Date: 11/2/26 9:52 am From: Carol Riddell via Tweeters <tweeters...> Subject: [Tweeters] Tweeting Rare Birds . . . . . . Or Not
I would like to weigh in here and offer my agreement with Chuq’s post. The UW’s Mailman platform is antiquated and no longer serves the needs of this listserv. So many posts have become unreadable because the UW only supports plain text posts now. Many posters continue to post from their phones or tablets, using mail apps that do not support plain text. Therefore, those of us who receive the daily digests or look at the web-based listserv have no idea what you have posted. Just blank messages. I am in the Apple universe and can only post from my desktop Mac. It is my only device that allows me to use plain text and to set it as the default. So my ability to post a message that can be read by all and have its text preserved at the listserv is now limited to when I am at home. Having to rely on every Tweeters subscriber to use plain text is a no go. It just doesn’t work. It is past time to look for a new platform. And, yes, I support and applaud our current administrators but they are working with an outdated system that no longer supports Tweeters very well.
As to rare bird reporting, the evolution of data simply points to eBird. It has taken over listing information. Post-pandemic birders may not even be aware of Tweeters. Managing one’s electronic data in eBird can be about as much as many birders can handle. You don’t have to keep your records in eBird to access it and look at the rare bird alerts. If you want needs alerts to come to your email, you would have to establish an account, go to your My eBird page, and set up the alerts you want to receive emails for. The options are almost endless. Alerts can be set up for year birds or life birds or rare birds. They can be set up for counties or states, They can be sent hourly or daily. For someone like Bob O’Brien, I would suggest setting up a daily needs alert for Washington life birds. That will somewhat limit an inbox deluge and will cover most birds you would be interested in.
The other issue in Washington is the proliferation of WhatsApp county rare bird groups. Members of them share rare bird information almost instantaneously. Those birders get information even before eBird alerts go out. For those of us who avoid Meta products such as WhatsApp and Facebook, we are left to eBird for rare bird needs. Tweeters and so many other listservs have evolved into forums that offer other opportunities for bird discussions. They are still valuable and fill a need. I don’t think they will ever again become the go to platforms for rare birds.
