The Lack of Use of this Website

[Lukas Padegimas]

I was talking to Sarah and it turns out that both of us go on this website almost everyday, but rarely comment becuase most people are not using it. It turns out that most people haven't used it for months if you look at thier profiles.
We personally find this website a great way to comunicate information and it is much more oriented toward people that enjoy wildlife then anything else. I expected that there would be much more use here.
As an experiement... I want to know who is using this sight and looking at it. Reply with I do you use it here. That way, we could see the people that go on this sight. I have heard that lots of birders use facebook to communicate with each other and often post thier photos on flickerphotos.com. But why? Photos can be uploaded well here, you can comstomise your profile, share info. and this website can be used by lovers of wildlife for discussion wildlife. Doesn't it make more sense to discuss wildlife on here instead of on facebook? What is lacking here that facebook has.

[Lukas Padegimas]

I think that it wouldn't be bad to have more birders (they don't even have to be youngbirders) invited to join this sight. If there would be a greater use of it, then the sight would hopefully become more popular.

[Sarah Winnicki]

I'm at the site right now (like a minute after you posted) this is my fourth time tonight!

[Lukas Padegimas]

See, we are the people that actually go on to check this sight almost daily; but most people don't

[Sarah Winnicki]

Yeah, I belong to another Ning site and we have at least 30,000 English speaking members. There is something going on every second there! Although I love the fact that I know almost everyone here, it would be great if we got some new faces. Or if you just log on sometime. ;)

[Lukas Padegimas]

Lets say have people from the Kirtland Birdclub post pictures on here for example. Maybe Delores can help on this.

[Brian Wulker]

I too check this site almost everyday (i don't have too much to say though, I've never met anyone here) but have also noticed that it seems that only a limited few ever do anything on it. I also agree that if there were more people on it, it would get alot more use. I'll post the URL in my next e-mail to the SW ohio chapter. I think we are going to get some better participation down here soon. We better, because 1 or 2 young people in a party of 6 or 7 is starting to get old...

[Lukas Padegimas]

When a sight grows out to not just inclued a few young birders (mostly panel members), then it gets more use. People can share amazing photos, show identification tips, and have all sorts of interesting activities going on. Even birding Id's of gulls (at least those that are really uncommon and easily overlooked would help with the experience)... with the older birders passing on identification tips to the younger birders

[Kimmer]

Hey everyone.

I really appreciate all this conversation about the site! I've been thinking about how to drive more traffic to the site, and was considering posting a couple of quesitons to you guys asking your thoughts on things like inviting in people from "the outside."

[Lukas Padegimas]

Could someone maybe post a photo quiz (involving gulls or other winter birds to match with the time of the year) That would be awesome practice. I known Kim and Kenn Kaufman have lots of good photos

[Lukas Padegimas]

Kim,
I was wondering if i could invited some people to join this website from the Kirtland Birdclub. Even though they are not young birders, they would make a great addition to the site

[Kimmer]

Hi Lukas, I'm sure you probably don't remember this--but many months ago Laura Guerard (who works for Cape May Bird Observatory and has a profile on this site) posted the following link to a Young Birders photo ID quiz on the CMBO site. Here's the link: http://ohioyoungbirders.ning.com/forum/topics/photo-quizzes-on
Please take a look at it and tell me what you think. If you like it--John and I, with help from Kenn--could do something like that on this site.

As far as you inviting people in...You are a Youth Advisory Panel Member and this is YOUR site. As far as I'm concerned, you may invite "nonmembers" in, so long as they abide by the guidelines of the site. I wanted to try and avoid having this young birders site over run by "old people" so I would suggest only inviting a few for now. I am planning to talk with John about sending out a big eMail blast to all of the other young birders clubs in the U.S., inviting their members in.

[Kathy McDonald]

Hi All,
This is a great site and inviting others sounds like a way to expand. it may just take time. I new and just exploring the site, but wondering if there is a separate 'forum or list' where bird sightings could be posted? I'm thinking of Ned Keller's Cincinnati Birds website in Cincinnati, (www.cincinnatibirds.com) that gets lots of activity-people post daily. This does encourage people to login everyday to see what has flown in, especially this time of year. I'm new to this site, so maybe I'm missing it or it is getting lost in other posts. Kathy


Kimmer said:

Hi Lukas, I'm sure you probably don't remember this--but many months ago Laura Guerard (who works for Cape May Bird Observatory and has a profile on this site) posted the following link to a Young Birders photo ID quiz on the CMBO site. Here's the link: http://ohioyoungbirders.ning.com/forum/topics/photo-quizzes-on
Please take a look at it and tell me what you think. If you like it--John and I, with help from Kenn--could do something like that on this site.

As far as you inviting people in...You are a Youth Advisory Panel Member and this is YOUR site. As far as I'm concerned, you may invite "nonmembers" in, so long as they abide by the guidelines of the site. I wanted to try and avoid having this young birders site over run by "old people" so I would suggest only inviting a few for now. I am planning to talk with John about sending out a big eMail blast to all of the other young birders clubs in the U.S., inviting their members in.