Subject: Alpha Code
Date: Jul 26 08:46:16 2003
From: Nancy - autumn207 at comcast.net


Mary K,

I think this is very much what Tweeters is about, and the coding discussion
is highly relevant to everyday postings. I agree 100% with Arthur. And I
want to add that using code letters without the accompanying name of the
bird not only turns off newbies, but many others as well. For most of us,
birding is not a job; it is a hobby, and as such, we can choose whether or
not it is "having fun" to memorize 600+ code names. If Tweeters is to be
user-friendly for all ranges of birders, from beginning to experienced, we
should stick to identifying birds by their names.

Nancy Hertzel
Maple Valley, WA



----- Original Message -----
From: "Arthur Berman" <aberman at telus.net>
To: <Joemeche at aol.com>
Cc: <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Sent: Saturday, July 26, 2003 5:48 AM
Subject: Re: Alpha Code


> And you're entitled to your opinion, but dictating what others need to
> learn sounds elitist to me. The newspaper convention suggested sounds
> fine to me because there is not presumed knowledge there. If the
> purpose of this list is to share information posting it in arcane ways
> does not serve that purpose. Birding is a hobby for me, not a job, and
> I don't need to clutter my house with another secret decoder ring or
> constantly look up a website. I stand by my earlier comments that those
> codes are "entre nous" communications which will turn off some newbie
> types.
>
> Arthur Berman
> North Vancouver, BC
>
> Joemeche at aol.com wrote:
> >
> > Arthur,
> >
> > "The elitist tone?" Did you not read what I said about having fun with
the
> > whole thing? There is no one that I know who is less "elitist" than I. I
> > encourage people to have fun looking at and learning about birds.
"Elitist tone?" I
> > think not.
> >
> > Cheers,
> > Joe Meche
> > Bellingham