• Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.

    Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Birdguides new system (1 Viewer)

paz said:
seems very mean not to give a location any more, just a county - makes the site almost useless

I recall they tried this a few years ago and dropped it after myriad complaints - after all the news they get from birders is free

Paz
Click to expand...

In part, this is this a fair point about Birdguides getting some of their news for free. But:

They get much, if not most, of their news from trawling other sources - twitter, county databases (such as that run by Essex BwS, and no doubt RBA.

Accepting reports only from registered subscribers ensures at least some degree of authenticity and traceability to reports. (Helping to avoid the rest of being misled by a host of innocent or mischievous mis-reporting!)

However 'over-commercialed' the new site might appear, they do have to cover costs and pay wages, so it would be naive to expect them to provide all the information for free.
 
App working. Appears not much different to before. Website there if I want to look at it. Texts set up for Mega's - no Mega's yet to check if working. Helpful people at birdguides to sort a few minor hiccups - looks to be working from here :)
 
Want is not required is 28 text alerts relating to some escaped Pelican flying round Cornwall as a Cleveland birder got last year at great expense! Not birdguides mind :)
 
Not at all impressed...I thought at first it was me...that I just couldn't find the functionality I wanted and needed to play around to "get-it"
BUT actually the functionality of the new site is WORSE than the old site...
You can't simply "Order" the records by clicking the top a column...as you can do with just about every web-page or spreadsheet that exists...
On the old site I had it ordered by "Rarity" so when I looked it would be Mega's at the top...Rares next...and so on till you get down to 400 records of inland Little Egrets etc...
Now you either have to set up a filter...so can't simply scroll through in descending order of rarity...or read hundreds of individual records to find anything interesting...
RBA it is from now on...though like a dope I did purchase a long-term subscription to keep the cost down...wasted money!!!!
 
Why don't people switch to Rare Bird Alert Pro, not the cheapest option, but App wise its certainly the best :t:
 
NAB said:
Why don't people switch to Rare Bird Alert Pro, not the cheapest option, but App wise its certainly the best :t:
Click to expand...

What is actually wrong with the BirdGuides App? Get news which is easy to read and a text for breaking Mega's. If you are a twitcher not sure you require much more?
 
Mark Batten said:
What is actually wrong with the BirdGuides App? Get news which is easy to read and a text for breaking Mega's. If you are a twitcher not sure you require much more?
Click to expand...

This has been my point. For registered users, the app is perfectly fine. It's the website that needs fixing so that users can find the information they need in the way they like to view it. This is currently lacking, but I reckon it could be easily fixed: reintroducing the ability to sort the data (by county, megas first, or whatever suits you); and having the species name the clearest, boldest thing you see. I have written to Birdguides about this and I'm fairly optimistic now that changes and improvements will be made. They are easy changes, with no costs. Fingers crossed.

Stewart
 
Just a thought....If one has to pay to find out "where" in the county the rare resides, shouldn't the finder...expect remuneration as well? After all..."what's good for the goose"......or should the "silent" kudos be sufficient?
 
Sharp Shin said:
This has been my point. For registered users, the app is perfectly fine. It's the website that needs fixing so that users can find the information they need in the way they like to view it. This is currently lacking, but I reckon it could be easily fixed: reintroducing the ability to sort the data (by county, megas first, or whatever suits you); and having the species name the clearest, boldest thing you see. I have written to Birdguides about this and I'm fairly optimistic now that changes and improvements will be made. They are easy changes, with no costs. Fingers crossed.

Stewart
Click to expand...

For local news I tend to check various twitter feeds. The birdnews companies do this also.
 
I've just registered for the free trial and viewing on my iPhone I must say I quite like the look and feel of it. The old site was looking a little dated. Hopefully BirdGuides will consider any feedback from disgruntled users and tweak the site accordingly.
 
Sharp Shin said:
Accepting reports only from registered subscribers ensures at least some degree of authenticity and traceability to reports. (Helping to avoid the rest of being misled by a host of innocent or mischievous mis-reporting!)
.
Click to expand...

But much of the content is taken from other sites, Twitter etc, without any validity check.

Birdguides load all their records onto BirdTrack, which becomes available to local county recorders etc. Unfortunately the recorders have no way to trace the records back to a source in order to get any confirmatory notes.

Rich M
 
Still don't like the lay out, very user unfriendly, visually clumsy compared to previous.

Disappointingly despite two direct email requests to RBA over past week, to trial their system again, had no response at all.
 
wolfbirder said:
Still don't like the lay out, very user unfriendly, visually clumsy compared to previous.

Disappointingly despite two direct email requests to RBA over past week, to trial their system again, had no response at all.
Click to expand...

Hi
Trying to send you a private message but it says your inbox is full.
Thanks
 
Maybe that explains why I've had no response? In fairness.

Though not sure why you are trying to reply on here as opposed to using my email address provided. But I accept there may be a reason......
 
All received, it wasn't that RBA weren't replying, my emails were going to spam and we all know how easy it is to miss these for a few days.

Looking forward to trialling it. Thank you .
 
Warning! This thread is more than 6 years ago old.
It's likely that no further discussion is required, in which case we recommend starting a new thread. If however you feel your response is required you can still do so.

Similar threads

H
Review of birding apps I use on Android
Replies
7
Views
2K
THE_FERN
T
delia todd
Tom Tom problem
Replies
9
Views
511
delia todd
delia todd
MohoNobilis
Starting a Birding Club at my School: A Thread
Replies
13
Views
910
delia todd
delia todd
T
First Love Rekindled
Replies
8
Views
824
Tringa45
T
MohoNobilis
New Campus, New Birds
Replies
3
Views
680
MohoNobilis
MohoNobilis

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 2 (members: 0, guests: 2)
Back
Top