GenBank errors

[Foteos Macrides]

>In a recent posting Roy Smith (roy at alanine.phri.nyu.edu) flamed Tom Schneider
>for his earlier comments on the accuracy of GenBank. Roy said,
>
>     "My suggestion to anybody who really and truely thinks they can do a
>      better job of running GenBank than the people who are doing it now
>      is to bid on the contract the next time it is up for renewal. In the
>      meantime, it would be a shame to see bionet degenerate into the same
>      petty squabbling that seems to pervade most of the rest of Usenet."
>
>Several members of the staff at GenBank have also overreacted to Tom's
>comments and one even suggested that they were libellous!
>
>I have enjoyed the recent exchange and I hope the discussion of errors in
>GenBank continues. In my opinion many of the regular respondents to this
>newsgroup are overly sensitive to criticism and strongly held opinions.
>The Bionet groups are deadly boring compared to the rest of Usenet and there
>are many other newsgroups that are much more informative because the readers
>do not stiffle dissent the way they try to do here. Considering all of the
>important and controversial issues that are being debated in the biological
>community I think that we should be ashamed that they are not covered on
>Bionet but are common in sci.bio, talk.origins and several other groups.
>
>It is a constant souce of amazement to me that so many readers of Bionet
>want to avoid any semblance of controversy or serious difference of opinion.
>They are particularly upset when two individuals express opposing views and
>begin to debate an issue. Isn't that what science is all about? Why do the
>self-appointed Bionet thought police feel that it is so necessary to stiffle
>such exchanges?
>
>If some of the lurkers want to resign because they can't stand to see a bit
>passion then I say good riddance!
>
>Laurence A. Moran (Larry)
>Dept. of Biochemistry
>University of Toronto

        I agree, except for the last sentence.  I'd rather encourage thicker
skins than bid anyone good riddance.

                                Fote

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 Foteos Macrides           Worcester Foundation for Experimental Biology
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