Regarding our policy for moderating, we posted the following on 10/17/97...
Pat Edwards and I are charged with monitoring the messages that will now be posted. In practice, messages will initially be forwarded to and screened by Pat, who will then forwarded them on to the newsgroup and e-mail subscribers. Our initial policy is to be fairly loose with this, screening obvious porn, make money and cheap telephone service messages, etc. This means you will be receiving some messages that are not explicitly zebrafish related. If the number of these messages seems offensive or objectionable, please let one of us know and we will establish guidelines to tighten the filter accordingly. However, it seems better (and easier / less judgmental) to let a few borderline messages through than becoming overly restrictive.
Richard Vogt
vogt@biol.sc.edu
Pat Edwards
edwards@UONEURO.uoregon.edu
Overview (last revised 1/12/96)
--------
The overall moderation process is very simple and quick. We have
written this document to serve as a reference to cover the vast
majority of questions which might arise in special cases (please be
sure to save it where it is accessible!). For this reason we tend to
err here on the side of comprehensiveness. The actual process boils
down in most cases to doing little other than forwarding approved
messages to a secret posting address which we provide you, but you
will also need to know what to do when something deviates from the
norm. This first section gives a quick sketch of some of the details.
-------
Messages posted to moderated newsgroups are sent by e-mail to the
newsgroup moderator instead of being immediately distributed at the
time of posting to the USENET news and e-mail list readership.
The role of a newsgroup moderator is to read postings to his/her group
prior to public distribution and decide whether or not they conform to
the newsgroup's charter.
Messages that are rejected are either returned to the sender with an
explanation about why they were rejected or else deleted without
comment (the decision process should be spelled out in the moderation
policy in the newsgroup charter).
Messages that are approved for distribution are forwarded on (in a
specific format) to a secret approval address at the BIOSCI computer,
net.bio.net. This address is known only to the moderator of the
newsgroup and the BIOSCI staff.
The approval address feeds the message to a program which processes it
for distribution via USENET news and to the BIOSCI mailing lists. The
program also automatically handles messages that are crossposted via
news to several USENET newsgroups, requiring no special effort on the
part of the moderator. The program will alert the moderator if any
problems arise during the distribution attempt.
In the next few sections we deal with issues that affect the message
approval/rejection decision. In later sections we deal with the
mechanics of distributing approved messages. We assume for the moment
that you know how to recognize messages in your e-mail file that the
poster intended for public distribution. We will discuss how to
identify such messages at the beginning of the mechanics section
further below.
The Newsgroup Charter
---------------------
Included below is a sample charter from the newsgroup
URODELES/bionet.organisms.urodeles. The newsgroup charter describes
the type of messages that are acceptable for posting to the newsgroup.
The moderator should follow these guidelines when deciding upon the
acceptability of a message for distribution.
Please note that moderators are generally not editors. It is common
practice, if a message is partially acceptable for distribution, to
return it to the sender instead of editing it, and to ask the sender
to correct the part that does not conform to the charter's guidelines.
Note also in the charter below that the moderation policy section
spells out what the moderator will do with messages that are deleted.
In the "good old days" when volume on the newsgroups was much lower,
it was considered courteous to return the entire text of rejected
messages to the sender along with a note giving the reason for
rejection (even if the note was only a standard form letter saying
that the message did not conform to the newsgroup's charter). Given
the increasing volume of messages and the usual constraints on
professionals' time, it is now acceptable to reject messages without
comment if this is spelled out in the newsgroup charter. There is
definitely no need for you to spend time replying to or registering
protests about commercial/sexual/racist USENET spams. Please just
delete them without comment and feel good about having spared hundreds
or thousands of readers from having to delete them too.
Each newsgroup charter is archived on the BIOSCI computer at the World
Wide Web URL http://www.bio.net/ in the appropriate newsgroup archive
directory. Charters can also be retrieved by e-mail sent to the
address biosci-server@net.bio.net. Include in the *body* of the mail
message (text on the Subject: line is ignored) a line that says
info xxx
where xxx is the <= 8 character e-mail posting address of the
newsgroup as listed in the BIOSCI Newsgroups Information sheet. For
example, the URODELES/bionet.organisms.urodeles newsgroup's posting
address is urodeles@net.bio.net. "urodeles" is substituted for xxx in
the command above to retrieve the URODELES/bionet.organisms.urodeles
newsgroup charter. A copy of the URODELES charter follows.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Information for URODELES/bionet.organisms.urodeles (moderated)
USENET newsgroup name: bionet.organisms.urodeles
Status: Moderated
One line Description: Research on urodele amphibians.
Moderation address: urodeles-moderator@net.bio.net
(bionet-organisms-urodeles@net.bio.net is an
alias for urodeles-moderator@net.bio.net)
Moderator: Susan Duhon
Mailing list name: URODELES
E-mail addresses: urodeles@net.bio.net
urodeles@daresbury.ac.uk
Newsgroup character: Bionet.organisms.urodeles is a forum for
scientific discussions and a source of information for the community
of biologists interested in any aspect of urodele amphibian biology.
The name URODELES was chosen to reflect the common interest among
scientists working with axolotls, salamanders, and newts.
Functions of the newsgroup:
The newsgroup will facilitate rapid communication among research
scientists and educators using urodele amphibians in any biological
field, including but not limited to developmental biology, genetics,
physiology, immunology, ecology, taxonomy, evolutionary biology,
neuroscience, etc. and will thereby allow more rapid progress in
research involving urodeles.
The newsgroup will provide a forum for discussions of problems, old
and new ideas, journal publications, and recent developments in
amphibian research.
The newsgroup will also provide sources of practical advice,
methodologies, answers to frequently asked questions concerning
amphibian husbandry and techniques used in urodele research, and
availability of unique reagents for research with urodeles (e.g.,
antibodies, cDNAs, primers and gene sequences, DNA libraries, mutants,
etc.).
Finally, the newsgroup will serve as a bulletin board for
announcements of meetings, conferences, job opportunities, and funding
sources of interest to biologists studying urodeles.
Subscribers are welcome from universities or any academic
institutions, government agencies, hospitals and other medical
institutions, and industrial or commercial organizations.
Contributions within the functions outlined above are encouraged.
Moderation Policy:
Mass-posted commercial messages, chain letters, and similar postings
not germane to amphibians or urodeles will be deleted without comment.
Inappropriate messages posted in good faith will be returned to the
sender. Messages not strictly within the charter but likely to be of
interest to many subscribers (e.g., messages dealing with Caecilians)
will be accepted.
Susan Duhon
Assistant Director, Indiana University Axolotl Colony
Anthony Mescher
Professor of Anatomy, Indiana University School of Medicine
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
BIOSCI Commercial Use Policy
----------------------------
Moderators should note that the BIOSCI commercial use policy also
governs the approval decision. BIOSCI does not permit use of the
newsgroups for commercial purposes regardless of how relevant a
product might be to research discussed on the moderator's newsgroup.
If we were to make exceptions to this policy, the newsgroup system
would quickly degenerate into a forum for unlimited commercial
announcements and readership would plummet.
If you have any doubts about whether or not a message promotes a
commercial product for financial gain, simply return it to the sender
and ask them to include a disclaimer stating that they have no
financial connections with the item/product mentioned in their
message. If they will not do so, tell them that you can not distribute
their message. If anyone gives you a hard time, please refer them to
biosci-help@net.bio.net and we will handle the issue.
A commercial concern may *reply* to messages which specifically name
that company's product. This exemption does not allow commercial
replies to general questions like "Does anyone know of a product which
does X?" Such questions need to be answered only by people who are
not connected to the manufacturer and who do not stand to gain
financially from the response. Please refer to the BIOSCI FAQ for a
detailed explanation of the commercial use policy.
Scientists **with no financial connections** to the products under
discussion are free to post notes about commercial products. It is
common procedure to include a disclaimer in any posting about products
disavowing any commercial interest in the product under discussion.
Producers of products that might be relevant to the topic at hand
should stand aside and let the scientists themselves engage in
discussion unless products are specifically named. Even in the latter
case, commercial responses about a company's product should be
strictly factual, avoiding both marketing hype and comparisons to
competitors.
Liability Issues
----------------
Legal precedent to date indicates that postings made to *unmoderated*
newsgroups are the sole responsibility of the poster and not the
service provider, just like booksellers can not be held liable for the
contents of the books that they sell (although the publisher can be!).
Newsgroup moderation changes this equation. If a posting is
potentially libelous and is approved for distribution by a moderator,
the moderator assumes responsibility for distributing the message just
as a publisher can be held responsible for printing someone else's false
allegations.
Although we have not had a single problem in the almost ten year
history of the BIOSCI project, we recommend that moderators avoid
controversy by following some simple guidelines. If a posting is
received that appears to be controversial, it is usually best to tell
the poster that you do not have time to investigate the facts of the
case in question (remember that damning allegations that are true are
*not* libelous). Remind the poster that they might be sued for libel
if their charges can not be substantiated. Tell the poster that if
he/she is intent on getting their message out, they should post to an
unmoderated newsgroup where they assume full responsibility for their
attack. A simple explanation that you as moderator can not get
legally involved in their dispute is almost always enough to make the
issue simply go away. Before you get too concerned, we wish to
emphasize again that very few incidents like this have ever come up in
almost ten years of running the BIOSCI system.
BIOSCI provides this warning to you solely to alert you to potential
legal issues if you were to participate in a dispute on your
newsgroup. BIOSCI assumes no responsibility for your actions should
you decide to get involved of your own volition. Please do your best
to avoid postings which start "flame wars" on your group. Please do
not encourage personal attacks. Unfortunately the impersonal nature
of electronic communications makes some people forget their manners
and engage in behavior which they would never do in a face-to-face
setting.
The Mechanics of Approving Messages for Distribution
----------------------------------------------------
Having dealt above with the issues affecting your decision to approve
or reject messages, we now discuss the procedures for distributing
messages that you have approved.
Determining which messages are sent to your newsgroup
-----------------------------------------------------
We have assumed thus far that you can easily distinguish messages in
your personal mail file that were intended for distribution on the
newsgroup, but now must address this issue explicitly. First, please
be aware that people sometimes mistakenly include newsgroup posting
addresses on private e-mail replies. If a message appears to be a
private response, your first action should always be to ascertain from
the poster that the message was really intended for public
distribution.
There are two ways that messages may reach you. (I) People using
USENET newsreaders can attempt to post directly into their local
USENET newsgroup or (II) people can post to one of the two e-mail
posting addresses at net.bio.net (U.S. BIOSCI node) or daresbury.ac.uk
(U.K. BIOSCI node).
In the case of a posting made via news software, the newsreader will
forward the message to you by e-mail, often via a site called
uunet.uu.net or via net.bio.net (which you may see on the To: line in
the message header). All postings made via news software will have a
"Newsgroups:" header line which will include at least your USENET
newsgroup name on it and possibly others if the message was
crossposted to multiple newsgroups. Usually messages that contain
Newsgroups: headers are meant for public distribution. Note, however,
that you may sometimes see a Newsgroups: line on a private reply sent
to a message that you posted earlier under your own address in the
newsgroup. In that case your personal e-mail address should appear on
the To: header line. Such a message might not be intended for public
consumption. As noted above, if there is any doubt in your mind,
please check privately with the poster before distributing his/her
message on your newsgroup.
Postings that have the public e-mail newsgroup posting address on the
To: header line are usually intended for distribution. For example,
the BIONEWS/bionet.announce newsgroup is moderated, and whenever
postings arrive with
To: bionews@net.bio.net
or
To: bionews@daresbury.ac.uk (or sometimes bionews@dl.ac.uk)
in the message header, such postings were sent to the public
distribution address. As before, however, please double-check with
the poster if you have any reason to doubt that a message was really
intended for public consumption.
Another way to avoid possible confusion is to create a separate
computer account on your local computer system to receive mail from
the newsgroup. If you decide to do this, please send a message from
that account to biosci-help@net.bio.net so that we can register your
moderator's e-mail address correctly here. If you create a separate
account, please use it only for processing mail that you approve for
distribution. Please send your personal messages to the newsgroup
from your usual computer account. This way private replies will go
back to your usual e-mail address instead of being mixed in with
moderator mail.
An aside about "subscribe"/"unsubscribe" messages sent to your group:
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Please remember to either send such people the instructions for
signing up to the newsgroup correctly via the
biosci-server@net.bio.net or mxt@dl.ac.uk addresses or else pass the
message on to biosci-help@net.bio.net for manual processing.
Posting Approved Messages
-------------------------
BIOSCI will provide each moderator with a secret approval address at
net.bio.net which is known only to the moderator and the BIOSCI staff.
This address is read automatically by a program on the net.bio.net
computer which then distributes approved messages to both the USENET
newsgroup and e-mail lists. It is only through this address that mail
can be sent to the e-mail lists.
The approval address thus circumvents mail distribution even from
USENET spam attacks which forge the rather insecure USENET approval
process for moderated newsgroups. Unfortunately it is still possible
for spammers to distribute their messages on your USENET newsgroup
(*not* your e-mail list) by forging the approval line (the only way
that we could prevent this is to get everyone on the net to adopt as
yet unwritten news software which only distributes messages on
moderated newsgroups if they contain the moderator's encrypted digital
signature). Fortunately, spammers can not annoy your e-mail
subscribers. If a spammer forges an approval line, the message will
be distributed on your USENET newsgroup, but it will *not* be sent to
your moderator's e-mail file for approval since it has already been
"approved." The only way that you can detect such an attack would be
by seeing it in a USENET newsreader program. The BIOSCI archive
system at net.bio.net requires that the message be passed first
through the e-mail system, so it will not appear there either. It is
possible that you might learn of such an attack by getting mail from
one of your readers who uses USENET news.
The secret approval address at net.bio.net will not appear in the
headers of approved messages (as explained below) and should be kept
confidential. If the address is compromised it will be changed.
As an additional security feature, the program which processes mail
sent to the approval address will only process messages sent in from
the moderator's e-mail account. Attempts to post from unauthorized
accounts will generate error messages which will be sent to
biosci-help@net.bio.net and to your moderator's e-mail address.
If you will be absent for an extended period and need to have someone
else stand in for you as moderator, please tell us ahead of time so
that we can change the moderation address that is allowed to
distribute messages!!
Approved messages must follow precisely the format outlined below.
Typically this format can be generated by either "forwarding" a
message that you have approved to the secret approval address or
saving the approved message into a file in your account and then
inserting it into a new message which you address to the secret
approval address. Since there are so many different e-mail programs
in use on the Internet, we can not predict in advance which method
will work for you.
The format needed by the program which monitors the secret approval
address has three parts: your newly created message header separated
by blank line(s) from the original message header separated by blank
line(s) from the body of the original message. An example is given
further below.
The first part consists of the mail header that is created when you
send in the original message for distribution. This header will have
your address on the From: line, the secret approval address on the To:
line and various other typical header lines such as Date: and Subject:
(which you can always leave blank if you wish). Your mail header ends
when the first blank line in the message is reached.
The program that reads your secret approval address will strip out all
of your mail header and the blank line(s) which immediately follow it.
It will then assume that the next block of text that it encounters
(until it reaches another blank line) is the message header of the
original posting. It is therefore critical that your mail program (1)
**preserves the original message header intact** (NOTE!! Inserting ">"
or other characters along the left hand side of the original message
does not qualify as preserving the original message header intact -
this will abort the message distribution), and (2) does *not* insert a
separate block of text between your header and the original message
header. If a line such as
----- Forwarded Message -----
is contiguous with the text of the original message header, i.e.,
there are no blank lines between it and the original header, the
approval program can process the message successfully.
The approval program will then process the original message header to
distribute the message. The original message header must have at a
minimum a From: line and a Subject: line. It should also include the
original Newsgroups: (if present), Date:, and Message-Id: lines.
Finally, it is strongly recommended that any Reply-To: and References:
lines in the original also be retained. Unfortunately many e-mail
programs strip out header information when you try to forward a
message or save it in a file. Your mail program can often be
reconfigured to forward or save messages with "full" headers, and you
may have to experiment with your mail settings by forwarding messages
to your personal address to check the message format before you begin
sending in newsgroup messages for distribution to your secret approval
address. Please feel free to also forward messages to us at
biosci-help@net.bio.net if you have questions about correct formatting.
The program will assume that the original message header ends when it
encounters the first blank line after the second contiguous block of
text (the first block, once again, is the header you create when you
submit the original message for distribution). Everything that
follows the original header will be distributed as the body of the
original message. It is therefore **important** that you do not
include an automatic signature file at the end of messages that you
submit for distribution unless you want every message on the newsgroup
to display this information on other people's messages!!! Once again
you may have to reconfigure your mail program to turn off inclusion of
your signature file when you process newsgroup approvals.
We now provide an example of a correctly formatted message which would
be distributed by the approval program. Note that the ++++'s below
are separators from the text of this document and are not part of the
message.
The example was created by the BIOSCI Administrator who is the
moderator of the EMPLOYMENT/bionet.jobs.offered newsgroup. The
original message from Dr. Franceschi was forwarded by the BIOSCI
Administrator to the secret approval address, disguised here simply as
secret_address@net.bio.net on the To: line in the header. The
Subject: line was created by the forwarding process and is the fourth
and last line in the moderator's new header. One blank line separates
the moderator's header from the first line in the original message
header (in this case a Return-Path: line). Note that the original
header is passed along completely unmodified. Also note, just for
curiosity's sake, that this message was submitted for posting by
e-mail, not by news, since biojobs@net.bio.net appears on the To: line,
and there is no Newsgroups: line in the header. The original header
ends with the Content-Type: line since it is followed by the next
blank line. The remainder of the message is the body of the original
message. Note again that *no* signature file from the BIOSCI
Administrator is appended to the end of the original message.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
From: BIOSCI Administrator
Reply-To: biosci-help@net.bio.net
To: secret_address@net.bio.net
Subject: ["Renny T. Franceschi" : Periodontist Faculty
Position Available]
Return-Path: rennyf@umich.edu
Received: from galaxian.rs.itd.umich.edu (0@galaxian.rs.itd.umich.edu [141.211.63.92]) by net.bio.net (8.6.12/8.6.6) with ESMTP id MAA22038; Sun, 31 Dec 1995 12:59:46 -0800
Received: from galaxian.rs.itd.umich.edu by galaxian.rs.itd.umich.edu (8.7.1/2.2)
id PAA05381; Sun, 31 Dec 1995 15:58:03 -0500 (EST)
Date: Sun, 31 Dec 1995 15:58:00 -0500 (EST)
From: "Renny T. Franceschi"
X-Sender: rennyf@galaxian.rs.itd.umich.edu
To: biojobs@net.bio.net
Subject: Periodontist Faculty Position Available
Message-ID:
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
University of Michigan, School of Dentistry is seeking applicants for a
Tenure-Track Faculty position. A board certified or board eligible
Periodontist is sought with a strong commitment to periodontal education
and research. Opportunities are available for joint projects with both
clinical and basic science research faculty currently in the department.
Opportunities are also available for intramural patient care. Salary and
level of academic appointment commensurate with qualification and
experience. The University of Michigan is a non-discriminatory,
affirmative action employer. Applications should be received by April 1,
1996. Submit curriculum vitae, a statement of educational and research
accomplishments/goals and names of three references to:
Dr. Renny T. Franceschi
Chair, Search Committee
Department of Periodontics/Prevention/Geriatrics
The University of Michigan School of Dentistry
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1078
(313) 763-7381
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The use of the secret approval address has a somewhat inconvenient
side effect when the moderator wishes to post a message of his/her own
to the newsgroup. If the message is sent directly to the approval
address, the header will be stripped off, and then the approval
program will attempt to process the body of the message as if it were
the original header!! There are a number of ways to prevent this from
happening, but probably the easiest method is simply to submit your
personal message to the public posting address, wait for it to appear
back in your mail file for approval, and then pass it on to the secret
approval address.
Finally, we note that messages are often crossposted to more than one
newsgroup. If the message has a Newsgroups: line with more than one
newsgroup name on it, the approval program will post the message to
your newsgroup separately under a new Message-Id: line and pass it on
to the other newsgroups separately under the original Message-Id:
line. If the message was submitted originally by e-mail to multiple
newsgroup e-mail posting addresses (as displayed on the message's To:
line), you will have to intervene manually. Before submitting the
message to your secret approval address, edit out the Message-Id: line
in the original message header. Failure to do so may result in an
error message being sent back to you as described in the next section.
Error Messages
--------------
On occasion the program which reads your secret approval address may
encounter a problem with the message you submitted. The program will
return an error message from "daemon@net.bio.net." Typically the
error messages fall into one of four types described below. The error
message, which begins with "Inews produced this output:", will be
listed immediately following the mail header from "daemon."
Please make sure that you understand what action you need to take if
you get an error message from "daemon," do not just delete it. If
there is any doubt in your mind, please forward the entire error
message to biosci-help@net.bio.net and we will assist you.
We now detail the four most common error messages and what steps you
may need to take to ensure distribution of the message.
ERROR TYPE 1) The message is a "Duplicate." This means that the news
system at net.bio.net has already received a message with the same
Message-Id: as the one that you just submitted. This might happen
because you submitted the same message earlier (some news systems
might send you more than one copy if you delay in distributing the
message) or it might happen because the original message was sent in
by e-mail to multiple posting addresses, some of which were
unmoderated and thus immediately distributed, as noted in the section
above. In the former case, you need do nothing further. In the
latter case, the error message will include a complete copy of the
original message. Edit out all of the error header, error message,
and your submission mail header until you have only the original
message left. Remove the Message-Id: line from the original message
and resubmit it.
A complete sample error of this type follows, including all headers and
the original posting:
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Date: Fri, 5 Jan 1996 06:46:15 -0800
From: daemon
To: biosci-help@net.bio.net
Subject: Posting Error for bionet.biology.computational
Inews produced this output:
Can't send article to the server:
441 435 Duplicate
(Article not posted.)
while processing this:
>From kristoff Fri Jan 5 06:46:05 1996
Received: (from kristoff@localhost) by net.bio.net (8.6.12/8.6.6) id GAA01376; Fri, 5 Jan 1996 06:46:05 -0800
Sender: David Kristofferson
Date: Fri, 5 Jan 96 6:46:05 PST
From: BIOSCI Administrator
Reply-To: biosci-help@net.bio.net
To: secret_address@net.bio.net
Subject: [Aston@ncren.net, Webb@ncren.net, Cluster@ncren.net,
#1@sun4.bham.ac.uk: Jobs?]
Message-ID:
Return-Path: usenet@sun4.bham.ac.uk
Received: from jazz.ncren.net (jazz.ncren.net [128.109.131.6]) by net.bio.net (8.6.12/8.6.6) with ESMTP id FAA24594; Fri, 5 Jan 1996 05:47:44 -0800
Received: from bham.ac.uk by jazz.ncren.net (5.65/tas-ncren/may94)
id AA02304; Fri, 5 Jan 96 08:45:38 -0500
Received: from sun4.bham.ac.uk by bham.ac.uk with SMTP (PP);
Fri, 5 Jan 1996 13:44:42 +0000
Received: by sun4.bham.ac.uk (5.x/SMI-SVR4) id AA29776;
Fri, 5 Jan 1996 13:44:37 GMT
To: bionet-biology-computational@moderators.uu.net
Path: usenet
From: Aston@ncren.net, Webb@ncren.net, Cluster@ncren.net, #1@sun4.bham.ac.uk
Newsgroups: bionet.biology.computational
Subject: Jobs?
Date: 5 Jan 1996 13:44:37 GMT
Organization: The University of Birmingham
Lines: 6
Message-Id: <4cja05$pen@sun4.bham.ac.uk>
Nntp-Posting-Host: awc2-07.bham.ac.uk
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
X-Mailer: Mozilla 1.1N (Windows; I; 16bit)
Does anybody know of any companies (as opposed to universities) in the UK
who employ people from the bioinformatics field?
Thanks for any help.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
ERROR TYPE 2) The message was crossposted and one of the other groups
was moderated. In this case you will be informed that the "inews"
program was not able to post the message but instead sent it on to the
moderator of the other group for approval. Rest assured that the
message was posted to *your* newsgroup; the daemon message indicates
that the moderator of the *other* moderated newsgroup on the list will
have to approve it before it is posted to *his/her* newsgroup. You
need do nothing further if you get such a notice. A sample of such an
error follows:
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
From: daemon
To: kristoff@net.bio.net
Subject: Crossposting Error for sci.techniques.mag-resonance,bionet.molec-model,bionet.biology.computational,bionet.molbio.proteins,bionet.cellbiol,bionet.molbio.embldatabank,bionet.molbio.genbank,bionet.molbio.evolution,sci.research,sci.techniques.spe
Inews produced this output:
The "bionet.biology.computational" newsgroup is moderated. Your
article will not be posted, but mailed to the moderator for approval.
while processing this:
( the two message headers and body omitted from this example )
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
ERROR TYPE 3) The original message was missing a Subject: or other
required header line. The news system will not distribute a message
without a Subject: line. As in error 1 above, edit the error message
down to the original message. Add an appropriate Subject: line
yourself and resubmit the message.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
From: daemon
To: biosci-help@net.bio.net
Subject: Posting Error for bionet.biology.computational
Inews produced this output:
Required "Subject" header is missing or empty.
(Article not posted.)
while processing this:
(remainder deleted from this example)
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
ERROR TYPE 4) The message could not be posted but will be "spooled"
for delivery. On occasion the news system at net.bio.net may be down
because a high load on the computer causes a temporary shutdown or
because a disk partition has filled up. In cases like these you might
get an error message back which indicates that the system is
"throttling" and that your message has been "spooled." This means
that the message has been queued on the BIOSCI computer for delivery
when the news system comes back online. You need do nothing further
if you get such a message (one exception below!), but we would
appreciate it if you passed such an error message on to us at
biosci-help@net.bio.net. Although we monitor the system daily for
such problems, on occasion you might notice the problem before we do
and can alert us to fix it sooner. Messages that are spooled will
eventually be delivered, so you needn't be concerned about losing
messages if you don't contact us.
If the news server is completely dead, however, you will get an error
which says that the spool file was not created (see example below).
In this case DO NOT delete the error message as the posting was *not*
spooled! You will have to edit down to the original message and try
resubmitting later when the server is back up. Please send us e-mail
to biosci-help@net.bio.net immediately if this (rare) condition
occurs.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
From: daemon
To: biosci-help@net.bio.net
Subject: Posting Error for bionet.biology.computational
Inews produced this output:
Warning Can't connect to server -- Article will be spooled.
Can't create spool file, Permission denied. <+++ NOTE: This is bad news!
while processing this:
(remainder omitted)
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Once again, if you encounter other errors than the above, please feel
free to forward the entire error message to biosci-help@net.bio.net
and we will tell you how to proceed.
The above sections should cover virtually all of the issues that you
might encounter while moderating your newsgroup. We would appreciate
your feedback to improve these instructions and would also be happy to
answer any other questions that you might have. Please feel free to
contact us at biosci-help@net.bio.net.
We would also like to thank you on behalf of the research community
for helping maintain the quality of your discussion forum. Rest
assured that hundreds of your readers also appreciate your efforts.
Sincerely,
The BIOSCI Staff