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, 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 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.
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