Greetings. As List Manager on behalf of COG's Committee of Management, I have found Ryu's contributions about eBird very helpful. I have never thought that anything that he has said suggested that he had any official role in eBird. He is, like many of us, a
keen eBirder and I welcome him sharing his insights with other list members. Since eBird has become the de-facto key data source of COG's records, given that almost all of them now come from that source, information about innovations in eBird is highly apposite
for the CanberraBirds list.
That said, please let's not pursue the topic further. I append the CanberraBirds list rules as a reminder to all subscribers.
Best wishes - David
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On 19/08/2017 4:01 PM, Ryu Callaway wrote:
A few weeks ago, I was advised of complaints by a number of chatline subscribers on a number of occasions that I have been "masquerading as an official representative of eBird".
Taking that into account, I opted to add a FYI before the title of yesterday's email, and did not comment on my thoughts on the update. I even avoided signing the email off with my name, and yet, am advised multiple people again raised concerns that I was "actively passing myself off as someone having an official capacity and formal affiliation with ebird." It wasn't even ebird specific, being more about the ebird/Clements taxonomy.
Do people complain with concerns the posters are posing as an official whenever Martin or David mention ebird (sorry), or better yet, whenever someone posts a link to an article in the media or to a scientific journal? If someone shares a link to a community consultation of interest to birders and encourages people to comment, are they suddenly representing either the government or COG's views unless they explicitly state otherwise?
I would find it ridiculous if after every message, everyone had to include disclaimers to state their position. It's a public email discussion line. We comment or share stuff for the interest of other subscribers. People express their own views. It's not like I've put in an email signature that connects me to an official ebird role to misguide people. If you don't want to read it, don't, but there are people that appreciate it.
I hope this makes my stance clear. And perhaps, if you're still unsatisfied, tell me directly with a valid reason why I should have to explicitly include a Non-Affiliation Disclaimer to share birding-related content on a birding discussion list rather than complaining to a third party. Otherwise, I will assume everyone is satisfied.
Ryu
On 18 Aug 2017, at 7:42 pm, Ryu Callaway m("yahoo.co.jp","ryu_is_gr8");"><> wrote:
Changes relevant to australia are summarised in the following article. Nothing major in terms of species level changes though a few additional subspecies entry options
http://ebird.org/content/australia/news/2017-ebird-annual-taxonomy-update/
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