Regarding changes to Google Groups

[Doug Hitchcox]

Hi everyone:

As a few people have asked about here, I wanted to make sure everyone was aware of recent changes to Google Groups and how it my impact your use of Maine birds.

Google began rolling out a new user interface (UI) for Google Groups in May 2020, but admins were allowed to defer the change. That worked until 15 September when the new UI became the default for web browsers on non-mobile devices (you can still change back to the classic UI by clicking on the Settings gear in the top right of your browser window) and the only option for mobile devices. Unfortunately this new UI does not allow new posts, or “conversations” as Google calls them, to be started from a mobile device, which is apparently the problem that has been shared here previously.

A solution for anyone who had been posting by accessing the group through your mobile device’s web browser is to post via the email associated with your Maine birds Google Group membership (the email that you receive posts to). Using that account, you can address an email to maine...@googlegroups.com and it will be posted and distributed as usual.

You can always check or edit the email you have associated with your Maine birds Google Group membership by visiting: https://groups.google.com/u/1/g/maine-birds/membership

Although I haven’t tested this, it appears you can still post on a mobile device’s web browser by using the reply-all button on an existing post. In this not-so-thoroughly tested new UI the reply-all button might not be visible on a mobile device’s vertical (portrait) viewport and cannot be swiped (scrolled) or pinched (zoomed) to see, but changing to a horizontal (landscape) orientation makes that button visible. Beware that this will be posted as a reply and therefore might cause valuable information to be buried. I don’t recommend this option, but if it your only way of getting word of a rare bird out, please use it.

Hopefully we will see improvements to this new Google Groups UI rather than more deprecation of useful features.

And since I’m sure everyone is still reading this, I wanted to encourage members not to post photos (or any other media) directly to this group. Media greatly increases the size of these messages which can be troublesome for users with limited data plans or low bandwidth internet. There are several syndication sites that pull posts from state listservs (such as birding.aba.org or digest.sialia.com) but do not include media, often making those posts useless. As an alternative, please use media hosting sites like eBird.org (which hosts photos and audio through the Macaulay Library), flickr.com, etc, and then add those links in your messages. It also helps to post the full link, rather than using hyperlinked text, to preserve what you are trying to share.

Thank you all for your cooperation, participation, and civility on Maine birds,

Doug Hitchcox
(currently wearing the moderator hat)

[Derek Lovitch]

Hi all,
Also, since the new UI, for some reason, the birding.aba.org page doesn’t display every message. This is true for many - if not all - states, it appears. Sialia.com, however, does display those “missing” messages.

I certainly can’t explain it, but I have gotten into the habit of using Sialia over the ABA site for archives of recent posts from other states.

-Derek

Sent from my iPhone

> On Aug 30, 2020, at 11:39 AM, 'Doug Hitchcox' via Maine birds <maine...@googlegroups.com> wrote:
>
> Hi everyone:

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