North Lincolnshire bias.

Well - I started this.  It is nice to see the old (John and Max) and the new (Nick) have similar views.  Rarities are not my thing - submitting quality data primarily through the BTO Birdtrack and the Ringing Scheme is.  There are a lot of newcomers to birding who benefit from the information provided by the Forum and I think it is a great shame that the established county birders don't use it rather than Twitter, Instagram etc. Nevertheless the LBC Forum still provides a valuable service and let's hope birders in North, South, East and West Lincolnshire will continue to use it.

This is a good point John.
I am a relative newby to LBC (3 years) and have met only a handful of members outside of the forum. A few as regulars at Cress marsh, and the two Phils on the LBC stand at the last Spurn festival.
I too don't use Twitter, and my info comes from Bird Watching magazine, the Cress marsh Whatsapp group and the relative websites of reserves. 
Basically, my membership gives me...access to a forum that the majority of members deem irrelevant.

It begs the question if so few birders contribute to the forum , why pay for membership ?

I do not follow twitter or bird guides etc

There are 5 of us local birders who share our sightings for ST nnr on what’s app .

John

As I've been absent from the forum for almost two months today am catching up. I know Stuart has has brought this subject up before and so have I. 

AH answered one question in regards to North & N East Lincs, I am in the former. Most twitchers in NL & some in NEL have a blog or their own website to put sightings on as I sometimes look to see what they have seen, sometimes a couple use Twitter but its extremely rare they put anything on the forum. I'm pleased CA came on and gave his opinion, it's a pity the other well known twitchers and birders couldn't spare the time to answer Stuart's question!

For the past year whenever I've come on here I always check the Twitter feed on the homepage and see what AS etc have seen etc (I have a Twitter a/c but never use it) and then click on 'latest sightings' which is most interesting!

By iphone do you mean an Apple phone or just a smartphone like I have? Although I had it in hospital I never used it to come on here, just used it for texting and Google. I have What's App and use it most days for texting and sending pics to pals/family.

The main reason I put sightings on the forum is so that there is a record and I can return and check. When recording butterflies etc on forum I often think I'm wasting my time as am lucky if half a dozen members look at it, most can't be arsed to look or are just not interested!!

 

I think its because everyone uses Twitter and other platforms now. Forums are classed as outdated apparently. I for one, don't take my phone out birding (I do, but its always off), much preferring to sit down at the laptop later and collate my info/pictures and use a forum to air my findings. I use other forums for music, and they seem to do well...but I think birding now has an immediacy to it, were everyone wants to be on the pulse in case they miss something new, and forums are too slow. 
Why a N Lincs bias?...maybe we are less clued up with technology, maybe there are more LBC members in this area..or it just seems that way because its the same few anoraks who use it

You're right there in the record-collating engine room, Chris. Keep up the terrific work. It's greatly appreciated.