I'm hoping I'm posting this in the right spot. I've been searching around for a "Welcome to the Site"/"Start Here"/"Intro to the Forums" thread that explains about thumbs up, apples, pollinators, forum rules (aside from "be nice"), stewards, etc. But, I can find no such thread. Am I blind? It would be helpful for newcomers (or, at least, this newcomer), to have a place to learn the culture of this community so as not to feel lost. I know in other forums I have visited, they have "Sticky" threads that stay at the top of a sub-forum so they're easy to find. Can that be done here? If so, perhaps someone knowledgeable could make a "Sticky" thread that explains how things work here. Or, if there is one, direct me to it, because I can't find it!

Thank you so much!

Hi Nicole!

I felt a little lost in the beginning too, and it took me a lot of digging through old posts to feel that I knew enough about the culture here to actually post anything. But I really can't say that it ended up being a negative thing for me... I'm having a sneaking suspicion that the missing intro is not an oversight. I just thought of this (or maybe I read it in an old thread?), but I think what's happening (whether it's on purpose or naturally) is that having nothing posted means we have to start right in with the first Permaculture Design Principle -- observe and interact.

So... you observed, you're interacting, so I'll interact back with something more for you to observe! Here are two threads I found helpful:

Permies.com Publishing Standards:
http://www.permies.com/t/17422/tnk/permies-publishing-standards
What does the apple next to my name mean?
http://www.permies.com/t/20289/tnk/apple

Welcome to the messageboard!

Thank you for the links! I had read the second one, but not the first. I've been doing some more "anthropological" study, and found two more that were good introductions to permies, as well.

Be Nice: http://www.permies.com/forums/posts/list/120/2296
Censorship: http://www.permies.com/t/10914/tnk/CENSORSHIP-Paul-Wheaton-requested

These were wonderfully "bumped" to make them easier to find. Yay! Thank you, Burra .

The introduction of Burra as "Mother Tree" also helped to explain "pollinator" "volunteer" and "steward": http://www.permies.com/t/33554/tnk/Burra-Maluca-promoted-community-manager#263711

I hope these links help someone else, too!

I had sent an email to Adrien about just this topic!

So ideally this would be a sticky thread or post in the Introductions forum and a link to it would be sent to each new Permie.

I don't believe anything like that was sent out. Checking back through my emails, this is all I got:

Hi Aldergirl

Someone, probably you, registered at permies
Please use the following URL to complete the registration.

I love the humor there, but an email like you mention, CJ, would be very helpful! I have more time on my hands than most people (I surf the web while my baby nurses), so I have time to sift through old threads. But, many people are much busier than me and likely don't have time to do so!

I've been playing with this site for several months and I could still use a thorough introduction. On the last question I posted there is a OP inside a circle. What does that mean?

Beth Tumbaco wrote:I've been playing with this site for several months and I could still use a thorough introduction. On the last question I posted there is a OP inside a circle. What does that mean?

Beth, that means you were the 'original post', the one who began the topic

Beth, (and Nicole) maybe you could help us out, with trying to make things easier/better here at permies ?

What sorts of things would be good for us to include in a welcome to permies thread?
What questions / problems are you having?



Any other new folks could add info here too !

A "New to This Site?" page that outlines the scope and options of the site would be great. On the forums, a thread ( listed first) that explains the symbols as well as conventions and courtesies. Most forums have a "read this before posting" thread. A permaculture glossary would be nice. Is there a spell check? I see the underlines that tell me I've spelled it wrong, but not how to correct it.

Call me OCD but the font on the home page that links to forums, articles, podcasts did not clue me in that they were indeed links. I thought it was just of list of things available, that I didn't figure out how to access. I eventually did. With a little more time, I'll come up with more

Beth Tumbaco wrote:Is there a spell check? I see the underlines that tell me I've spelled it wrong, but not how to correct it.

This should be a function of your computer. On a Mac, hilite the word, then press the CONTROL key and the mouse/trackpad and a dropdown menu will appear with options.

Thank you. I feel really dumb. Thought it only worked for documents, not online. Now I'm wondering why other sites have spell check on the site since all computers have this function.

Miles Flansburg wrote:Beth, (and Nicole) maybe you could help us out, with trying to make things easier/better here at permies ?

What sorts of things would be good for us to include in a welcome to permies thread?
What questions / problems are you having?



Any other new folks could add info here too !

When I first came to permies, these were the questions I had:

What are apples? How does one earn them?
What are those exclamation points next to posts? Having figured out those are flags: What does flagging a post do? How do you flag a post/earn flags?
What is a steward? A volunteer? A pollinator? A mother tree?

Beth Tumbaco wrote:A "New to This Site?" page that outlines the scope and options of the site would be great. On the forums, a thread ( listed first) that explains the symbols as well as conventions and courtesies. Most forums have a "read this before posting" thread. A permaculture glossary would be nice. Is there a spell check? I see the underlines that tell me I've spelled it wrong, but not how to correct it.

Call me OCD but the font on the home page that links to forums, articles, podcasts did not clue me in that they were indeed links. I thought it was just of list of things available, that I didn't figure out how to access. I eventually did. With a little more time, I'll come up with more

I agree with this completely! I also would love to be able to see a quick description of permaculture, a walkthrough of how and where to post, and an explanation what “be nice” means in terms of posts deleted/censorship. Not everyone would need/want to read it, but for those that do, it will help a lot. When I first came, I didn’t really think I needed to read anything about the culture of permies. I was more confused by all the symbols and terms. But, as time went on, I wanted to figure out about censorship/ “be nice”/deleting posts/ forum culture, and then I went searching for an intro thread. So, even if people don’t read it right away, it would still be a wonderful resource for when/if they look for it.

OK, I've made a bit of a start with this (click to follow link) - how permies.com works

We'll keep adding to it bit by bit, but it might involve creating special threads to link to, which is likely to take ages...

This is a great start, a lot to wade through though. Notice how I cleverly avoided "but"? I would be willing to spend some time condensing it down, if you think that would help. How would I send you proposed edits? Purple mooseages?

I think it condenses down quite nicely to 'BE NICE'.

I'm inclined to let members research the rest using those links when they feel the need. There is a danger that anything in-between becomes treated as a set of rules that certain members will use to carefully word things so that what they write is no longer 'nice' but doesn't quite break them. Also it might make perfectly nice people worry too much about wording when what they write could never be construed as 'not nice', even when they use 'but'!

Hi yes I know it's from march that this thread has been offline, but I was reading through and I have sometimes had to search info to understand how to live in the world domination empire, so i just wanted to give my view
reading the last things posted but having entered permies.com before all this went down how did it end? what do we send the newcomers? how do they get to know the path?
I think the best could be to send an email automatically to the person that signs with a series of or links or actually a document, even as attachment to the mail, that gives the outlines of how one should be in the empire.
if someone actually asks to write in the forums i guess she will be willing to read quite a lot so why not start straight away giving people insight on how things work on permies.com it can even just be a link to the list Burra wrote that could be ok but that means someone has to remember to put new things there etc.
Instead if one just has to modifiy the document when there is a new thing, that will go to the newcomers straight away, guessing that who is here from a bit is already quite ok with the way we live in the empire.
anyway just a little contribution to the tinkering stuff