CALL FOR DISCUSSION: X-PLOR/bionet.software.x-plor

[Phil Jeffrey]

In article <1995Apr25.081834.18535 at comp.bioz.unibas.ch> doelz at comp.bioz.unibas.ch (Reinhard Doelz) writes:

>>   Jimmy Yu (yu at kepler.harvard.edu) wrote:
>>   : There is already an x-plor mailing list with a fairly low volume.  Why
>>   : a newsgroup?

>>  Same discussion on every program package surfacing? I am in favour of such 
>>  a newsgroup as I happen to be not interested enough to subscribe to 
>>  yet-another mailing list but would like to peek in if it can be skipped 
>>  over rapidly if required. 

>>   Regards
>>   Reinhard Doelz

I understand the desire to put information about software out on the 'net,
but creating a bionet newsgroup for every single piece of significant 
software in existence for the biosciences is simply excessive. X-PLOR had a
significant impact on protein crystallography, and on NMR, when it came out,
and is a vital tool. But this of itself is *not* a sufficient reason to create
a newsgroup.

As has been observed, the X-PLOR mailing list would appear to be low volume.
Posts relating to X-PLOR would do just as well in the bionet.xtallography and
bionet.structural-nmr newsgroups. These are currently also low volume, and I
don't see any good reason to create a newsgroup when the volume does not
warrant it, and when other newsgroups can accommodate the purpose admirably.

I'd also note that there is an X-PLOR home page at http://xplor.csb.yale.edu/
that is well-suited to disseminating information about the program itself, and
is a better choice than Usenet for that purpose.

Just my 2c,
Phil Jeffrey
--
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| Phil Jeffrey                                  |                             |
| X-ray/Computer Manager, Crystallography Lab   | If you lie to the compiler, |
| Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, NYC   | it will get its revenge     |
| phil at xray2.mskcc.org, p-jeffrey at ski.mskcc.org |     - Henry Spencer         |
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