Greetings Ladies and Gentlemen

What a fine row. Almost as good as watching Fox Network.

Entertainment is excellent.
Discussing the pros and cons of hunters, cats, fireworks, enemas, whatever --
great stuff (though vehement diatribes aren't really what I'd call
"discussion", albeit they can be entertaining, hence the success of Fox).

Which raises the question, What is Tweeters?: Is it meant for pure scandalous
entertainment? Is the listserve's purpose determined by the subscribers? Is
it what a few very vocal and prolific posters decide to make it? Is it what the
Listserve Manager decides it should be?

A friend of mine from WV was complaining about WV's listserve, took a look at
ours, and said "Wow, Tweeters makes our listserve look like Harvard!" Sorry
if that offends, but take a look at OBOL some day.

I always felt that a "birding" listserve should focus on birding-- the types
of posts put forth by Charlie Wright, Mike Patterson, Wayne Weber, Gary
Bletsch, Mike Denny, and the Sullivans. What's around, how you ID stuff, etc. Yes, I
could always hit the delete button, but the other stuff eventually drowns out
the actual birding posts. The reality is that it drives away many (most) of
the truly active birders who could contribute to insightful discussions (c.f.
Cordilleran Fly in WA; though we had a nice discussion, folks such as Kevin
Aanerud, Bill Tweit, Dennis Paulson and others who might contribute were absent
from the discussion).

There is a reason that many of Washington's most active/knowledgeable birders
rarely post here. Indeed, it is likely that many of you in Tweeterdom
wouldn't know who they are. Many of them rarely, if ever, look at Tweeters, which is
sad. The lack of content relating to birding is the predominant reason. I
would love for Tweeters to be a listserve that focused truly on birding.

Sadly, I am sure this post will do more to anger people than change anything.
People will argue that it already focuses on birding (ahhh, but see OBOL or
IBET or others). There are those that will argue that they can discuss whatever
they want, and I am an elitist snob. Alas. Most of the folks who would agree
with my assessment, I believe, have already gone elsewhere.

Best Wishes
Steven Mlodinow
SGMlod at aol.com
Everett, WA