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Twitter for rarities (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Hotspur
- Start date
Andy you say if anyone has a problem take it up with a moderator, I assume you mean privately but I'll put my thoughts in the public domain as I imagine many people will be interested in your response
I have a problem with you moving it to here, It's a thread about rare bird information services/devices just like the thread about the X3 pager and the thread about which pager has best coverage, surely this is a thread along the same lines, and as such belongs on the rare bird pages.
It could be taken that as both of these other threads heap praise on your sponsor and this one likely won't that it has been moved to an area of Birdforum where less people look, certainly less people looking for discussion about rare birds and information on them.
I have to point out I have absolutely nothing against RBA in fact I have in the past been a customer of theirs. I do however think this is a great new way of getting info and that anyone interested in rare bird news should be aware of the options for receiving this, without having to trawl more obscure areas of the site to find it.
I formally request that you move either this or the previous thread back to where I intended it to be.
Please
G
I have a problem with you moving it to here, It's a thread about rare bird information services/devices just like the thread about the X3 pager and the thread about which pager has best coverage, surely this is a thread along the same lines, and as such belongs on the rare bird pages.
It could be taken that as both of these other threads heap praise on your sponsor and this one likely won't that it has been moved to an area of Birdforum where less people look, certainly less people looking for discussion about rare birds and information on them.
I have to point out I have absolutely nothing against RBA in fact I have in the past been a customer of theirs. I do however think this is a great new way of getting info and that anyone interested in rare bird news should be aware of the options for receiving this, without having to trawl more obscure areas of the site to find it.
I formally request that you move either this or the previous thread back to where I intended it to be.
Please
G
Please point me to the thread/s and it/they will be investigated and possibly moved to this forum, which is devoted to such items.
With a redirect in place, you are getting double exposure, being in 2 forums :t:
This particular matter has nothing to do with RBA, which I suspect some will never believe in a million years. It has to do with the fact that the rare bird forum should concentrate on actual rare bird news rather than technology, which is served by this particular forum. As you may see, this particular forum has numerous threads regarding rare bird alert services and suchlike, almost all of them created in this forum by those who guessed correctly that this was the best forum for it.
regards,
Andy
Blue Alert
Well-known member
I always thought the same thing - but I don't think enough people regularly check Twitter, or have the mobile to make it worthwhile. I have the Twitter ap on my iPhone, and it's a dream to use, but it might well be a pain in the arse on another phone. I use Twitter all the time - mostly to read rather than contribute myself... but I generally post a note of success if I bag a rarity, or a lifer / good year tick.
Having said that, birdguides' Bird News Anywhere is a dream on the iPhone, and that's pretty successful!
I know that @RareBirdAlertUK puts messages onto Twitter most days, but I can appreciate why they wouldn't want to shoot their load on Twitter. They have a business to run.
Strange that this thread was allowed to go on in "rare birds" for 5 weeks and 5 pages last time round without being moved but all of a sudden it is deemed unsuitable content for that particular forum!!!
No need to investigate any other topics Andy, I think they are in the right place as was this initially!
G
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Marcus Lawson
I've had to have a few of these!
Not something I thought I would ever say but I agree entirely with Garry on this one. It is about Rare Bird news so should be in the Rare Bird information forum.
Jonny Rankin
Formerly Jonny Crossbill
Twitter...
On topic, if any BF'ers are on Twitter. You can stay pretty up to date with at least Mega's and National Rare's by following the following:
@RareBirdAlertUK
@WPNewsByNetfugl
@biggesttwitch
@Rarevine
@BirdGuides
& get more localised / regional news via the likes of:
@Tower42BSG
@RSPBSaltholme
@SupportNWT
@WWTslimbridge
There was a #raverine hastag at one point for which I think the idea was to provide daily summaries or best birds but I think that fizzled out. In addition you could tweet updates of a bird from site for others... could have been good if continued?
I did see a thread on BF recently where a company was charging £40 for news updates via Twitter or Email. In my opinion that a total rip as I don't see how it can compete with RBA or birdguides.
Cheers,
@Jonny09Jonny
On topic, if any BF'ers are on Twitter. You can stay pretty up to date with at least Mega's and National Rare's by following the following:
@RareBirdAlertUK
@WPNewsByNetfugl
@biggesttwitch
@Rarevine
@BirdGuides
& get more localised / regional news via the likes of:
@Tower42BSG
@RSPBSaltholme
@SupportNWT
@WWTslimbridge
There was a #raverine hastag at one point for which I think the idea was to provide daily summaries or best birds but I think that fizzled out. In addition you could tweet updates of a bird from site for others... could have been good if continued?
I did see a thread on BF recently where a company was charging £40 for news updates via Twitter or Email. In my opinion that a total rip as I don't see how it can compete with RBA or birdguides.
Cheers,
@Jonny09Jonny
Also corkbirdnews
Jonny Rankin
Formerly Jonny Crossbill
Ingsbirder
Well-known member
All that a massive take up of a free service would do is put the news providers out of business (Birdlines, RBA, Birdguides, Birdnet).
Alternatively if one company developed a much cheaper news resource then that too would probably jeopardise the viability of the others due to falling subscription revenue. News providers quite like ‘competition’ as it enables them to copy other providers’ news for free – Birdguides probably copy somewhere in the region of 60% of their news from RBA for example – if RBA didn’t exist then Birdguides would have to spend lots of money calling Birdlines (if they still existed)/surfing news websites etc for themselves, making their news service less viable.
Whilst free bird news appears a great deal for birders – me included - then I suspect it would not be good for the wholesale dissemination of rare bird news in general if all these companies went out of business. All those contacts built up by news gathering services over the years would not automatically start relaying their news via twitter or other methods and news dissemination in many cases would be slower/non-existent.
I could be wrong though!
Jonny Rankin
Formerly Jonny Crossbill
I dont think you need be too worried Ingsbirder as you said Twitter canne compete with the contacts and sheer volume of info that can be shared via RBA / birdguides.
Especially in 140 characters per tweet!
I am not sure bout birdguides copying 60% of their news mind! It's fair to say RBA will have b'guides up in the office and I bet birdguides have a pager.
As for 1st point of contact RBA perhaps get more as they are affiliated with various regional groups e.g. Suffolk Bins.
My sightings go to birdguides out of convenience... I just text :t:
Especially in 140 characters per tweet!
I am not sure bout birdguides copying 60% of their news mind! It's fair to say RBA will have b'guides up in the office and I bet birdguides have a pager.
As for 1st point of contact RBA perhaps get more as they are affiliated with various regional groups e.g. Suffolk Bins.
My sightings go to birdguides out of convenience... I just text :t:
Ingsbirder
Well-known member
Aye, suspect yer right Jonny, Twitter won't take over the bird news world, but in time some form of technology will and even birders will have to give up their pagers:eek!:
It is a fact though that Birdguides copy large amounts of their news from RBA though, especially the rares - that's why RBA put a slight delay on their web service cos Birdguides were ripping off all their news in real time
They get very few major rares first-hand, apart from Black Woodpeckers on telegrpah poles and Nutcrackers on bird feeders, though they seem to specialise in single Whinchats, Green Sands and such like recently:-O
My news goes to them as well by the way, cos there number is in my mobile and it's easy to txt!
Garry 1366 et al RBA do not sponsor BF they give us Free and willingly a map of rare birds and a bit of news, we in turn put in on BF for our members to have a gander at when they are at work or on a iphone or whatever.
Partnership is a better and more accurate word than sponsor, and ingsbirder is spot on, without RBA Birdguides etc... the whole lot will fall over.
This twitter idea has done the dog and pony show on the net for months if not years,its trotted out on here every few months for an airing and your all still waiting?
Hard hat on dives into bunker!
Partnership is a better and more accurate word than sponsor, and ingsbirder is spot on, without RBA Birdguides etc... the whole lot will fall over.
This twitter idea has done the dog and pony show on the net for months if not years,its trotted out on here every few months for an airing and your all still waiting?
Hard hat on dives into bunker!
Cheshire Birder
Well-known member
I wasn't jumping to conclusions, it was merely a tongue-in-cheek comment on the fact that the original poster and myself could not find the thread. Admittedly I hadn't checked the "my posts" list as you suggested. I had always believed that if a thread had been moved elsewhere then a redirect would appear in the original location and was not aware that this is not always the case.
I did see a thread on BF recently where a company was charging £40 for news updates via Twitter or Email. In my opinion that a total rip as I don't see how it can compete with RBA or birdguides.
Cheers,
@Jonny09Jonny
RBA currently charge £40 for a years membership of webnews.
All three of the major players (ie RBA, Birdnet & Birdguides) get each others information, so any news spreads very quickly.
CB
I'm glad this debate has started to generate some interest.
I think one of the things most people are missing is that the twitter news feed is from Birdnet a company that's been in existence for about 20yrs so you can expect a decent level of service and I think therefore it counters Johnnies point that it's a total rip off, it's proper news just the same as you receive on the pager just sent out on a newer platform.
Steve it may have been discussed before but this time it's actually working I'm getting the messages! Ingsbirder has a point but surely if one of the (original) major players thinks this is a viable way to send out their info then it shouldn't fall over. Most of the monthly cost of a pager goes to Pageone or Vodapage this just cuts that out and leaves the info company with their share, in my opinion that has to be good for us birders they don't lose money and we save some.
Pagers are a dying technology they're outdated and receive little in the way of investment, look how long it takes to persuade these companies to put up new masts. I believe only the NHS have more pagers as a buisiness stream than birders!!!
G
I think one of the things most people are missing is that the twitter news feed is from Birdnet a company that's been in existence for about 20yrs so you can expect a decent level of service and I think therefore it counters Johnnies point that it's a total rip off, it's proper news just the same as you receive on the pager just sent out on a newer platform.
Steve it may have been discussed before but this time it's actually working I'm getting the messages! Ingsbirder has a point but surely if one of the (original) major players thinks this is a viable way to send out their info then it shouldn't fall over. Most of the monthly cost of a pager goes to Pageone or Vodapage this just cuts that out and leaves the info company with their share, in my opinion that has to be good for us birders they don't lose money and we save some.
Pagers are a dying technology they're outdated and receive little in the way of investment, look how long it takes to persuade these companies to put up new masts. I believe only the NHS have more pagers as a buisiness stream than birders!!!
G
Really?!
Large gaps in dates on there. I realise it's free, but if you want regular daily bird info then you have to pay for it whether it be a pager, online or the new twitter service.
Pie Face
Well-known member
I'm with Garry on this, the pager is dead technology. I dumped the pager last May after 18 years of being a 'pager slave' and got an Iphone which cost me less than running a mobile and a pager. I liked RBA's service it is without doubt the best available - I just don't understand why they haven't embraced technology, particularly the modern mobile phones email facility. It was this reason that I switched to Birdguides. The info is not as quick, but the filter service is excellent and the ability to switch email preferences means that being desk bound I can divert to my work email. If RBA were to provide this service at a comparable price I would go back but until then it's Birdguides that will get my money.
Mark
Mark
Jonny Rankin
Formerly Jonny Crossbill
Yeah its a really good twitter to follow - at no point was I suggesting it was better than the subscribed news services.
As per me previous posts 'I don't see how it can compete with RBA or birdguides'.
If ya on Twitter roll with it. If ya not divent fret pet!
Jonny Rankin
Formerly Jonny Crossbill
Same here. Work gis me an iPhone. I can get all info on b'guides viewing the web over the mobile network and even click on streetmap links to get a visual fix on locations.
As I already have a 'smart phone' in me pocket I have no requirement for a pager. That said, birdguides or indeed RBA should really both move forward and release an App. via iTunes (or equivalent) where you subscribe to push notifications for your favoured channels - which then link to the maps etc...
There's nothing to follow. 3 weeks between some of those updates!
