BirdHawk GUIDELINES (instituted 2/2001)
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LISTOWNERS (to contact any listowner, send an email to birdhawk-request@listserv.arizona.edu )
Bob Pettit
JOIN THE LIST –OR- LEAVE THE LIST (with WWW Access):
http://listserv.arizona.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=birdhawk&A=1
BirdHawk is hosted at the University of Arizona. A searchable archive of list messages back to 1999, and a web-based interface for changing your subscription options, can be found at the URL: http://listserv.arizona.edu/lsv/www/birdhawk.html
BirdHawk is part of the National Birding Hotline Cooperative, which also includes the hotline lists BirdChat, BirdEast, BirdWest, and BirdCntr.
PHILOSOPHY AND HISTORY OF BIRDHAWK
BirdHawk provides a forum in which to share knowledge concerning hawks or diurnal (daytime) raptors. BirdHawk is the official listserv of the Hawk Migration Association of North America, HMANA. This list is devoted to the advancement of knowledge of hawk migration in North America and worldwide. HMANA’s organizational mission is: "To preserve raptor populations and their environments across the hemisphere through programs of monitoring, recreation, education, science, and conservation." This list is maintained as a service to hawkwatch sites, general raptor observers, educators, bird scientists, and the birding public.
Historically the list was setup to keep track of the daily fall and spring hawk migration numbers and their daily progress. It began as the ‘Hawk Migration Net’ in September 1995 by Wallace Coffey, who edited daily reports from 60 hawk watchsites and reissued a summary report to those on the email list. Next, the migration reports were continued at the University of Virginia as the ‘HMANA listserv’ (250 subscribers) with the assistance of Alice Kirby until 1997. Bob Pettit inquired of Chuck Williamson, of the National Birding Hotline Cooperative, if a listserv, BirdHawk, could be hosted at the University of Arizona. Through his and the University’s efforts, the current list was inaugurated for the spring migration 1997.
This listserv’s primary focus is the sharing of daily observations of hawks sighted at established watchsites (or unusual sightings) throughout the hemisphere. These daily count reports are provided for several reasons. These daily reports help observers by widening their knowledge of raptor migration patterns. These timely reports assist the public in finding where a possible watchsite is located and the potentially appropriate time to observe particular raptor species. These regular and continuous reports may help various agencies in their studies of raptor biology and conservation. These opportune reports may be used by educators to help teach students various aspects of bird migration in a real time setting. The HMANA list welcomes data and information contributed about migratory patterns of diurnal raptors by HMANA members and others associated with hawk migration sites primarily in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Central and South America.
There are two occasions that this list hosts nearly 1,000 subscribers. These intervals correspond to the spring and fall raptor migrations. The central point of postings during these periods is the daily raptor count data. During the non-migration times, the list has not been very active but it entertains other raptor discussions. The discussions presented here are intended to further the study of raptors through discussions of monitoring, recreation, education, science, and conservation. Dynamic discussions on topics related to raptors are invited. These exchanges should be informative, entertaining, and respectful. Members are encouraged to feel a sense of community in which they can post without risking humiliation or personal attacks. These guidelines clarify permissible and impermissible behavior on this list. The listowners prefer to guide BirdHawk with a common-sense approach that permits free and open discussion.
HOW TO POST
WAITING PERIOD
New subscribers can receive posts immediately, but must wait 2 weeks to send a post. This measure is intended to limit spam. If the new subscriber is representing a hawkwatch site and is preparing to post daily count data, the two week waiting period is waived.
E-MAIL STRUCTURE
Format allowed: Plain text (ASCII) only. Anything else may be unreadable to many subscribers and can wreak havoc with some subscribers’ e-mail software.
Format not allowed: HTML, UUENCODE, specially formatted documents such as Word, WordPerfect, and RTF, and ALL ATTACHMENTS.
WHERE TO SEND BirdHawk MESSAGES
birdhawk@listserv.arizona.edu
FORMAT OF MESSAGES
SUBJECT — If the topic is new, choose a brief, informative title. Remember that many people (and many search engines) look for key words in the subject line, so give some thought to this often-ignored aspect of your message. Do not leave subject line blank. If your post falls into any of the following categories, please use these formats:
RE: [subject] — Reply to previous post (do not change or edit subject unless the topic changes significantly from the original). If you are responding to a message in the DIGEST, please paste the subject of that message in the Subject: box rather than Subject: DIGEST.
RFI: [subject; location if meaningful] — Request for information on hawks or related topic.
HSR: [hawk site’s name, dates] — Hawksite report. This is the daily or summary report of count data from an established hawkwatch site or special sighting.
RHC: [hawk site name] — Request for hawk counter.
(Long): — Append to subject if post is 2-3 pages. Divide posts of 4 pages or more into two parts.
ADMIN: [subject] — This is reserved for administrative message from listowner.
REQUIRED ELEMENTS — Your complete real name and your e-mail address (to use as a hotlink, precede with "mailto:") must appear in the message. Please also include your city, state/province, and country so that other subscribers can place your message or questions in a local, regional or global context. Most e-mail programs include an option to use a signature text file so that this information can be added automatically.
HAWKWATCH SITE REPORTING ELEMENTS — Many requests for some standardization in reporting migrant numbers have been made. With this in mind here are the elements listed in the most requested order: (a). complete site name; (b). date of report; (c). daily raptor totals in a single column (Use standard two letter codes listed in the order noted on the HMANA report sheets or in the current ‘Hawk Migration Studies’ publication.); (d). list other ‘winged’ (non-raptors, insects, and mammals) species totals; (e). give a short discussion of the day’s activities, weather, acknowledgments, and special events; (f). provide clear site directions (perhaps GPS or DeLorme’s ‘Atlas and Gazetteer’ notations); (g). list organization’s website link; (h). any other information and (i). your signature line with appropriate information. The design of these instructions for reporting should make it easier for readers to navigate a series of posting each day and create consistency in reporting. If the order is known and consistent, the reader will glean site information more quickly and enjoyably.
TOPICS
Raptors, raptor populations, raptor environments, monitoring programs, banding programs, recreation, education, science, and conservation are the accepted topics. Unacceptable topics are virus alerts, chain letters, bird feeding, pet/caged/domestic birds, and the ethics and/or morality of hunting or falconry. Topics not recommended include scientific collecting of birds, feral cats, politics and arguments (but not news) about avian conservation-related matters, and exact locations of, and/or directions to, endangered species (especially nests) of any owls or raptors. Some of these topics (e.g. chain letters) are banned for obvious reasons. Many other banned topics have been heatedly discussed too many times in the past on this list or other bird related lists; some of these discussions (e.g. scientific collecting) even have generated their own web sites. All of these topics are almost guaranteed to generate more heat than light, unfortunately, and we ask your cooperation in keeping discussions of that sort off this list.
Posting of copyrighted material for which the poster does not own the copyright (e.g. newspaper or magazine articles) is not allowed. If you think that the BirdHawk subscribers need to read such material, please send a brief message to the list, indicating the topic and including the URL (web address) for the material.
The simple mention of a subscriber’s occupation, business or employer, telephone number, and/or webpage in a signature of 6 lines or less is permitted.
ADVERTISING
Any offer of a product or service for sale is considered advertising. Advertising is not allowed on BirdHawk.
EXCEPTION — (a). Brief one-time announcements by nonprofit organizations of events in which they participate or of new products they produce is allowed. These should be in the form of a one or two sentence, indicating a link to either a person or a website where additional information can be obtained. (b). Reports on trips and comparisons or reviews of products/services by BirdHawk subscribers who have no financial stake in them (in organization, operation, manufacture, marketing, or as a competitor) are not considered advertising. (c). Advertising for hiring of counters or other personnel for hawkwatch sites (or similar bird oriented non-profits) is permitted. These should be in the form of a two or three sentence, indicating a link to either a person or a website where additional information can be obtained. (d). Requests by HMANA for memberships in is allowed.
If a subscriber is in doubt about the appropriateness of a proposed posting, please contact the listowner. If a subscriber is in doubt about the appropriateness of posting some topic (which has already appeared on the list), PLEASE do not post a public comment or question about it. Instead, you are encouraged to send a message to the listowner to inquiry of the appropriateness of an earlier posted topic. In most cases, the listowner will have already privately contacted the sender of a questionable message, and in ALL cases, it is neither necessary nor desirable to start an on-list discussion about such administrative matters. Remember, the name of the list is BirdHawk, not GuidelineChat."
FREQUENCY & BREVITY (guidelines for posting)
• Limit your postings to about one message a day or seven per week. This is not a fixed maximum, but a sensible guide.
• If you quote a previous message in your reply, PLEASE clip unnecessary portions, particularly the headers from forwarded messages!
• Limit messages to 5 or fewer typewritten pages (about 10K).
• It is not necessary to weigh in on every topic.
HIGH VOLUME (guidelines for reading)
• Not all topics are of interest to all subscribers. The subject line is your guide to weeding out posts.
• A thread has run its course when no one is interested in posting further. Use the DELETE key if you have seen enough.
• Consider taking a break — go on NOMAIL or INDEX (see LISTSERV COMMANDS).
NETIQUETTE (Behave like a responsible adult and you may persuade others to do the same.)
• Posts that offer intelligent, reasoned debate in a civil tone or argue a different point of view, but are respectful of the poster and the list as a whole, are welcomed.
• Posts that belittle, nit-pick, ridicule, attack, or insult another poster and his/her ideas are unacceptable.
• Subscribers’ expertise, both in BirdHawk topics and in the use of the internet, varies widely. Show tolerance of posts by new subscribers and posts that are occasionally off-topic, poorly written, or not up to your personal standards.
• Be slow to take offense to a post. You may have misjudged the poster’s meaning. Tone of voice, facial expressions, and body language--especially to convey humor--are absent in this forum!
• If you do take offense, allow yourself a cool-down period before you hit SEND. Even then, consider sending your message privately rather than to the list.
• Retain a sense of proportion. Most of the world "believe it or not" is totally oblivious to BirdHawk!
PRIVATE MESSAGES
• The above rules of netiquette also apply to private messages from one subscriber to another.
• Private posts are appropriate for ‘me-toos,’ ‘attaboys,’ and information not meaningful to other subscribers. Do not send such content-free posts to the entire list, please.
• Be aware that no internet message is truly ‘private’, and be careful what you reveal to unknown correspondents.
LISTSERV COMMANDS
JOIN THE LIST –OR- LEAVE THE LIST (with WWW Access):
http://listserv.arizona.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=birdhawk&A=1
ADDRESS FOR LISTSERV COMMANDS
Post all commands to: listserv@listserv.arizona.edu
DO NOT POST LISTSERV COMMANDS TO THE BirdHawk ADDRESS!
SUBJECT — You can leave the "subject" field blank when you send a command message.
BODY— Use the following forms (either uppercase or lowercase will work).
To Subscribe:
SUBSCRIBE BirdHawk Yourfirstname Yourlastname
To Unsubscribe:
SIGNOFF BirdHawk
If your e-mail address has changed, two commands are required. SIGNOFF BirdHawk [from old address]
Note: If you cannot send from your old address, contact one of the listowners to make the change manually.
SUBSCRIBE BirdHawk Your Name [from new address]
Note: To avoid another 2-week waiting period, request an address-change waiver from one of the listowners.
Suspend Mail: (to turn off the BirdHawk mail if you are going away for a vacation in Attu, for example).
SET BirdHawk NOMAIL
Resume Mail: (to resume getting BirdHawk mail when you return from that vacation!)
SET BirdHawk MAIL
Daily Digest: (you get only one LONG message per day; this message includes all BirdHawk messages for a 24-hour period. NOTE: If you use the DIGEST option, and want to reply to a message, PLEASE do not include the entire digest in your reply!):
SET BirdHawk DIGESTS
Daily Index of Subject, Length, Author: (you get one daily message with only Subject, Length, Author):
SET BirdHawk INDEX
Get Help:
HELP
More Information on Listserv Commands:
INFO REFCARD
To get an index of all of the archived BirdHawk messages:
INDEX BirdHawk
To get a file from the archive:
GET BirdHawk LOGyymmx [yy=year, mm=month, x=week of month]
Archive Search (with WWW Access):
REMEDIES FOR OFFENSIVE BEHAVIOR
If you feel abused by another subscriber to the list
• Use that DELETE key. Ignoring the offender is often the best policy. If ignoring does not work, try responding to the author that you do not wish to receive personal messages from him/her, and ask the person to desist.
• Then ignore again.
• If the offenses continue, contact the listowners. If the offenses take place in private e-mail, contact the offender’s internet service provider and report the harassment.
• If you are threatened or menaced, call your local law enforcement authorities.
RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE LISTOWNERS
• The listowners will not publicly chastise or humiliate an offending subscriber. A private message may be sent, reminding the member of BirdHawk guidelines.
• If the violator continues to abuse the guidelines, the listowners may set the subscriber to NOPOST. Serious or repeat offenders may be expelled at the listowners’ discretion.
• BirdHawk listowners cannot take responsibility for private communications from one of its subscribers to another. However, if necessary, the listowners may attempt to settle a dispute by following the above guidelines.
Although this seems like a lot of stuff to remember, it will not take long for it to become second nature for you. In fact, if you participate in other listservs, you will find that these guidelines are helpful there as well.
Thanks for joining BirdHawk, and please help us all learn about the fascinating world of hawks and hawkwatching!
Bob Pettit, co-listowner [last updated February 27, 2001]