I enjoy BOO, not as strict as OBOL and allows for real dialogue. It is
refreshing.
Maria Michalczyk
I Love Pekingese
Sir Lance a Lot
On Mar 5, 2016, at 16:11, Joel Geier <joel.geier@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
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!)
