Help required for a feature, all responses more than welcome...! (1 Viewer)

Hi guys what will happen if all the members reply to this topic(all 30,000 members) do you think she will be still be here reading for a few months or years. :-O 3 Just kidding -I love this is site and have met via the net some very good people and this site was for me like coming home after a long time-oh i did blunder into this site by chance and now they are wondering if i will blunder out again NO WAY :-O But be serious if all 30,000 reply what will she ..... :'D By the way i love birds,animal and mother nature and the human race-very much and off cause www.birdforum.net

Dr Manjeet Singh said:

Hi guys what will happen if all the members reply to this topic(all 30,000 members) do you think she will be still be here reading for a few months or years. :-O 3 Just kidding -I love this is site and have met via the net some very good people and this site was for me like coming home after a long time-oh i did blunder into this site by chance and now they are wondering if i will blunder out again NO WAY :-O But be serious if all 30,000 reply what will she ..... :'D By the way i love birds,animal and mother nature and the human race-very much and off cause www.birdforum.net

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Ha ha ha, if every one of you responds then I have a lot of work on my hands! :stuck: But thanks for the comments Manjeet...

Hi sarah,

my two pennorth, from another Geordie...

The single main reason I appreciate BF as much is the fact that it allows me an outlet, if you like, when time and circumstances conspire to prevent me from getting out and about.

Today for example I'm on sick leave from work, and being stuck in the house staring at four walls is a marginally less depressing prospect because I can dip into this forum as the mood takes me, to get my fix...

It is additionally, a fantastic source of information: for example, several of my recent holidays/trips away have been based entirely on suggestions offered by other forum members in response to my requests for advice.

The "social" side of things is relevant too - there is no doubt in my mind that the internet facilitates this aspect of this (or any other) hobby, and to be able to organise a meet or trip simply by dropping a few lines onto a web page is a fine thing indeed.

There are a a lot of slightly intangible reasons why people keep coming back to this forum too. In common with most active online forums, over time you begin to identify with individuals who share similar views to yourself, and this creates something of a sense of - well, "family" isn't the right word - but "kindred spiritedness" is just a daft phrase!

You get my drift though, I'm sure. There are people on here who I just know I would count as friends in The Real World, even though my encounters with them thus far have been strictly digital!

Great stuff Keith, really useful quotes there. :t:

So how did you pursue your hobby before the invention of the internet?

S x

Keith Reeder said:

Hi sarah,

my two pennorth, from another Geordie...

The single main reason I appreciate BF as much is the fact that it allows me an outlet, if you like, when time and circumstances conspire to prevent me from getting out and about.

Today for example I'm on sick leave from work, and being stuck in the house staring at four walls is a marginally less depressing prospect because I can dip into this forum as the mood takes me, to get my fix...

It is additionally, a fantastic source of information: for example, several of my recent holidays/trips away have been based entirely on suggestions offered by other forum members in response to my requests for advice.

The "social" side of things is relevant too - there is no doubt in my mind that the internet facilitates this aspect of this (or any other) hobby, and to be able to organise a meet or trip simply by dropping a few lines onto a web page is a fine thing indeed.

There are a a lot of slightly intangible reasons why people keep coming back to this forum too. In common with most active online forums, over time you begin to identify with individuals who share similar views to yourself, and this creates something of a sense of - well, "family" isn't the right word - but "kindred spiritedness" is just a daft phrase!

You get my drift though, I'm sure. There are people on here who I just know I count as friends in The Real World, even though my encounters with them thus far have been strictly digital!

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Help required...

Hey Sarah,

I'm a new member and also new to birding. I joined the forum specifically to get answers to questions that have come up in my new hobby, but one of my favorite things about active, educated forums like this (and all forums are NOT created equal!) is that one learns things one doesn't know one needs to know. I get answers to questions I didn't know I needed to ask! If that makes any sense.

Just my 2 cents worth...

Kathy

So, here goes my contribution.

As an ex-British birder, spent some years drifting around Africa before somehow ending up out here in Lithuania ...not exactly the end of the wotld, but a corner of the world with very few birdwatchers. Been out here for 8 years now and whilst the birdwatching is excellent, always somewhat missed the social aspect that characterises birding in the UK. Joined up to the forum 18 months ago or there abouts and its great - not only does it get me up to date with what's going on in the UK (and elsewhere), but is invaluable whenever a bit of advice is needed, be it about birds or anything related. Obviously out here, I never get to see birdbooks, etc, which are recently published (no chance of them ever appearing in a shop out here), but a quick request on the forum gets loads of responses. Likewise, when planning a trip further afield, easy to get info which in earlier days was difficult or required a lot of contacts (which meant phone calls or whatever).

Best of all, however, in the first six years living out here, I had about one UK guest to visit (for birds) ...since joining the forum, at least eight have been here - one of whom has been three times now. So, yes, the forum does activiely add to the socialbility of the hobby ...and gets you out and about a bit more too (found my first ever Tengmalm's Owl last week, purely as I was showing someone about who had indirectly got to hear of me through this forum).

Hi Sarah,

I wouldn't want to give the impression that my interest in birding depends on the internet - I've always had some level of interest in birding, and I indulge in it now just as I did then.

A resurgence in my enthusiasm corresponded with in increasing interest shown in the hobby by a friend who - ironically - I first encountered on another "hobby" website forum I used to run (this was two or three years back).

I would agree unreservedly that the internet has added to the hobby though.

I've learned more about birds and birding in the last few years than I had in my entire life up to then, and without doubt, some of that is down to the internet.

Then again, it's still ultimately down to an individual to seek information out: the 'net can't force knowledge down your throat, but it does make acquiring it a more realistic proposition for "ordinary" people like me...

I've been able to find things out in a matter of minutes online that would have taken many hours to find in a library - assuming that I had access to a sufficiently well-stocked library, that I had the time to look and that I knew what to look for in the first place!

Kathy, Jos, Keith - Thanks for your responses, again all very useful.

I'm actually writing up the feature now so thanks to everyone who left a comment. If you would like to read a copy of the finished article, drop me a private message (but bear in mind only a very small part of it will cover what's been said on these pages!)

:hi: Sarah

spuggysarah said:

...if every one of you responds then I have a lot of work on my hands! :stuck:

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I'm sure you would win the prize for the best - and biggest - project though! :-O

spuggysarah said:

Do you think the fact that as you've said there *are* others like yourself out there means you're more inclined to continue with your hobby than otherwise? Had the internet not been created is it possible that you might not spend as much time on your hobby?

Many thanks for your comments. Are you happy for me to quote you in a feature article?

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Being MARRIED stops me spending as much time as I would like on my hobby When I was single I was always out at my local nature reserves until it was time to head back home to bed! Go to work the next day and then head off back out in the evening with my bins and scope - happy days. Nowadays I have to be a good little wife and divide my time equally between Neil and my birding but I don't mind about 90% of the time....it's only when I hear of something good which I've always wanted to see turning up on my local reserves and it ALWAYS seems to be on a day when I HAVE to go straight home or am working late that it does get a bit frustrating!
However Neil DOES undersatand just how important being outdoors is for me and has always supported me 100% and when we go away on holiday he's happy for it to be in places where there's a fair bit of wildlife for me. He enjoys being outdoors too but is not so bothered about putting names to things as I am!
I think if I was cast away on a desert island on my own with no other folks or the internet then I would still spend as much time as I could on my hobby - my only worry would be running out of paper and pencils to write down my observations!!!

The fact that there are others - male and female - who share my interest DOES make it more fun in that I have folk to share my sightings and news with. Before I found a penfriend who shared my passion for nature (and years before I ventured on to the internet!) I felt that I was the only person in the NE who was interested in natural history. Most of the other folks I met out birding ( usually male ) always seemed such experts and I was very much in awe of their knowledge and expertise in identifying birds. Being able to chat away to others on this site and then meet up with them has made me realise that nearly all birders/naturalists are normal folk and really friendly and not at all intimidating after all! 3
Another thing ( which has just popped into my mind ) is that being on a site such as BF has added an extra dimension to my hobby in that it gives me further goals to reach out for. Whereas before I was happy enough to just go out birding and if I saw a new bird I was happy enough, now I'm more ambitious ( for want of a better word ) and now aim to actually go out and see those birds instead of just letting them come to me ( does that make sense? ). I'm currently on 174 species and am aiming to hit the magic 200 by the end of 2006. I'm also aiming to visit as many new sites as possible instead of just sticking to the same half dozen sites all the time. I want to improve my wild flower identification skills and general all-round natural history skills. I'm not really sure HOW i'm going to squeeze all of this in AND spend time with Neil and work full-time but I'm sure it'll be fun trying and I won't have time to suffer from that scourge of modern life - boredom!!!

Feel free to quote me in any articles - I'm forever trying to convert folk to the natural world and it's endless joys anyway! 3

Gill

spuggysarah said:

Hello all,

I'm new to these parts but I wonder if I can enlist your help for a feature that I'm writing.

I wondered if you could tell me a bit about your reasons for joining this forum?

Do you use the forum purely for bird-watching related advice and tips or is it also a social place - somewhere to meet like-minded enthusiasts?

Before the rise of the internet and forums, how did you meet people with the same interests? Do forums encourage you to maintain interest in your chosen field? More so than if the internet didn't exist?

Have you met with people you first encountered on these pages? If not, would you?

Many thanks in advance, keep the comments coming, I'll be checking back all the time...!

Sarah.

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Hi Sarah,

Glad to help.
I've only been a member a few days, I had joined the BBC Science Forums but there seems to be some particularly nasty people on there who got very personal with some of the people. Someone who felt the same suggested this site. So here I am, and it's a great site.
I love watching birds and although I might seem to know a lot to someone who doesn't I'm no real expert.
So hopefully I can use the expertise on here to expand my knowledge.
It's always nice to talk to like minded people all over the world.
Cheers
Eddie :t: