public discussions

I received a : purple message" and according to this message, I am forced to open a public discussion if I want to discuss about that message. Although I'm a strong advocate for transparency, I think there's some limits. One of them is forcing public discussions, any, that are irrelevant to others at first. In my humble opinion, the staff should have the curtsy to talk one-on-one. BTW, I was flagged for what should have been considered at curtsy between two people. In short, if two people, with the same non-English other language can't even say hi to each others in their native language and something like contact me if you need help, then ...Houston we have a problem...

The staff here are volunteers on a site that is free to use. I don't think they should have to do anything!

If you want to say hi to a fellow member in your native language using a site with an English only rule, why not send them a purple moosage?

It ain't rocket science...

Thanks for raising this topic Steve. There are reasons gir asked for a public thread - one is that it gets the best reply for you, as senior staff have a watch on the tinkering forum, so you're not dependent on just one staff volunteer helping you out. Another reason is that the subject may be useful for other users in future, so we all can learn.

This forum is US based, so it is nice if you post publicly in a language that most people will understand.

You are not being forced to

Steve said, open a public discussion if I want to discuss about that message.

You were asked to post something to the forum in English.

Gir bot said,  I have been activated because bio-staff have classified a post you wrote as "Foreign language or cryptic acronyms".  

This is a plain-English publication. Please post in English, or provide an English language translation for any acronyms or foreign phrases.

Hmmmm   ...   Steve's account number is 398183.  So a few hundred thousand people have created accounts here.  And while there have been some bumps in the road, it seems like most people managed to be part of this community without bringing this up.  Many even moved on to being part of the volunteer staff.

But maybe lots of people have had similar thoughts and they just didn't have the .... something ... to help us understand.

I think if I pay $150 for one night at a hotel, I think it is fair that I can call the front desk to speak to one person that will help me sort out an issue with my room. After all, there will always be somebody at that phone for just that purpose.  

So this site has zero paid people for support or anything support-ish.  And, the hundreds of thousands of people didn't pay anything to post and exchange stuff about permaculture.   Volunteers seem willing to help out (if they are on staff or not) if it is public.



So steve wants private support conversations where that sort of thing is not set up.  

In the hotel example, somebody was getting paid thousands per month to be available.  If a person is gonna do this just one time, what might be the one time pay for something like that?  Whatever it is, is steve willing to pay that?

My guess is that nobody wants to pay anything.  So we continue to try to pull this off on the cheap - which is what we have done for more than 20 years.

I think it’s nice, kind, and polite, to just simply explain to folks who might be confused.

E.g. perhaps:
Steve, it’s a public site only, run by volunteers and supported only by some reader contributions and sales of mostly owner-administrator-made permaculture-related merchandise.
There is no capability or capacity for private conversations, sorry.
Further: the owners & administrators want you to only speak English. It is the language they speak, and their language of choice.

I would imagine (but not being an administrator, I don’t know for sure) that you could post in your own language IF you *also* *always* provide the English translation on the same post 😊

Looking forward to learning about what you contribute!

Funniy enough, some of the moderators use English as a second language! It's just easier if we all communicate using the same language. Another reason that acronyms are frowned on - I'm more likely to use 'bogroll' than TP for example - I had to look it up! If everyone uses 'toilet paper' I think we all understand that.

Using English is obviously excluding some people, but English is the language understood by the most people in the world (according to wikipedia) so it makes sense to use it. This is paul's site and I undestand that American English is his language of choice - paul's place, paul's rules!

Gir's message seems fairly clear I think, and if not people can raise it here (as Steve has done) or pay for a one to one consultation (I don't mind some pocket money!) although I'm not sure anyone has cared enough to do that! Sometimes changes are made, sometimes they don't seem to be required.