HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: kristoff@GENBANK.BIO.NET (Dave Kristofferson)
Newsgroups: bionet.general
Subject: Re: How will we deal with high volume newsgroups?
Date: 23 Jul 92 19:44:50 GMT
Distribution: bionet


David,

	Correct me if I am wrong but I believe that one can currently
limit the distribution of messages simply by using the "distribution"
feature in news software.  For example I have the following options
here:

Distribution (default='world', '?' for help) : ?
How widely should your article be distributed?

local   Local to this site
ig      Systems at IntelliGenetics
bionet  All sites carrying bionet newsgroups
ba      Sites in the San Francisco Bay Area
ca      California Sites
usa     United States
na      North America
world   Everywhere on Usenet in the world (same as net)


I would not be surprised if there is a "baylor" distribution available
to you.  Unfortunately sometimes newsreaders aren't configured
correctly and the distribution mechanism may fail, but at least the
idea is already there 8-).

Another possibility that we could entertain would be to split up
METHODS into a few subsets if anyone thinks that the time has come for
this.

Dave
From: kristoff@GENBANK.BIO.NET (Dave Kristofferson)
Newsgroups: bionet.general
Subject: Re: How will we deal with high volume newsgroups?
Date: 23 Jul 92 23:02:22 GMT
Distribution: bionet


>     I think the real problem is that limiting the distribution is a waste
> of time unless you are _certain_ that your question has a local answer. On
> those few occasions when I've posted here with questions, the best answers
> have come from non-local areas. The only time I limit my distribution is
> if the question is very trivial, or of local interest.

I tend to agree with you on this.

> >Another possibility that we could entertain would be to split up
> >METHODS into a few subsets if anyone thinks that the time has come for
> >this.
> >
>     A much better idea. I predict that bionet readership will be going way
> up in the next few years. Biologists are underrepresented as users, especially
> considering what computers and network communication can do for a biologist.
> More and more of the students and faculty here are getting interested in
> databases, and e-mail communication, and bionet. I predict that bionet
> volume will grow faster than usenet(anybody got any stats?)

I will also be expanding the non-network PR for BIOSCI after GenBank
ends too, so this will undoubtedly be the case, i.e., rapid expansion
although I am less certain about rates compared to USENET as a whole.

>    Isn't bionet.genbank.updates (or something like that) one of the highest
> volume groups?

Yes.

				Sincerely,

				Dave Kristofferson
				GenBank Manager

				kristoff@genbank.bio.net
Newsgroups: bionet.general
Subject: <none>
From: ** Sender Unknown **
Date: 18 Jul 92 13:13:01 GMT
Reply-To: face!sashazh%face.msk.su
Organization: unknown


     Hi, does  anybody  can  help  me  to  find  the  list  of
electronic journals,  which appeared in bionet.general  during
this spring?  Unfortunately I need it, but cannot find. It was
big file with list of about 25 journals, and with descriptions
of rules  for  obtaining  ISSN/ISBN.  Maybe  someone keep this
file? Send it to me, please.
     Sinserely,      Alexander Zhuikov
                     sashazh@face.msk.su
From: kristoff@GENBANK.BIO.NET (Dave Kristofferson)
Newsgroups: bionet.general
Subject: Re: How will we deal with high volume newsgroups - Part II.
Date: 30 Jul 92 19:30:28 GMT
Distribution: bionet


> I suggest that FAQ's and regular informational postings are the
> solution to dealing with groups that have a high volume of naive
> questions.

I agree with Tony's comments (the majority not shown above) by and
large.  I should have more time starting in October to provide FAQs
for some groups, but I'll be grateful for assistance in this task if
anyone wants to volunteer.  As David Steffen notes, however, a FAQ for
METHODS could be a gargantuan task, so this will not solve everything.

The other possible volume control is to moderate groups that get "too
many" postings.  At the simplest level, this could be done only to
filter out multiple replies containing the same information.  I would
also be interested in the future if specialists in a particular field
would actually be interested in editorial roles for specialty
newsgroups.  BIOSCI/bionet can retain its open character on many
newsgroups while having a filter on others.

Dave Kristofferson
From: kristoff@GENBANK.BIO.NET (Dave Kristofferson)
Newsgroups: bionet.general
Subject: Re: How will we deal with high volume newsgroups - Part II.
Date: 30 Jul 92 19:37:52 GMT
Distribution: bionet


Keith,

	It might be possible to automate FAQs to some extent.  We
could get a list of keywords from users and set up an automatic WAIS
search which saves the top N messages for each keyword to a FAQ file.
One could also compose partial FAQs based on the number of responses
to a given Subject: line ("Subscribe" might be really popular under
such a system 8-).  At a bare minimum it would be easy to extract
questions which prompt a lot of discussion.  It would be harder to
extract the "best" response.  However, if people have an idea of what
questions are asked frequently, they might then use WAIS to look up
the answers in the archives.  This assumes that they have WAIS, of
course.

Dave
From: scottl@deakin.OZ.AU (W. Scott Laidlaw)
Newsgroups: bionet.general
Subject: Re: Pycnogonids
Date: 28 Jul 92 00:17:52 GMT
Distribution: bionet
Organization: Deakin University

In article <9207271928.AA12636@genbank.bio.net> cliff@WATSON.IBM.COM ("Cliff Pickover") writes:

>I'm interested in learning whether there is any interesting
>literature, books, or recent research on the Pycnogonids.

>If anyone answers this admittedly obscure question, I would be grateful
>if you send your replies to cliff@watson.ibm.com

>Thanks, Cliff


What are Pycnogonids?

============================================================================
|  Scott Laidlaw   Deakin University         |  Victoria       Australia   |
|                                            |  |'-.__           _.-_|\    |
|  Internet: Scottl@deakin.oz.au             |  |     '-._      /      \   |
|                                            |  '._*/\_.'       \_.--. /   |
|                                            |                        v    |
============================================================================
From: gburns@aardvark.ucs.uoknor.edu (KENNETH HATTER)
Newsgroups: bionet.general
Subject: Molecular Weights in GenBank
Date: 28 Jul 92 03:17:00 GMT
Organization: University of Oklahoma - University Computing Services
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41

Is it possible to search GenBank for the following:
What genes in E. coli have molecular weights of 35,000 to 37,000?

Sincerely,
Kenneth Hatter
Research Technician
Newsgroups: bionet.general
From: dan@cubmol.bio.columbia.edu (Daniel Zabetakis)
Subject: Re: High volume newsgroups
Organization: Columbia University, Dept. of Biological Sciences.
Distribution: bionet
Date: Mon, 27 Jul 1992 18:56:16 GMT

In article <Jul.27.11.35.34.1992.9289@genbank.bio.net> kristoff@genbank.bio.net (David Kristofferson) writes:
>a reliable indicator of discontent with a group.
>
   What is the procedure for creating a bionet group, anyway? I mean the
correct social procedures, I know the technical details about creating
groups.

DanZ

-- 
This article is for entertainment purposes only. Any facts, opinions,
narratives or ideas contained herein are not necessarily true, and do
not necessarily represent the views of any particular person.
From: danj@WELCHGATE.WELCH.JHU.EDU (Dan Jacobson x-8453)
Newsgroups: bionet.general
Subject: Re: Need address help
Date: 28 Jul 92 21:52:06 GMT
Distribution: bionet


U. Ramsey writes:

>Help!  I want to contact a colleague who recently moved
>to Queen's University, Belfast, Northern Ireland. Can
>anyone provide me with the correct node address? I believe
>he's now in the Biochem or Biology dept, but am still waiting
>to hear from him to find out exactly where he ended up.

Netfind digs up the following machines at Queen's University, Belfast.



 eagle.qub.ac.uk
 netctral.qub.ac.uk
 vax1.agriculture.queens-belfast.ac.uk. Level = 0
 vax1.app-maths.queens-belfast.ac.uk. Level = 0
 starlink.armagh.queens-belfast.ac.uk. Level = 0
 vax1.centre.queens-belfast.ac.uk. Level = 0
 vax2.e-engineering.queens-belfast.ac.uk. Level = 0
 vax1.e-engineering.queens-belfast.ac.uk. Level = 0
 starlink.physics.queens-belfast.ac.uk. Level = 0
 v1.qub.ac.uk. Level = 0
 vax2.queens-belfast.ac.uk. Level = 0


Best of luck,

Dan Jacobson

P.S. This type of question is better suited for the 
     BIONAUT/bionet.users.addresses newsgroup.
From: PARSONS_A@uk.co.pcr.snd01
Newsgroups: bionet.general
Subject: Bulletin Boards for Vector Sequences
Date: 27 Jul 92 13:56:03 GMT
Distribution: bionet

Hi Mol-Bio-Netters,

I seem to recall some companies that provided BBS access to their vector 
sequencesn (Invitrogen,Promega?).  Could some kind soul refresh my memory as to
which companies provide these services and the modem nmbers to attach to?

Many thanks,

Tony P.

 +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
 | Dr.Tony Parsons,			VOX   : + 44 304 616871	              |
 | IT Department,			FAX   : + 44 304 616670               |
 | Pfizer Central Research,				 		      |
 | Ramsgate Road,  +----------------------   e-mail   ------------------------+
 | Sandwich,       |JANET      : parsons_a@uk.co.pcr.snd01                    |
 | KENT	           |Internet   : parsons_a@snd01.pcr.co.uk	       	      |
 | CT13 9NJ UK	   |Compuserve : 100064,765    PSImail:234216700127.parsons_a |
 +-----------------+----------------------------------------------------------+
From: diachun@sybil.cs.Buffalo.EDU (Justin D Diachun)
Newsgroups: bionet.general
Subject: faster genetic sequencing
Date: 22 Jul 92 23:28:24 GMT
Organization: State University of New York at Buffalo/Comp Sci
Originator: diachun@sybil.cs.Buffalo.EDU

I just read an article on clari.tw.science about a faster genetic
mapping technique developed by Mathies and Glazer at the "University
of California" (UCSF???).  Using a new machine and flourescent dyes,
it states a rate of 10,000 "segments" per hour is now possible.

Has anyone else heard more about this method?  Can anyone give some
references on it?  I would like to hear more about how this will be
used, and if it would change the estimated cost per base pair for the
sequencing efforts underway.

The article title is: Researchers speed up genetic mapping process

I bet the net would like to hear any more information that comes up
about this new technique.


Justin
-- 
___   ____   ____   ____   ___________________   ____   ____   ____   _
\  \ / \  \ / \  \ / \  \ /      Helix        \ / \  \ / \  \ / \  \ / 
/\  \  /\  \  /\  \  /\      Justin Diachun    \  /\  \  /\  \  /\  \  
  \__\/  \__\/  \__\/  \ diachun@cs.buffalo.edu \/  \__\/  \__\/  \__\/
From: una@phy.duke.edu (Una Smith)
Newsgroups: bionet.general
Subject: Re: RFC on draft FAQ sheet (long)
Keywords: FAQ
Date: 31 Jul 92 14:37:29 GMT
Organization: Duke University Physics Dept.; Durham, N.C.


So, what do you think?

Comments, contributions, and cookies (I have to mention cookies;
it's obligatory in this circumstance ;-) gratefully accepted.
You may e-mail me directly, if you wish;  I'll summarize.

 	Una
-- 

Una Smith   una@phy.duke.edu    School of the Environment
                                Duke University
                                Durham, NC  27706
Organization: Penn State University
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 1992 15:12:42 EDT
From: <PXH@psuvm.psu.edu>
Newsgroups: bionet.general
Subject: microbial content of water kits...

I wonder if anyone out there could help me on this one.
There is a product marketed by a company called Medical Tech.
Corp. ( I think) which can be used for determining the
microbial contenet of water.  Basically, from what I
understand, it's like a slide covered with agar which you dip
in the water to be analysed.  You then incubate it
appropriately and can determine the contamination.  So here's
where I need help - are there any other
manufacturers/sources of this product?  Please e-mail me as I
am not a frequent reader of this group.  Thanks in advance!

Deepti Pradhan
From: jstravis@bass.bu.edu (John Travis)
Newsgroups: bionet.general
Subject: life of a postdoc
Date: 28 Jul 92 16:30:59 GMT
Reply-To: jstravis@bass.bu.edu (John Travis)
Organization: Boston University

Hi everyone. Here'a an opportunity for postdocs to get all their
gripes off their chests. I'm a writer for Science magazine and
for our upcoming special issues on Careers in Science I'm writing
an article broadly titled "The Lot of a Postdoc" So tell me what's good
and bad about being a POSTDOC IN 1992.  Some of the obvious issues I'm looking
for input on are:
Money woes
Foreign Postdocs--do you look for the same benefits out of your experience
US Postdocs in Europe
Multiple Postdocs!!!
Postdoc while trying to raise/support a family
Postdocs in industry
Postdocs in small schools, big schools, small and big labs

Innundate me with email, a call or a fax and perhaps we'' talk in depth
about youtr situation in particular.

work 617-288-7939
fax   617-288-7768

Thanks for helping me get a good snapshot of postdoc life.

John Travis
Science (Northeast Bureau)
Newsgroups: bionet.general
From: yangshan@oregon.uoregon.edu (Yang Shan)
Subject: soc.culture.china
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41    
Organization: University of Oregon
Date: 21 Jul 1992 11:59 PDT  

Newsgroups: bionet.general
From: num208jn@MBDS.NRC.CA (John Nash)
Subject: High volume METHODS
Reply-To: num208jn@MBDS.NRC.CA
Organization: NRC, OTTAWA, ONTARIO, CANADA.
Date: Fri, 31 Jul 92 12:38:29 GMT

G'day folk,

May I add my viewpoint?  I don't think that the volume on METHODS is
too high for people check their news daily or twice-daily (ever read
comp.lang.c ?).  I suppose that we could answer the common questions
by mail instead of post, and that would reduce some volume.

Some of us (me for one!), have no access to UNIX newsreaders (my
tagline is not a putdown of UNIX or its users, but a fact that I use
as a self-directed joke).  I read news on a VAX which gets its news
from a server of some description.  The campus where I work is 10 km
from our campus where the computer centre is.  I have never even seen
the building which houses the mainframes I access from my expensive
386 VT102 emulator.

My point?  I have no access to "threaded newsreaders" of sufficient
capability or speed which would make following threads workable.  I
have NO control of the distribution of my messages wrt local, regional
or international.  I'm just lucky that I no longer have to use email
as a method of keeping up with bionet WHICH MANY OF US STILL HAVE TO
DO!  So your ideas for limiting news are stimulating, thoughtful and
interesting but totally unfeasible for people like me at the moment. 
It may be tempting to say, "tough luck!, keep up".  However, I'm a
bench biologist not a computer scientist (and we're talking about
reading METHODS here), so that's not really justifiable here (yet). 
If the system becomes too esoteric, you may lose many valued netfolk.


John Nash                            | Email: Nash@biologysx.lan.nrc.ca.
National Research Council of Canada  | Mail to "num208jn@mbds.nrc.ca"
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada              |    is forwarded automatically.

Disclaimer:  All opinions are mine, not NRC's!
Confession:  I've NEVER used a UNIX machine!
From: shibumi@turbo.bio.net (Kenton A. Hoover)
Newsgroups: bionet.general
Subject: Re: Usenet news feed. How to?
Date: 30 Jul 92 18:22:49 GMT
Reply-To: shibumi@turbo.bio.net
Organization: GenBank Computing Resource for Mol. Biology

ca566@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Michael Holloway) writes:
>Could someone offer me some clues (or even solid information) about where
>and how to get a good newsgroup feed.  

GenBank will be happy to provide a bionet-only NNTP feed to any site that
requests it (we'll provide a full feed if you can make a good case for it).
This will continue even after the end of the GenBank contract.  We will also
provide a UUCP feed, if the site is willing to pay the phone costs (as in,
your site calls us).

>Right now my campus, SUNY@Stony
>Brook, gets newsgroup information that curiously has large gaps and
>deletions.  A newsgroup, such as the bionet groups, might be listed but no
>articles will ever appear.  Read news software is apparently set up here by
>whatever interested undergraduate happens to come through the door and
>there hasn't been any sitings of the creatures lately.  Right now I'm
>telneting to Cleveland Freenet but the cost of the I/O charges quickly
>drains my account to nothing.  So I, some other
>molbio grad student types and some interested faculty (not many of the
>latter) are interested in taking matters into our own hands.  Lacking that,
>we'd appreciate any information regarding someone else's news feed that we
>could grap via telnet.  Any clues as to what to look for and where to look
>will be greatly appreciated.

We can provide limited help in setting up feeds and configuring software
at your site.  Please feel free to contact me directly for more details.



| Kenton A. Hoover                                 |                          |
| BIOSCI Network Administrator (bionet newsgroups) |    shibumi@presto.ig.com |
| GenBank/IntelliGenetics, Inc.       415 962 7300 |  shibumi@genbank.bio.net |
|=============================================================================|
|             Na Rusi rodnoy, na Rushi bol'shoi, nye byvat'vragu.             |
From: rdna@matt.ksu.ksu.edu (Paul Paukstelis)
Newsgroups: bionet.general
Subject: info and sources
Date: 23 Jul 1992 02:07:42 -0500
Organization: Kansas State University
NNTP-Posting-Host: matt.ksu.ksu.edu


i'm a senior in high school doing a research project next year dealing with
gene amplification. if anyone has sources of journals or magazines that has
information about this (yeast and mammilian are best, but anything will work),
i would be greatful if i could get those from you. i'm also looking for info
on southern blots, and how a probe is made, and its function. i need this 
background knowledge when i make a presentation to the Kansas Societ of 
Junior Scientists (or something like that). anything you feel has a possible
relevance would be appreciated as well. i guess this includes, DNA extraction,
and techniques for better viewing of gels.

thanks!
Paul Paukstelis
rDNA of MLF
industriaL musiC froM manhattaN kS
rdna@matt.ksu.ksu.edu
Newsgroups: bionet.general
From: hartzell@genome.Stanford.EDU (George Hartzell)
Subject: Re: How will we deal with high volume newsgroups?
Organization: Yeast Genome Project, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305
Date: Fri, 24 Jul 1992 18:06:48 GMT

In article <14n356INNsmr@nigel.msen.com> emv@msen.com (Edward
Vielmetti) writes: 
   >David Steffen proposes a scheme for high volume newsgroups that reduces
   >traffic by slowing the propogation of news according to geographical
   >locations.  Let me propose an alternative.
   >
   >the "sun-managers" mailing list is extremely high volume - how many
   >sun owners are out there - yet still effective as a communications 
   >path.  the secret is that they have removed some of the usual chit-chat
   >that goes along the normal course of a list and added to the burden
   >of the person who posts a question.
   >
   >the rules there (and in some other -managers groups) is that there is
   >no discussion allowed in the group.  Rather, the presenter of a question
   >is obligated to say
   >      Send me your answers, I will summarize for the group
   >and then to post an answer (with proper credits) with the word SUMMARY: as
   >the start of the subject line.  This lets the casual reader read just the
   >condensed summaries of problems, puts the burden on the questioner to act
   >also as editor, and increases the number of questions and answers that can
   >be sent through the list.
   >
   >It's more work but you get better results.


That works fine in mailing lists (dec managers list is the same
rules), but I don't think that it would be enforceable in a newsgroup
unless it became moderated.  Given a reasonable newsreader (e.g. one
that follows threads) I don't see any problem in reviewing the
subjects of 20 messages a day and reading a few of them.

Rather than trying to figure out a way to curb the discussions among
the net community to suite the occasional "dropper-in", I would
rather encourage them to check in more frequently.  I find the one
quickly learns who provides good answers and who's not worth reading.

Judicious application of FAQ's is recommended!!!

g.


--
George Hartzell                                         voice: (415) 725-7421
Stanford Yeast Genome Project                           fax:   (415) 723-7016
Stanford School of Medicine, Rm S337   email: hartzell@sumex-aim.Stanford.EDU
Stanford, CA 94305-5120
Newsgroups: bionet.general
From: tpm@anat.UMSMED.EDU (Terence P. Ma)
Subject: Re: How will we deal with high volume newsgroups?
Organization: Dept. of Anatomy, Univ. Mississippi Medical Center
Date: Fri, 24 Jul 1992 18:35:40 GMT

In article <robison1.711984791@husc10> robison1@husc10.harvard.edu (Keith Robison) writes:
>	I believe that the way to go is better newsreaders.  The "problem"
>which David S. cites is a few messages generating many replies.  As
>I see it, the problem is that the newsreaders I have used (rn and nn)
>treat a posting as the fundamental unit for selection and reading,
>rather than a thread (message and it's replies) as the fundamental
>unit.  Since in the vast majority of cases I (and I suspect most
>people) either read an entire thread or ignore it completely,
>such a solution would eliminate the "problem" bionet is having
>(i.e. success).  

I agree, which is why I use a "threaded" version of rn called
"trn".  It is available at the usual ftp sites.
-- 
Terence P. Ma, Ph.D.		Department of Anatomy
VOICE:	   601-984-1654		University of Mississippi Med. Ctr.
FAX:	   601-984-1655		2500 North State Street
INTERNET:  tpm@anat.UMSMED.EDU	Jackson, MS 39216-4505
Newsgroups: bionet.general