The_UltimateBea
Well-Known Member
Title says it.
Zoo news threads should be renamed births and deaths.
- Thread starter The_UltimateBea
- Start date
I presume you therefore don't believe that things such as new exhibits opening, animals arriving at or leaving a collection, or a zoo appearing in the media count as news 
I think The_UltimateBea is referring to/complaining about the fact that 75 % of the posts in some of the news threads are news about births, and he wants more "interesting" news.
I don't personally mind that. Sure, the opening of a multi-million dollar exhibit with Ethiopian wolves and saolas is generally more interesting than a mandrill giving birth, but if "we" could only bring the "big" news in news threads, a lot of them wouldn't be updated very often. Births are an important part of day-to-day life in a zoo, after all, and they are interesting to those who know the zoo, though maybe less so to those who have yet to visit the zoo and only want to know about nice exhibits and rare species. Furthermore, births are the kind of news that zoos themselves are often most willing to share. Many zoos forget to share it in their website's news section or on their Facebook page if a species that's not an ABC is added to or leaves the collection.
I don't personally mind that. Sure, the opening of a multi-million dollar exhibit with Ethiopian wolves and saolas is generally more interesting than a mandrill giving birth, but if "we" could only bring the "big" news in news threads, a lot of them wouldn't be updated very often. Births are an important part of day-to-day life in a zoo, after all, and they are interesting to those who know the zoo, though maybe less so to those who have yet to visit the zoo and only want to know about nice exhibits and rare species. Furthermore, births are the kind of news that zoos themselves are often most willing to share. Many zoos forget to share it in their website's news section or on their Facebook page if a species that's not an ABC is added to or leaves the collection.
Title says it, but nothing explains it. Why should news threads be renamed "Births and Deaths"?
There was a similar discussion at the beginning of the year in the Australian forums and a new thread called Minor News fro Australian Zoos 2017 was created specifically for minor news like births of common species, animals having a birthday, baby animal naming competitions etc.
However, there were disagreements in this thread, and the other Zoo threads, as to what constituted 'minor news'. While it was generally agreed that an animal having a birthday or a an article on bees was 'minor' news, the report of an Echidna birth, and Cottontop Tamarin birth, an article on a zoo's Orange-bellied Parrot group, the release of Corroboree Frogs into the wild, and the birth of two addax calves were all listed in this thread as well (the echidna birth is significant as they are difficult to breed, the other species are all endangered). At the same time, lion cubs born at two different institutions, and updates (like the cubs being sexed, and having their one month birthday) were posted in the main threads several times.
It all depends on what each person considers significant news.
Hix
However, there were disagreements in this thread, and the other Zoo threads, as to what constituted 'minor news'. While it was generally agreed that an animal having a birthday or a an article on bees was 'minor' news, the report of an Echidna birth, and Cottontop Tamarin birth, an article on a zoo's Orange-bellied Parrot group, the release of Corroboree Frogs into the wild, and the birth of two addax calves were all listed in this thread as well (the echidna birth is significant as they are difficult to breed, the other species are all endangered). At the same time, lion cubs born at two different institutions, and updates (like the cubs being sexed, and having their one month birthday) were posted in the main threads several times.
It all depends on what each person considers significant news.
Hix
I take the original post as sarcastic. I agree (and I think my fellow moderators as well) that a handful of the most popular zoo news threads get bogged down with what might be considered "news" that is insignificant to some. The problem, as indicated above, is what some consider insignificant others are interested in. It is exceedingly difficult to decide what should or should not be included.
The_UltimateBea
Well-Known Member
I apologise for not explaining myself. I was mostly taking a sarcastic but slightly serious tone. My suggestion is having no main news thread at all. If there was a thread for each topic, like exhibit opening s for example,relegating all births and deaths to one subreddit wouldn't be diminishing of any one birth.
Too many threads.
That would indeed make for an insane amount of threads. For some zoos there are already separate threads about new developments, but there are very few zoo projects that actually need them, that is basically only Chester and San Diego... I do not really see the advantage of this oversplitting, if you are lost in a news thread you can always use the search option, which is very good on the new forum.
I think you forgot which website you posted on.
(Speaking of which, are there even any interesting zoo subreddits? The ones I've found are very inactive)
I also agree that it would be way too many threads. What if we could put some sort of "tag" on our posts to designate them as "birth news", "exhibit news", "collection news" or similar, after which you could search for posts with a specific tags in a thread? I don't know if a system like that is possible with the current forum software.
Perhaps we should just take the dictionary definition of 'news' and run with it...
"newly received or noteworthy information, especially about recent events"
What is noteworthy is of course subjective - so there is no point arguing about it or creating sub threads.
"newly received or noteworthy information, especially about recent events"
What is noteworthy is of course subjective - so there is no point arguing about it or creating sub threads.