Greetings. Tomorrow is the 10th anniversary of the commencement of our
discussion list; I created it on 19 October 1999. It was initially
known as 'cog-l', using the naming convention of the time. In July 2004
we renamed it CanberraBirds when moving it from the free list
management service Topica.com to GOG's own web hosting cum email
facility. At that time we had 185 subscribers.
Over the decade some 25,000 emails have been distributed through the
list. They have included discussion topics, requests for information
and responses to such requests, reports of bird observations,
announcements, etc. In recent years, the number of subscribers has been
fairly stable at around 230-250. I know that some people refer to it as
'the chat line' but this is not a correct appellation as, pleasingly,
we have little idle chat. Most of the emails sent to the list are of
substantive value or interest to subscribers.
Over many years before the list was established, COG had a telephone
Hotline. People would leave a message on a (mini-cassette) tape
recorder-type answering machine, and a COG volunteer (some of whom are
current subscribers to CanberraBirds) would go to the place where the
phone and answering machine were located, listen to the reports that
had been left, and then record a weekly summary. (My recollection is
that McComas Taylor established the Hotline as part of the ACT Birds
Atlas project, though I may be wrong on that.) This task was
time-consuming, and required careful judgement as to what to include
and what to omit. We were indebted to those volunteers for their
contributions to the Hotline over the years. The CanberraBirds email
list made the Hotline redundant.
Our list has a few simple rules:
Messages sent to the CanberraBirds email list should not
* be of a purely commercial nature
* contain offensive or inappropriate language
* contain personal attacks - discuss the message, not the messenger
* stray too far from our main topics: the wild birds of the
Canberra/ACT region, their habitat & conservation.
Messages, including attachments, should be under 100 kb in size.
Overall, COG's Committee of Management (who set the policies for the
list and on whose behalf I mange it) and I have been delighted with the
way subscribers have behaved on the list, especially the high level of
adherence to these rules. Most subscribers are able to use the
facilities for self-management of their subscriptions without
difficulty, relieving me of any great burden as list manager. That
said, I am always happy to assist any subscriber or potential
subscriber who experiences problems in using the list.
The first message in the archive was sent by Harvey Perkins on 24
October 1999 with the subject 'CWE Friday Seminar'.
On 02 November 1999 I sent the following message to the list:
As at today's date, Tuesday 2 November, we have 18 members
of the 'Canberra Birding' announcements/discussion list (also called
'cog-l', short for COG-List). All are people whom I have invited to
join...
I should also mention that, in deciding to establish the list, COG's
Committee recognised that we are simply testing the waters with it. If
the list is not used, that is, if it becomes apparent that it fills no
useful function, then we will close it down. I note, however, that
during the last two weeks, being the period that a small number of
subscribers have been testing the list's functionality, we have had a
number of useful, informative contributions.
Well, the list has turned out to be a success, thanks to all
subscribers and contributors!
Please remember that the list archive (which is searchable) for the
period since July 2004 is available at
http://bioacoustics.cse.unsw.edu.au/archives/html/canberrabirds .
Anyone interested in the early years of its operation can visit
http://lists.topica.com/lists/canberrabirds/ to see what was discussed
in the 1999-2004 period.
Best wishes - David McDonald
--
David McDonald
Canberra Ornithologists Group email lists manager
T: 02 6238 3706
M: 0416 231 890
E: m("canberrabirds.org.au","coglists-owner");">
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