The discussion regarding the bulk posting from Balanagara soliciting funds for it’s lyrebird DVD production provides an interesting insight into the online birding community.
It appears that the one thing that we dislike the most is being asked for money 
One of the most annoying things about walking through the CBD are the fundraisers on the street trying to get us to sign up for regular financial contributions to their worthy cause. We develop the ability to walk purposefully so they know we aren’t going to “buy” (and then they remember not to look hopefully at us the next day when we pass them again).
The thing is that you never know whether people are what they say, so you develop a natural suspicion of everyone asking for something, particularly if they are doing in online, and especially if they are “cold calling”.
Anyhow, it is interesting to compare the length of the tread on the Balanagara spam to the follow-up to Del Richard’s post about birders behaving badly at Wonga Beach. The behaviour of the birders intruding on private property to twitch the Spotted Whistling Ducks illustrates an important “cultural” issue that needs to be addressed by the birding community.
However, we don’t want to talk about that. We want to twitch Hoopoes and avoid fundraisers.
😉
The interesting thing about online forums like birding-aus is that they don’t appear to have a basis to reach and record consensus on issues like birder behaviour, fundraising and organised activities …
Regards, Laurie. ===============================
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As Ken points out there is more than one argument here.
From mid October for a couple of weeks I was receiving from a thousand to over 100,000 spam emails a day. Most had Chinese addresses, but because they ended in bigpond.com, my email program couldn’t filter them out. Three very smart technicians in the Philippines were able to reduce the initial flow, but then I spent several days playing Round Robin between other technicians and Telstra after the latter cancelled my account for reasons related to the junk messages.
The flow of spam meant that while I was away recently I was unable to access emails from my BigPond site resulting in my missing some important meetings. So for this reason (and many others) I hate spam, and that includes most unsolicited emails.
I say most, because some years ago I replied to a couple of such emails, one to do with a cultural and natural history website called Earthfoot and the other to Sustainable Travel International. The friendships I developed, particularly through Earthfoot, have been very important. Through both I received a degree of support that was never forthcoming in Australia. And of course as a guide I get a lot of mail from people I don’t know interested in guiding or just learning about birds and other wildlife of the Top End.
Often I really enjoy the Birding Aus discussions – it’s a welcome diversion from these other things. But I do sometimes wonder about the breadth of life experience some contributors have. After dealing with some of the horrific issues that have befallen Aboriginal relatives I see Balangara breaching regulations as very minor indeed.
As for supporting Balangara’s venture financially, if I could have I might have, after first replying and sussing out the operation. But we’re a little poor at the moment having spent all our spare cash on another computer. This iMac we’re taking to Arnhem Land. Some little relatives won’t go to school, but with the computer my grand-daughter can teach them all sorts of skills. And my daughter-in-law can start her community newsletter.
I’d like to buy another iMac and a printer next year for other family members. Given Laurie’s point about Birding Aussers’ dislike of being asked for money, I promise not to appeal over the Birding Chatline for funds.
Hi Laurie, An interesting email. However a few small points if I may; The ‘drama’ about the lyrebird film did have arguments for both sides so it is unfair to say ‘we’ [the good folks of birdingaus] don’t like being asked for money as clearly many stated that they supported the project. And perhaps many others also did but said naught. It is true that there are a very vocal number of people who got hot under the collar about the requests. [I felt that that was very sad as clearly people thought that this very small principle that had been breached was more important than a project to help promote birds and their conservation!! I wish more would see the big picture.] Anyway your comments did not reflect the variety of opinion on birdingaus.
Regarding being asked for money – no one likes it…. But on the other hand occasionally we are persuaded to assist worthy causes financially and we cannot do this unless we are approached in some way. I personally find emails easier to deal with than direct solicitation and cold calls.
Laurie said, “Anyhow, it is interesting to compare the length of the tread on the Balanagara spam to the follow-up to Del Richard’s post about birders behaving badly at Wonga Beach. The behaviour of the birders intruding on private property to twitch the Spotted Whistling Ducks illustrates an important “cultural” issue that needs to be addressed by the birding community.
However, we don’t want to talk about that. We want to twitch Hoopoes and avoid fundraisers.”
I think folks want to talk about anything and everything related to birds – including fundraisers, hoopoes, behaviour etc etc.
Regarding getting a consensus about things – why not start a thread? Why not state clearly the ethical standards for birders – there are plenty of models? Or re-visit the illegal activity of trespass and consider if, as a group, we can do anything useful about it? Why not ask the group via the moderator if requests for bird related funding could get the nod for publishing through the network – perhaps clearly flagged as such in the header?
Laurie, you have established surveys regarding various topics through this email chat before – perhaps you could again? So that if there is a consensus of opinion it could be clearly expressed…………
Maybe these threads will fall on deaf ears but I doubt it. Most birders want their hobby and interest to be well regarded and they want conservation to occur and many would be willing to engage in discussions around these issues. Cheers now, Ken Cross
I’d say the difference between the lyrebird chaps and the chaty muggers is that the former through inexperience (rather than malice) upset people through the direct approach. Charity muggers on the other hand, are a huge business that often barely benefits the organisations they purport to work for. They are agency workers, working on commission and their agency usually takes the first year’s direct debit payments as their fee (notice how they’ll always try to make you sign for a direct debit, rather than a one-off donation?). They rely on people being too lazy to cancel the direct debit. In fact, if you do so in the first year, you haven’t paid the charity anything. Overall, I’m happy to overlook what appears to be a blunder by Balangara, but also very happy to ignore charity muggers. Cheers,
Tony “never trespassed for a twitch” Keene
I wonder how many people who said they support the lyrebird project have actually sent money?
No please don’t answer this – but I know of some disillusioning experiences!
Margaret Cameron 2 Cintra Street Eastern Heights, Qld Australia 4305 07 3282 9151
You may be right Ken. However, I don’t think the thread would have been as long or intense if the Balanagara emails had simply been asking recipients to view a video of lyrebirds and sign an online petition in favour of their conservation.
Which is the quickest BBQ stopper – a political declaration or a request for money?
Regards, Laurie.
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Hopefully Laurie, the lack of discussion on the Wonga Beach incident means that everyone agreed that it was a bad thing, but on the other hand, there are different ways to look at the Balanagara proposal, both showing some merit.
To some on the forum, the opinions expressed against Balanagara seem very harsh (we all know though, that emails don’t come with the benefit of voice cues and facial expressions, so are easily misjudged), so they naturally go to their defence, because the cause seems good in principle and grew from principles we all admire.
The Wong Beach incident can be looked at in the some way to some degree, since we all enjoy looking at birds, however, those folk went about a noble endeavour in the wrong way. It may not be as confronting, but I think many are just saying Balanagara went about a good cause in the wrong way??
Kind Regards
Allan Richardson Morisset NSW
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