[rec.birds] new group needed?

aewright@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (Aaron E. Wright) (06/20/91)

i am new to the news network.  is there a group for birders/birdwatchers, as opposed to birdkeepers?  does anyone know how to start such a thing?  

sw@cbnewsl.att.com (Stuart Warmink) (06/20/91)

In article <1991Jun19.184117.19527@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>, aewright@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (Aaron E. Wright) writes:
> i am new to the news network.  is there a group for birders/birdwatchers, as opposed to birdkeepers?  does anyone know how to start such a thing?  

The header line of this newsgroup says something like:
"Newsgroup rec.birds (Hobbyists interested in bird watching)"

Seems to me like it started of for birders - but I wasn't reading this
group when it started, so I don't know for sure. If it did then any new
group (if one is needed at all) should really be rec.birds.indoors or something like that.

I find it a little ironic that this group is used both by people who enjoy
finding and watching birds in the wild, and those that keep them mostly
in cages. Hope I don't start a flame war here...

PS Keep reading this group - there are birding postings too! :-/
-- 
Stuart Warmink, Whippany, NJ, USA  |  Netnews is an illusion caused by dots
sw@cbnewsl.att.com                 |  of phosphor glowing behind glass.

s30986u@kaira.hut.fi (Martin Helin) (06/20/91)

In article <1991Jun19.184117.19527@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> aewright@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (Aaron E. Wright) writes:
>i am new to the news network.  is there a group for birders/birdwatchers, as opposed to birdkeepers?  does anyone know how to start such a thing?  

Welcome to the group and keep on reading cause we have some
birdwatcher stuff here also. The subject of separating the group was
brought up (once again) quite recently but I guess many people felt
that there's no need to divide the group in two (an opinion not shared
by me !). Also there's an other problem in dividing, it's hard to get
enough people to support the new group (according to the rules you
have to have a certain number of people behind a group before it can
be formed, more details from a certain newsgroup, news.newuser.* I
guess).


				Martin

PS. Did you know that there are many mail-lists in the US for
birdwatchers ? If you're interested in them, I'm sure you get more
information here if you ask for it. At the present I subscribe only to
BIRDCHAT since I'm not that interested in national rare bird alerts etc.
Martin Helin	Helsinki University of Technology, Finland
Internet : Martin.Helin@hut.fi UUCP : uunet.uu.net!kaira.hut.fi!s30986u
X.400 : G=Martin S=Helin O=hut OU1=kaira PRMD=inet ADMD=fumail C=fi

dgraham@morgan.ucs.mun.ca (David Graham) (06/20/91)

In article <1991Jun19.193701.22443@cbnewsl.att.com> sw@cbnewsl.att.com (Stuart Warmink) writes:
>In article <1991Jun19.184117.19527@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>, aewright@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (Aaron E. Wright) writes:
>> i am new to the news network.  is there a group for birders/birdwatchers, as opposed to birdkeepers?  does anyone know how to start such a thing?  
>
>The header line of this newsgroup says something like:
>"Newsgroup rec.birds (Hobbyists interested in bird watching)"
>
>Seems to me like it started of for birders - but I wasn't reading this
>group when it started, so I don't know for sure. If it did then any new
>group (if one is needed at all) should really be rec.birds.indoors or something like that.
>
>I find it a little ironic that this group is used both by people who enjoy
>finding and watching birds in the wild, and those that keep them mostly
>in cages. Hope I don't start a flame war here...

Well, if you do, it'll just be resumption of the one we had last year
(and the year before, and the year before that...). :-(

Unfortunately, this topic crops up with depressing regularity on this
group, and the solutions that have been proposed over the years never
seem to work to the entire satisfaction of everyone. Many suggestions
have been made to the effect that all the cage-related articles should
be posted to rec.pets, but I'm sure even mentioning that option will
remind people of lots of reasons why that's not on. We seem to go
through periods of uneasy coexistence followed by shorter or longer
bouts of trench warfare.
>
>PS Keep reading this group - there are birding postings too! :-/

The best way to make sure birders are well represented here is to *post
some articles about birding*, seems to me. Trip reports, sightings,
reviews of new books, requests for assistance...
>-- 
>Stuart Warmink, Whippany, NJ, USA  |  Netnews is an illusion caused by dots
>sw@cbnewsl.att.com                 |  of phosphor glowing behind glass.

--
David Graham  |  dgraham@kean.ucs.mun.ca  |  dgraham@morgan.ucs.mun.ca
-- 
David Graham,			**	dgraham@mun.BITNET	
Department of French & Spanish	**	dgraham@kean.mun.cdn	
Memorial U. of Nfld.		**	dgraham@munucs.mun.cdn	
St. John's, NF			**	garfield!munucs!dgraham	

burhans@mizar.usc.edu (Mustang Sally) (06/21/91)

In article <1991Jun19.193701.22443@cbnewsl.att.com> sw@cbnewsl.att.com (Stuart Warmink) writes:
>In article <1991Jun19.184117.19527@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>, aewright@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (Aaron E. Wright) writes:
>> i am new to the news network.  is there a group for birders/birdwatchers, as opposed to birdkeepers?  does anyone know how to start such a thing?  
>
>The header line of this newsgroup says something like:
>"Newsgroup rec.birds (Hobbyists interested in bird watching)"

I've always thought the name should be rec.birders or rec.birding
if it were to be only for bird watchers. 

>Seems to me like it started of for birders - but I wasn't reading this
>group when it started, so I don't know for sure. If it did then any new
>group (if one is needed at all) should really be rec.birds.indoors or something like that.
>

rec.pet.birds maybe? we've got rec.pets I think and rec.pets.dogs so
this seems like a good extension of the hierarchy in place.

>I find it a little ironic that this group is used both by people who enjoy
>finding and watching birds in the wild, and those that keep them mostly
>in cages. Hope I don't start a flame war here...

Actually I'm a birder but I have found it interesting to read about
birds as pets and we've had some lively discussions about the
ethics of keeping birds as pets and viewing these same birds in the
wild and breeding for possible re-release. Speaking of which did anyone
catch the news this last week about the possible release of California
Condors? I missed it but would be interested to know whats developing.
-- 
Jackie Burhans (burhans@usc.edu)          
Data Stylist, USC Student Affairs