The Decline of BA

I’ve been gone from BA for ages; mostly to do with too much email traffic and not enough bird/ing! When I checked the BA archive, there it was – very early posts on BA in 1995 from me, pontificating about various bird-related matters. It seems like a lifetime ago … but a mere 21 years. If BA is indeed in decline, I’m sad to hear that. I’m firmly of the belief that (i) folks place too much faith in Facebook being the vehicle of choice for any useful *long-term* purpose, and (ii) that in the post-Facebook era many will regret exactly the yawning gap in useful accessible information that several other writers here have alluded to. Back in the 1990s I used BA as the vehicle for a survey of field guide users and their preferences. I imagine Facebook or Twitter would be just as useful as an email list for that kind of research. If it comes to searchable associations between birders, birds and places going back decades though, I don’t see the utility or suitability of FB so much. I use Facebook a bit for matters of ephemeral interest and amusement – I tend to use Twitter much more for staying in touch with far flung ecologists, birders, ecological journal papers, etc. Maybe it’s time to get back on BA for a while. Out of interest, how many subscribers are there now? cheers Lawrie