Thank you, Treesa, for all your efforts. And thank you, Sarah Swanson, for
posting the original statement to OBOL. Thanks, also, to the OBA Board. And
finally, thank you to everyone who has contributed constructively to this
thread. To all the women who have spoken up about their experiences, I hear
you and I believe you.
The summary of my thought is that yes, OBOL should either permanently
moderate or ban specific people who have repeatedly demonstrated their
disregard for others. I believe if the civility of OBOL can be improved,
OBOL will gain input from a greater number of experienced birders who are
uncomfortable with the lack of civility. If you are interested in how I
came to this conclusion, below are the reasons I believe this to be true.
I'd like to expand a bit on Caleb Centanni's thoughtful post (
https://freelists.org/post/boo/Discussion,79). I suspect the number of
experienced birders that are not on OBOL exceeds the number of experienced
birders that are on OBOL. (Many of these people originally did not use
eBird, either, but that appears to be changing.) So I think it is entirely
possible that by not wanting to lose the input of specific experienced
birders who struggle with civility, OBOL is in fact losing the voices of so
many other experienced birders, both in urban areas and in less populated
portions of the state.
I personally know dozens of experienced birders throughout the state who do
not participate in OBOL. In my extensive travels throughout this state,
including a 3 year period (2011-2014) where I was a full-time birder/bird
photographer, and via my membership on multiple local list-servs, I have
been lucky to become acquainted with many of these people. In general, they
are very warm and welcoming, and willing to share their knowledge and
expertise (and sometimes a sip of whiskey after finding Spruce Grouse!) I
used to ask them if they were on OBOL, and more often than not, the answer
was usually along the lines of (I'm paraphrasing), "No, I am not - I don't
need to deal with that headache", or "No, I don't care for the
self-appointed birding elites". I eventually stopped asking.
I will also share my own story, which I do not think is unique. Like many
others, I have grown weary of OBOL. I subscribe, but don't receive any of
the posts via email, and I may go months without reading posts, and I
submit posts very rarely. My main reason is the lack of civility by some
members - not only is it not enjoyable to read, but I also don't want to be
associated with a community that not only tolerates it, but enables it. I
have felt this way for years, and this latest thread is but one more
example.
So what kind of experienced voices are we missing that we don't know we are
missing because we are so tolerant of uncivil behavior from a few
experienced birders? That's a difficult question to answer.
I started birding in the mid 1970's in Texas, where I grew up. I've birded
extensively in the midwest, having lived in Chicago from 1995-2004. I've
birded a bit on the East coast, too. I moved here in 2004, and have birded
extensively in Oregon, Washington, and quite a bit throughout the interior
west (I'm a huge fan of the Great Basin, Idaho, and Montana). So not only
do I have experience in this region, I have extensive familiarity with
Eastern species, more so than many of those who have birded primarily in
the West. I suspect that Oregon has dozens, if not hundreds, of people just
like me. How many of these people are not on OBOL, or are there, but never
post? I personally know at least a dozen in various corners of our state,
including Portland.
I'm just one person of maybe only, say, 20, though, and you may wonder, so
what? That's a small number of experienced birders not on OBOL, but we have
other experienced birders on OBOL, so it is a wash. I don't believe that to
be true, but that is hard to prove. I do know several other Oregon birders
who have very similar backgrounds, and several of them share my opinion of
OBOL. As but one example, there was a bird that is very common in the east,
and RBA worthy in Oregon, seen several years ago in Oregon by many birders.
OBOL had quite a bit of discussion on the ID of the bird, and the
discussion was driven by a few of the typical voices. Those of us who knew
this species well knew that the discussion was missing a key element on
behavior as it instead focused on one technical detail of how to separate
two species, with an insistence that without photos of that plumage aspect,
there was no way to be positive about the ID. At least three of us with
extensive experience with the species in question had private discussions
about this, yet none of us posted to OBOL. OBOL finally landed on the right
consensus, but only because someone did manage to capture that one field
mark in a photo. What a wonderful learning opportunity that could have
been, had I or others with extensive field experience with the two species
being considered been willing to share our knowledge of the behavioral
differences between the two species. (Two of us did try in the field, but
that conversation quickly turned south and we both instinctively retreated.)
This entire episode caused me to see who is on the current OBA board, and I
was very pleasantly surprised to see it consists of a far more diverse
group since I last checked, including many people that have demonstrated
their commitment to inclusivity. For that, I am grateful, and I think it is
a great step toward making all feel welcome in the Oregon birding community!
To all of those who are new to birding, I say welcome! Please ask your
questions and share your enthusiasm. My favorite posts on OBOL, generally
speaking, are the ones where I get to see the world through the eyes of
someone new to birding, and remind myself of the beauty of all species of
birds, not just the rare ones. So thank you for that!
Best wishes,
Scott
--
Scott Carpenter
Portland, Oregon
Pronouns: he/him
-------------------------
http://www.scottcarpenterphotography.com/
