[Tweeters] David Cook's post was superb & useful; Tweeters could legalize and encourage more like it

[Hal Opperman UW]

Dennis and Tweeters,

Tweeters will soon be migrating to a different University of Washington server using a new version of the Mailman software. We believe the new software may be friendlier for attachments such as photos, but implementation decisions will have to wait until the migration is complete. The main issue will probably be about storage. Attachments take up a lot of memory, and might not be compatible with text-based archiving, or with the Digest mode, or for services such as ABA and Birding Lists Digest that pick up birding listserv messages from all of North America for web access and are used by tens of thousands of non-subscribers.

Cultural evolution is ongoing, all right. Not that long ago the fastest means of getting the word out for rarities, other than word of mouth, was monthly sightings columns in local Audubon newsletters. Then we got hotlines run by a single person who fielded phoned-in reports of notable sightings from field observers and compiled a weekly (usually) tape anyone could listen to by calling a dedicated number. Here in Seattle I well remember when Phil Mattocks set one up through Seattle Audubon, handing off a few years later to Gene Hunn.  Electric stuff!  Then the BirdBox came along and the hotline faded out. With the BirdBox, observers phoned in their messages that were recorded directly on a computer. You could call a number and listen to these as often as you wished. Once we got past the dial-up modem era and everyone was on the Web, Tweeters-type listservs doomed those voice-based services. Nowadays, with the social-media type options that are out there, the birding community is not as much of a commons as it once was. We are fragmented into subcommunities of interest each of which takes up a lot of user time. The Tweeters sort of chat list was based on the old general-interest newspaper model, and I wonder how many birders today feel they can afford to spread their time and attention over such a broad range and vast quantity of content?

Anyway, it’s your list, and it’s still around, even though the twitchers and listers subset of us now mostly hangs out elsewhere. What Tweeters was, and is, best at is storytelling, in any of its various forms. Some people are really good at that, and there is definitely an audience for it. People vote with their feet and always have, both in the door and out. As with everything else, time will tell.  

Hal Opperman
Seattle halop at uw dot edu


> On Dec 27, 2023, at 11:26 AM, Dennis Paulson <dennispaulson at comcast.net> wrote:

> 

> Wasn’t there some talk of making attachments possible in tweeters? We don’t want to drag it down by posting great numbers of photos, but if messages could contain one or a couple of bird photos, I wonder if that would raise the number of posts and allow it to compete with eBird and WhatsApp and Facebook groups for attention in the birding community.

> 

> I also consider it sad that so few rare birds are reported on Tweeters now, a real loss for people who don’t check eBird or belong to a WhatsApp group. And I suppose some of the social aspects of Tweeters has been taken over by the Facebook groups.

> 

> This is cultural evolution happening before our very eyes.

> 

> Dennis Paulson

> Seattle