The current thread seems to have touched all of the familiar points of the
perennial discussion about four-letter codes. So, please, let's drop the
topic.

Friendly suggestions:

1) If you want to use a bird name in the subject line of your message,
please spell it out.

2) If you find it convenient to use abbreviations in the body of your
message please spell out the name of the bird the first time you use it with
the abbreviation following the name in parentheses. Example: American Robin
(AMRO). Then if you mention that bird again, feel free to use the
abbreviation alone.

3) Remember that more than one system of abbreviations is in use in the
world, and that no one system is without ambiguities. Example: BAOW by
intuition alone could be Barn Owl or Barred Owl. Different systems get
around such conflicts in different ways. One system abbreviates Barn Owl as
COBO (a holdover from when it was called Common Barn-Owl). Go figure.

4) If you want to help readers who are in a hurry, the single best thing you
can do is to CAPITALIZE the names of bird species in your messages so they
stand out -- just like the four-letter codes do, but with the advantage that
readers do not have to decipher them. Using boldface for bird names is not a
solution because many readers receive the messages as plain text, not html,
so boldfacing and other formatting is suppressed. This is true for everyone
who reads Tweeters on birdingonthe.net, where postings appear only as plain
text.

5) Finally, Tweeters has no rigid rules about any of the above. The
applicable guideline is that successful communication relies upon mutual
respect and consideration between those who post messages and those who read
them.

Good birding!

Hal Opperman (pinch hitting for listowner Dan Victor)
tweeters-owner at mailman1.u.washington.edu