Is the Forum dead?

Chris Grimshaw · **Posted:** Wed Oct 21, 2015 9:25 am

Red-flanked Bluetail, Dusky Warbler, Hawfinch, Hen Harrier and Great Grey Shrike. All these birds were present in Lincolnshire yesterday and fit to grace anybody's list. All reported on BirdGuides and Twitter but not a mention on this Forum. What is the reason that less and less people are not using the Forum. Suspect a few members don't know what Twitter is and BirdGuides is a partial subscription service so these sightings could have passed many by. It only takes a few seconds to cut and paste your postings from one source to the other. So come on, use the Forum please

Stuart Britton · **Posted:** Wed Oct 21, 2015 7:57 pm

I think it's dying but not quite dead! If you look on the Homepage and the mission statement of the Bird Club, reporting the presence of rare birds is not what the LBC is about. Bird Guides is a rare bird alert system - the LBC Forum is not.

John T Goy · **Joined:** Tue Dec 28, 2004 11:30 pm **Posts:** 2385

Chris,

Whenever anyone raises something like you have there is only a very few that answer like myself and Stuart and maybe one or two more so that in it self speaks volumes.

In the past I would come on here every day, for the past couple of years I've come on once a week sometimes once a fortnight. It depends on how I'm feeling, this past week I've had a Crohn's flare up so been confined to the house. So even if a WTSE had landed at MSQ I would have missed it.

I don't go on Facebook or Twitter but obviously know what they are.

I've been on forum twice this week including now.

Max =D>

Andy Sharp · **Posted:** Sat Oct 24, 2015 10:41 am

Whatever the true mission of the forum is we do have a rare bird section option. I think sightings of rare birds should be posted as i think the birdwatchers of Lincolnshire are the first priority for these records .

Daniel Newton · **Posted:** Sun Oct 25, 2015 8:32 pm

The thing is though, sightings of rare birds are on the club website. The home page has a Twitter feed on it, so sightings are reported live as they come in. It doesn't take much effort to scroll through them. Similarly, Andrew Chick will often create a "reported" post if something particularly eyebrow-raising crops up!

Admittedly, I don't post on the forum as much as I did a year or so ago but if I kick up anything interesting, then I add @lincsbirders to my tweet and it goes onto the feed if admin deign it worth a re-tweet.

It's a convenient and efficient way of doing things. I am regularly out birding until nightfall. I know a fair few Lincs birders who are the same. This is particularly an issue in Summer. If I've seen something at ten in the morning, surely it's better to get the news out there and then, rather than wait until getting on for eleven at night to log on and post it?

It's worth remembering that the forum is just one aspect of the Lincolnshire Bird Club. It's still got a good turnover of sightings on the reports board - including thread titles mentioning Rustic Bunting, Pallas's Warbler, Ravens, Yellow-browed Warbler and Purple Sandpipers on the first page alone.

Twitter is just another way for Lincs Bird Club members to communicate and get the word out. It is every bit as accessible to forum members as this web page is. It seems churlish to complain on one hand about a percieved lack of news about "rare" birds provided by LBC (I don't agree) when not utilising all the services that it provides.

Anthony Bentley · **Posted:** Tue Oct 27, 2015 1:47 pm

I Think the Forum is dying, not dead yet but in 10 years it could well be.

So what can we do to improve this?

It's easy to say "People birding should just post their sightings" but not everyone has the time to do that. Are there other ways of doing this? Chris mentioned all the reports on birdguides. Is it worth having someone (I'll happily do this) to post sightings from birdguides onto the Forum titled "Birdguides report, Red-flanked Bluetail Gibraltar Point" But this needs to be talked through with the committee first as I wont be posting sightings of Redstarts at Gibraltar Point.

I do worry about the lack of young birders/ringers/twitchers/patchers in Lincolnshire. At the moment as far as I'm aware there are 5/6 under the age of 30 (although there will be others) Of these only two of them are members. That's 0.58% of the 345 member!! which is appalling!!

On a personal note I could definitely post more. I did a full site count at RSPB Freiston Shore on Sunday and I could've posted that, But for me the issue is that when I visit sites Like Frampton and Gibraltar Point I know that at the end of the year the LBC is going to get those records regardless of weather I post them on the forum.

Terence Whalin · **Posted:** Tue Oct 27, 2015 8:01 pm

if you have not got or want twitter it is a one way street where all my info gets posted to whoever and i get back nothing, so i hardly ever post now and all twitter info goes to the world. if i make a mistake and mention a rare bird on suitable habitat on the forum i can amend the info and put it right, no chance with twitter its gone. it may be convenient to those that have it but it is killing the forum.

terry whalin

Dean Eades · **Posted:** Wed Oct 28, 2015 12:54 pm

Technology Smartphones etc all so easy these days =D>

...

Josh Forrester · **Posted:** Wed Oct 28, 2015 5:41 pm

As was well noted by Phil Espin in another thread, the forum seems to serve well as an end-of-day report service rather than a place to access instant news (although clearly this can occur).

If an instant information service is required then mobile technology is and will continue to be the best source of this. I think there is sufficient interest in an "instant" news service for Lincs.

As we already have a Twitter account and #lincsbirding available to us then what is needed is a volunteer/group of volunteers who have access throughout the day to the account in order to share (retweet) incoming reports as quickly as possible.

The Twitter feed is embedded in homepage which means that non-Twitter users can view this information also.

I second Anthony's sentiments - there needs to be a broader conversation about these issues. I would be willing to participate in this service should the interest be there.

The Lincolnshire Bird Club

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