Rich (& all),
I certainly didn't get the impression that you were telling anyone to
"shut up," though you did seem disappointed at the paucity of
discussions on OBOL, compared with BOO, so I mistakenly thought you were
grumbling a bit about that.
I do think that BOO has soaked up some of the energy that formerly would
have kept more birders tuned into OBOL (I overstated things a wee bit by
saying that BOO is now "the main" Oregon birding list -- it would have
been better to say that it's "the liveliest").
But no doubt some of this is the traditional February/early March
doldrums, as Lars suggested. I believe this is the first February ever
to go by without some sort of "food fight" on OBOL, so perhaps BOO has
been a blessing to folks like Paul who prefer not to see those types of
discussions on OBOL.
I heard from one OBOL reader who was wondering where to sign up, here's
that link:
//www.freelists.org/list/boo
The most surprising thing about BOO so far is that the discussions have
been reasonably civilized. For example, the current thread on Greater
Sage-Grouse has had input from both hunters and people who are opposed
to hunting. They don't agree, and might never, but the discussions of
policy have mostly been science-based, and so far no one has called any
one a murderer or a chicken-hugger.
It's an interesting phenomena that perhaps deserves study, but my hunch
is that an unmoderated forum is a bit like living in a small town where
you're basically stuck talking to your neighbors, no matter how crazy
they are. Some folks will no doubt prefer a moderated list like OBOL
(I'm trying to think of an analogy but "gated community where everyone
mows their lawn" is probably going too far). I suspect both lists will
continue to thrive, and many birders like myself will continue to
subscribe to both, along with more local birding lists.
Happy birding,
Joel
(a firm believer in the idea that it's possible to write my Congressman
AND enjoy the sunrise on the same day, sometimes even in that order!)
