Good evening all,
This is something that has been annoying me, and others, for
sometime.
There have been a lot of queries on the chat line recently
from inexperienced birders new to the pastime asking for information on various
aspects of bird watching or calls etc. Some of the replies that these people
are receiving from people who think they are experts (in my view and those of
many people I know, they AREN”T), are totally rude and embarrassing and
in many cases completely off-putting to these new observers. If you want to
reply in a negative way to these people, at least have the courtesy to the rest
of us to do it to the person privately, not on a public forum like our
chatline. I often reply to queries directly to the person and try to point out
POLITELY where they may have made a mistake. I nearly always get a very polite
reply thanking me for taking the time to help rather than criticise them. I
know from personal comments and from those given to Anthony Overs that people
have often been put off by stupid comments by these so-called experts. If you
can’t be polite and civil then don’t bother replying to people. It’s
quite simple really!
Mark
