I'm having trouble using ebird the way I want to ..... seeking help

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I am trying to use eBird to keep a personal list of my bird sightings and bird photography ventures.

I am trying to submit sightings, but it is not allowing me to enter the location the way that I want to. . I want to keep the location extremely general, so that no one can see where I have been. . For instance, for my Ross' Gull sighting, I simply want to enter "Alaska" as the location, with nothing any more specific. . But it isn't accepting that - it keeps prompting me for more specific location info before it will allow me to click on to the next step. . And this is where my problems lie - it appears that it will not allow me to submit a sighting without giving away specific location info.

I just want to use ebird for keeping a personal record, to refer to myself. . I do not want my sightings to be seen by anyone else. . I am not using it to help anyone with record-keeping or research. . I just want it for my own selfish reasons.

Does anybody know if ebird can be used in this way? . I really don't want to fill out the sighting forms the way they require me to if there is any chance that anyone else can ever see what I enter. . I want to keep it all private.

I've clicked around on the ebird site to try to figure these things out, but haven't seen anything that discusses private entries or how to keep the things that you enter from being seen or accessed by others.

Has anyone here used ebird in the way I want to use it, or does anyone here know how to enter private records on there? . Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks!


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I don't use ebird, but apart from being tedious, could you not enter in fictitious data every time?

joeseph wrote in post #19013807
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I don't use ebird, but apart from being tedious, could you not enter in fictitious data every time?
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Yes, I could, but that would not be the way that I really want to do it. . I have a certain way of doing things in mind, and I don't want to have to compromise and do it differently. . I would rather figure out how to do it my way, and would like everything I enter to be logical and sensible. . I think it will be worth the effort.


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Tom, I found this paragraph in the FAQ section. HTH

“What if I don't want a checklist to show publicly in eBird? You can click "Checklist Tools" and select "Hide from eBird output" for any list. You may want to do that if you are submitting a list-building checklist, or if there is a potentially sensitive record on private property. Hidden checklists keep species off the output (e.g., maps, bar charts etc.) but does not hide the fact that you went birding altogether (i.e., the date and location may show up on the Recent Checklists feed, but no one will be able to see the species you saw). We always recommend 'unhiding' your checklist at a later date because hidden eBird checklists cannot be used for scientific analysis or by fellow birders. See here for more info on reporting sensitive records.”

just whistle wrote in post #19013845
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Tom, I found this paragraph in the FAQ section:

“What if I don't want a checklist to show publicly in eBird? You can click "Checklist Tools" and select "Hide from eBird output" for any list. You may want to do that if you are submitting a list-building checklist, or if there is a potentially sensitive record on private property. Hidden checklists keep species off the output (e.g., maps, bar charts etc.) but does not hide the fact that you went birding altogether (i.e., the date and location may show up on the Recent Checklists feed, but no one will be able to see the species you saw). We always recommend 'unhiding' your checklist at a later date because hidden eBird checklists cannot be used for scientific analysis or by fellow birders. See here for more info on reporting sensitive records.”
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Oh my gosh - that's awesome!

That is just the kind of thing I was hoping to learn about when I started this thread.

Thank you so much. I'm going to go back to ebird now to see if I can get that to work for me. . I just hope that I can find the "checklist tools" thingy.


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You are most welcome. I just found another page that might be useful for you re: List-building checklist.
https://ebird.freshdes​k.com …-your-pre-ebird-life-list

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Well, I've gotten things to work, thanks to your insights.

I have gone into the preferences and they have a bunch of settings that can be set to a private mode, so that nothing comes up in anyone's view except my own.

That is perfect, and exactly what I had hoped to find. . I've amassed quite a few "lifers" over the past 20 months, and want to be able to have a record of them all ...... but wanted to use existing software so I can just click on things that somebody else already wrote, so I don't have to type in species names and similar tedium. . This is perfect!

Thanks again!


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I’m so glad it works for you. I love eBird for checking out what is being seen locally. It’s such a great resource!