Ruling by the webmaster

[Milton Moody <miltonmoody at yahoo dot com>]

It looks like they're calling for a ruling by the webmaster. 
Unfortunately that's me and unfortunately I'm not the wisest guy
around.  But here's the ruling of the webmaster:

I think we ought to go for tolerance and being slow to take offense.  

Actually I'm very pleased and impressed with the way the members of the
birdnet have displayed a very positive and appropriate attitude in
using the birdnet.  And in this case I don't see a huge problem.  I
think all the comments have their valid points and I don't personally
mind them being made (there's certainly room for birders, hunters and
falconer in this world -- diversity is generally good).  What I would
be worried about is when comments become inflammatory and people start
to take offense.  I think one of the best ways to deal with this is by
not responding (unless there's something positive to add to the
"discussion").  It's usually a hostel or inflammatory response that
does the "damage" -- and again I think we've done very well in this
regard.

I think it was good to have announcement about the volunteer project. 
I think it was appropriate to comment on the concern about how the data
was going to be used.  And I think it is appropriate to be concerned
about too much politics on the birdnet.  We do have to be a bit careful
to avoid inappropriate comments and the like and although I think we
were drawn close to the line by a series of events, if we all keep are
heads (which I am confident we can do pretty easily) we can keep this
nice birding tool, "the birdnet" going along just fine.

Best wishes to all,
Milton

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