birding-aus

The decline of BA

To: Peter Shute <>, Birding-Aus <>
Subject: The decline of BA
From: Steve Clark <>
Date: Mon, 4 Jan 2016 04:33:24 +0000
Sorry - I am referring to birding-aus not Birdlife Australia.

Steve

On Mon, Jan 4, 2016 at 3:15 PM, Peter Shute <> wrote:

> I assume you mean birding-aus, not Birds Australia or Birdlife Australia.
>
> I've found that it is possible to search the Facebook Groups from within
> Facebook itself, but I don't think Google will return any results - can
> anyone confirm that? The problem is that you first need to know which
> Facebook group to search, and there are dozens of them now dedicated to
> Australian birding, and probably many I don't know about.
>
> So fragmentation is one problem too. As to whether the postings will even
> be there when you look, people can delete their own postings, along with
> all the replies, as can group owners, so maybe or maybe not.
>
> There's no doubt there are less messages here now since a year or two ago,
> but it appears to have stabilised at this lower level of usage, rather than
> be in terminal decline. Time will tell. One benefit of the drift to
> Facebook has been that many of the discussions that were considered
> off-topic or controversial have drifted there too. Discussions here have
> degenerated into arguments a lot less recently as a result, which may
> result in people remaining subscribers.
>
> It's probably possible to set up archives of the Facebook group
> discussions. You could direct Facebook's emailed notifications to an
> archive similar to birding-aus's, but when I suggested this a while ago,
> other Facebook users reacted in horror at the possibility of their
> conversations being archived. It seems the ability to delete postings is a
> major attraction there.
>
> Peter Shute
>
> Sent from my iPad
>
> > On 4 Jan 2016, at 12:20 PM, Bill Stent <> wrote:
> >
> > I agree, Steve.
> >
> > The various Facebook pages are great for showing off photos (I'm a
> > show-off, I admit) but searching on them for past information is just
> > impossible.
> >
> > Bill
> >
> >> On Mon, Jan 4, 2016 at 11:39 AM, Steve Clark <>
> wrote:
> >> G'day all
> >>
> >> I mourn the decline of BA - having been a member since 1995 or so.
> >> Yesterday I was asked for information from a chap writing an article for
> >> Australian Field Ornithology.  He did an online search and found an
> item on
> >> BA of mine from 2001 that supported his article.
> >>
> >> Today I would be more likely to report an observation of interest on
> one of
> >> the Facebook birding groups.  Will a Facebook post from 2016 be able to
> be
> >> found in 2030?
> >>
> >> I would urge birders to continue to post actively on BA (as well as on
> the
> >> Facebook groups).
> >>
> >> Cheers
> >> Steve Clark
> >> Hamilton, Vic
> >> <HR>
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