Frankly, I completely support using EM for the reasons outlined by KK,
plus my own personal preference. On many occasions, I have actually
accessed old emails for pics and records, which is not easy to do on FB.
I am only a registered user on FB-don't use it!
Rgds
Sanjay Sondhi
Founder Trustee, TITLI TRUST
Member, Kalpavriksh
+91 135 2607452
Dehradun
www.titlitrust.com
www.kalpavriksh.org
On 02-Feb-12, at 8:16 AM, Krushnamegh Kunte wrote:
Dear Milind and others,
I am a little bit late to respond to this email thread, but I
thought I should respond, anyway, and make a few points:
1. Facebook-type of groups (FB) have some advantages and email-type
of groups (EM, like ours) have other advantages. For people who want
quick responses, FB is certainly better. For people who like to
archive and revisit things as they learn, EM is much better. You
would not go to a 20-day old post to look at it on FB, but you would
do that on EM, as I am doing it here. FB-type of groups have come
and gone (does anyone still have an active account on Orkut or
MySpace)? Email has been around for 20 years and all indications are
that it will go on. Our EM group is 10 years old, with the full
archive still accessible. I suspect that the FB group will not be
around in another 5 years by the very nature of that technology.
When that happens, all the messages and information associated with
that group will vanish. Thus, I think messages on EM have a much
longer shelf life than messages on FB. For research purposes and for
serious communication, there is simply no alternative to EM. This is
not really an ‘illness’.
2. You may disagree and we could debate this, but the quality of
information and the nature of discussion on EM is much better than
on FB. There have been some studies indicating this as well. There
is a tradeoff between how quickly you can post a response and what
quality information is contained in that response. FB is strong in
the former department, EM is strong in the latter. I like the latter.
3. People like Ullasa and I are not on FB on principle (is Sanjay on
FB?). I will not go into what those principles are, but suffice to
say that if you want to hear from us, EM is the only option. Rohan’s
Pointed Palmfly (Elymnias penanga) and Sanjyog’s Bhutan Treebrown
(Lethe margaritae) were either not identified or incorrectly
identified on FB before I identified them when people emailed them
to me. This is not to say that identification requests of EM always
get answered or that requests on FB are more prone to errors than on
EM because all experts make errors once in a while. But it seems to
be true that currently EM has a greater number of experts than FB,
so you are more likely to get a correct ID on EM than on FB.
Considering these points, it seems to me that different group models
have different strengths and weaknesses. I do not think it is a good
idea to complain about one model on another because it creates
unnecessary negative impressions. I hope that people will understand
this before making similar comments.
Now, what can we do to make EM better? That, apparently, was the
main reason why Milind started this thread in the first place.
First, Vijay has already promised that he and other moderators will
try to check and post messages as frequently as possible in a day,
bringing the lag time down.
Second, I will try to respond to as many ID requests as possible,
but I will have to stick to more challenging species when I am very
busy (which is often). Other members at various stages of expertise
can respond more quickly and more frequently, as they find time. If
we all decide to take a small step towards this improvement, the net
effect could be substantial.
Third, if you do not receive a response to your ID query in a
reasonable amount of time, send a reminder. Several people have done
this on our group, with satisfactory results (Subhasis, I will
respond to your re-post of the Royal soon). I think this phenomenon
is universal.
Finally, people who post their messages on FB could also post them
on EM. I am sure there are people on one group and not the other.
Posting messages on two groups does not hurt; indeed, this may be
more inclusive and the poster may learn something different from
each group.
I would like it if there are any improvements on this group without
hurting our strengths. And I also hope that Vijay will not have any
sleepless nights worrying about this :).
With best regards,
Krushnamegh.
-------------------------------------------------
Krushnamegh Kunte, PhD
Ramanujan Fellow and Reader
National Center for Biological Sciences (NCBS)
Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR)
UAS-GKVK Campus, Bellary Road,
Bengaluru 560065, Karnataka, India.
Ph: +91 80 2366-6001/02/18/19, ext 6410
Mob.: +91 9403-975-925
Email: [email protected]
Website: http://biodiversitylab.org/
Indian Foundation for Butterflies: http://ifoundbutterflies.org/
Email: [email protected]
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Min Sb <[email protected]>
Date: Thu, Jan 19, 2012 at 10:58 PM
Subject: Re: [ButterflyIndia] Something to think about
To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]>
it was me who commented this in hope that the group will be more
active in the sense of immediate replies as well as better
presentation as is for example on indianaturewatch or facebook for
example. with the knowledgeable people interacting seriously and
their immediate reply as well as the guidance will certainly
encourage the new comers as well as to those butterflying for yrs.
if i am correct, it needs sometimes 1 or 2days to find a proper id
reply inspite of someone's quick responce because of the delay in
mails appearing on the group. also you need to see the replies to a
querry seperately by opening individual mails which sometimes
disuades me.i have learnt a lot as well as am learning a lot and
enjoying this group too, for a few years but change is what will
make this group much more active and interacting and social too.
how , when is what all of you need to suggest. NO OFFENCES MEANT.
thanks vijay for raising this issue over here........MILIND
From: Vijay Barve <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
Sent: Wednesday, January 18, 2012 12:27 AM
Subject: [ButterflyIndia] Something to think about
Hi
I had a sleepless night yesterday because of a comment about our
group elsewhere. "[ButterflyIndia] yahoo group is seriously
ill !!!!!! need to change whole skin to make it active." Well this
could be a casual comment in lighter vein but could a loaded
statement too. I wish to hear from members what they feel about the
progress of the group. I am perticularly interested in knowing where
we need to improve and suggestions on how. And I am open to
criticism on way I am facilitating the group.
You are welcome to share it here on the group, or email me directly
on [email protected] with subject ButterflyIndia.
Eagerly waiting for your emails.
Regards,
Vijay
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Vijay Vasant Barve
http://gplus.to/vijaybarve
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Enjoy
