birding-aus

The positives and negatives of Birding-Aus

To: Birding Aus <>
Subject: The positives and negatives of Birding-Aus
From: L&L Knight <>
Date: Sun, 16 Sep 2007 08:35:22 +1000
I'm about to start analysing the responses from the 300 people who have participated in the Birding-Aus census, and will forward a summary to all those who participated.

In the mean time, a bit of feedback to the list on what people said that relate to Birding-Aus netiquette.

On the positive side, people like:
- the helpful informality / willingness to help
- pooled knowledge
- trip reports
- commentary from people who know what they are talking about
- sense of community
- establishing contact with other birders
- discussions on taxonomy, birding research, links to websites etc

On the negative side, people don't like:
- waffle, flippant, inane comments, thoughtless posts
- point-scoring, ego-preening, intimidation
- personal comments sent to the list
- rehashed arguments and bickering
- extended off-topic threads
- parochialism

A number of people referred to the archives. Many would like to see responses to RFIs sent to the newsgroups rather than just the individual asking the question, as that would add to the pool of knowledge. Similarly, people who use the archives find it easier if people use the reply option to continue existing threads, but then use new subject lines if they are starting new threads.

As general rules, people should probably keep personal comments and chit chat off line, and people need to think about what they have written before they hit the send button. Do you want what you wrote to wind up in the archives?

Regards, Laurie.

===============================
www.birding-aus.org
birding-aus.blogspot.com

To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
to: 
===============================

<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>
Admin

The University of NSW School of Computer and Engineering takes no responsibility for the contents of this archive. It is purely a compilation of material sent by many people to the birding-aus mailing list. It has not been checked for accuracy nor its content verified in any way. If you wish to get material removed from the archive or have other queries about the archive e-mail Andrew Taylor at this address: andrewt@cse.unsw.EDU.AU