Date: 11/1/26 9:06 pm From: Chuq Von Rospach via Tweeters <tweeters...> Subject: Re: [Tweeters] Tweeting Rare Birds.......or NOT
On Nov 1, 2026 at 19:27:30, Dan Reiff via Tweeters <
<tweeters...> wrote:
> I believe one of the factors that has affected the number and types of
> Tweeters reports is the administration’s continuing decision to not update
> Tweeters to allow single photos and single audio recordings.
> I continue to be a big fan of Tweeters and am concerned that it may
> continue to decline, if a few changes are not made.
> Also, I do appreciate the other efforts of the admins!
>
The proliferation of other online (mostly web-based, but now app-based)
systems has reduced the importance and influence of email lists; not saying
they’re not still useful and interesting (they are), but if you look at the
age demographics of the mailing lists, in general you’ll find that they
skew into the older folks (like me), and that the younger generations are
more involved elsewhere.
Back when I was in California, I ran SBB (South Bay Birds) for well over a
decade. It was well established when I took it over; initially I ran it on
a personal server in my back bedroom, then we migrated it (like the vast
majority of California bird emails) to Yahoo Groups. When Yahoo inevitably
blew up Groups, many/most of the groups migrated to a site called groups.io.
(side note: when I started looking at moving to Washington, I spent a solid
two years figuring out how to transfer ownership of SBB to Santa Clara
Valley Bird Alliance, where it lives today, because I’ve seen too many
cases of “oh, the admin is now permanently not available and nobody knows
the password” killing off a list — having an organization that managed the
list and oversees ongoing management and maintenance is a really good idea,
folks).
So if you’re unhappy with Tweeter’s as it is today, maybe it’s time to
consider migrating to a mailing list server with modern tools and and
active enhancement and management. Just a thought
(A couple of disclaimers: I know the owner of groups.io, he happens to be
the guy to built the software that yahoo ultimately bought and turned into
yahoo groups, and I did some minor consulting with him as he developed
groups.io.
Also, if you look way, way back in the archives for the mailman email list
project — which is what tweeters runs on — I was at one point one of the
developers and architects on that beast, and while I still really like it,
it’s not what I’d call a state of the art tool, reliable but stodgy.
At one point I spent some energy trying to convince Audubon California on
the benefits of having a regional organization overseeing the regional
communications, but (obviously) that went nowhere. Oh well. I still think
having someone like Audubon Washington sponsoring the Washington regional
email system seems like a nice PR win for them, and an annual cost of a
list on groups.io is something like $140 (last I looked)….
Just some ramblings some someone who spent a lot of time in the trenches
building and managing email systems over the decades…
Chuq
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Chuq Von Rospach (http://www.chuq.me)
Silverdale, Washington
Birder, Nature and Wildlife Photographer
Vice President, Kitsap Audubon Society
