JRAMON@emduam51.bitnet (01/05/90)
I must also agree that the suggestion sounds nice. It may prove
very useful, but... Also, there is a problem with the risk of getting a
lot of unwanted messages. This may even we worst than it sounds. If you
fill all your available disk space quota, some systems won't accept and
will return other (possibly valuable!) messages; moreover, some lists
automatically dispose of your subscription if a message to you is returned
to avoid re-distributing returned messages.
Anyway, my impression is that it won't be usual to receive such
lots of messages and, that it is natural for other people to try to dis-
cuss with you opinions, problems, etc... as well as it is a good habit
to answer them. But you have the risk of overcrouding your mailbox sometimes
and it will most probably happen when you need full communications the more
(such as just after publishing a paper).
The obvious solution is to pay more attention to your mailbox
under such circunstances and to try always to be so explicit as not to
generate questions. But, who can do this???
Well, I am prone to the BIONAUTS idea, as far as all we know the
problems it may generate and want to make our best to avoid those problems
with a conscious use of this exciting e_mail tool
J. R. Valverde
School of Medicine
Dpt. of Biochemistry
Univ. Autonoma, Madrid. SPAINHARPER@finfun.bitnet ("Robert Harper ", Finland) (01/12/90)
Well it really is surprizing how fast E-mail travels and how quickly
you can get responses from different parts of the world. I have receivd
many replies and most of the letters also included some short words of
encouragement. Enclosed are short clips from some of the letters I have
received.
This morning I also received a DIRECTORY for Plant biologists from the
CLASS-L list from William Day, which stated...
Updated edition of PLANT TAXONOMISTS ONLINE ( 18 January, 1990 )
Please help distribute copies of this directory to other
Plant Taxonomists.
and also a complete list of E-mail address's for various HERBARIA... so it
look like there is some movement afoot... now where would you get a
complete list of E-mail address's for people working on the Human Genome
project... or contacts at NIH... or network address's of molecular
biologists in the UK... where even would you begin to look for them???
BIONAUTS could be the answer.
The BIOSCI newsgroups have to have over 50 positive votes before a new
distribution list can be created. Originally I had intended to set up a
seperate LIST at FINHUTC, but considering the interest shown in the
past few days it might be good to integrate BIONAUTS into the BIOSCI
network. So if there are any "LURKERS" (wonderful word that) out there
who have still not sent YES for BIONAUTS to HARPER@FINFUN then do it NOW.
(Sorry about the hard sell but that is the way you have to do it if you
want things done).
=====================EXTRACTS
===No 1 NORWAY
Great idea! We're at least 4 or 5 people here in Oslo, Norway
who would appreciate this.
====No 2 USA
I like the idea very much. Good luck.
UCLA Dept.of Biological Chemistry, LA, CA
===No 3 SPAIN
Hi Rob,
I also think that a list of "biological" e_mail addresses is a good
idea. Let me know if you finally decide to go on.
===No 4 Cambridge UK
Something that is long overdue!!!!
===No 5 London UK
Good idea.
===No 6 Birmingham UK
YES for BIONAUTS
(Many UK VAXes are not well set-up for including subject lines recognised
by normal mailers).
===No 7 Germany
Hi Rob,
I don't think you should make your decision (whether to install a
BIONAUTS list or not) dependent on the number of comments you receive.
I can't believe that so many more people were asked when other lists
have been installed. As you know (I found your name in the SEQNET
database) lots of people sent their adresses to the experimental
database " in the old days of SEQNET" 1988. And I think that when
this BIONAUTS list is introduced the number of subscriptions will
be nearly the same as in BIONEWS. The aim to subscribe to BIONEWS,
METHODS and all the others is in my opinion the same as to subscribe
BIONAUTS namely to get more informations about news in science and
the scientists.
Hopefully more people give their "YES for BIONAUTS".
===No 8 Germany
It would be a great idea ...
Inst. of Med. Virology
University of Giessen, West Germany
===No 9 Italy
Well, a slight transgression to your suggestion of putting YES in the subject
line, but I just wanted to say that it sounds like a good idea to me, I think
it's exactly what the field of networker-life scientists needs
===No 10 Greece
Rob,
I think it is a great idea.
Best wishes for the new year,
===No 11 USA
There are many lurkers out there. I am one of them, but I do at least
use such services once in a while, when the quality is sufficiently
high. In the interest of enhancing quality, I will gladly contribute.
Department of Biology
Princeton University
Rob "chance favours the mind prepared" Harper