Yes -- non-commercial

["Utah Birds" <utahbirds at excite dot com>]

Yes, we have gone to great lengths to keep the Utah Birds website and the e-mail list serve non-commercial and we've been able to do it because of people donating their time and expertise to keep the costs very low.

I've been writing personal e-mails periodically to people who have come close to or "crossed the non-commercial line."  I wrote a lengthy e-mail to Bill Fenimore a while back and was surprised at his "oatmeal e-mail."

I've been trying to find a simple way to define "commercial" for the birdnet/birdtalk, etc., and have come up with an idea.  

Anything that gets the name of your commercial establishment before the birders to promote your business, I would say is commercial. 

When they say, "sponsored by ..." or they put a logo on something, or put their business name on a vehicle or put up a billboard, they're trying to get their name out there. (This is fine in the appropriate place, but since we have declaired the birnet/birdtalk as non-commercial, I don't think it is appropriate here).  This seems to me to be a good rule of thumb for our purposed.

I appreciate that the participants of the birnet and birdtalk have been very good at being appropriate in their comments, etc.  With a group as diverse as I think we are, there's bound to be differences of opinion and judgement -- I just hope we can continue the good thing we have with patience and good feelings.

My thanks and appreciation to all of you,
Milton Moody
utahbirds.org webmaster




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