Hello Tweets,
I want to publicly thank Dan Victor for taking the time to clear up
questions I had regarding the deletion of Michael Price's recent post on
Boundary Bay from the Siler Digest. I know from the posts I received
privately that others of you were likewise concerned. Here's Dan's very
reasonable explanation. I'm glad I asked. In a nutshell, he has no control
over the Siler Digest.

> Hi Joe,
>
> Jack Siler provides a great service to us all with his birdmail. However,
> it was discovered and posted to Tweeters a while back that his perl
> program doesn't pick up messages where Tweeters is in the Cc: line instead
> of the To: line. Therefore, a few messages are left off his Web page. If
> you're not subscribed, to get the full set of messages, you'll have to
> wade through the clunky digest-nomime version I put up on the Web each
> day.
>
> Cheers,
> Dan Victor, Seattle, WA <mailto:dcv at scn.org>
> Tweeters email digests= http://www.scn.org/earth/tweeters/digests/
>
> ps. Happy to see Michael back! ;-)

I think it's important to acknowledge that I was concerned that there might
be some kind of censorship at work here. I'm relieved to discover it is
merely a matter of technology. However, like others, I realize that my
sensitivity to matters of censorship has been heightened since Don Bacchus's
banning a couple of years back. I know I'm not alone when I say that in my
opinion the overall quality of communication on Tweeters has suffered
because of that decision. While I found some of the exchanges from that
period to be a bit disconcerting in terms of the personal sniping that
accompanied them, the information contained and the passion driving them
made them invaluable to me. They helped make me a better informed, perhaps
more socially conscious birder. Because Michael's passionate post likewise
had some personal history referencing conflicts he's had with another list
contributor, I was concerned that there might be a similar process of
exclusion at work. I'm satisfied that was not the case.

Like many of you, I'm sure, I've roamed the Web reading other birdchats, and
Tweeters has always stood out because it had character, vitality, and
CONTROVERSY. It was more than a glorified phone tree. In my humble opinion,
those qualities have been compromised in the interest of homogenizing the
final "product," making it merely palatable and "nice." Birders tend to be a
lively bunch when you get to know them, representing a wide political
spectrum. In a free society, I take it as MY responsibility to sort through
any personality conflicts and glean essential information that's critical to
becoming informed and motivated to take action. If I sense that my feelings
are getting hurt by what's being posted on Tweeters, I know I've got at
least two options: get a little therapy; or better yet, go birding. Bottom
line, birding connects me to this world, helps me understand my place in it.
As Michael states so well in reference to the access controversy at Boundary
Bay, "...there's more joy in Heaven: personal enlightenment is better late
than never." For those of you who haven't had the experience, you might want
to get up there sooner than later...as he says, it's a world class site.

And, as I said privately to Michael, I hope this recent post is a sign he's
coming out of "retirement," we need him.

Thanks everybody,
Joe Mackie
jmackie at cc.wwu.edu
Bellingham