[Tweeters] Neah Bay trip report and rare bird alert

[B B]

Thoughtful post as usual from Steve Hampton.   
WhatsApp works really well (better) for instant and iterative info for specific areas of interest and especially Rule 1 (Go now) chases and/or in the field updates and clarications.   That said, timely Tweeters posts by Ryan Merrill for the Swallow Tailed Gull and Dennis Paulson for the Ross's Gull certainly worked well alerting me to both mega rarities and signaling me to get going...but ONLY because I fortunately happened to check email when I did.
And that's the key difference.  Tweeters is "just another email" and even if I get an alert I don't know if it is a meaningful report about a bird of interest or one more email about any of a hundred other non-birding matters.  WhatsApp is an immediate alert that something is happening NOW!
But that is in large part because the users/audiences for the two apps are different, albeit with some overlap.  Tweeters is a more general group with posts on many subjects and timelines.  Yes often including real time reports of important observations - but of broad geographic coverage.  Frankly the majority is mostly of little interest in real time at least.  A WhatsApp post on other hand says "check it out" and maybe take action now...or soon.
If everyone on Tweeters posted on WhatsApp instead, it wouldn't work...different interests for different audiences...again with some overlap.
I am old enough to remember recorded Rare Bird Alerts and phone trees.  They served a mostly focused audience (listers/chasers/twitchers) akin to WhatsApp users but with a very limited technology and a much more limited time line.  The best resource then (and now) for real time info was a friend who called and said, "I am looking at a...at .... Come over."  WhatsApp does that for many "friends" at once and doesn't get buried in email overload.
It would be great if WhatsApp posts simultaneously also appeared on Tweeters (is that possible techies?) but it would be awful if Tweeters posts also appeared on WhatsApp.
Blair Bernson


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  On Wed, Sep 7, 2022 at 2:29 PM, Steve Hampton<stevechampton at gmail.com> wrote:   _______________________________________________
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