I think the horse has bolted.... (and probably several years or more ago)
Birdforum has been around since near the turn of the century and has never
really taken off - especially not in Aus. I am still a member and still get a
lovely email on my birthday but not much else.
Birding-aus is usually days or weeks behind on sightings (Martin's recent
Black-tailed Gull reports aside) and I mourn the loss of new examples of the
amazing trip reports on here that fuelled my exploration of birding beyond my
local patch.
As a moderator on several of the Facebook groups you probably refer to I really
don't like the transient nature of the forum and the fact that it often seems
to more about the "likes" or "hearts" on a post than the content. But the fact
remains that the best material finds its way there these days.
I only use Facebook for birding and wildlife stuff as well as sharing pictures
of my son with B grade relatives so I don't have to actually spend time with
them. If you share information of note on Facebook that can be mined for any
useful purpose then more fool you - the same applies for any internet based
forum or medium.
Anyway - if there is a valid alternative then I am happy to hear - but I have
tried and rejected most of them as they are even more transient than facebook...
Just my two cents
Tim
________________________________
From: Birding-Aus <> on behalf of Peter
Shute <>
Sent: Wednesday, 21 March 2018 10:13 PM
To: Steve Clark
Cc: Birding-Aus
Subject: Facebook Groups for birding - time for a rethink?
Over the years we’ve discussed alternatives to this mailing list here several
times. Facebook and birdforum were suggested, but people wanted to stick with
email. It seemed like any kind of login was too hard.
Then smart phones arrived, people drifted into Facebook for other reasons, then
suddenly it was the in thing for birding. It may be insecure, fragmented,
unsearchable and chaotic, but the numbers participating dwarf the membership of
this list. Good luck shifting them somewhere better.
To be fair, if one only used Facebook for bird stuff, there are limited
opportunities for personal data misuse. I was going to say the same about fake
news, but we had some spectacular examples of it early on.
Peter Shute
Sent from my iPad
> On 21 Mar 2018, at 9:10 am, Steve Clark <> wrote:
>
> G'day all
>
> Is it time the managers of the various Facebook birding groups sought
> alternatives? I've never been comfortable with a Facebook account and only
> have one because of the need to be in touch via the birding groups. With
> the recent scandal indicating high-level personal data misuse and targeted
> fake news I think Facebook is really on the nose.
>
> Maybe options such as www.simplybirding.com<http://www.simplybirding.com> or
> www.birdforum.net<http://www.birdforum.net> are worth
Simply Birding - Home<http://www.simplybirding.com/>
www.simplybirding.com
You will find several sections on Simply Birding. Some of these are made up of
subsections. The first is the Home section, this contains links to information
and ...
> considering.
>
> Cheers
> Steve Clark
> Hamilton, Vic
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