All,
If you have a problem with how someone posts on this listserv contact me or
another moderator. It is inappropriate to criticize/chastise someone else
in a public forum like this. Even if you think that you are going about it
a nice/friendly way, your intent can not always be clearly presented in
text.
As far as abbreviations go - As stated in our guidelines, we encourage
people to use full names of species when they can - which Marcia and others
have done (in the body of the message). There is a huge
caveat/star/asterix to this, in that posts of rare birds from the field are
given more/extreme flexibility. This listserv is the best avenue for fast
from-the-field alerts to reach the masses, and I (hopefully most of you)
would like to keep it that way. Marcia's original message was totally
acceptable and should have received no response except for maybe a personal
reply to her that said "Great find, thanks for posting!"
We're still growing fast here at MDBirding (768 members) and hit a record
850 posts last month. I hope everyone can keep this in mind when
considering the occasional mis-post.
best,
Jared Fisher
MDBirding Moderator
On Fri, May 10, 2013 at 7:03 PM, Balestri Marcia <mebalestri...>wrote:
> Not just to Jim,
>
> Possible? Yes. Will I? Nope. And I am about to go on a Boyd-esque rant
> (apologies to Ed), so if you all don't want to hear one, take a pass on
> this message now.
>
> As you will soon ascertain, this is a sore point with me, and I have held
> my tongue through several discussions on this issue. Some background may
> be necessary. First I heard, "no one posts from Frederick County; you
> really should post." So several of us started to post. Then I was taken to
> task for not posting fast enough--in real time. So now I post from the
> field, and it's not done properly.
>
> I am an old fart. I have enough problems typing at any speed with little
> bitty buttons. And let's not dwell on arthritic thumbs and the need for
> reading glasses to see what I am typing (which I don't carry in the field
> as one can tell from all the typos). I email from the field to let people,
> those who have asked me to post, know that there might be something
> interesting that they might like to see. The full name of the bird was in
> the text. Trust me on this, it takes a lot less time to open the message
> than it does for me to type it. I guess if I had seen GLIB or SEPL in a
> subject line and didn't know what it meant, I would be sure to open it to
> find out. I find it hard to believe that if I had spelled out G-L-O-S-S-Y
> I-B-I-S in the title that most folks wouldn't open the post to find out
> what's the scoop. But I suppose there must be some difference (unknown to
> me) where the name is spell out. Yep, old fart here.
>
> On this and other listservs (e.g., Birdchat), people who use codes have
> been called everything from elitist to lazy. I am neither of these things,
> nor do I think folks who use codes are elitist or lazy (I'm actually a nice
> person and most of the time not a curmudgeon). The time it takes for me to
> type the messages that I sent today (longer than you would think) takes
> time away from my birding. So you CAN call me selfish with my personal
> time. And before you ask, yes, I have actually missed a flyby or three
> while texting sightings.
>
> So, done with the rant, but no more messages from the field from me. I do
> have a twitter account (I just have to figure out how to use it better;
> remember--old fart) and will be posting on that from now on if I see
> something worthwhile, but be forewarned that I will be using codes and
> possibly even abbreviations. Please don't tweet me back giving me a hard
> time about that, but you certainly are welcome to ask me what the heck I
> mean. And when I do post on MDBirding from the comfort of my full-sized
> keyboard (assuming I don't get kicked off after this), please don't send me
> anymore emails chastising me for not posting on MDBirding in real time.
>
> Ed, I am not sure this is up to your standards, but I tried.
>
> Everyone, thanks for listening, um, reading.
>
> ____________________
>
> Marcia Balestri
> Frederick, MD
> <mebalestri...>
>
>
>
> On May 10, 2013, at 3:49 PM, Jim Wilkinson <lakekoshare...> wrote:
>
> > On Friday, May 10, 2013 2:42:48 PM UTC-4, Marcia Balestri wrote:
> >> Glossy Ibis now at Lilypons.
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> Sent from my iPhone
> >>
> >> Marcia Balestri
> >>
> >> Frederick, MD
> >
> > Not just to Marcia:
> > Is it possible to please spell out the bird names on the message line?
> It took me awhile but I just could not figure out what a glib was...
> >
> > Jim Wilkinson
> > Columbia, MD
> >
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