Help Us Help You
Have you ever had a burning technical question that no one in your lab could answer, or found yourself sobbing uncontrollably in the microscope room because your results were unexplainable and nobody was there to help you?
Have you ever wanted to discuss your project or talk through potential experiments and wanted feedback from people outside your immediate scientific circle?
Community is important. We’re here for you. Unless you’re Sydney Brenner, you had to learn the worm tools of the trade from someone. We’re writing this note in the Gazette in the hope that it sparks interest in the worm community to use the unparalleled online resources that are freely available to us all.
All right, but apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh-water system, and public health, what have the people at ‘Wormbase’ ever done for us?
Well they did give us the:
Worm Community Forum
The Worm Community Forum (forums.wormbase.org) is a great resource, filled with invaluable information and answers to common troubleshooting questions regarding worm work. Tweaked a protocol and want to share or tried a protocol and it hasn’t worked? Want feedback on your scientific fails (firm but fair advice always given) and wins? Looking for a new position or want to advertise a position in your lab/institution? This is the place to do it!
OK, they didn’t give us the next thing….but they would have:
Worm Internet Relay Chat (IRC) Channel
Want to interact with other researchers in real time, worldwide and not just someone sat in a call centre? Come visit the Worm IRC Channel (##worms) on the freenode IRC Network (freenode.net). If you don’t use an IRC client, you can use a browser version to chat with us. It’s a casual environment to talk freely about worms, or to brainstorm ideas on how to wow your journal reviewers, or maybe if you want to get some technical help and can’t wait for someone to reply on the forum. So what are you waiting for, come on down! We also are fun people too, we promise.
