This exchange does raise the relationship between the two services. No
clear explanation has been given of this, so I shall offer my own.
Some years ago there was an exchange about the purpose of the chatline
(properly, the COG email announcement and discussion list). It had begun as
a digital extension of a weekly telephone tape that COG members used to
report rarities and other interesting or unusual observations. Initially
the chatline served that purpose well. However gradually the content came
to consist of only a small proportion of the interesting and unusual.
Suggestions by some participants, including myself, that the chatline be
used to build up information in some kind of cumulative (or better, linear)
fashion were not accepted. Those of us of that viewpoint thought that the
excellent archive should be used more by those seeking information, and that
contributors should at least own a field guide that would be used
appropriately. That viewpoint was firmly rejected, and the committee, which
has the right to make the chatline anything it wants, stated that the
chatline was just a chatline, open to any kind of contribution on local
birds, provided basic conditions of politeness and size of message were
respected.
So invited, I must say that I as much as anyone else have been quite
self-indulgent in my own contributions. Many of the contributions offered
have been of little or no interest to me, but I have no right to expect them
to be. Conversely, I have not felt constrained by the thought that my own
contributions might be of little or no interest to most, or indeed any, of
the readership. That is our chatline, take it or leave it. The options
remain to unsubscribe, or to delete without reading some or most messages -
or not to take the messages at all but simply to dip into the archive from
time to time, either generally or selectively.
Now, I know that Alastair had for some time thought that something better
could be done from a structured viewpoint. He will be able to tell you the
story of the splendid Eremaea service - and its advantages in providing
all kinds of information, including recent interesting and unusual
observations. For basic information about it, just bring up one of
Alastair's messages about this from the chatline archive.
I expect that the separate role and function of the two services will become
clearer over time. Eremaea as a facility for sharing interesting and
unusual observations, and the chatline for other stuff. For myself, being a
retired person with plenty of time, I am happy to use both. However, if you
want to be sure of keeping up with anything recent on the local scene you
should certainly subscribe to or regularly consult Eremaea.
Thanks to Alastair and Frank for their work on this innovation.
And of course thanks to David for maintaining our chatline over such a long
period, while pursuing his busy professional career..
-----Original Message-----
From: David McDonald
Sent: Tuesday, 8 November 2011 11:11 PM
To:
Subject: Apology: Re: Fwd: [canberrabirds] Fwd: Birdline ACT
Weekly Update
Hello to all 260 CanberraBirds subscribers. I am sorry you received three or
four copies of my email in which I forwarded last week's Birdline ACT weekly
summary. I thought it might be of interest to list subscribers who are not
on Birdline ACT to receive this each week.
But ... I have now learned how our email server handles (or does not handle
well) forwarded email loops. I trust it won't happen again.
Thanks to those of you who alerted me to the repeated postings.
Regards - David
--
David McDonald
Canberra Ornithologists Group email lists manager
1004 Norton Road, Wamboin, NSW 2620, Australia
Tel: (02) 6238 3706
Fax: (02) 9475 4274
Mobile: 0416 231 890
E-mail:
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