GOOD EGG AWARD UPDATE

Unknown said:

Very well said Kezsmum and well done on getting your award. Anybody can enjoy birds, nature, wildlife etc without having to "prove" it with photos, reports etc although they are always good to read and look at.

A lot of people are less abled than others and the thing with a forum is we often do not know who has difficulties unless they wish to say. I have had serious health problems too and cannot do what I used to do but enjoy things still as much. OH has to help more!!

Not to mention some people work full time and getting out and about isn't always possible on days off when there is shopping to do, pets to clean out, housework to get on with, cars that need maintainence, finances and bills that need sorting...sometimes there just isn't enough time to get out.

KatTai said:

Not to mention some people work full time and getting out and about isn't always possible on days off when there is shopping to do, pets to clean out, housework to get on with, cars that need maintainence, finances and bills that need sorting...sometimes there just isn't enough time to get out.

And it all has to be crammed into just one or two days a week:-( I remember it well KatTai and that was in the days when life in general was a little less pressured. Just commuting across London to teach took a significant chunk out of my days and that was more than 20 years ago when the roads were quite a bit less crowded than they are today.

Hi Kezsmum

Yes, got those memories of all the getting up in the mornings, getting dressed for work plus the makeup, and jumping on the same bus by the skin of my teeth LOL

Sometims it was pushing ones luck to the last minute, and there where times that I did miss my mode of bus transport too and that was on the wettiest mornings going usually too!

Working was a very stressful time at times and I found that going out with conservation in mind was the best de-stresser there is going at the weekends

Regards

Kathy and Dave

Unknown said:

 Anybody can enjoy birds, nature, wildlife etc without having to "prove" it with photos, reports etc although they are always good to read and look at.

A lot of people are less abled than others and the thing with a forum is we often do not know who has difficulties unless they wish to say. I have had serious health problems too and cannot do what I used to do but enjoy things still as much. OH has to help more!!

 

Have to agree with you Coral.I am not prone to airing my personal life on forums either, i just pop in for  enjoyment ,banter and  fun and i  like to be positive,glass always half full .I didn't downsize my home for the fun of it ,nor did i want a smaller garden but we had no choice, did it for health reasons have moved on and no regrets.I  still love wild-life and birds etc etc etc  and really enjoy seeing the pics and reading the fab stories but  i don't need anyone to prove anything and why should they.I also have many other things in my life which are more important now a days so tend to stick with my garden birds.If someone wants to live and breathe birds fine but  don't expect everyone else to be the same.I do sign lots of petitions,write lots of e-mails and anything else i can do in writing to help our wild friends now that i have more sitting time ha ha but don't ask me to prove that either ha ha.:0)

ClaireM said:

I find the star system rather divisive and open to misuse, as Sparrow says. The Good Egg award also has its downside in seemingly ignoring excellent input.

Does the forum really need an official award system?  Do other forums give awards? It a very subjective matter. I choose for myself which contributors or threads are the most helpful, interesting etc.

[/quote]

Agree Claire.

Anything on a forum that upsets or divides members is wrong.I have never been on any other site that do this and have never quite understood why it is done on here.As far as i am concerned we are not in school,all equal and having a good egg under your name does not make anyone better or worse, end of story.

 

 

 

An optimist sees the beauty of the complete rose.A pessimist sees only the thorn .

Sheena said:

I find the star system rather divisive and open to misuse, as Sparrow says. The Good Egg award also has its downside in seemingly ignoring excellent input.

Does the forum really need an official award system?  Do other forums give awards? It a very subjective matter. I choose for myself which contributors or threads are the most helpful, interesting etc.

[/quote]

Agree Claire.

Anything on a forum that upsets or divides members is wrong.I have never been on any other site that do this and have never quite understood why it is done on here.As far as i am concerned we are not in school,all equal and having a good egg under your name does not make anyone better or worse, end of story.

 

 

[/quote]

I would add that different people use the forum in different ways - not better or worse ways - just different according to circumstances. It must be difficult to find one cap that fits all.

In no way in this post I am detracting from the significant contributions made by all the current Eggs.

"The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom" - Wlliam Blake

I could not agree with you more Claire and Sheena. I really cannot see the point of this sort of system at all. The fact that we are discussing this now shows how damaging it can be to a forum.

Apologies to all those who have already been given Good Egg awards but I find the whole thing rather demeaning.

Hi all

   I can only think of the nursery rhyme   "Humpty Dumpty"

   Thats the way its going

    There was a good egg sat on a wall.

     Ray

ClaireM said:

I find the star system rather divisive and open to misuse, as Sparrow says. The Good Egg award also has its downside in seemingly ignoring excellent input.

Does the forum really need an official award system?  Do other forums give awards? It a very subjective matter. I choose for myself which contributors or threads are the most helpful, interesting etc.

[/quote]

Agree Claire.

Anything on a forum that upsets or divides members is wrong.I have never been on any other site that do this and have never quite understood why it is done on here.As far as i am concerned we are not in school,all equal and having a good egg under your name does not make anyone better or worse, end of story.

 

 

[/quote]

I would add that different people use the forum in different ways - not better or worse ways - just different according to circumstances. It must be difficult to find one cap that fits all.

In no way in this post I am detracting from the significant contributions made by all the current Eggs.

[/quote]

 

Agree again and another reason why the good egg award shouldn't be here.

 

 

An optimist sees the beauty of the complete rose.A pessimist sees only the thorn .

Sheena, Claire and ChloeB    I totally agree with you.

Back in July 2009 when the RSPB introduced this forum they announced the "Good Egg Award". It was not something they asked the community if they wanted or not.

One must ask what it was designed to achieve? Presumably it was to promote harmony. Well come next month I will have been posting on forums for twelve years and while every forum has its problems this one has had  very bad problems indeed.

I have never thought that badges have been a good way of gaining respect. I have hosted forums for ten years and have have had the privelege of showing a gavel to denote my authority. I have never done so as I think that if you need a badge to denote authority then you do not have much authority.

Similarly back in 1999 when forums were in their infancy I asked the BBC to set up a forum to discuss the solar eclipse. Rather remarkably they said Yes. They did but rather worringly some of the posters were denoted as either "Experts" or "Celebrities". Anyway after a week or two I got an e-mail from a well known BBC science presenter suggesting that I was dominitaing the forum and did I want to be classed as an "Expert". I replied "NO" on the ground that in my view experts should emerge in a forum and not be given a badge. I reckon the reason for this strange intervention was that the Celebrities and Experts were getting paid by the question. I will never know.

I do not really know what criteria the RSPB use to decide who should be a "Good Egg".  If Bill Oddie was to turn up and make one post would he get awarded a "Good Egg" because of his celebrity status?

Also do posts in the groups count?

Do posters have to be members of the RSPB?

Also remember every award you make you may disappoint a whole lot of other posters who might rightly feel they have contributed a lot in the last two years and have not been regarded as worthy of a "Good Egg Award".

To the be honest the whole thing seems a shambles.