BIOSCI/bionet miniFAQ & Fundraiser
BIOSCI Administrator
(LAST REVISION: 14-AUG-99)
This BIOSCI "miniFAQ" is designed to answer the questions that come up
the *most frequently*. The main BIOSCI FAQ (Frequently Asked
Questions) is accessible on the World Wide Web at URL
http://www.bio.net/.
If you can not find an answer to your question in this or other
documentation, the BIOSCI technical support staff answers e-mail
queries sent to
We can only answer questions about the use of the newsgroups and
mailing lists. We unfortunately do not have the staff to do Internet
information searches or answer scientific questions. Please post
those to the appropriate BIOSCI/bionet newsgroups.
Contents:
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0) BIOSCI NEEDS YOUR SUPPORT!!
1) Using the WWW to access the BIOSCI/bionet newsgroups.
2) What to do about "spams," i.e., junk mail, ads, etc.
3) Examples of subscribing and unsubscribing to the mailing lists.
4) The BIOSCI user address and research interest directory.
0) BIOSCI NEEDS YOUR SUPPORT!!
------------------------------
BIOSCI's government funding has been expended, and we are now
operating solely from advertising revenue that we have raised from our
Web site at http://www.bio.net/. We need just a few minutes of your
time to help us serve you.
You can do two important things which will take very little time for
you individually and will immensely help us continue to help you.
First, please use our WWW system at http://www.bio.net/ to access the
archives. You can post or reply to messages via your Web browser as
described in item #1 below. Your usage helps attract sponsors. If you
contact any of our sponsors, please be sure to thank them for
supporting BIOSCI. It is critical for them to get this feedback if
they are to continue their sponsorship for the long term.
Second, if you work for a company or organization that provides
products or services of interest to the biology community, please pass
this message on to your marketing or marketing communications
department or other appropriate group. Please ask them to help
support BIOSCI by sponsoring our Web site and explain the uses and
benefits of the system to the biology community. If they are
interested, they can then contact us for further information at our
tech support address, biosc...@net.bio.net.
1) Using the WWW to access the BIOSCI/bionet newsgroups.
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All BIOSCI/bionet full newsgroups are accessible through the World
Wide Web (WWW) at URL http://www.bio.net. One can read and reply
publicly or privately to both recent postings and archived messages
through one's Web browser if it is configured properly to send e-mail.
Each newsgroup is equipped with its own WAIS index. The main BIOSCI
home page also has access to the BIO-JOURNALS Table of Contents
database WAIS index and the BIOSCI user address database described in
another item further below.
2) What to do about "spams," i.e., junk mail, ads, etc.
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BIOSCI is a set of parallel USENET newsgroups (the "bionet" groups),
mailing lists, and a hypermail archive at URL http://www.bio.net/.
The same postings are distributed on all media (except for a small
number of mailing-list-only groups at net.bio.net). Unfortunately it
is becoming a despicable practice on the Internet (by a few people out
to make a fast buck) to do automated mass postings to thousands of
newsgroups and mailing lists. These attempts to grab free advertising
are refered to as "spams" in the usual, somewhat boneheaded, net
terminology. USENET is more susceptible to this practice, and many
spams originate on the USENET groups and then are passed on to the
mailing lists. However, spammers also get lists of mailing addresses
and hit these too, so neither medium is immune.
What should you do personally if you get junk mail?
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Just delete it and move on without reading it further. Filing a
protest is becoming increasingly useless because spammers are often
disguising the addresses where the messages are sent from. Unless you
really understand Internet mail systems, your attempt at protest by
sending replies to the message will often end up being sent to the
address of an innocent person that the spammer is victimizing.
What can BIOSCI/bionet do to protect its newsgroups?
----------------------------------------------------
The only solution currently available is to moderate the newsgroup.
If this newsgroup is already moderated, then you are in good shape.
Moderation protects the USENET distribution from about 95% of the
spams that are being sent to date and protects the mailing lists
completely. Moderation means, however, that someone has to take the
time to review each message before it goes out. We have set up
software here that simply allows the moderator to forward to an
address at net.bio.net messages that (s)he wishes to have distributed.
This takes no more time than that needed to read the message and pass
it on, say about 1 min. per message.
Most newsgroups currently have a discussion leader who is responsible
for their newsgroup. The discussions leaders and their e-mail
addresses are listed in the BIOSCI Information Sheet which is
available on the Web at http://www.bio.net/. If a newsgroup is being
hit with too many junk postings, please contact the discussion leader
for that group and see if there is interest in moderating the group.
Please do not assume that by simply posting a complaint to the
newsgroup itself, anyone on the BIOSCI staff will act on your
complaint. With close to 100 newsgroups to run, the BIOSCI staff has
to rely on the discussion leaders of each newsgroup to report problems
directly to us at biosc...@net.bio.net.
We will moderate any of our newsgroups if the discussion leader tells
us that the readership of the group wishes to do so and if a moderator
is willing to do the work. For most BIOSCI/bionet groups, this
entails only a few minutes of work each day.
Moderating a newsgroup will resolve probably 95% of the junk postings
on the USENET distribution. Unfortunately there are easy ways for
determined spammers to override the moderation mechanism on USENET,
but we can protect our e-mail subscribers from unwanted postings if
the newsgroup is moderated. You can also access our newsgroups over
the WWW at URL http://www.bio.net. While this Web interface will not
stop spammers from trying to post to the groups, this will give you
yet another way, besides using USENET news, to keep the junk out of
your personal mail files. For those of you with local USENET news
systems, the Web interface will also give you faster access to new
newsgroups and recent postings.
3) Examples of subscribing and unsubscribing to the mailing lists.
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PLEASE NOTE: The BIOSCI management does NOT act on
subscription/unsubscription requests that are posted improperly to the
newsgroups and mailing lists. People who do this only bother everyone
on the lists to no avail. Please be sure to follow the proper
procedures below.
Gory details are in the BIOSCI Information sheets on the Web at
http://www.bio.net. Below we give an example utilizing the
METHODS-AND-REAGENTS list at both of our two BIOSCI sites:
Users in the Americas and Pacific Rim countries who use the BIOSCI
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node at computer net.bio.net:
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A) Determine the "listname" which is the <=8 character mail address
^^^^^^^^^^^^^
for the group. These can be found in the BIOSCI Info. Sheet. For
the METHODS-AND-REAGENTS group the mailing address is
met...@net.bio.net. The listname is the portion of the address to
the left of the @ sign, i.e., "methods". The listname is used with
the "subscribe" and "unsubscribe" commands illustrated below.
B) Mail all commands in the body of a mail message addressed to
biosci...@net.bio.net. Do NOT send commands to the newsgroup
posting addresses! Leave the Subject: line blank, any text on it
will be ignored.
C) In the body of your message put one or more of the following
commands with an "end" command on the last line, e.g.,
subscribe methods
unsubscribe methods
end
Do NOT put your e-mail address or other text on these lines. The
server only allows you to cancel your subscription if the address
on your mail header matches the address on our mailing list.
Please ask for help at biosc...@net.bio.net if your address has
changed, e.g., if you know you are on the list but the server tells
you that you are not a member.
Users in Europe, Africa, and Central Asia who use the BIOSCI node at
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the UK-HGMP-Resource Centre (known as hgmp.mrc.ac.uk):
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A) Determine the "listname" which is the <=8 character mail address
^^^^^^^^^^^^^
for the group. These can be found in the BIOSCI Info. Sheet. For
the METHODS-AND-REAGENTS group the mailing address is
met...@hgmp.mrc.ac.uk. The listname is the portion of the address to
the left of the @ sign, i.e., "methods". The listname is used with
the "subscribe" and "unsubscribe" commands illustrated below.
B) Mail all commands in the body of a mail message addressed to
majo...@hgmp.mrc.ac.uk. Do NOT send commands to the newsgroup
posting addresses! Leave the Subject: line blank, any text on it
will be ignored.
C) In the body of your message put one or more of the following
commands with an "end" command on the last line, e.g.,
subscribe methods
unsubscribe methods
end
Please ask for help at bio...@hgmp.mrc.ac.uk if your address has
changed, e.g., if you know you are on the list but the server tells
you that you are not a member.
4) The BIOSCI user address and research interest directory.
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Please take this opportunity to add your name, address, and research
interest information to the BIOSCI User Address Database if you have
not already done so.
You can fill out the address form directly through our Web page at URL
http://www.bio.net/adrform.html.
The address database is reindexed nightly for WWW access (the URL is
http://www.bio.net/). If you are not directly on the Internet but can
reach it by e-mail, please use our waismail server to access the user
directory. waismail use is described above. You can also request a
user address form by e-mail from biosc...@net.bio.net.
Please check your database entry from time-to-time to see if your
address information is still up-to-date. Because of our limited
personnel resources, we ask that you resubmit a *complete* form to
revise your entry; we only replace complete entries and do not have
resources to edit old forms.