Very good points from both Peter and Chris.
Forums are great, but birding-aus works well enough.
2010/1/27 Chris Sanderson <>
> I agree with Peter about keeping the list the way it is. Also, the New
> Zealand equivalent of birding-aus has just tried this and (in my opinion)
> it
> hasn't worked out too well. It seems to have just fragmented the list into
> people who use the forum and people who use the mailing list.
>
> BTW Peter I think the forum you are thinking of is birding-oz
> http://www.birdingoz.com.au/cms/
>
> Regards,
> Chris
>
> On Wed, Jan 27, 2010 at 12:53 PM, Peter Shute <> wrote:
>
> > Firstly, I'd like to say that in its current form this list works ok.
> Not
> > perfect, but ok.
> >
> > I don't know what you mean by "information ... being in one long, hard to
> > read string in each email". Are you referring to daily digest emails?
> If
> > so, can't you switch to individual emails?
> >
> > In my opinion, digest mode is the cause of several problems we have.
> > Firstly, digest mode readers have difficulty replying, and often end up
> not
> > quoting any of the material they're discussing, which can make it hard to
> > follow the conversation, and sometimes put in a different subject line to
> > the original email.
> >
> > Those are the more visible problems. A less visible problem is that if
> you
> > don't reply to an individual email, the internal message-id of the email
> is
> > different, so the archives thread it wrongly, or not at all. It's quite
> > common to search the archives, and find that not all the replies have
> been
> > associated with the thread. If you reply to an individual email, it gets
> > threaded correctly even if you change the subject line.
> >
> > Another problem is that digest readers have to scroll through every email
> > to see which ones are worth reading. It suspect this makes them grouchy
> > whenever an uninteresting thread goes on too long.
> >
> > I have used birding forums like birdforum.net. While the grouping of
> > threads into subforums is neat, sometimes it means that not many people
> read
> > your messages, because there are simply too many subforums for everyone
> to
> > read. That site has so many readers that this splitting is necessary,
> but
> > this isn't true with birding-aus, the number of contributors is small
> enough
> > for it all to be together, and we benefit from everyone reading
> everything.
> > There are times, of course, when the waffling can get a bit much, but
> they
> > quickly pass.
> >
> > In short, I'd say "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". I think digest mode
> > is broke, and we'd benefit from getting rid of it, but I'm sure the
> people
> > who use it have their reasons. There is actually an alternative
> Australian
> > birding forum, I forget the URL, but after it started, it seems most
> people
> > preferred to stay with this list.
> >
> > Peter Shute
> >
> > Clair Wenborn wrote on Wednesday, 27 January 2010 12:26 PM:
> >
> > > Hi All,
> > >
> > > I am wondering if it has ever been suggested that birding-aus change
> > > its format and become a forum? Readers of the digest could still
> > > receive posts as emails if they wished and the archives would be more
> > > searcher friendly.
> > > Information would be categorised together and easy to refer back to
> > > instead of being in one long, hard to read string in each email.
> > > Users can then read the categories and threads that they are
> > > interested in and save time instead of reading each subject heading.
> > > Security need not be an issue as the forum could be private and
> > > moderators would be able to see who is logging on. Or certain
> > > sections of the forum like locations and sightings could only be
> > > accessed by approved users. Of course it would be up to the list
> > > owner and the majority of users. Just a suggestion...what does
> > > everyone think?
> > www.birding-aus.org
> > birding-aus.blogspot.com
> >
> > To unsubscribe from this mailing list,
> > send the message:
> > unsubscribe
> > (in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
> > to:
> >
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