John,

Actually, the situation in Michigan is a little different than you suggest.
We do have a single statewide "rare bird alert" listserv,
MICH-LISTERS, where only rarities are reported; you won't find reports of
godwits or scoters here for example, and some true rarities don't get
posted here because the reporter may not know it exists or isn't
subscribed. But there are also at least four other main listservs,
BIRDERS@UMICH which ostensibly is for the Washtenaw County area but
actually has a much broader reach, BBCList for Berrien County and adjacent
southwestern Michigan, UP-BIRDERS for the Upper Peninsula, and
SE-MICH-LISTERS for rarities in the southeastern Lower Peninsula. I'm also
aware of a bulletin-board type list for Port Huron and St. Clair County
area, as well as a blog/website/bulletin board for the Muskegon area. And
then there's Mich-Chat for general statewide bird discussions. And there
are plenty of Facebook sites and blogs (including mine) where bird
information is posted, as well as a number of photo sites (Flickr and
others) where birders post photos of rarities, and often without
notification anywere else. I too get frustrated by these sites where the
owner isn't courteous enough, or hasn't thought through the process, and
forces one to set up a Facebook account just to look at a photo. And of
course rarities get posted to eBird and sometimes nowhere else. All of this
technology has done some great things, but it has also diluted the
information and made it much more complicated to keep up with sightings.

More rambling from Michigan :-)

--
Allen T. Chartier
Inkster, Michigan
Email: [log in to unmask]
Website: www.amazilia.net
Blog: http://mihummingbirdguy.blogspot.com/


On Wed, Oct 17, 2012 at 11:07 AM, John Pogacnik <[log in to unmask]>wrote:

> One of the probems that I  think a lot of people have with Facebook and
> other social media is that it is blocked at work.  For that reason I have
> never bothered much with Facebook.  I sometimes see something mentioned on
> Facebook.  When I try and access it sometimes I get it in and other times I
> am told I need a password.  I have also never bothered with Twitter.  Maybe
> I'm too old fashioned or something, but it seemed like something else I
> need to try and check.  It seems like you have to go through a list of
> sites like the Ohio birds list-serv, Facebook, rare-bird.org, etc. just
> to seewhat is being seen any more.  It you don't check one you might miss
> something good.  And even then, here in Northeast Ohio I sometimes read
> about some decent bird in the newspaper a week after it left.  I try and
> post what I am seeing, but sometimes it is a one-way street.   What we need
> is all of the reports from the listserv, Facebook, Twitter, rarebird.com,
> the Cincinnati and Dayton rarebird sites and whatever else to be placed at
> one site.  I like Michigan's setup.  One listserv for all that our current
> listserv does now and a separate listserv for only rare birds.  I have
> heard a lot of people complain that they don't like all the posts that our
> listserv gets at times and for that reason they do not use it.  What we
> need is a listserv that only deals with rare bird sightings and nothing
> more.  That would mean less emails and hopefully that would encourage more
> people to contribute.  Get someone who is into the social media and all to
> complie sightings of note to this listserv.  Then everything is in one
> place. I don't want people to not use places like Facebook, rarebird.organd others.  They have a definite place.  For instance, I use
> rarebird.org to post photos to and link to them on my listserv posting.
>  These are also good sources for reporting species that are not rare.
>  Communication is important.  Right now birding in Ohio is very splintered.
>  If you don't believe me make a list of all the different sites and places
> where bird sightings are reported.  It seems like there is a new one every
> few months.  Ohio was splintered when i started.  the Toledo area was a big
> mystery to Cleveland birders.  They heard of Crane Creek reports from
> memebers that went there.  In the old days when only a rare bird phone
> relay system was used, I tried to spread the word as much as possible.  In
> those days long distance was costly and you had to hope your contact was at
> home.  Right now with the internet and cell phones there is no excuse for
> not having a better system.  Get everything together in one place that
> everyone can easily access.  If anything it will hopefully get rid of the
> hard feelings and complaints that arise every time something is posted to
> the "wrong" place.  No reason to not use Twitter, Facebook, or some of the
> other reporting sites.  They would be a great compliment to such a system.
>  Or the alternative, maybe we can all compete to see which site gets the
> best bird reports.   Nobody wins then.  Just my rambling thoughts.
> John Pogacnik
>
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