In the last couple years, the ABA has been making changes in the way we present our traditional offerings, the annual Big Day & List Report among them. Today we’re really excited to announce Listing Central, which will continue the legacy of the Big Day & List Report as well as hugely expanding its capabilities and capacity.
Everything that you’ve come to expect from the Big Day & List Report in the past, from Big Day narratives to rankings for every region in which ABA members have historically kept lists, is still available - you can even print them out if you prefer to read them offline. But Listing Central is so so much more, and it’s these new offerings that we’re most excited to share with ABA birders.
First, the thresholds are gone. Haven’t cracked 500 in the ABA-Area yet? Or turned up the minimum in your state or province? Doesn’t matter, we want your numbers anyway.
Second, in addition to all the traditional categories the ABA has always kept track of, you can now enter your numbers for every single county in every American state and every Canadian province. County listing is big and growing, and we want to be there to help you keep track of it all.
For Big Day birders, we also added the ability to define your own big day areas, so go ahead and submit big days for your state, region, city park ... however you choose to define your big day.
And last, you’ll be able to edit your numbers ANY TIME YOU LIKE, and the system is designed to make that as easy as possible to do so. No more waiting for the annual report. If you finished your Big Year and want to know how to stacked up, that information should be right at your fingertips.
Getting started is easy. We need to confirm who you are, and then you can choose a username and password. The user name isn’t displayed anywhere. It’s just the name you log in with. You can choose to use the same username and password as you may have for membership renewals, or member-only content.
Once that’s set, you simply log in, and start entering you list totals. Each member has a profile page, with all of the list totals they’ve submitted in one place. Think of it like the back of a baseball card.
There are simple instructions on the page to help you get started. Once you’ve entered your numbers, check out the Listing Blog and Forum. Lot’s of good discussion and a great place to get help finding target birds, discuss the latest checklist changes ... or whatever is on your mind.
We’re really excited about this new initiative, and we hope you are too. Listing has been described as the roots, the core, of the ABA. And maybe it still is, even though the organization itself is much more. Mostly we just like to think of it as a way people enjoy birds, and more than anything, that’s what we want to help you do.
We realize this is a big change, and we want to make this transition as easy as possible for birders interested in sharing their numbers. If you have any questions, comments, or critiques, our Listing Central moderator, Greg Neise, is available at listing AT aba.org to hear and help. You can also call our offices at (800) 850-2473 or (719) 578-9703.
So come check out the new Listing Central. And keep us posted on your latest tick.
If the link above is missing, here it is:
http://listing.aba.org/
Posted by: Greg Neise | 01/15/2013 at 07:28 PM
Super job! A couple of points, in States/Provinces I think there is no need to divide them up, pile all together alphabetically. It is odd to have an alphabetical list and then have to go past "Z" to find British Columbia. I think in the long run this will make it easier for users.
Also why not use some of the categories popular in Surfbirds lists? In particular yard list...the one I really care about!! Maybe I missed it. Also are there country lists accessible, did I miss that? If this aims to be listing central then it should have more and wider categories, and I think this will also bring in interest and new members perhaps? Good stuff - I hope the feedback is useful. Alvaro.
Posted by: Alvaro Jaramillo | 01/15/2013 at 09:47 PM
Your first point is something we are working on, and will have resolved very soon.
As for the second, we are working on how to define and display patch lists. look for that in version 1.2.
...and yes, the feedback is very helpful. Thanks.
Posted by: David Hartley | 01/15/2013 at 10:43 PM
This is much easier to use than is Surfbirds. Great job. Thank you.
However, why not negotiate a list meld with Surfbirds, so that we have just one site to go to for all lists - worldwide?
Again taking a global view, I beg to differ with Alvaro. Please keep the Canadian provinces as they are, perhaps even with a dividing line to visually separate them from the US. (FYI, Alvaro and I are both Canadians). My reason is that many birders, in both countries, are reluctant to cross the border, and, I suggest, would like to maintain a modicum of independence. Also, if a Surbirds meld were at all possible, then it would not make sense to almalgamate the state/province/county lists of every country.
Posted by: Bruce Barrett | 01/16/2013 at 12:07 AM
The state interface is great, and I like that you can annotate the list on if it includes heard only or not. Quick and easy to use.
That said, lists of numbers are kind of boring. Given that you no longer need to print this, an option to annotate lists would be great. Surfbirds allows that, and it makes it easy to list your recent additions to the list or highlight your best/favorite birds.
There are some other things to consider as well now that we have moved beyond a need to print. Most birders keep other sorts of lists, for instance butterflies or odes. I myself am passionate about my mammal list, maybe more so than my bird lists (birds are easy compared to herps or mammals).
Also, playing around with the taxonomies might be nice. My life list uses IOC, and a lot of European birders now follow this. Having an option for Clements vs IOC vs Howard and Moore (soon to be updated). Yes Clements is the official checklist of ABA, but it shouldn't be difficult or world breaking to add that an IOC category for world checklist, etc.
Posted by: Morgan Churchill | 01/16/2013 at 01:15 AM
and just so I don't come across as too negative in the above suggestions, This is a GREAT MOVE FORWARD for ABA and I am excited to see it implemented
Posted by: Morgan Churchill | 01/16/2013 at 01:16 AM
AND I just found the comment section, so scrub that second paragraph (although I encourage people to use it!)
Posted by: Morgan Churchill | 01/16/2013 at 01:29 AM
Any chance of collaborating with eBird so that eBirders can transfer our totals with a click? :-)
Posted by: David Hollie | 01/16/2013 at 01:49 PM
This is only for ABA members right? So in effect it would mean it is not possible to meld the list of Surfbirds. Or?
Posted by: Gunnar Engblom | 01/16/2013 at 04:39 PM
Great Job!
I second Alvaro's suggestion to add a Countries Section for totals for individual countries.
I would also love to see a synchronization with eBird, but I can imagine that might be really difficult--unless there were a way to have a one-button export of all the key totals from eBird in a format that could be imported by ABA with a one-button import.
Posted by: Peter Bono | 01/16/2013 at 10:03 PM