Tweets and OB's,
Recently I've been involved in a really fun discussion on both
Tweeters and OBOL. Because I was getting messages from both lists and from
individuals, I had to pay close attention to keep from sending replies to
the wrong places. Here are some things I've learned to watch out for:

1. If I get mail in digest form, my reply feature will
automatically post to the list, hence everyone on the list--not good if I
want to answer only one person in the digest. So, I look before I leap
after having made some postings I didn't want to.

2. Sending a reply to the list that the original message was
received from will hit the originator. Copying another list has a high
probability of hitting the originator again. It is not necessary to also
cc the originator as well as all the lists the originator of the message is
on.

3. Private discussions on the side are often very informative to
the originator and a cc can be very helpful and a nice courtesy. I
personally don't consider a cc to me to be an invitation to join a private
discussion.

4. I prefer to make statements only in private that are of
personal nature, such as "thanks for the info".

5. I'm considering adding my name to subjects if I'm the
originator of a thread, so other people know who the originator is and who
is most interested in the subject--like this: "Subject: Bushtit Social
Order (Bruce Harrison)".

6. I've noticed that a certain birder list might be quite free and
open, while another might be quite stuffy (er focused), so I know to be
careful concerning which topics I can post to each list. Not every subject
is appropriate for broadcasting on all lists. However, the sting of having
to make a quick apology doesn't last long.

So perhaps there is some wisdom in this that some of you can
benefit from, and I hope this isn't too terribly of topic.

Bruce Harrison
McMinnville, Oregon