[va-bird] The list

If the purpose of this list was originally and simply to post sightings of
birds, as C. Jones suggests, we're certainly not serving this purpose by
going on about this now.  From the perspective of a Systems Anylist, what C.
Jones describes (name of the species, the location, and the count) is
actually best served by a database; email lists just weren't designed to be
capable of intelligently distributing that information.
I signed up with the list a few years back, and had been looking for that
kind of system with a simple search function to help nail down recent
sightings.  What I found were posts with lists of bird names and quantities,
but this very valuable data was left just sitting in an email for readers to
try to sort out themselves.  As we say in IT, data, without structure, is
useless.  To this day, I still have no knowledge of a "recent sightings"
database, or at least if it is, it is not well known.  If properly stored
and sorted with an option to search by common name of the bird, local, and
date, a birder who wanted to know when the last time a particular species
was sighted within X miles of a certain local would be able to retrieve that
information instantly.  You'd also be able to map migration routes, and
locations of rare sightings.  But I digress.

The point is, I unsubscribed at that point because the list did not serve my
needs at that time.  I just rejoined the other month ago because the nature
of this list seems to have evolved, as is the way for all things.  Welcome
to now.  I do find the stories behind the sightings to be both interesting
and useful.  It takes the birds beyond a number, so to speak, and even
introduces us to new facts, new insights, and even previously unrecorded
behaviors.  Each person has their own unique perspective to offer.

I certainly open myself to criticism here, and I welcome it.  If the list
moderators wish to set boundaries on the types of posts, and the information
that should be contained within, that is well within their right, and we
should all conform under a spirit of best usage.  But in my opinion, I do
find value, and entertainment in the stories that the list members have had
to share.


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