BIOSCI/bionet Frequently Asked Questions II (FAQ)
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(last revised - 12/30/92)
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 at 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?
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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 at net.bio.net, while the latter may be requested from
biosci at 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 at 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?
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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 at net.bio.net.
For those who need e-mail subsc
