At the risk of sounding "snooty" :)

[Mary S. Songster-Alpin]

Hi Everyone,

There has been an absolute explosion of posting on this
newsgroup.  I'm happy that so many people have taken an
interest in virology (a lot of people don't even know what
I'm talking about when I mention my field), but I am not
happy when people post without thinking.  Take a 
moment to think about good old-fashioned nettiquette.
Please read the FAQs and lurk a little before posting.
E-mail is a great way to ask the "locals" basic questions.
If you lurk a little while, you will notice that we have 
some very knowledgeable virologists who are on-line
nearly every day and include their e-mail addresses in
their sigs.  Here is a little scenerio to give you an idea
of how your posting might be "seen" all around the 
world!  :)

Imagine that you are standing outside a door 
to a very large meeting hall.  Inside tens of thousands
of professionals are sitting in an international virology
meeting.  All of a sudden, a question pops into your head.
You rush into the meeting and yell out your question.  All
heads turn and look at you and the meeting grinds to a
halt.  Kinda embarrassing, huh.  Nobody would have minded
if you had sat in on the meeting and listened for a while (lurking).  
You could have asked questions of other participants (e-mail),
waited for a question and answer period (lurking and then 
posting), or read the numerous pamphlets and books spread
out on tables outside the meeting hall (reading the FAQs and
homepages). 

Some of you will think this is snooty but please realize 
that this newsgroup exists for people who study viruses 
all day every day.  However, you are welcome to stay
and learn.  :)  I'm just a graduate student and I've learned
alot my first year from this group.
Mary S. Songster-Alpin	   Mary_Songster_Alpin at ncsu.edu
Dept. of Micro., Path., and Parasit.
North Carolina State University
College of Veterinary Medicine