This is a REPOSTING of the OFFICIAL PROPOSAL for a NEW USENET
NEWSGROUP that will probably be named "sci.bio.immunocytochem"
formally posted to news.announce.newgroups on 16.4.97.
Immunocytochemists/immunohistochemists may like to read the following
proposal and post their comments or suggestions to "news.groups" where
the set-up discussion is taking place, or you may e-mail me with your
comments and I will repost them for you <awilson at aw.u-net.com>
REQUEST FOR DISCUSSION (RFD)
unmoderated group sci.bio.immunocytochem
This is the 3rd Request For Discussion (RFD) for the creation of a
world-wide unmoderated Usenet newsgroup
sci.bio.immunocytochem, currently being discussed in news.groups
Suggestions for improvements to this proposal are welcome.
Discussion about it should take place in news.groups. A vote is
expected to be held in about three weeks.
This is not a Call for Votes (CFV); you cannot vote at this time.
Procedural details are below.
CHANGES from previous RFD:
There is an important change to the Charter of this newsgroup:
It is proposed that the new group will include the discussion of
related affinity labelling methods as well as immunohistochemical
and immunocytochemical topics. Minor changes to rational too.
Newsgroup line:
sci.bio.immunocytochem Immuno-labelling of biological material.
RATIONALE: sci.bio.immunocytochem
Immunohistochemists and immunocytochemists already enjoy the
benefits of online communication, utilizing e-mail, accessing web
sites, and subscribing to specialised mailing lists. Usenet
newsgroups are also popular, but this is less obvious because
articles with immunocytochemical/immunohistochemical content
get posted to many different newsgroups. Most articles are posted
to a favourite five or six newsgroups including bionet.cellbiol,
sci.med.immunology and sci.techniques.microscopy, but often
articles get posted to any one of fourteen or fifteen newsgroups in
the sci. and bionet. heirarchies. Some of these are listed in the
distribution list at the end of this proposal.
In my view, no existing newsgroup fulfils the criteria necessary to
attract all the various immunocytochemistry postings. I do not
wish to draw users away from other newsgroups, only to encourage
scientists to share their knowledge and expertise on
immunocytochemistry in the most effective manner.
Immunocytochemistry and immunohistochemistry are not
subdivisions of immunology, molecular biology or chemistry.
Microscopy, although essential, is only a small part of the story.
Immunocytochemistry and immunohistochemistry are multi-
disciplinary, therefore discussions are destined to stay distributed
amongst the different newsgroups until they are all brought
together under one umbrella. This would then act as a focus point
for all the immunocytochemists who are already Internet users, and
encourage new subscribers to Usenet.
CHARTER: sci.bio.immunocytochem
This is a newsgroup for the exchange of information relating to
immunocytochemistry and immunohistochemistry, and all forms of
related affinity labelling methods, such as lectins and in-situ
hybridisation. These unique research tools are used to locate and
identify specific molecules in biological material, at the
microscopical level.
Articles posted to this group must be relevant to one or more
aspects of the above. The kind of subjects that may be discussed
include techniques, theory, presentation of results, requests for
collaboration, history, equipment, publication references, notice of
events, tips and trouble-shooting, jobs offered andwanted, jokes,
stories and new ideas, so long as the posting bears a direct
relevance to the central theme. There will be a list of Frequently
Asked Questions (FAQs) to help newcomers.
A relevant posting could just be a simple question or answer, for
example "Has anyone got any experience with this reagent ?"or
"Which course could I attend to learn more about immunogold
labelling?". There will be articles reminding people to read the list
of FAQs prior to posting their own article. Usenet readers may get
involved in complex discussions about, for example, multiple
labelling, proper use of control experiments, microwave antigen
retrieval or quantitative measurements. Remember that articles
posted to a newsgroup are intended for a wide readership, so if you
have information which concerns only one or two people then
please don't use this newsgroup, use e-mail.
Commercial advertisements for services, equipment or reagents
violate the charter unless one or more of the following apply:
(a)The advertisement is part of a comprehensive article designed
specifically to address issues raised in earlier articles posted to
the
group (b)A general reference to the type of product does not suffice
for technical reasons and it is necessary to specify the exact
commercial product (c) The information is offered primarily for
the benefit of the readers (d)The advertisement is for second-hand
equipment specific to immunocytochemistry (e) Requests or offers
for free products are acceptable if they are not part of a sales
promotion.
END CHARTER.
PROCEDURE:
This is a request for discussion, not a call for votes. In this phase
of the process, any potential problems with the proposed
newsgroups should be raised and resolved. The discussion period
will continue for a minimum of 21 days (starting from when the
3rd RFD for this proposal is posted to news.announce.newgroups),
after which a Call For Votes (CFV) may be posted by a neutral
vote taker if the discussion warrants it. Please do not attempt to
vote until this happens.
All discussion of this proposal should be posted to news.groups.
This RFD attempts to comply fully with the Usenet newsgroup
creation guidelines outlined in "How to Create a New Usenet
Newsgroup" and "How to Format and Submit a New Group
Proposal". Please refer to these documents (available in
news.announce.newgroups) if you have any questions about the
process.
DISTRIBUTION:
This RFD has been posted to the following newsgroups:
news.announce.newgroups,news.groups,bionet.cellbiol,
bionet.diagnostics,bionet.immunology,bionet.microbiology,
bionet.molbio.methds-reagnts,sci.bio.misc,sci.med.immunology,
sci.techniques.microscopy
This RFD will be reposted to the following newsgroups after its
posting in news.announce.newgroups:
bionet.molbio.proteins,bionet.neuroscience,bionet.plants,
sci.bio.microbiology,sci.med,sci.med.laboratory,sci.misc,
sci.nanotech
This RFD will also be reposted to the following mailing lists after
its posting in news.announce.newgroups:
Histonet mailing list: <histonet at pathology.swmed.edu>
Information pertaining to the technical aspects of histology and
histopathology such as tissue fixatives and processing, routine
histology, special stains, immunohistochemistry, in-situ
hybridization etc. To subscribe type "subscribe digest" into the
subject box and leave the text box empty, or to subscribe to the full
service just type "subscribe". For more info access web site
http://www.mwrn.com/subject/histonet.htms
Microscopy Society of America listserver:
Questions/comments/answers in the various fields of Microscopy
Currently over 3000 subscribers. To subscribe send the message
"subscribe" to <Listserver at MSA.Microscopy.Com>
then send messages in plain text to
<Microscopy at MSA.Microscopy.Com>
For more info access web site http://www.amc.anl.gov/
Docs/anl/Nestor/Software/telecommList.html
Stanford University list server
To subscribe, send a message to
<majordomo at pathology.stanford.edu> with "subscribe ipox-l" in
the body of your message. This list helps pathologists and other
laboratory professionals to exchange information about
immunoperoxidase methods.
This RFD will also be reposted to the following web-sites after its
posting in news.announce.newgroups:
Royal Microscope Society
http://www.rms.org.uk
Web Master Dr R. A. D. Mackenzie
<r.a.mackenzie at open.ac.uk>
Center for Cell Imaging Department of Cell Biology
Yale University School of Medicine
Introduction to Immunocytochemistry
http://info.med.yale.edu/cellimg/CCIimmuno.html
Web Master Paul Webster
< paul_webster at yale.edu>
Proponent: Amanda Wilson <awilson at aw.u-net.com>
Proponent: Paul Monaghan < monaghan at icr.ac.uk>
Mentor: Jonathan Grobe <grobe at netins.net>
Deputy Manager, Electron Microscope Unit,
St George's Hospital Medical School
London UK
Tel: 0181 725 5220
e-mail <awilson at aw.u-net.com>
