From owner-btk-mca@hgmp.mrc.ac.uk Tue Jun 12 10:51:45 2001 Return-Path: Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by mercury.hgmp.mrc.ac.uk (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3D2E917B84 for ; Tue, 12 Jun 2001 10:51:44 +0100 (BST) Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by mercury.hgmp.mrc.ac.uk (Postfix) with ESMTP id CD91A17B86 for ; Tue, 12 Jun 2001 10:51:39 +0100 (BST) Received: from niobium.hgmp.mrc.ac.uk (niobium [193.62.192.41]) by mercury.hgmp.mrc.ac.uk (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6E7B617AF3 for ; Tue, 12 Jun 2001 10:51:36 +0100 (BST) Received: (from news@localhost) by niobium.hgmp.mrc.ac.uk (8.9.3+Sun/8.8.8) id KAA22003 for btk-mca-list@hgmp.mrc.ac.uk; Tue, 12 Jun 2001 10:47:52 +0100 (BST) X-Authentication-Warning: niobium.hgmp.mrc.ac.uk: news set sender to using -f From: athel@ir2cbm.cnrs-mrs.fr (Athel Cornish-Bowden) X-Newsgroups: bionet.metabolic-reg Subject: Re: Low activity in 'bionet.metabolic-reg' Date: 12 Jun 2001 10:47:50 +0100 Organization: BIOSCI/MRC Human Genome Mapping Project Resource Centre Lines: 36 Message-ID: References: <77754d4.0106080614.7d946434@posting.google.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" X-Complaints-To: news@net.bio.net X-Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by mercury.hgmp.mrc.ac.uk (Postfix) with ESMTP id B676217B88 for ; Tue, 12 Jun 2001 10:47:42 +0100 (BST) X-Received: from ir2cbm.cnrs-mrs.fr (ir2cbm.cnrs-mrs.fr [193.50.234.128]) by mercury.hgmp.mrc.ac.uk (Postfix) with SMTP id 691A817B84 for ; Tue, 12 Jun 2001 10:47:14 +0100 (BST) X-Received: from [10.234.32.112] by ir2cbm.cnrs-mrs.fr via ESMTP (950221.405.SGI.8.6.10/920502.SGI) for id LAA14910; Tue, 13 Jun 2001 11:44:52 +0200 X-Sender: cornish@ibsm.cnrs-mrs.fr X-In-Reply-To: <77754d4.0106080614.7d946434@posting.google.com> X-To: btk-mca@hgmp.mrc.ac.uk To: btk-mca@hgmp.mrc.ac.uk Sender: owner-btk-mca@hgmp.mrc.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Petr asked: >why do you think the traffic here is so low these days? > I wish I knew. There are lots of interesting things to discuss, especially during a time of recovering interest in metabolism with all the current talk about the metabolome etc., but somehow people don't seem inclined to raise them on the news group. We once had a discussion leader (maybe we still do, in theory), but I don't think he's posted anything since I started following the group around five years ago. Two other comments. I have noticed a significant drop in activity in the past year or so in most of the other Bionet groups that I look at, so maybe it's just a specific example of a broader trend. The other thing I noticed is that there was a sharp drop in activity after we stopped getting idiot questions about the second law of thermodynamics. (A drop in all kinds of activity, not just activity related to the second law of thermodynamics). I suspect that although a lot of us were irritated by those questions they also stepped up interest in the group as a whole. I wouldn't want to send a "come back, all is forgiven" letter off to Bulgaria, but I think there probably does need to be some regular stimulus to keep people interested. athel -- Athel Cornish-Bowden athel@ibsm.cnrs-mrs.fr http://bip.cnrs-mrs.fr/bip10/homepage.htm (changed 23 May 2001) Phone: + 33 491 16 41 38; fax: + 33 491 16 45 78 CNRS-BIP, B.P. 71, 13402 Marseille Cedex 20, France --- .