I guess we have to wonder about how much we are saying, and how many
folks are actually listening. Our list-owner Ned Keller mentioned an
interruption in ohio-birds service yesterday when we exceeded our limit
of 50 posts per day, and traffic is down today, for whatever reason.
        I increasingly delete a lot of ohio-birds messages without finishing or
even opening them, but I wouldn't want to discourage anyone's interest
in birds, so here is a proposal, based on all-American principles: free
speech if you can pay for it.
        Ohio-birds is not free, and the more we use the more costs are
incurred. Maybe we can work out an arrangement with our benefactors at
Miami University so that instead of being blocked we can reimburse them
for messages that exceed fifty in a day. We could then set up a system
in which the fifty most interesting messages go through free each day,
but others incur charges.
        I don't pretend to have all the answers, but here are some suggested
guidelines:
        1. for any message announcing a "first" sighting of a species, a charge
of 25 cents for each previous message announcing sightings of that
species in the state during the previous month (these charges could
really mount up, and maybe we could endow a scholarship for a MU freshman!);
        2. for any message merely repeating the routine seasonal appearances of
common easily-identified birds (typically rose-breasted grosbeak,
dark-eyed junco, ruby-throated hummingbird, turkey vulture, etc.) a
charge of 50 cents (another big money-maker);
        3. announcements of organized birding 'events' for which admission is
charged or at which items are offered for sale: 50 bucks per post.

        We could also encourage more informative posts by giving credits (which
one could accept as cash or use later to offset charges such as those
above) of
        a.  5 cents per species exceeding 30 in number in any reported day list
(on the assumption that if you tallied a decent number of them you are
luckier or more observant, at least offering a more informative report)
        b.  50 cents per observation of significantly interesting behavior (by
birds, or birders), not just ho-hum easy IDs
        c.  10 cents for each link/reference to non-commercial ornithological
information (on the WWW or elsewhere) or other sources of learning
pertinent to Ohio birds
        d.  50 cents for intelligent questions asked about which the standard
sources have little to offer by way of an answer
        e.  75 cents for the same questions answered satisfactorily
        f.  10 cents for each bit of genuinely helpful or interesting
first-hand information: directions to a site, ID hints, any stories
about things that happened more than 24 hrs ago (i.e. "history"), etc.
        g.  for posts that solicit open discussion, 50 cents, plus 10 cents for
each public response

and so on. If these charges and credits seem trivial, remember that 50
posts a day runs to 18,000+ a year! I'm sure others will have better
suggestions about what kinds of posts should cost senders and which
should earn them credits, so let us hear about them. Or maybe we could
do something else to control the bloat...
Bill Whan
Columbus


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