CHARMM Development Project Forums User Discussion & Questions Parameter Set Discussion READ THIS FIRST: guidelines for Parameter Set Disc

Dear CHARMM Force Field user,

Welcome to the official CHARMM Parameter Set Discussion forum! To help you get the most out of this forum and avoid undue frustration, please take note of our forum guidelines:

• Read all the the "sticky topics" before posting; chances are that your question is already answered there. Sticky topics can be recognized by the fact that they're permanently at the top of the forum list and have this icon: . For example, the thread you're reading right now is a "Sticky topic".
• Read the relevant FAQs before posting; chances are that your question is already answered there. For the Parameter Set Discussion forum, these include
  • the CGenFF FAQ
  • the ParamChem FAQ
• Use the forum's search function (near the upper right corner of the page) or Google before posting; chances are that your question has already been answered. Also, be advised that the search function is a bit quirky; here's a discussion on an important shortcoming and how to get around it using Google.
• Consult any relevant documentation before posting; chances are... right.
• Try to solve the problem yourself. Go for a walk or a run or have a good night's sleep, then look at the problem again. Change your input and experiment. Think out of the box. Chances are that you'll solve the problem yourself, lose less time than you would have spent trying to explain it to us, and learn something in the process! Nobody was born expert...
• Ask your local expert/advisor/mentor before posting; chances are that they know the answer.
• If you must ask a question, take plenty of time formulating it! Then, read your question again from the point-of-view of a CHARMM expert trying to answer it. Make your questions concise and to-the-point, but at the same time, include all relevant information on your problem. Use full, descriptive and grammatically correct sentences; given the international audience and the lack of nonverbal communication, misunderstandings are commonplace. Use the forum's "attachment" functionality to include pictures, CHARMM input/outputs, topology/parameter files,... Note that in some cases, you may have to rename your files before attaching, eg. my_charmm_run.out becomes my_charmm_run.out.txt . Here's how to attach files:
  • Click the button "Switch to Full Reply Screen"
  • click the link "File Manager"
• For a new question, start a new thread.
• As a matter of policy, we refuse to help CHARMM users who set BOMLEV lower than -2 or, more generally spoken, users who ignore the warnings the software is giving them.
• Unless you cannot properly ask your question without disclosing critically confidential information, please do not e-mail us with questions. As a matter of policy, I give CGenFF questions on the CHARMM forum a higher priority than questions per e-mail, so waiting times for e-mail replies can easily be measured in weeks or even months. This is to encourage people to use the forums, so that:
  • others may assist in answering the question
  • the solution is available to anyone with a similar question (otherwise we have to answer every question multiple times)
• Nobody on this forum gets paid to answer your questions! We're all busy scientists who are helping you on a voluntary basis, so please be respectful our time. Even if you feel your time is more valuable than ours, consider this: we are the people who put together the tools you're using, such as the CHARMM program, the CHARMM force field, the ParamChem website, CHARMM-GUI, NNTSB, CHARMMing,... Due to the popularity of these tools, we get many questions such as yours every day. If all of our users would value their own time more than ours and not do their homework before posting, we would be so swamped with trivial questions that we would be forced to either:
  • stop answering questions altogether
  • not have time to fix problems or add features to the programs you're using
  • give rude and unhelpful answers to "stupid" questions to discourage people from asking them
• Please consider reading How to Ask Questions the Smart Way by Eric S. Raymond, a classic essay explaining good practices in asking questions to programmers (note that ESR uses the term "hacker" in the sense of "expert programmer").

Thank you very much for your considerateness, and I hope you will find this forum a helpful resource in support of your research,

Kenno.

Like!!!Thanks!