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Print ArticleTwo weeks ago I realized something : 90% of the news posted here come from 3-4 news source, and posting involve multiple copy/paste operations. So I decided to let the computer do its magic : automated news parsing! I quickly learned Perl (which I must say, is very easy to use / powerful) and coded a parser; right now, I just have to paste interesting urls and 90% of the tiresome job is done! I just need to assign categories, do some editing, check if everything went right, and it's done! Which leave me with more time to work on the site... now if only people would post comments / start threads, we could chat about biology ;) Seriously, I'm puzzled : people register in the forum, but don't post. Is there some problem I'm not aware of? If so, there's a contact email at the very bottom of the page, feel free to contact me!
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I don't post because I'm interested only in Marine Biology. But if you had a Marine Biology section on the forum I would post...maybe even mod it for ya
I tried to keep categories to a minimum, but if you can find me some reliable marine biology news source, I'm sure we can do something about that
We find this to be quite a useful site, but don't post much, as you mostly did such a great job in the post.
I'm sure we're not alone in that, and will thereby miss the handcoded pages ...
I use the site as a supplement to my other news sources; I just found it within the past month or so.
As a former programmer, I don't think hand-coded posts are anywhere near as fun as the nifty "let the machine do it" variety.
I tried to keep categories to a minimum, but if you can find me some reliable marine biology news source, I'm sure we can do something about that
Not sure I have one place to get the news, but I would be more then happy to send you some stories with the source. Maybe you could then post the news?
I'm sure we're not alone in that, and will thereby miss the handcoded pages ...
Don't worry; most of the posts you see on Biology News Net aren't prepared by me, but by professionals working at Universities. It would be impossible for me to research and write 8-10 articles per day, with my doctorate and my life
I also noticed a lack of Biology discussion forums, and I decided to integrate the two; on Biology News Net, you can post comments attached to news items, automatically mirrored in the appropriate forum, or post a whole new thread on whatever you would like to ask / share in the forum of your choice. Isn't it wonderful ? (I hope... tons of sleepless night we're spent designing this system!)
What I was refering to with the Perl script I wrote is the automatization of the copy/paste (text, links, source, etc) of the press releases. What it means is that I now have far more time to write content of my own, including writing in the forum / comments. You can't imagine how much time running a site like this consume daily
Glad to see some life in here by the way, I was starting to feel a little lonely
Whitetip : if you can find press release style articles, feel free to contact me. If you find copyrighted articles (which most articles from websites are, these days), you can post a new thread in the appropriate forum with the link in it (and your comment / ideas / suggestions / appreciation / review if you feel like it
Don't worry; most of the posts you see on Biology News Net aren't prepared by me, but by professionals working at Universities. It would be impossible for me to research and write 8-10 articles per day, with my doctorate and my life
snip
What I was refering to with the Perl script I wrote is the automatization of the copy/paste (text, links, source, etc) of the press releases. What it means is that I now have far more time to write content of my own, including writing in the forum / comments. You can't imagine how much time running a site like this consume daily
Well, I do use slashdot and other news sources, but this is one of the best non-journal Biology news sites, IMHO.
And, yes, I can imagine how much time administering the site takes, I used to manage some very busy sites and email lists before. But we appreciate it.
Sounds cool. I'll get some stories posted.
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