Dear friends,

There seems to be a growing number of misconceptions about MDOsprey and the 
way I have chosen to run the list.  I'm not sure how many of them got 
started.  I can only believe that the old saying from politics is true--if 
you tell a lie often enough, people will come to believe it.


The Reply-To Issue

I've heard it bandied about that I changed the "reply-to" setting to limit 
discussion on the list.  In actual fact, two birders for whom I have the 
utmost respect, George Jett and Ed Boyd, had asked me a number of times to 
change the reply-to setting from reply-to-list to reply-to-poster.  I 
resisted their requests for a long time because I thought that such a 
change would have the effect of shutting off discussion and sharing of 
different points of view.

Nonetheless, I decided a few months back to give it a try.  My sense has 
been that many replies to posts are in fact not going to the list anymore 
as a result of the change.  Two other birders for whom I also feel the 
utmost respect, Bob Ringler and Les Roslund, volunteered their thoughts to 
me during the MOS Conference this past weekend and more or less confirmed 
my sense that a lot of message responses were no longer being posted to the 
list.

I'd like to hear opinions from others about this issue, even if it's only 
to say that you don't care one way or the other.  Please feel free to post 
your opinion to MDOsprey so we can get a discussion going.


Stifling Discussion

I have been accused of being too heavy-handed in ending discussions on 
MDOsprey.  As stated long, long ago, MDOsprey is set up for the discussion 
of birds and birding in Maryland.  I know, however, that birds don't exist 
in a vacuum.  Discussions of environment, habitat, and other natural 
history factors affecting  birds have always been welcomed on MDOsprey.  

I have not had a lot of patience for religious or political discussions--
they lead to rancor and discord and so, yes, I act quickly to cut off those 
discussions.  

I have asked that people minimize their discussions of sightings in other 
states since we live and bird in Maryland and there are plenty of other web 
sites that cover our neighboring states.  

I ask that people take a little care in how they format responses, editing 
out unnecessary materials prior to posting.  

Finally, I have to admit, I have increasingly less patience with long 
interchanges of humor postings.

If you have opinions about this touchy issue, please voice them.  I want to 
hear from you.


No Attachments Allowed

I have been taken to task for not allowing attachments to postings.  Mostly 
this affects people who wish to share photographs with the list.  The 
Listserv software documentation highly recommends that attachments not be 
allowed since, at least for a time, this was a popular way of spreading 
viruses.  For people with slower dial-up connections, it also makes 
downloading new messages a painful process.  If you disagree or have 
opinions in this regard, please share your thoughts.

I have also been accused of setting message-length limits too low in order 
to stifle sharing.  I originally set the message limit to 200 lines or less 
as this was also recommended by the Listserv owner documentation as a way 
to avoid the possibility of virus infection.  The 200-line limit never 
seemed to be a great problem, even to Harry Armistead, whose wonderful 
descriptions of his birding adventures on the Eastern Shore are always a 
welcome addition to MDOsprey.  Nonetheless, I have recently lengthened the 
message limit to 450 lines, which should suit just about all of our users.  
If you have thoughts on these list settings, please share them with me and 
with others here on the list.


Limiting Membership

Believe it or not, MDOsprey costs money.  I have avoided the use of free 
systems because they are unreliable, force advertising messages onto 
postings, and are generally unable to handle the volume of subscribers, 
messages, and archive space required for a busy list such as MDOsprey.

To give you an idea, here are the current charges for MDOsprey:

Archival storage (40 mb):  $9.75 per month ($117 per year)
Membership fees (500 subscribers):  $64.75 per month (($777 per year)
 Total MDOsprey operation fees:  $894 annually

It will cost another $120 per year for every 100 subscribers I add to the 
list.  If someone or a group of someones would like to subsidize this, then 
I will be pleased to have the subscriber limit raised.


Deletion From the List

Over the 8 years that MDOsprey has been in operation, I have kicked three 
people off the list for what I considered to be disruptive or argumentative 
behavior.  Two of them are back on the list now and we enjoy more or less 
amicable relationships.  The third individual will never be allowed back 
because of a continuous record of harassment, argumentativeness, and 
spreading of untruths and mistruths stretching over a number of years.  I 
neither apologize for nor ask your understanding of my actions in this 
regard but I do want you to know it is not a step I take lightly nor one 
without a lot of soul-searching.




Let me hear from you, and let the rest of the list hear from you too.  If 
we need to clear the air about various issues, then let it be done so we 
can get back to being a community of birders once again.

Norm Saunders