Hi everyone
Over the last 3 weeks since joining the forum I have been gradually catching up on the thread archives
One thing that is very clear is that there is a huge amount of knowledge and information on the forum, but some elements, that will be of huge value to those new and keen to learn, are in danger of being lost, especially as the threads start to whizz round ever faster.
So I would welcome your feedback, on whether you think there is any value, in requesting a new forum where your photographs can be organized, to give identification guidance on, for example, plummage variation in all birds, but especially in fledglings as they develop.
We can of course include photo's to aid all aspects of identification and other issues of interest regarding birds.
New members to the RSPB can currently request a free gift of the RSPB Handbook of Garden Wildlife, which features 41 of the most commonly seen birds.
This forum contains photo's of most of these birds at various stages of development.
if you think it is a good idea and are happy to move your photographs, and if the moderators are happy to set up a new forum, I would be very happy to set up the individual threads so that you can then enter your photo's, that will then be credited to you via your post.
So that everyone has a chance to read this, I will try to keep it in the latest thread list for a week and then let it die if it is obviously not a good idea. :-D
Thank you
Eilid x
"out beyond ideas of right doing and wrong doing there is a field. I will meet you there" Rumi
The galleries are meant to be for organising everyones photos, but they are currently not working very well.
I have posted photos in the forum public galleries already and there is no up to date information on My Page that I have added any recently, despite adding several, so I currently prefer to just post my photos in My Gallery on My Page and on my web-site. There are several links for anyone to find them there.
Also if you want to search for any info on any particular bird, all of the threads that it has ever appeared in come up in the search box at the top of the page.
Best wishes Chris
Click Here to see my photos
Hi Eilid,
I think something along those lines is an excellent idea, and well done you for volunteering to sort it all out! Give that girl a Brownie point.
I use the search box frequently, but it is drastically slow and brings up irrelevant stuff as well as relevant. It all depends how it's used.
The galleries are (or were) great, but even there the photos are not kept in sets and the groups are too wide ranging, so it is always a matter of ploughing through the whole gallery sometimes. Personal galleries are great, but rarely visited.
It is hard work going back through old threads, which is why I am an advocate of pinned threads. These are threads the moderators decide are useful to everyone in one way or another, so they "pin" them to the top page of the recent activity and they are always at the top and never buried..
Cheers, Linda.
See my photos on Flickr
Hello Sparrow
Pinned threads are a good idea - there are so many posts and threads now that I can't keep up - it's a shame to miss something useful.
I think most of us only have a limited amount of time to spend on here so anything that organises the info would be useful.
Would be happy to see our photographs organised too - it takes ages to go back to try and find one particular one - I agree the galleries and search facility are painfully slow.
My husband has put some elements of photoshop on my restored PC so I can crop my own photos now - I think he got fed up with having to do it for me! Now I just have to learn how to get the photos on my PC in the first place - yes he does that for me as well - aren't I lucky!!!
Jazzcat
Like most ,my time on the forum is limited and i apologise in advance for any posts i have missed.I do find it a very slow site so it can be offputting.
Anything that will improve the site gets a yes from me.
An optimist sees the beauty of the complete rose.A pessimist sees only the thorn .
Hi Eilid
Yes, anything that improves the site and makes it easier to find useful information must be a good thing. I'm sure the galleries and your proposed site can live side by side.
Good on you for thinking of it and volunteering to do the work!
Pip x
Hi,
devil's advocate here :) I have some experience of forums , yahoo groups etc and this one is running true to form for one in its first year :) The problem you have is that the same questions will come up at the same time every year as new people arrive / start feeding birds and encounter their first dunnock, chaffinch etc :) Referring people to a stock set of pics might take some of the personal contact out of the site.
Just a thought :)
S
For advice about Birding, Identification,field guides, binoculars, scopes, tripods, etc - put 'Birding Tips' into the search box
Sheena said: Like most ,my time on the forum is limited and i apologise in advance for any posts i have missed.I do find it a very slow site so it can be offputting. Anything that will improve the site gets a yes from me.
Good morning all,
Like Sheena and all the others my time on this forum is limited and rather sporadic ...... so I KNOW I miss loads and then it takes ages to catch up.
If there are ways of improving the site as you have suggested then it would get a thumbs up from me too.
Have a wonderful day everybody. I'm off to watch some birds as I counted 14 small birds under the bird table this morning which is rather exciting!I need to investigate more as I'm not sure if they were sparrows or dunnocks or a mixture of both?!
BFN
Diana
Hi All
I would like to see the Latest Posts show more than 10 items or be able to scroll through all threads in case I miss any.Once they go off the bottom I have missed them.
Rachel
It's not always easy to hug a hedgehog.
But that doesn't mean you shouldn't.
Hi Rachel.
Once you have exhausted all the threads o the recent activities list, you can move to "Posts you have not read". This will bring up some of the ones you have missed, but not all of them by any means.