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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Farnboro John" data-source="post: 1498460" data-attributes="member: 36432">I have found it interesting that several people have indicated they would not actively report significant birds because of the likelihood of hassle later (let alone giving others at the news offices the chance to put their own spin on the records).  A sad commentary on the birding community from almost any angle.If everyone took this attitude seeing birds would be a lot more difficult than it is now (I care about that), and the information services would starve for lack of news (except insofar as so would I, don't care about that).  It would appear that the information services are doing their users a disservice, by annoying regular correspondents with known ability, for unprofessional reasons.  It also appears they are doing this disservice on a wider scale than they themselves know!Not clever.I understand perfectly that an unknown ringing up with something unlikely at an odd time of year is going to be "unconfirmed report of possible" and that there are going to be shades of meaning between that and "MEGA - There is...." but some transparency over the guidelines being used by the services on receipt of messages would be useful: and perhaps a more generous understanding from them over the fact that a lot of rarities/scarcities move on quickly would be appropriate as well.John</blockquote>