ebola/crapola

[Hannu Kotipalo]

Vampire Junction (vampires at freenet.ufl.edu) wrote:
: On 14 May 1995, brett wrote:

: > I am glad to see so many people now interested in viruses...perhaps some will
: > continue to study them. However, what ever happened to the virology newsgroup
: > I used to remember, the more or less academic one for intelligent questions
: > on and about viruses? Now we are barraged with armchair hacks spouting off
: > everything Michael Preston "taught" them about Ebola. Please, please, please...
: > let's take these conversations elsewhere, there were good discussions going
: > on. Sorry if this seems elitist.
: > Brett Lindenbach
: > Lucille P. Markey Student in Human Pathobiology    
: > Program in Immunology                              
: > Washington University - St Louis                  

: or post our theories?  We post these things in the hope that either A: 
: someone will agree with us and add to the thread.  or B: that someone 
: will disagree and tell us why they think we're wrong.  or C: That someone 
: will post information that we can save for future reference.  I've had 
: the pleasure of learning a lot from this group in the past few days.  
: I've enjoyed reading everyones posts, whether I agree or not.  But I do 
: not enjoy snobs whining that "All these uneducated people are just 
: ruining this group  blah, blah, blah."  If you find us droll and stupid 

I agree with brett. I'm NOT a medical student or professional. There were a time when
you could trust a bit on what you read from usenet. Nowdays there are just too much
repeated questions and wrong answers to them. Of course, there has been several good
questions, good answers and good argues, but the amount of scrap knowledge spoils it a lot.

 Of course, if you have a good question, ask it. BUT after checking nobody has asked it
before, and checking the FAQ:s. Did anybody count how many posted a message like 'Our local
news said there is a ebola outbreak. Is that true?', or 'Ebola infected another town!'
 Too many has claimed 'Ebola is airborne! PANIC'.

I agree that usenet of course needs all theories that could be of any use to others. The
only problem is that a theory might be a very good to someone not knowing about virology,
but just very clearly useless to anybody that has read about the subject.

 Simply, remember the netiquette!

Hannu