Contributions of members?

i reckon other social media like facebook has killed off a lot of special interest-orientated forums in recent years. 

maybe we need more introduced species (feline) themed posts to stimulate polite discourse. 

Zosterops & Woko I often see comments or read the links about news items you put through but I can't say I remember seeing any photos. Maybe you put them in the garden section as I don't really look there.

Very well put Dale. This is the last place I need for any provocative discussion, there's plenty to go around elsewhere.

Obviously I have and interest in bird photography but this is not the place to show off, and am very happy to

see all contributions, whatever the photo "quality"

I have learnt, and continue to learn about birds on this site, regardless of any photos.

It is a good mix here, people come and go but that is very much the way of it these days and

I hope the non competitive nature of the photo contributions (which attracted me in the first place) continues.

I suggest if anyone wants to argue on the internet, with associated lack of nuance and understanding,

they will not have to look far for the appropriate arena. :-)

Numbers don't matter, sense of birding community does. To me.

The reality is the internet is being dominated by images and video. Those of us who are happy with text and discussion are the dinosaurs of the internet age. I am happy to see things and remember them, I don't need a photographic rendering of my experiences. We all know the experience of seeing tourists who only see the world through their camera lens. They have a good record for the future but are missing out on the present.

I have been a member of a photographic forum for many years, they have over 380,000 members and the amount of contributors would be in comparision to this site ( members vs posts ), it is just the nature of forums. People join to find out something and then continue on with their life.

I used to go around taking photos of just about anything, but nearly 3 years ago i decieded to take some shots of the little birds around my yard. I only had a short lens (200mm) and could not notice what they looked like until i loaded them on my pc. Well i have to say after seeing so many different birds in my photos my interest in birds grew enormously, so i started to search on the web to find out what my birds were and found this site. In the beginning i was a very active member as i was trying to learn about the birds and recieved a lot of help from the members here, and for this i thank you.

These days i know a lot more about birds ( and a lot to learn still ) so don't need to ask as many questions anymore. I also spend more time out in the field and this takes away available time to be on forums.

My opinion is that photos, no matter the quality are important to get non birders interested. I have found that if you just describe a bird to someone you get a "sounds nice" type of responce, but if you show them a photo of a very colourful bird the responce is much greater and instills an immediate interest. I remember last year when Devster and Reflex were posting pics of birds at Mount Glorious my interest to go there was instant and i took a week off work and went there, without seeing the pics i would most lickely not have gone.

The problem i think with the Best Photos section is the title implying they need to be good, perhaps it needs to be changed to "Your photos" with a description such as, Post your photos of birds regardless of quality, we just want to see your bird shots.

As for heated discussions, i have been in a few and they never end well so i would not encourage such discussions.

Also, maybe the member count includes all those who have an BIBY account for the backyard bird survey... Just a thought. Interesting discussion, so valid points have been raised

Hard to say really isn't it.  What are the numbers.  Visitor rates, member log in rates, most popular sections/threads visited, stay times.  

This is not a reason, but adds to the contributing experiance, a spell checker.   

I'm no facebook user, but my vanity and the use of a like button on the bottom of posts encourages me to contribute when I can in a helpful way. Everyone likes to be popular and recognised if they have contributed positively.  I know people from older genrations will pehaps view it as being pathetic; but we have built an "i" world that people expect nowdays to be the centre of.

Also, if you don't know, you don't know.  So why contribute.  I also think you have to be interested.  We have so much available to us in modern life, it's hard to reckonise what truely takes your interest.  So lots of skimming, but little depth in knowledge, makes it hard to contribute.    

What are you thoughts Araminta.

Its all good and I don't have an issue, but have noticed there has been a bit of discussion in this thread about photos.  And also noticed many of the photographers are not here commenting. Point of the thread.  But not sure if its all about images as well. I joined to work out a better garden to attract birds to the yard. Little interest in photographing birds, or counting what I have seen, or good spots to find them. Just saying. 

i quite enjoy your literary expression and occasionally creative spellings for one, jason. :) 

Hi Araminta. I've found that websites in general are NOT "the real world". People join websites for various reasons, but it is mostly to learn something that interests the person at the time. When someone takes an interest in something it remains until that interest has passed. They then move on to another interest or focus on something else. Its called human nature. And life can get in the way of our interests; circumstances can change to prevent people from taking further interest in a subject; and so too can bad experiences with people.

I used to be an active member of this site until I had a fallout with one other member. I'm not about to start that up again I can tell you. The thing is, life is like people. It is so variable and unique and not everyone is experiencing the same thing. We are all different and we all have different values and beliefs. Sometimes we clash, other times we becomes friends. 

To the other side of things to this site, even I am intimidated by the high quality photos uploaded to this site. You take awesome photographs Araminta, so do many other people here. Honestly, I believe, you Araminta are wasting your talent on this site with your photographic skills. You should be a paid wildlife photographer!!!! I finally said it.

Everyone is different, and not everyone wants to use a camera, some don't know how to use their camera's settings properly to take professional looking photos like you can. (Like me for example.) I am so anti-technology its not funny. I'll use it (technology, that is) only if I have to or forced into using it or it suits a purpose and interest for me, otherwise you'll see me doing more hands on stuff at home and in the garden.

Adding photos to this site is a whole different kettle of fish though, for me anyway. I can't speak for every member but I don't have even a decent camera anymore. Even if I wanted to upload photos to this site it is a rare occurrance now. I have to resort to using another family member's phone or camera to do that. The camera I do have won't stay permanently set on the settings I set it on. I absolutely hate digital cameras and pixels really peeve me on big time. I'm short tempered with my camera, very short tempered.

I also think there's a privacy issue people are concerned about on this site too. I've noticed people in general don't really want their location and area fully revealed to the world. Not everyone is like this, and there's a lot of variables to this as well. 

Our human world has turned into an uncaring world. People have lost their soul to the internet and to technology. And then there's the people who struggle or don't allow technology to rule their world. The interest in the world around us can barely be focused upon anymore with all the noise, electrocomagnetic fields created by human technologies, etc. If nature comes to us we complain about it because its in our way of our interests and focus. We humans have lost ourselves, are told what to do and how to think. As a result we simply don't care anymore. Its our way of giving up. In a brief moment a member may become active; there is light in their soul for what is just and good. We are a confused and suppressed species, Araminta. If you want to know why people are not being active on this site, then simply ask yourself why you, yourself, stopped being active then became active again. Then you might find part of the answer to your question. 

Everyone who has commented thus far to your question all have valid points and are all correct. We are all different, us humans, so your answer will be as variable as everyone's answers. Just combine it all to get the bigger picture.

I log on here at least once a day even if it's on my phone for a few minutes, one of only two sites that I visit regularly. 

I have always been interested in birds as far back as I can remember and photography only really serious for the last couple of years but they do make a very addictive cocktail!!

I used to be a member of another forum which was closed down, nothing to do with birds or photography but it used to suffer from quiet periods as well so I think that is all part and parcel of forums in general.

There's a good mixture of people on here in my opinion and I can honestly say I have gained a lot from being on here both in photographic terms and aspects of bird watching. It's also good to read about places where people go to see and photograph birds. Rick N and Rawshorty seem to always be just returning from somewhere interesting.

 Zosterops your ability to identify birds never ceases to amaze me!

why do people stay and contribute to a website for years?

For me Shirley is purely based on fun and info to fule my interest.  If the interest wains than so does participation.  Sometime life gets busy and participation slows, but usually it's not long before I find a way to fuel the interest again. It's also about finding home.  If it feels right and people are your type, if the site is slow you can deal with it.  I also prefer a smaller group of quality, the info and images are very good on this site which I like.  Actually I feel a bit out of my depth around here, but we all need an anchor lol.  I have been a participant of very large forums, and though helpful in many ways there is a lot of noise, trauling, and usually only a handful of regular contributers anyway which you do or don't get along with.      

I will also add, the odd debate is also OK.  Though it seems like a pain at the time, you often learn a bit and get an understanding which you never would have come to on your own.