Shaky,
The forum topic with MAK's pics was originally posted as a single subject with a specific date. I revised the title so she could continue to share her morning watch pics under one topic. MAK admits she is a little techno-challenged, and has a hard time with inserting links, images, etc. Donna has been helping post her pictures. Rather than having many separate topics for each watch, I thought it would be easier to view and follow MAK's daily pics under one topic. Carol and Dana just followed suit.
Personally, I would rather see a thread under Rochester Falcons that says Falcon Watcher Photos where everyone can go to see them under one heading. I understand the mission and purpose of the FalconWatch blog, but to be honest, it is much easier and faster to post to the forum than using the Dashboard program in FalconWatch. Plus there is also a comfort zone in posting to the forum. Sometimes it is intimidating to meet the expectation of "providing high quality still images." I only wish I could be good as Chad & Chris who post pictures of Seneca & Cheyenne on the Cleveland forum.
Joyce
I know how it started. I was fine with a small topic, but when it expanded and started to become unwieldy, that's when I stepped in.
Regarding the mission statement. It's not the "high quality still images." It's the "To increase environmental awareness and education" part that needs to be stressed. We do that by spreading the word as far as possible. Taking shortcuts like posting to the forum is not going to accomplish that, at least not without a lot of extra effort on the part of volunteers who don't necessarily have the time or skills to do it.
Posting pictures to the forum is fine as long as it doesn't become the primary repository for the images. The forum is not a photo gallery. It's not designed to be one. Using it as such is asking for trouble, and we are guaranteed to run out of storage on our server if a skilled volunteer doesn't step in to remove the files. Using the forum to store pictures is like using a screwdriver to pound nails. That's what hammers are for. Similarly, online photo albums are for storing photos. There are many to choose from including Facebook, KGallery, Picasa, and flickr.
The FalconWatch blog is not difficult to use, and it gives the author many more tools for putting together a story than the forum can. It also indexes the posts by date and category for easy retrieval later. Plus it's cleaner because the comments and off-topic discussion are kept separate from the actual posts -- a big advantage for anyone wanting to review events or just catch up after an absence. And finally, it provides a mechanism for broadly disseminating information and accomplishing our goal of increasing awareness and education. (The dissemination also creates additional copies of the information contained in the posts, essentially giving us free backups, and we all know the importance of backing up our data!)
If there are real problems with the FalconWatch blog, let's create a topic to discuss them. Then we can work on improving it. Also, if there are online watchers who would like to ghost write for watchers on the street, they can use the topic to volunteer their services. Anyone with WordPress experience and extra time on their hands should have no problem using the FalconWatch blog. I would love to see someone condense each day's tweets into a single watch report.
Imagine what could be done with a season's worth of clearly written, easily accessible watch reports. A comprehensive end-of-year report could be written. Throw in the Imprints posts, the charts for egg brooding and feedings, the falcon family tree, and a few other tidbits, and you've got a really nice article worthy of publication.
This is citizen science.
