I'm relatively new to Tweeters, so am pretty alert for signals about the
established culture. The barrage today over one person dropping out due to
email overload fascinated me. I must be in small minority in choosing to screen
the posts by logging in and not having them individually sent to me. When I
first joined in a few months back, I pondered briefly but found choice easy.
I don't mind wading through the half-dozen a day news alerts I have
specifically arranged for ("Valerie Plame," Truthout, etc.), and often skip them.
But another dozen-a-day Tweets seemed a bit much, especially given that any
individual email often has pretty limited content.

But I can log in (typ. several times a day), and thanks to posters who in
most cases do a great job of offering proper clues in Subject (i.e.. locale and
bird specifics), choose whether to read all posts or, as is more common when
I am busy and no travel is even conceivable, limit my skims to immediate
vicinity, rarities I am fascinated with, or, as today, a chance to observe a
real-life soap opera.

It seems to me the same applies to what seemed an awfully whiny concern
today about county lists and such. I admit I would prefer Tweeters not be
burdened every day with, say, a score of annoyingly incremental list-updating posts
(though it sounds like there was never any real chance that was the
program). But even at that, if they were properly flagged in subject, if you're not
into County Lists, when you read on-line you can skip them.

Just a thought. Sorry in terms of words, if you are the terse sort, that it
is more than two cents.

paul johanson
north beach (Seattle)