First, I wanted to mention that the number of Black-crowned Night Herons across from the Drake Student Union on the OSU campus in Columbus is up to at least 7 as of this morning. There have also been a good number of gulls (Ring-billed & a few Herring) all along the Olentangy River in Columbus, likely spending their nights up on Alum Creek and maybe Delaware Reservoirs. Good place for a black-backed or white-winged gull to show up in the coming weeks! Second, here are 5 suggestions to improve list etiquette and ease competition for limited number of posts per day on this list: 1. It should go without saying that everyone should be familiar with the posting guidelines at http://www.ohiobirds.org/publications/emaillist.php#guidelines 2. If you personally know any of the unnamed individuals causing friction, please make sure they are aware of the problem and encourage them to help keep the Ohio-Birds list an open and inviting forum for bird watchers of all levels. 3. Perhaps a line could be added to the footer with a link to the posting guidelines? Also, the last line could be modified to encourage people to report "abusive" off-list emails. The last two lines might read something like: Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society. Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list. Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/. You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS Posting guidelines: http://www.ohiobirds.org/publications/emaillist.php#guidelines Send questions, comments or report abuse to: [log in to unmask] Alternatively, we go for something like the Alaska Birding list's footer (see http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/AKBD.html), which reads "Remember -- Be nice!" ;) 4. If you're going to make frequent updates about rarities, make more efficient use of rarebird.org. Admittedly, this is a tough sell since, as it stands, the site is more cumbersome to use than Ohio-Birds because you can't just send an email to post a sighting, plus it isn't as easy to skim all the recent posts. Nevertheless, it's a free resource available to all Ohio birders. 5. Get rid of the daily posting limit, or make it larger. I can think of three ways to do this: a. Ask Miami University to raise or remove the limit (for free) because it's causing problems. b. If we have to pay them for it, I think I speak for many on this list in saying that I would GLADLY pay a few dollars a year (perhaps an optional donation along side an annual OOS membership fee?) to get rid of this daily limit. Surely a few extra emails can't be too expensive to forward. c. Host the list on the ohiobirds.org servers or with another OH university, instead of relying on Miami University, if feasible. d. Host the list on one of the many free email list services out there, like yahoogroups (used by many state listservs) or googlegroups. You can get a sense of what other states and organizations used for email listservs by looking at the URLs listed here: http://www.aba.org/resources/mailinglists.html I REALLY don't see why this daily posting limit needs to exist given the low cost and availability of email services. Good birding, Paul Hurtado Columbus,OH ______________________________________________________________________ Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society. Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list. Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/. You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]