David et al,
Your challenge is fair. I’d like to try to clarify my thinking here.
First, when I saw Shawneen’s post about the pin drops on the eBird map at
Southridge HS, I went to look at it. She was right. It is a mess. I counted
the pins as I reported.
I had followed the odyssey of the goose on WhatsApp. I went to the school,
then used WhatsApp to find where the bird had moved. I connected with the bird
and visited with 6-7 cars of other birders. Still I was amazed by the number
of pins. NO, I don’t expect 80 posts to OBOL Actually, I count 9. Fact:
There’s a lot of birders out there using eBird who aren’t connected to OBOL.
In comments I’ve received, I hear a number of them are intimidated, put off.
I’m sorry about that; I wish it weren’t so.
So I see those folks off in eBird land, a place I find difficult to navigate,
with a blizzard of individual reports and no ready synthesis. To me, a couple
simple sentences on OBOL are so much easier to grasp.
My perfect, most optimal, easiest-to-use format for Oregon birding would be a
statewide, courteous, welcoming, inclusive place where we could all be
comfortable with the technology, share our bird sightings, our enthusiasm, our
joy, give good directions, answer questions, and welcome all ages from the
green newcomer to the crusty veteran, from the speeding techy to the tottering
oldster who is losing his hearing and balance.
I know, I’m asking a lot.
Paul Sullivan
From: David Bailey [mailto:davidcbaileyoregon@xxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Thursday, October 21, 2021 8:14 PM
To: Paul Sullivan <paultsullivan@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: OBOL <obol@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: [obol] Re: To EMPEROR GOOSE eBird viewers: request to use new
Hotspot
What's your point Paul? Would you rather see 80 posts to OBOL about the Emperor
Goose? Were you ever confused as to how many Emperor Geese were being seen this
month in Washington County. I do sense you are frustrated about something
regarding Communication by Oregon Birders and their reporting behavior as to
what they have observed, but what specifically?
Perhaps a step back and a challenge for you in the interest of clarity:
What does a perfect or most optimal form/format of birding communication look
like to you?
Anyone else feel free to chime in.
Respectfully,
David
David C. Bailey
Seaside, Oregon
On Thu, Oct 21, 2021, 16:47 Paul T. Sullivan <paultsullivan@xxxxxxxxxxxx
<mailto:paultsullivan@xxxxxxxxxxxx> > wrote:
Case in point re eBird vs OBOL
I looked at the map. I see 79 individual pin drops, plus 27 folks who have
put their checklist at the hotspot. That's at least 106 checklists from
folks who have seen that one goose.
How many of those people reported to OBOL?
And eBird trumpets the number of checklist in its collection. Billions.
How many are duplicates? Two people reporting the same visit. One person
reporting repeated visits/observations? All these reports are ONE BIRD.
Paul Sullivan
-----------------------
Oregon
Date: 10/21 3:33 PM
From: Shawneen Finnegan <shawneenfinnegan...>
Subject: [obol] To EMPEROR GOOSE eBird viewers: request to use new Hotspot
My apologies in advance for using OBOL to ask this favor. There have been so
many people we need to reach OBOL is a good place to begin.
We eBird reviewers and users would really appreciate it if everyone who saw
the Emperor Goose at Southridge High School and entered it into eBird would
change your location to the new specific hot spot called:
stakeout Emperor Goose at Southridge HS from SW 130th (stay off field on
school days) (2021)
If you look at the map it is a mess with everyone's individual pins. The
locations have different names, was placed somewhere other than at the
school and someone created a pin naming the school as Southfield instead of
Southridge that others used afterwards.
If two or more people shared a checklist each of you need to change the
location within your own checklist.
It would be greatly appreciated particularly for people who want to come see
the goose to find the most recent sighting or to see what the last date it
was seen.
Shawneen
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