Mount Diablo Audubon SocietySightings (and East Bay Birders Circle)
About EBB Sightings	English (USA)
IMPORTANT NOTICE! Hotmail.com and MSN.com email accounts will no longer work with the Sightings List. Those ISPs block our mail, so subscribe from a different provider. GMail and Yahoo are good options. Welcome to EBB Sightings, the list for reporting unusual bird sightings in the East Bay Area counties of Contra Costa and Alameda. This list superseded the East Bay Birders Circle (EBB) list in August 2004 and is moderated by Mount Diablo Audubon Society. The earlier EBB list was moderated capably by Larry Tunstall for years. When posting to this list, sightings@diabloaudubon.com include directions to your sightings and your name. Specific directions to the location of the bird(s) are very helpful to new members. It may be helpful to link to the locator tables when giving directions: http://www.diabloaudubon.com/places/index.html Please remember that this list is intended only for the discussion of birding in Contra Costa and Alameda Counties. Check the MDAS website at http://www.diabloaudubon.com/index.php for links to other lists. General discussion about bird topics belongs on BirdChat or CalBirds. Off-topic threads will sometimes be either publicly or privately challenged as the list administrator feels is necessary according to judgement. Specific no-no's include the following: NO Political advocacy or political statements. NO Posting of events. NO Posting of birds out of area (all areas really do have their own lists). A calendar of birding events is also available on the Mount Diablo Audubon Society homepage at http://www.diabloaudubon.com/index.php This list has 788 members as of January, 2008. The privacy statement is located here: Sightings Privacy Statement Send TEXT-ONLY Messages! Your email client must be set to send TEXT-ONLY messages or your post will be automatically returned by the listserv software with an indication that it had a "suspicious header." Although we cannot vouch for the accuracy of this information, a rather comprehensive list of email clients, and how to configure them for text-only, is here: http://www.expita.com/nomime.html Blacklists, SPAM, and ISP Problems Sometimes, the SPAM filters of large ISPs will block our list mail because they incorrectly suspect that you don't want our mail. It is a growing problem that needs to be managed by you and the administrator jointly. In some cases, nothing can be done about it. At the least, you should add sightings@diabloaudubon.com into your "friends" list or "address book" or whatever your mail program calls it. Specific information about some ISPs can be found below: IMPORTANT NOTICE! A severe spam issue has caused four ISPs and several companies to block Sightings mail starting around June 10th 2008. This affects about 10% of our list subscribers, including all hotmail, MSN, pacbell.net, and sbcglobal email users. I am addressing the issue and extend thanks to Judi Sierra for complaining to hotmail. I don't have a resolution or timeline for fixing it, but you can help by complaining to your ISP to allow mail from 216.171.218.1, which is the IP address for the Sightings mail server. Update 7/7/08 - all sbcglobal email subscribers should be receiving their messages again as of July 4th thanks to complaints from their customers. Hotmail subscribers are definitely not receiving mail despite the heroic efforts by Judi and others. I do not know about MSN or pacbell users. ATT Block-- ATT.net will not "whitelist" and we are currently on their spam list (for years). See ATT.net - see Problem 1 You might try the ATT.net - email safe list., but we don't know how it works. Unless this problem ever gets fixed, the best way for ATT users to receive Sightings list mail is to get a free email account at Yahoo or Google, or you can get mad and switch ISPs. MAC.COM Block-- The email domain mac.com apparently began blocking list messages in April 2007. There were only five subscribers, all of whom were alerted by me. The suggestion is to change email accounts or fight with the ISP yourself. YAHOO mail accounts-- We are currently on Yahoo's "whitelist" so you should get our list mail. But do read this link about your address book, etc. HOTMAIL and MSN Block-- In late December 2006 and continuing until Mid-January 2007, Hotmail and MSN email accounts were blocked from receiving our list mail. Microsoft fixed the problem and I invited each Hotmail/MSN subscriber to re-subscribe themselves, in an email message which they should have received on January 21st 2007. When/if this problem returns, as a customer you will have more clout by complaining to Microsoft directly. You know how to contact your support better than I, but I think the support path for Hotmail is thru this link. COMCAST Block-- In February 2006, again in March 2006, and again in August 2006, we ended up on COMCAST's blacklist somehow. We are currently OFF their blacklist. When it happens again (and it will), COMCAST subscribers can: Complain by writing blacklist_comcastnet@cable.comcast.com. Tell them specifically that sightings@diabloaudubon.com is an opt-in mail list that you want to receive, AND that the mail originates from IP address 216.171.218.1 (important!) Complain by calling 856-317-7272. This is the normal route offered to Comcast customers, which more often than not lands you in an eternal voicemail loop. Complain by writing secure-port25@comcast.net. Give them the same information as the first step and include your cable modem mac address. Use a free email address at yahoo.com for your list mail, or consider switching to an ISP that takes better care of their customers. How to Contact the List Adminstrator Feel free to contact the list administrator at any time by writing sightings-admin_at_diabloaudubon.com ************************************************************************* To see the archives for the EBB Sightings list, which begins August 2004, visit the EBB Sightings Archives. (The current archive is only available to the list members.) To see the archives for the old EBB list, which ends July 2004, go to EBB Archives.
Using Sightings
To post a message to all the list members, send email to sightings@diabloaudubon.com. You can subscribe to the list, or change your existing subscription, in the sections below.
Subscribing to Sightings
Subscribe to Sightings by filling out the following form. You will be sent email requesting confirmation, to prevent others from gratuitously subscribing you. This is a hidden list, which means that the list of members is available only to the list administrator. Your email address:   Your name (optional):   You may enter a privacy password below. This provides only mild security, but should prevent others from messing with your subscription. Do not use a valuable password as it will occasionally be emailed back to you in cleartext. If you choose not to enter a password, one will be automatically generated for you, and it will be sent to you once you've confirmed your subscription. You can always request a mail-back of your password when you edit your personal options. Once a month, your password will be emailed to you as a reminder. Pick a password:   Reenter password to confirm:   Which language do you prefer to display your messages? English (USA)   Would you like to receive list mail batched in a daily digest? No Yes
Sightings Subscribers
(The subscribers list is only available to the list administrator.) Enter your admin address and password to visit the subscribers list: Admin address: Password:    To unsubscribe from Sightings, get a password reminder, or change your subscription options enter your subscription email address: If you leave the field blank, you will be prompted for your email address