Saturday 27 November 2021

Please Comment and Help

I've noticed a reluctance for people to comment on this blog and some would rather start separate threads on twitter, discuss things I've said privately or message me personally (which is great too). I'm just trying to do my bit and using this blog to try to record information, sightings etc and straighten my thoughts that I will then apply to Little Oak Group, our business and our projects. It's extremely difficult (impossible probably) to go against the flow and try and run and grow an independent self funding small nature conservation/birding venture so feedback, counter argument and engagement is really helpful. I'm always indebted to anyone who helps with validating/correcting identification on moths etc (I might even make the odd birding mistake- I will punish myself if I do!) and if any opinion piece blogs cause offence or any kind of reaction please do weigh in in the comments section. As what I'm trying to do is basically impossible and involves various contradictory trade offs,  what any of us can hope for is to gain optimisation (making the best out of an impossible situation) and that requires checks and balances so feedback and criticism is vital. 

I had to apply comment moderation on this blog because a parrot selling company kept spamming my posts with literally hundreds of parrot ads but I won't censor anything apart from spam.    

As an example of the disconnection between readers and the comments section here is a recent tweet from Low Carbon Birding's Tim Allwood.  I had over a thousand reads of the Bird Fair post he was referring to but no comments (update. there are comments now)  on the blog but plenty of feedback from various other sources. Tim is a zealot advocate of low carbon birding, an extreme critic and hard liner. I've called him a Carbon Inquisition Priest in a previous spat which is pretty accurate as he is very judgemental, damning and critical of other people's behaviour (remind's me of my mother a lot). However, he certainly doesn't mind putting his neck out and seems pretty fearless and while I don't agree with the absolutism in his preaching I do agree with a lot of what he says and I do try to take it on board. I find blogger (and facebook even) is a better place for discussion than twitter although the character restrictions on twitter do help with choosing words carefully but its not a good platform for discussion. Blogger comments section is better for that. Of course meeting up and discussing things in person is the best way so I've asked Tim to meet up for a drink so hopefully will meet soon.     

So please do feel free to comment and criticise. It might not come across like it (or maybe it does, come to think of it maybe it does too much and I'm not keeping up the farce-in-which-we-are-all-compelled-to-act-in enough) but like everyone I struggle everyday to make sense of things and act in a way which makes that struggle easier with enjoyable break throughs and moments that make it all worthwhile, a struggle to find meaning and purpose , direction and progress  (in my case through the window of natural history) so any comments and help much appreciated! I do all I can to share everything I think might be useful or interesting to others (most people don't give a flying fuck but that's all part of this challenge) so appreciate any help back too.  So please do comment and criticise. 

1 comment:

Peter Alfrey said...

Yep this is the comment section!