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Subject: Market Farming

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  • From: "Liz Pike" <liz AT laughingbrookfarm.com>
  • To: "Market Farming" <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [Market-farming] ADMIN: Welcome Letter
  • Date: Thu, 12 Jun 2003 21:50:55 -0400

for those of you who deleted yours, or if you didn't bother to read
it....here it is again, and please, everyone, SAVE IT!!! Contains unsub
info.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hi, welcome to the Market Farming email listserv. If you're a farmer, I
hope you find this list informative and timely. If not, then this is a
great place to learn how to become one!

Here are a few tips to maximize your experience while participating in this
community. (If you're familiar with computers & email lists, bear with me
as I explain a few things to those new subscribers unaware of netiquette).

History:

This list has existed since January 2000 with many charter members still
subscribed and participating. Subscribers come from all walks of
agriculture, both large and small acreage farmers, backyard market growers,
extension agents, university faculty staff, sustainable agriculture
organizations, business people and many others. It's a virtual wealth of
experience at your fingertips, with everyone eager & willing to lend a hand,
but only if posts are kept concise and on-topic. This isn't the place for
idle chitchat. Idle chitchat drives off the very people you need to answer
your questions or help you out. We're friendly but busy.

If you're a home gardener, you're welcome here to learn, but please do not
clog the list with questions & comments concerning small scale home
gardening, unless you're seriously contemplating commercial production. In
other words, be considerate of the limited time we all have to post,
especially during the busy times of spring & summer. Questions are more
readily answered during fall and winter when everyone's in from the fields &
markets.

Technical

This list is an email list administered through a listserv. It's neither a
newsletter nor a bulletin board. It functions independent of the world wide
web. A listserv is conducted through email, amongst many subscribers, thus
you'll get lots of emails from a lot of different people, depending on how
you set up your subscription (more on this later). When you subscribe, you
become part of an ongoing group discussion.

Your email address is kept private, except to list members. It isn't given
out, sold, rented, etc. It's also kept hidden from spammers and set to
prevent viruses--though I cannot
guarantee neither will happen to you. I've done the best I can do via the
only tools I have on the mail server, courtesy of the university so
graciously (& freely) hosting this list.

How It Works

This list has a general ebb and flow depending on the seasons. Volume
increases in late fall, really jumps up in January and February, and
gradually dies down once spring hits, to almost zero posts during the
summer. Don't worry if the list appears dead, it's just dormant...come
October & November, and posts will straggle in asking how the year went for
everyone. We have over 600 subscribers, so list activity can be heavy at
times.

If the volume of email frustrates you, reset your subscription to no-mail or
digest from the same website where you subscribed:

http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/market-farming

This way you can read the posts through the raw archives at

https://lists.ibiblio.org/sympa/arc/market-farming/

or the enhanced archives (a work in progress) at

http://www.marketfarming.net/archives.asp

Use the same website to unsubscribe:
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/market-farming

Limiting the size of posts (20k--to prevent attachments &
viruses) means the digest goes out divided into 2-5 posts, depending on the
day's volume. You're welcome to read the posts from the archives in
lieu of being a subscriber. But you can't post as a non-member.

List Faqs

To help you learn more about the list, please read the list faqs at
http://www.marketfarming.net/mflistfaq.asp , and the tips below before
posting to the list:

1. Please do not send html posts (fancy emails with colored backgrounds,
fonts, pictures). Posts must be plain text. If you don't know how to do
this, email me. Many subscribers, due to the rural nature of our
profession, are on slow or limited connections so large posts can't be
tolerated. Posting limit is set at 20k, which is normally enough to allow
your post and a few lines of the post to which you are replying. It's also
set low enough to prevent viruses from coming through the list. If you send
html, it expands the size of the post making it difficult to download for
those on slow connections or computers. For those on digest, your html post
also appears as gobbledygook (unreadable & unanswerable).

2. SNIP your posts. When you reply to a post, only include a line or two to
refresh our memories, NOT the whole post or headers (addresses, dates, etc).
This makes
reading more difficult for everyone when we have to search through the text
to find the real, current message. It also makes the digest longer.

3. Change your subject lines to reflect the true topic of your post. Going
through the archives is difficult when, for instance, restaurant sales are
listed under cover crops.

4. Check your CAPS lock key. Posting in all caps is the equivalent
of shouting. It may be easier for you to read but is rude to your fellow
list members.

Finally, once you've read this email and the list faqs, take a moment to
introduce yourself to the list, and let us know how you heard about us.
We're always happy to hear from new subscribers and we stay on the look out
for new ways to promote this valuable resource to other farmers just like
yourself. Here's the address to post to: market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to email me...I would say call,
but I can't hear the phone on the tractor ; ))) I'll get back to you asap.
Happy growing, and welcome to the list!

Liz Pike
List Administrator
Laughingbrook Farm
Westfield NC
http://www.marketfarming.com
http://www.laughingbrookfarm.com





  • [Market-farming] ADMIN: Welcome Letter, Liz Pike, 06/12/2003

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