Timothy Norton

Bump.

What are publishing standards and why do we need them?

paul wheaton wrote:Some sites on the internet will publish anything that anybody submits. This is not one of those sites. . . When I talk on these forums, I am trying to nurture a style of communication that I think is good for a forum. . . a safe place for gentle souls to talk about homesteading and permaculture. . . In order to have that place, we need a strong defense against the spammers, the haters, the icky people, the trolls, the corporate trolls, the "hate in the name of love" people, etc.

That defense starts with our publishing standards.

Be nice. The rule here is simple, be nice. But what does that mean? Basically, it means being polite and respectful of others and their opinions. It means not assuming others are less than perfect because they have different ideas or do things differently.

Leave room for others' ideas and opinions. The art of disagreeing is all about the wording.
   Not nice: "You're wrong!"
   Nice: "I have a different idea about that."
   
   Not nice: "That's a stupid idea."
   Nice: "I didn't have much luck with that."

   Not nice: "Nobody does that!"
   Nice: "Interesting idea. Another possibility might be . . ."

Respect for copyright. Copyrighted material used without the original author or maker's permission is deleted. This includes links to free copies of pirated material that is protected by copyright.

Free speech and Censorship.  People sometimes think they should be able to say anything they want. They can, just not on Permies. If it violates our publishing standards, it gets deleted. Because this is a privately owned site, Permies has the right of censorship. The owner of the site, Paul Wheaton, is the one who gets to decide, and he's the one who developed our publishing standards. Our goal is to keep Permies as a positive place for constructive conversation about permaculture and homesteading.

Politics, religion, marijuana, GMOs, pesticides (and other toxic gick), justice, social justice, climate change, and other hot button subjects.  Sometimes, things like politics and spirituality are relevant to various aspects of permaculture. Or maybe someone wants to ask a question about their neighbor's use of herbicides. The problem is that people tend to have strong opinions on these topics. The discussion easily becomes divisive and argumentative, and people get defensive  and sometimes hostile. Plus, controversial topics attract trolls. The Permies solution for this is Cider Press.

Cider Press. The Cider Press is a restricted category of forums for Permies members who understand our publishing standards and know how to be nice. The requirements to post in Cider Press is to have apples and PIE (You can learn more about apples here, and about PIE here.)

The same publishing standards apply to Cider Press, with the added feature that staff can award apple cores. Apple cores means you lose apples! You can read more about apple cores and how to avoid them here.

Spammy promotions. We appreciate people who have permaculture and homesteading products, books, videos, websites, blogs, workshops, etc. to share. However, we have a spam detection system in place that will flag posts that are written in a spammy style. You can read how to promote your stuff without being labeled as a spammer, here.

Moderation issues. Sometimes, people are unhappy because we enforce our publishing standards. The place to talk about moderation, staff, or bot performance is in our tinkering with this site forum. Questions, comments or complaints about bots, staff, or moderation anywhere else on Permies will be deleted.

Probation posts. If a post is really good except for some small thing that isn't up to our publishing standards, the post is put on probation. A semi-automated PM is sent from staff explaining the problem and requesting that the post be edited to conform to our publishing standards.

I do not know this particular tree, but I have had experience with tree roots going into pipes.

Tree roots will take advantage of breaks in a pipe, especially one that provides water such as in a septic or cistern, to enter and the roots can end up clogging up the pipe. They are searching for moisture. I had to replace a length of clay pipe that had infiltration from a tulip tree years back for my grandfather.

Do you know the state of the drainage pipe?

What an unexpected benefit!

I was already excited by the idea of the fly larvae being a source for both high protein and calcium, but now there might be some medical value? I'm hoping we see more information come out with more research.

For the folks who do feed the larvae, how much do they feed? At first glance, I would consider it a treat?

I'm going to warn you to be careful, because once you start going your wallet is going to get quite a bit lighter.

I LOVE local auctions and estate sales for finding quality tools. A lot of people will walk by or ignore a box full of rusty metal tool heads but a knowing eye will see gold. You can purchase or make handles for tools but the head part is key to get ahold of.

A friend of mine in the community got ahold of a bunch of fly presses for pennies, restored them, and now is shipping them crossed the country for big bucks. He hooked me up with some cast iron cookery that he got ahold of that just needed a little TLC. The auction barn is the place to be.

I have a monthly tabletop gaming meetup with a few coworkers and friends that has been a lot of fun recently. We commit to finding a date and time that works for the majority of people and make the effort to get together.

Some food, some games and some time to just relax really pays dividends for the following days. We will have conversations leading up to the day discussing what we should do and then just make it a good time.

Sometimes we have kiddos running around, other times we make an effort for just the grownups to meet up.

It is one of the better things this introvert has started to do to help push off the winter blues.

I'm familiar with sand filters when it comes to an industrial filtering for production purposes. Biologics are not as much as a concern in our systems compared to mineral impurities.

It is my understanding that the upper layer of the sand filter itself is alive with bacteria/microbes that help process gray water/black water. This layer is only a few inches deep so it may require the effluent being treated to be re-cycled through a few times to reduce the bad biology enough to be utilized elsewhere.

My assumption then is that letting gray/black water leech into the environment would not allow enough contact time with a biological layer to render it 'safe' before it might end up in ground water systems.

I'm not an expert and this is my crude understanding but it might lead you somewhere?

Our sand filter tanks need to be periodically backflushed to deal with clogging, another potential issue with just going straight in to the environment?

At the mill that I work at, we are an exclusively red tool building.

Red (specifically the FUEL line) is definitely industrial rated. Expensive compared to some other colors but incredibly reliable in my experience. The batteries last and can take a beating.

At home I'm a green guy, but I definitely endorse red.

I have some mullein growing along a railroad easement that readily self seeds. One year, I waited for the seed stalk to form and dry up in the fall. I cut the stalk and walked along the easement shaking the seeds along it. I now have a ton of mullein growing.

I believe the plant is biennial so if it was just a floret without a stalk last year, you can expect it to go to seed this year.

It sounds like she already has these plants so a lot of the deciding factors have already been made. Fruit trees can come in a lot of shapes and sizes. Rootstock can effect how large a fruit tree might grows if the tree is grafted while cultivar might give you some hints towards flowering and fruiting dates.

You can find a wealth of generalized knowledge based on the fruit tree type. For example, tangerines are generally considered suitable for zones 9 and upward so I'd look into placing it in a warm microclimate. Cherry trees might need a pollinator so looking into another similar type (and planted nearby) may be worth planning for.