Request for Better Reporting

David Bridge (David@simsc.si.edu)
Tue, 16 Jun 98 22:35:59 

There have been a number of very nice birds reported in the past month or 
so.  However, some of the email accounts just appall me.  For example 
some reports are missing the date, the location, the state, or the 
subject line is completely inappropriate (or misleading).

No has one appointed me "cyber-cop" for the bird lists, but I would like 
to offer some thoughts, suggestions, etc. on improving the quality of the 
email postings.  If you want to "flame" me, my email address is below, so 
please take the hate email off the bird lists.


Standards:

Bird names - at least we have some standards here, AOU etc., which are 
observed most of the time.

Subject Line - Please select a meaningful title.  You can probably 
include the species name, location, and/or maybe the date.

Geographic location - I think it would be nice to report the county and 
state in which the observation was made, if that is not too much to ask.  
Using the DeLorme gazetteer grid locations is also a good idea.

Observation date - the date would be nice just for the record.

Observer name - include observers name and email address.


Discussion:

General.  E-mail by its nature can be informal, almost conversational in 
tone.  This is very good for personal notes - one-to-one correspondence.  
But when you send a message to a mailing list, there maybe hundreds of 
recipients. (MDOsprey had 141 members on June 16; the MarVaDel list has 
about 150 members; BirdEast has 1,574 members; while BirdChat has more 
than 2,350.)  The official recipients, may then forward your message to 
others.  Also, many mailing lists are being archived and are accessible 
through the web.  Your message may also be sent to the Field Notes 
editors.  So your informal message may have a long journey and becomes an 
"official record".  Do not assume that everyone who read your message 
lives in your backyard (and be thankful also).

Much has been said about the Internet and how it allows every person to 
become a "publisher".  By sending messages to the bird lists you have 
become a publisher (at least to a small degree), I would like to suggest 
that certain responsibilities also accrue to you, when you become a 
publisher.  Your email message does not need to be polished for a 
professional journal, but it should be:  clear, accurate, complete, etc.

Subject Line.  I have seen some replies to replies, using
someone else’s title.  The text of the current message was totally 
unrelated to the title.  This can be very confusing.

Geographic location.  There have been a number of recent reports without 
even the state included in the message!  You have to read the note very 
careful to determine the state and location.  Remember that not everyone 
reading your message lives in the Mid-Atlantic region.  

Observation date.  Relative dates are interesting, such as:
"today", "yesterday", "this morning", "the day before yesterday".  This 
assumes that your message is processed and read the same day.  There are 
many, many technical reasons, why a message does NOT get processed and 
delivered the same day.  This may be rare, but these problems do occur - 
and regularly.  What if the recipient is away, their equipment broken, 
etc., then they may NOT read your message until several days after it was 
sent.  What if the person is in a different time zone, where "now" may be 
a different day, then when you sent the message.

I saw one person who had the date set incorrectly in his computer, which 
resulting in the wrong date in his email messages.  Determining what 
"today" means can be very difficult.  I believe that it is not to 
difficult to include the date in your reports.

Observer name.  If a person reading your note has a question, having your 
name and email address will facilitate future communications.  It also 
credits you with the observations.


The Test.  I would like to suggest that after ones has composed a message 
[BUT BEFORE YOU TYPE SEND or HIT THE SEND BUTTON] that you subject the 
message to the following tests.

1. Assume that you as the reader have never been to the
   state before -- does the message still make sense?

2. If you are reporting a rare bird, could people find the
   location again, without blood hounds and YOUR birding sneakers?

3. If you are reading the message a MONTH from now, for
   example the records committee, Field Notes editor, etc.
   will they be confused by incomplete dates and vague
   geographic location information?

Good birding and, I hope, better reporting.

Yours, David Bridge
David@simsc.si.edu   <===== flames here