Thanks to Luke Shelley for his excellent arguments in favour of changing the
way we view and use birding-aus. He may currently be in the minority to have
expressed his views, but he is not the only one who feels the way he does,
only the most eloquent.
I have been in touch with birding-aus for a decade, and for maybe more than
half that time now I've just browsed the archives, to check updates and
click on anything I find interesting. Subscribing to the list fairly quickly
became untenable. It might be OK for people who don't already get a lot of
email, but for me and I'm sure many others no longer on the list it was a
lot of stuff I didn't need or want directly into my inbox.
Yes, birding-aus still serves its purpose passably well, but that's not say
that it could not be done a lot better with an update that brings it into
the 21st century. Just the look of it (sorry Russell) is horribly out of
date.
I use at least one other web forum/discussion group. It's perfectly easy to
use and to contribute to. Threads get started (and wander off track, just as
currently happens) but it wouldn't be hard to group topics into, for
example, new sightings (with "stickies" for important news, major rarities,
whatever); trip reports; equipment; general discussion. There would be a
search function just as we can search the archives now. A change such as
this shouldn't be anywhere near as threatening as some are making out. I
suspect they would quickly come to prefer it and wonder why they were so
attached to a system so ancient.
It is good this thread has provoked plenty of discussion. I hope notes are
being taken and pros and cons being seriously weighed up.
Andrew Stafford
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