I have received an interesting response from a person claiming to be the "Ken Archambault" I asked about in my original email on
this topic. However, the email came from an account owned by someone who wants to be known as "G M Archambault". I know this could
simply be a case of two people sharing one person's email account as is the case with a number of regular correspondents to
Birding-Aus. This does introduce a slight problem, though, as this "Ken Archambault" suggested I should have done a google type
search on the internet to find his email address and then contact him for the information I am seeking.
Well, of course I did do an internet search on receiving the original email and, without a lot of effort and without digging too
deeply, I found at least 20 people with that name in the USA and Canada alone. And that did not include people with "Ken" and
"Archambault" as first and second given names respectively. I doubt that I would have connected an email address for "G M
Archambault" with "Ken Archambault". If I had found only one "Ken Archambault" I would not have initiated this topic.
This Ken Archambault requested an apology for my distressing and demeaning remarks and the "ad hominem" nature of my email to
Birding-Aus. I don't know about that last bit but I did not intend to distress or demean any person. My attack, for want of a better
term, was aimed at the nature of social networking 'services' such as Facebook in that they have automated systems for searching out
the WWW for people who appear to have similar interests to those of existing Facebook (for example) members. I am sure that in many
cases those members do not actively initiate this search or even know it is happening. I was requested to view the Facebook
photographs of Ken Archambault so I assumed that I was targeted because I have some photographs stored on the WWW. My comment "I am
a world famous (in my mind at least) bird photographer" was intended as a bit of self-deprecating humour and was not intended to
infer anything about the photographic skills or any aspect of the character of any person named "Ken Archambault". I have never, as
far as I know, actually seen any photos attributed to any "Ken Archambault" and, not personally knowing any "Ken Archambault", it
would not be fair or reasonable of me to make any comments on any aspect of that person.
I don't believe it is unreasonable to expect that if people wish to contact me, especially with the view of possibly becoming a
"friend", they do so in a more personal and informative manner than via some sort of haphazard robotic system. I don't make the
demand that everyone else in this world have the same attitude but that is how I feel and I would hope that my feelings can be
respected.
If anyone feels demeaned or distressed by my attitude I offer no apology. I often feel distressed and sometimes demeaned by the
actions and/or words of a lot of people but I do my best to understand and respect their beliefs.
I prefer to make my friends through a far more personalised process and I am becoming more and more annoyed (read "distressed" if
you like but not necessarily "demeaned") by the constant requests for me to become a 'friend' of someone I have never heard of on a
social networking site which I make the effort to avoid.
As I have said previously, if anyone wants me to become one of their 'friends', even if only an "on-line friend", they should
contact me from a personal email account and they should provide some background information about themselves.
Incidentally, I should also point out that I don't trust emails formatted in HTML. They may allow a certain amount of 'artistic
flair' and may help to describe the personality of the account owner but my anti-virus protection provider has issued warnings that
HTML formatted emails are a possible way of spreading viruses. Whether that is a fact or not I am not really prepared to test
although it would seem to be hard to prevent people sending such emails.
And........
Thank you Tony and Carl for your comments.
Tony, you don't actually need to be a member of these social networking sites
to receive their automated emails.
I also miss some legit emails because of my SPAM and virus settings; as I said previously some of my 'friends' have email styles
which are trapped by my security as being SPAM. Often this is due to their somewhat 'commercial' signatures but I don't know the
reason for some other cases. I think I have 'approved' all of the ones I actually do want to receive.
Carl, you are so right about the sad, drab lives some people seem to lead. It could even be said that I am in that category as
evidenced by my musings on this topic. ;-)
Finally, I introduced this topic to Birding-Aus because I was requested to view the bird photos of Ken Archambault. It seemed to me
that there was a possible connection through this group and, as the person in question appeared to be a birder, I considered it to
be reasonable that I ask the question here.
I have made my point, I believe, and I feel any furthering of this thread by myself would be unproductive and simply annoying to
many of the Birding-Aus members. I respect that view.
Cheers
Bob Inglis
Sandstone Point
Qld
Australia
http://users.tpg.com.au/inglisrc/
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