BIOSCI/bionet Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
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(last revised - 5/31/93)
This document describes the general purpose and uses of the
BIOSCI/bionet newsgroups and provides details on how to participate in
these forums. It is available for anonymous FTP from net.bio.net
[134.172.2.69] in pub/BIOSCI/biosci.FAQ. This document may also be
requested by e-mail to biosci at net.bio.net (use plain English - this is
not a server address). It is posted the first of each month to the
BIONEWS/bionet.announce newsgroup along with the BIOSCI information
sheet and the list of changes to the newsgroups during the preceding
month.
Contents
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Common Questions about BIOSCI/bionet usage
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* What is BIOSCI and bionet?
* What newsgroups are available on BIOSCI/bionet?
* Who are the discussion leaders for the various newsgroups?
* Where (and how many times) should I post my messages?
* How does one post a message?
* How do I find back issues of BIOSCI postings?
* Is there a summary of METHODS-AND-REAGENTS postings?
* What is USENET?
* How can I get news software at my site?
* How can I test my news or mail software?
* How do I request or cancel e-mail subscriptions to BIOSCI newsgroups?
* How can I get a list of newsgroups or my subscriptions?
* 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?
* Why have I stopped getting messages?
* What should I do about mail error messages that come back when I post?
* How does one start a new BIOSCI newsgroup/mailing list?
* 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?
Common questions posted to BIOSCI/bionet newsgroups
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* How do I report a problem in a biological data base?
* What about submitting sequence data to GenBank, EMBL, DDBJ or PIR?
* Please help me find the e-mail address for Dr. ...
* What are all of these references to FTP, WAIS, Gopher, and WWW?
Other questions to add to this list??? Please send them to
biosci at net.bio.net. We would also appreciate your sending the
*answer* to the question if possible. All contributions will be
gratefully acknowledged by including the author's name along with the
answer provided.
Common Questions about BIOSCI/bionet usage
******************************************
What is BIOSCI and bionet?
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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. As of October 1992, 59% of our readers
used USENET news software instead of e-mail.
We provide a summary about USENET further below. More detailed
information has been collected from the USENET newsgroup
news.announce.newusers and placed in two files in the pub/BIOSCI
directory in the anonymous FTP area on net.bio.net [134.172.2.69].
The file "usenet.info" contains the following articles:
How to become a USENET site
USENET Software: History and Sources
What is Usenet?
How to Get Information about Networks
The file "usenet.info2" contains
Answers to Frequently Asked Questions about Usenet
Emily Postnews Answers Your Questions on Netiquette
Hints on writing style for Usenet
Another file in the same directory entitled "internet.info" provides
starting information on how to get your site connected to the
Internet. Any or all of these files may be requested by e-mail to
biosci at net.bio.net.
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 5/93. 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.
MAILING LIST NAME USENET Newsgroup Name
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ACEDB-SOFT bionet.software.acedb
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
CHROMOSOMES bionet.genome.chromosomes
COMPUTATIONAL-BIOLOGY ** bionet.biology.computational
DROSOPHILA bionet.drosophila
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
INFO-GCG bionet.software.gcg
JOURNAL-NOTES bionet.journals.note
METHODS-AND-REAGENTS bionet.molbio.methds-reagnts
MOLECULAR-EVOLUTION bionet.molbio.evolution
NEUROSCIENCE bionet.neuroscience
N2-FIXATION bionet.biology.n2-fixation
PHOTOSYNTHESIS bionet.photosynthesis
PLANT-BIOLOGY bionet.plants
POPULATION-BIOLOGY bionet.population-bio
PROTEIN-ANALYSIS bionet.molbio.proteins
PROTEIN-CRYSTALLOGRAPHY bionet.xtallography
RAPD bionet.molbio.rapd
SCIENCE-RESOURCES ** bionet.sci-resources
TROPICAL-BIOLOGY bionet.biology.tropical
VIROLOGY bionet.virology
WOMEN-IN-BIOLOGY bionet.women-in-bio
YEAST bionet.molbio.yeast
+ 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
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ACEDB-SOFT Discussions by users and developers of genome
databases using the ACEDB software.
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
CHROMOSOMES Discussions about mapping and sequencing
of eucaryote chromosomes
COMPUTATIONAL-BIOLOGY ** Mathematical and computer applications in biology
DROSOPHILA Discussions about biological research on
Drosophila
EMBL-DATABANK Messages to and from the EMBL database staff
EMPLOYMENT Job opportunities in biology (see BIOSCI
FAQ *before* posting commercial job openings)
GDB Messages to and from the Genome Data Bank staff
GENBANK-BB
