ALL: How to use the HUM-MOLGEN TOPIC feature

[Arthur Bergen <bergen@AMC.UVA.NL>]

Note from the owner:

During the American Society of Human Genetics Meeting last week, several
HUM-MOLGENeticist asked me how to SET TOPICS etc, to adapt HUM-MOLGEN
mail to your own wishes.
The short guide to TOPICS follows below.

Have a nice day.

Arthur Bergen


N.B> HUM-MOLGEN growth has hit over 2 2 5 0 subscribers (50 countries)

**********************************************************************

Please  save this  message  for future  reference,
especially  if  you are  not familiar with the use of
communication-lists or LISTSERV.


1-LISTSERV COMMANDS INFORMATION
================================

                INTRODUCTION.............

You can send two types of E-mail:

a) MESSAGES to the adress: HUM-MOLGEN@nic.surfnet.nl
(messages and communication to HUM-MOLGEN itself)

b) COMMANDS to the adress: LISTSERV@nic.surfnet.nl
(commands such as: subscribe HUM-MOLGEN, and
SET HUM-MOLGEN TOPICS: 'xxxx')


2-GUIDE TO THE USE OF HUM-MOLGEN TOPICS
=======================================
This guide contains the following features:

a) HUM-MOLGEN NAMES FOR TOPICS (!)
b) HOW TO SET TOPICS (commands to LISTSERV@NIC.SURFNET.NL)
c) HOW TO SEND MESSAGES TO SPECIFIC TOPICS (messages to
   HUM-MOLGEN@NIC.SURFNET.NL)



ad a)
HUM-MOLGEN NAMES FOR TOPICS (!)

List topics provides a way to run HUM-MOLGEN with several
parallel sub-topics and allows to choose from which TOPICs
you want to receive mail or not. By this way you can create a
mailing-list adapted to your personal requirements.

For instance, as a Clinician you are interested in news in the
rapid growing field of Clinical Genetics and Molecular Biolo-
gy, you are looking for collaboration with Biological Scien-
tists and important meetings. Ofcourse, you want to be the
first who knows the content of the journals and you plan to
participate in the discussion about ethical and social issues.
You have to be up to date with diagnostic methods, but you are
not interested in the specific field of Computational Gene-
tics.

!!!Important: TOPICS are ALWAYS specified by typing the FIRST
FOUR letters of the topic name only!!!! At this time, the
following topics are available:

NAME TOPIC      FEATURE         DESCRIPTION
==========      =======         ===========

NEWS            NEWS            (General news about Human
                                   Genetics and HUM-MOLGEN)

CALL            CALLS           (Calls for help, collaborati
                                   on, assistance)

ANNO            ANNOUNCEMENTS   (Meetings, positions, awards,
                                   etc.)

LITE            LITERATURE      (Journals, books, libraries)

REVI            REVIEW          (Reviews in different fields
                                   of Clinical Genetics,
                                   Molecular Biology, Biotech
                                   nology)

ETHI            ETHICS          (Ethical and social issues)

DIAG            DIAGNOSTICS     (Molecular Diagnostics and
                                   Clinical Research)

COMP            COMPUTERS       (Introduction of new Internet
                                   resources and discussion
                                   about Computational Gene
                                   tics)

SPEC            SPECIAL         (Special topics in genetics,
                                   f. i. genetic imprinting,
                                   uniparental disomy,

BIOT            BIOTECHNOLOGY/
                MOLECULAR BIOLOGY   (Techniques, new procedu
                                    res)


(TOPICS can be changed and extended according to subscribers
wishes)





ad b)
HOW TO SET TOPICS

******(commands to LISTSERV@NIC.SURFNET.NL)*******

All TOPICS are default 'on' for every new HUM-MOLGEN subscriber.
For the other TOPICS, you select the topics you wish to recei-
ve with the SET command. The syntax is
SET HUM-MOLGEN TOPICS: 'xxxx'     where 'xxxx' can be either:

1) A list of all the topics you wish to receive. In that
case these topics replace any other topics you may have
subscribed to before. For  instance, after
SET HUM-MOLGEN TOPICS: DIAG
you will receive information about Molecular Diagnostics/Clinical
Research, and nothing else.

2) Updates to the list of topics the user currently recei-
ves. A plus sign indicates a topic that should be added, a
minus  sign requests  the removal of a topic. For instance,
SET HUM-MOLGEN TOPICS: +ANNO -COMP   adds ANNOuncements and
removes the introduction of new Internet resources/COMPutational
Genetics.
If a topic name is given without a + or - sign, a + is  assumed:
SET HUM-MOLGEN TOPICS:+NEWS LITE  adds news  and literature .
The first  topic name must have the plus sign to show that this
is an addition, and not a replacement.

3) A combination of the above, mostly useful  to enable
all but a few topics: 'SET HUM-MOLGEN TOPICS: ALL -SPEC'.

Please send your e-mails to LISTSERV@NIC.SURFNET.NL (****NOT
TO HUM-MOLGEN itself*****) with your 'SET HUM-MOLGEN TOPICS: xxx'
in the body of the message.

Initial, HUM-MOLGENeticists are SET + for all topics.





ad c)
HOW TO SEND MESSAGES TO SPECIFIC TOPICS

(messages to HUM-MOLGEN@NIC.SURFNET.NL)

If you send message to HUM-MOLGEN, which are ment to appear in
certain TOPICS of the list, please use the following syntax.

Send your message as usual to HUM-MOLGEN@nic.surfnet.nl,
however: specify in the subject: a space, the TOPIC NAME,
followed by a colon, and a space. After this space you can add
the subject of your message as you would do normally. For
example, if you want to send an announcement about a symposium
on breast cancer, the subject line of your message should look
like this:

Subject: ANNO: Symposium on breast cancer

If you want to send your message to two or more TOPICS use the
same style:

Subject: ANNO,NEWS: Symposium on breast cancer

In unclear cases, the editors will change TOPICS according to
the specifications of HUM-MOLGEN and/or the TOPICS itself.