BEE-L Readers:

It's certainly telling that "allen" says - "good reporters stick to the
facts" - in the same message that he says - "I try to be a good  reporter" - and
then states - "I did not count."

"allen" also says - "I would guess that the posts that actually were about
'tens of thousands of hives crashing' could be counted on both hands with
fingers left over."

"allen" alone had eight (I counted) messages posted at BEE-L under the
subject line "tens of thousands of hives crashing" - between October 24th and
October 28th. "allen's" own postings accounted for his guesstimated figure  of
counting on both hands with (only) two fingers left over.

In fact, I counted at least 55 messages under the heading "tens of  thousands
of hives crashing," "Weaver: (was hives crashing)" and "Hives crashing  (was
small hive beetle)" in October and November. (Linked by a common  origin/topic
and use of "hives crashing" in the subject line).

Additionally, messages about acid treatments and a promising fungus were in
direct response to messages about the mite problems and an alarming number of
hives crashing (in excess of the "tens of thousands" when all was said and
done).

As to his closing jab: "Then again, BEE-L has no "message boards", so maybe
the post refers to another BEE-L?" "Message Boards" is the most common
description of what Internet users will find at _www.honeybeeworld.com/BEE-L_
(http://www.honeybeeworld.com/BEE-L) . Yes,  BEE-L is a list-serve that e-mails
messages to participants, but  additionally, those "messages" are posted at their
Web site.

Since BEE-L uses the terminology "messages" on their Web site, I can only
guess that "allen" is taking exception to the word "boards." Messages posted on
a Web site, such as those at _www.honeybeeworld.com/BEE-L_
(http://www.honeybeeworld.com/BEE-L)  are  most commonly referred to as a message boards
(distinctly different from  individual messages e-mailed to participants and
available for any Internet  user to access and read).

So far as I can tell, "allen," for reasons unknown to me, seeks to call my
reporting skills into question by "not counting" "from memory" and "guessing"
that my estimation of a particular subject line "dominating" BEE-L was in
error,  when, in fact (or "by any measure" as "allen" says) his guesstimate  of
"counted on both hands with fingers left over" is sorely incorrect with  his own
eight messages - under "tens of thousands of hives crashing" subject  line -
tipping his guesstimate into error.

Please note, there are more ways to decide a subject's "dominance" than
merely counting the number of messages with the aforementioned subject line.
Messages dealing with "tens of thousands of hives crashing" tended to be  in-depth
and began a number of related threads (all of which were considered in  use
of the word "dominated").

Using the word "boards" to clarify for readers what format BEE-L messages
could be found on the Internet hardly seems like a factual error. Jabs at the
use of the most common description of such postings aka "Message Boards" seems
like splitting semantic hairs that would render a rose by any other name,
smelling less than sweet.

Since these two issues seem to be the only ones "allen" uses to besmirch  the
article printed in January's issue of Bee Culture Magazine, hopefully this
response will allow him to focus on why he's projecting his own gap in
reportorial accuracy onto others.

DeWayne Lumpkin

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