From: kristoff@GENBANK.BIO.NET (Dave Kristofferson)
Newsgroups: bionet.general
Subject: bionet.carotenoids
Date: 4 Sep 92 22:18:25 GMT
Distribution: bionet


I have seen *** no comments at all *** here on the BIONEWS
announcement the other day, so I am reposting it here just in case
everyone is still in the vacation doldrums.  People seemed surprised
last time about bionet.bionette, so no excuses this time.

My personal comment is that this is one of the most specific
newsgroups that has been proposed to date in as much as it is
focusing in on a single family of compounds, but the discussion
leader has told me that he has done quite a bit of advance "footwork"
with other researchers in this community, and he feels that he has the
support to make this an active group.  This will obviously be decided
by voting and need not necessarily be a topic of discussion in my
opinion.

Regarding the newsgroup name, the more I ponder this the more this
seems to me to belong in a lower level of the bionet hierarchy, e.g.,
bionet.molbio.carotenoids to use an existing one but actually
something like bionet.biochem.carotenoids might be even better
("biochem" or "biochemistry" as a subset is not in existence currently
- since I are one 8-) (was one) guess I should blush a bit).  The
charter claims that the group will cover more than biochemistry though
(see below).

I have seen a couple of calls for overhauling the entire bionet
hierarchy which we have answered in the past and ignored this time.
These things tend to turn into religious wars and there probably isn't
a single organization that will satisfy everyone (witness the simple
overlap above).  As the current list of newsgroups can be scanned in a
couple of seconds, I feel no great urgency to do this.  10 years from
now if there are several hundred newsgroups, then it might be an issue
if it was ignored that long, but I think that we will tackle the
problem well in advance of that, if in fact it threatens to occur.
Right now it seems like a complete waste of time.

Dave Kristofferson

----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: kristoff@genbank.bio.net (David Kristofferson)
Newsgroups: bionet.announce
Subject: CALL FOR DISCUSSION: bionet.carotenoids
Date: 2 Sep 92 20:10:49 GMT
Distribution: bionet
Organization: GenBank Online Service

We have received a proposal for another new newsgroup:

bionet.carotenoids (e-mail address: CAROTENO).

Discussion will now be open through 13 September on
BIOFORUM/bionet.general (*not* on BIONEWS/bionet.announce).

Please do not post one-line messages saying only "I am in favor of
such a newsgroup".  We will collect votes later.  The discussion
period is an opportunity for anyone to bring up reservations about the
proposed charter and to propose modifications prior to the vote.  The
discussion leader may submit a revised proposal in light of the
discussion, and the new charter would be included in the call for votes
which will go out on September 14th.

Please be aware that only one vote is counted per e-mail address, so
it is necessary to have your own account in order to vote.  Multiple
votes from the same address are not accepted.  If you are interested
in the following newsgroup, but do not have an e-mail address of your
own, please obtain one from your computer center before the call for
votes is issued.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Proposal to establish bionet.carotenoids

Discussion leader: Pablo A. Scolnik (scolnipa@esvax.dnet.dupont.com)


Purpose: discussions regarding the chemistry, biochemistry, genetics,
metabolism, and health effects of carotenoids.  This newsgroup will
also include information exchange regarding pure compounds, mutants,
techniques, and recombinant DNA constructs.

------------------------------------------------------------------