As I recall the other day, someone mentioned that they were going to
e-mail Greg Gillson with regard to the OBOL guidelines for posting.
Greg's out of town at this point, so I found my copy--here they are (from
asterisk line to asterisk line, then I'll close with a few words:

********************************************
>>>> info obol

Oregon Birders On-Line!

The purpose of OBOL is to keep its members up-to-date on unusual and
rare birds seen recently in Oregon. Rare Bird Alerts should be posted
here right away. The Portland Audubon RBA weekly phone message is
posted here weekly. Unusual sightings from the past weekend's birding
are welcome. Postings of Oregon field trips, bird count announcements,
etc. also belong on this list.

Postings of a commercial nature, as long as they deal with birding,
are acceptable in moderation. Once per month is a good limit.

Please refrain from posting "political" (write your congressman)
messages. Discussions of the control of Starlings, guns, cats, etc.
should be avoided.
******************************************************

As I noted to the person who just posted their farewell message, I don't
think one can achieve a happy medium between the two lists. Once some
topics are opened up, they will just mushroom at times to new places.
OBOL has a clearly defined purpose and serves it very well, just as
Tweeters does. It's somewhat like the difference between
many state birding organizations (OFO, NOU from Nebraska are the two I
currently am most familiar with) and Audubon:
the state organizations tend to be "non-political" where Audubon is
political--one gathers data, the other acts upon the data gathered.
But, belonging to groups or lists is like anything--once it gets
tiresome, it gets less fun and more tedious. Aloha!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ray Korpi "If you accept the forms they give you,
Wk: Clark College you're doomed to your own ultimate blandness."
Vancouver, WA --Johnny Rotten
Hm: Portland, OR
address: rkorpi at clark.edu