Beth,
I take your point and would love to see
the chatline used the way it should be but it is useless if people are too
scared to use it for fear of being ridiculed. This is exactly the response I
received from numerous people to my first email. As I said in this morning’s
email I will send these replies to the committee for discussion. A lot of
people have also spoken to me and other members I associate with complaining
about feeling intimidated and not wishing to have anything to do with the
chatline. It is obvious that the committee does not realise the depth of the
problem, hence the stand I have taken. I know a hell of a lot of the membership
agree with me, including some committee members. I’m afraid the issue will not
just go away, something has to be done. The whole thing has been going on for
years not just recently. It is not just the COG chatline that suffers this
problem, I note from time to time that Birding-aus also appears to have its
fair share of troublemakers!
Mark
From:
Beth Mantle [
Sent: Sunday, 18 October 2009 9:07
AM
To: canberra birds
Subject: [canberrabirds] Chat line
etiquette - again
Dear All,
Please may I remind everyone (as Matt Frawley already has) that the
chat line etiquette issue has already been raised (by me) at the last COG
Committee meeting, and was subsequently addressed in our President's most
excellent post to the chat line (copied below).
The emails that include attacks on others, for whatever reason and in
whatever format, have no place on our chat line. They debase the value of
our discussions, are unconstructive in main, and are far to easy to
misinterpret. They do not solve problems, but rather contribute to it.
It genuinely saddens me to see these posts on our much-loved, read and
used chat line.
Please can we move on, and keep personal debates off the public line.
As President I am fortunate enough to be
in a position to receive compliments on the things that COG does well.
One of these is the email discussion forum, or chat-line . The chat-line
has been an innovation that is of great value to both Group and non-Group
members and is an excellent medium by which we can all benefit from each
other's birding experiences.
Because the chat-line is an open forum
for discussion on birds and their habitats it is important to ensure that the
Forum is open to anyone and that there are no suggestions that postings
are not welcome. For the more experienced bird observer it is
important to remember the thrill of seeing a species or some aspect of
behaviour for the first time and to be able to share that
experience. Repeated postings of observations on any particular
species should be encouraged for it is in this way we are all able to learn
from other's experiences.
As I encourage all relevant postings
to the chat-line I also encourage those observations to be documented with the
COG database. A form can be found on the COG website (see under
'Maps, Forms and Lists' ) or, once an observer has
been registered, observations can be entered on-line. Registration
is possible by logging ontohttp://cogatlas.org.au/
I would like to take this opportunity to
remind contributors that it is best practice to make sure that posted emails
have an appropriate subject line. This is best done by writing a new
email rather than just clicking on the 'reply' button.
24 Bardsley Place
Holt
ACT 2615
Beth Mantle
H: 02 6287 7860
M: 0407 174 427
E:
On Oct 18, 2009, at 8:56 AM, Mark Clayton wrote:
I
shall be asking the COG committee to formally discuss this important issue at
their next available meeting and forwarding the responses I received as
evidence that there is a major problem.
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