Very well said, Jim.

Jeff Kozma
Yakima


----- Original Message -----
From: "Jim McCoy" <jfmccoy at hotmail.com>
To: <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, July 13, 2005 8:55 PM
Subject: [Tweeters] Re: Four-letter codes


> Sigh.
>
> There are a few points that I haven't seen raised. (I'm on digest, so
> forgive me if I'm repeating anything, or if I'm violating a group-wide
> cease-and-desist.) Please note that I'm not debating the actual virtues
of
> using or avoiding banding codes.
>
> (1) Nobody really needs to learn the banding codes. I certainly don't
know
> them (so much for intellectual pretension), but if I'm confronted with
> something like BBWO, I spend a few seconds working it out (so much for
> laziness). Sometimes you'll be stumped, but so what? You can live
without
> that knowledge. If there's something you're just dying to know, you can
> ask, and you don't even have to be unpleasant about it.
>
> (2) These are voluntary posts. Nobody gets paid for them, and we don't
> *owe* each other good posts, although of course it's nice to get them. I
> offer them in the hopes that somebody will gain something useful from
them,
> or that I'll gain something useful from a response. If I fail to
> communicate effectively with you, that's more my problem than yours.
>
> (3) There are dozens of criteria for criticizing posts. Do you really
want
> me to point out the flaws in your next post? Let's both hope I don't.
Some
> have bad grammar, some have bad spelling, some are dauntingly technical,
> some are lacking information, and on and on. But I want all such posts to
> keep coming, please.
>
> Ironically, criticism of posts can actually *inspire* the use of banding
> codes. Two people emailed me privately saying that they sometimes used
> banding codes to avoid misspellings, which invariably cause the savages in
> our audience to descend upon the unfortunate author.
>
> (4) This is the most important one. There is no greater barrier to
> effective communication than censorship. In its worst form, it
effectively
> shuts off communication altogether. If we required all posts to conform
to
> a lengthy set of rules, *regardless of the apparent value of any given
> rule*, it would bring this forum to its knees.
>
> I don't want to have to keep each and every shrill, self-righteous member
of
> this list happy. I consider my use of a banding code to be far less
> offensive than the response it engendered, and I don't intend to be
bullied
> into the "right" way of writing. I just want to pass along notes and
> questions about birds, and want to receive them in return.
>
> Jim McCoy
> Bellevue, WA
> jfmccoy at hotmail.com
>
>
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