is ignored.
To unsubscribe from all the lists at the UK node, use
unsub bionet-news
Please note that if the address in the list is different than the one
in your mail message header, you will not be able to unsubscribe by
this method. If you have problems, please mail biosci at daresbury.ac.uk.
3) How to access BIOSCI/bionet newsgroup archives.
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Back postings of all BIOSCI/bionet newsgroups can be found on the
World Wide Web at URL http://www.bio.net/. There are several
searchable newsgroup indices at this site. E-mail users can search
the BIOSCI archives by using our waismail e-mail server. For
instructions send the message
help
to waismail at net.bio.net. Leave the Subject: line blank (anything
entered on the Subject: line is ignored).
4) The BIOSCI user address and research interest directory.
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Please take this opportunity to add your name, address, and research
interest information to the BIOSCI User Address Database if you have
not already done so.
You can fill out the address form directly through our Web page at URL
http://www.bio.net/adrform.html.
The address database is reindexed nightly for WWW access (the URL is
http://www.bio.net/). If you are not directly on the Internet but can
reach it by e-mail, please use our waismail server to access the user
directory. waismail use is described above. You can also request a
user address form by e-mail from biosci-help at net.bio.net.
Please check your database entry from time-to-time to see if your
address information is still up-to-date. Because of our limited
personnel resources, we ask that you resubmit a *complete* form to
revise your entry; we only replace complete entries and do not have
resources to edit old forms.
Sincerely,
Dave Kristofferson
BIOSCI/bionet Manager
biosci-help at net.bio.net
