Dear Tweets,

Here are some new guidelines for posting to this list.

"Tweeters includes a broad spectrum of people, from novices who want to
share their enjoyment of birds and want to find out more about them, to
expert birders who spend all the time they can in the field, to
professional biologists. All posts are intended both to convey
information and to stimulate others to ask questions, respond, join the
debate. The goal is an opening toward genuine understanding of birds,
ourselves, the world we share, and how we talk about these things,
conducted in the finest tradition of civil discourse."

"There is room on Tweeters for anybody who is interested in, or has
something to say about, birds. The list is open to all, regardless of
ethnicity, profession, place of residence, gender, age, educational level,
lifestyle, economic status, religious beliefs... but it is *not* a forum
for airing opinions about the validity of any one particular economic
class, age cohort, lifestyle preference, belief system, etc., compared to
another. Specific examples include:

"- posts not strongly and directly related to birds and birding

"- shade-grown coffee (who sells it and who doesn't)

"- cats (pro or con)

"- hunting (pro or con)

"- religion (including creationism vs. evolution)

"Posts on such subjects all too often degenerate into unenlightened
"debate" of a purely adversarial nature, and sometimes into personal
attacks couched in terms and language offensive to the whole list.
Therefore, these topics lie outside the Tweeters charter and will not be
tolerated."

However, please feel free to write to me privately any comments you have
on this or anything else at dcv at scn.org

Thanks for you help in keeping this list going,

Sincerely,

--Dan
Dan Victor, Seattle, WA mailto:dcv at scn.org
Tweeters = http://www.scn.org/earth/tweeters/