Connect

Connect, in the sidebar, is one place for writing to people: other RBAi members, researchers outside RBAi, and RBAi itself, which finds who can help. It replaced the Messages and Researchers pages.

Your notifications, such as a document shared with you, are in Connect too; there is no separate bell.

Open the pinned RBAi conversation and describe the need in plain words, for example I need pLKO.1-shTP53 from a lab in India. You can also type a need in New message → To and choose Ask RBAi to find who can help.

1. RBAi searches the methods sections of papers in Europe PMC with the item’s names as papers write them, and reads what each paper says about it: anyone who made, obtained or used it has it, and the paper often says where it came from, such as Addgene, a company or another lab.
2. It checks official records where they help: Cellosaurus for a cell line, RRIDs for antibodies and Addgene numbers, HGNC for a human gene. Addgene’s own catalogue is not connected yet.
3. RBAi tells you in its reply everyone it found, in a table when there are several: the person, their institution, what they used or made, where they got it, and a link to each paper. When it shows only some, it says how many more there are.

Ask about the results afterwards, for example List all the plasmids you found, and RBAi answers from what it already found, without searching again.

Name a person, for example Does Dr Rimpy Kaur Chowhan have a PRDX6 plasmid?, and RBAi answers about that person: whether they are on RBAi, what their own papers show, and the address their papers print for them. It may also read their lab or institution page. It says what it searched and never claims a paper or an address is missing without looking.

For a service, such as Who offers cryo-EM data collection near Delhi?, RBAi reads the services RBAi members list and searches the web for facility pages. Services and instruments

An answer takes from a few seconds to about two minutes, and the step it is on shows while it works. Stop ends it, and a reload reconnects. The Work log above each answer, as in the chat, says each step in words: what was searched, how many papers matched, which records and pages were read. When you ask RBAi to write to someone, the email shows in the conversation with Send from my email and, on the Researcher and Pro plans where the address is printed in a paper’s record, Send through RBAi. To change it, ask RBAi, and it drafts it again. Under each answer, its cost in credits is shown, as in the chat.

Your conversation with RBAi is one continuing chat, as with a person. To delete one message, yours or RBAi’s, open its ⋯ menu, which shows when you point at the message, or press and hold the message on a phone, then choose Delete. To delete every message, open ⋯ at the top of the conversation and choose Clear chat. Each asks you to confirm first.

• Deleted messages are deleted from RBAi’s servers, and RBAi does not see them in later replies. The conversation stays, so your next message continues it.
• Emails you already sent stay sent, and their records stay in Connect under Email. An email draft in a deleted message can no longer be sent; ask RBAi to draft it again.
• Memory files RBAi wrote stay in Settings → Memory, where you can edit or delete them.
• Deleting can’t be undone. While RBAi is answering, wait for the answer to finish.

In New message, type a member’s name, handle or institution, or their exact email address: People on RBAi shows their name, position and institution, never an email address. Your message arrives at once, and replies appear without reloading.

Every message has Report message in its menu, and you can block a person from your conversation with them. You can start up to 20 new conversations a day. If a message stays unread for 10 minutes, one email says who wrote, never what they wrote, at most once per conversation every 6 hours. Turn it off in Settings → Email → Message notifications.

Settings → Connect has one switch, on unless you turn it off: Let RBAi members find you and message you. Off, nobody finds you in Connect or starts a new conversation with you, and your listed services are not shown to anyone; conversations you already have stay open. When either of you blocked the other, that member does not see your listings either. Your name, position and institution come from Settings → Profile.

Under Settings → Connect → Services and instruments, describe what your lab offers in your own words, for example Students can contact me for MD simulations, and press Enter. RBAi writes the listing as a card: a clear name and one to three plain sentences, with the terms and the place only when you gave them. It adds nothing you did not say, such as a price, a place or software.

Write a change in Refine it, for example Add that it is free for students, and RBAi rewrites the listing. Publish lists it at once; the terms, city and country are optional. Listed services show as the same card, with Edit and Remove, and members who ask RBAi for a service in Connect find the ones that fit. You can list up to 20.

Send to an RBAi member is how you share a result from the main chat (its Share) or a finished literature review (in its ⋯ menu). Find a member by name, institution, handle or exact email, as in New message, and press Send. They get a Connect message with the title and a link to the item as you sent it. Only the two of you can open that link, and its pictures and files keep opening for both of you.

A Report Writer page is shared from its own Share, which adds the member as an Editor or a Viewer and sends them a Connect message with the page’s link. Write together

These messages follow Connect’s rules: a new conversation starts only with a member who lets members message them, never across a block, and counts toward your 20 new conversations a day. Members who turned messages off, and people blocked on either side, are not offered.

For a researcher who is not on RBAi, RBAi writes a short request and signs it from your profile: your name, position, department and institution. A field your profile lacks is left out of the signature, and RBAi says so, so you can add it. The email says nothing about you that your profile does not, so a role or position appears only once you add it in Settings → Profile. A paper the email cites gets its full reference from the paper’s own record (Crossref, PubMed or Europe PMC), so its volume, pages and DOI are the published ones, and every paper the email names is checked against its records (DOI, title, journal, year and authors) before the email appears. The email shows in the conversation as it will be sent: To, Subject and the text. To change it, ask RBAi, and it drafts it again; then choose Send from my email or, on the Researcher and Pro plans, Send through RBAi. Before RBAi sends, you see the exact email and confirm I wrote or reviewed this request, and it is genuine; nothing is sent until you press Send.

• Only an address printed in a published record of a paper its owner wrote can receive one: RBAi reads the paper’s PubMed and Europe PMC records, the author list of its full text and its Crossref record, and, when none of them prints the address, the paper as its publisher published it: its page and its Supporting Information. The line under the email says where the address is printed, or why RBAi will not send it; the answer’s Work log lists the records read. An address found only on a web page, or one you typed, is sent from your own email.
• It comes from RBAi Research Requests, with your name at the start of the subject. Replies go to your own email.
• An AI check against written guidelines runs before every send, and links other than DOIs and your RBAi page are refused.
• Every email has a one-click Don’t send me requests through RBAi link that works for good.
• A researcher gets at most 2 RBAi requests in 30 days from all senders, and 1 from each sender unless they replied.

Send through RBAi is part of the Researcher and Pro plans, which set how many request emails RBAi sends for you a month (Plans); your own number is in Settings → Usage & billing. On Free and Student, send the email RBAi drafts from your own email app: Send from my email opens it with the address, subject and text filled in.

Your public page, at pages.thedreamlabinnovations.com/<your handle>, has a Message button that opens Connect’s New message with you in To. It is off until you publish it, it shows only what your site’s design shows and never your email, and withdrawing it removes it at once. Website