permaculture

[Toby Hemenway <hemenway@jeffnet.org>]

I rarely find anything I'd call "irrelevant chit-chat" on this list, so I too 
am curious whether others find much of that here (frankly, I too am curious 
as to what Judith means) The recent discussions of Zone 6, plant-based latex, 
Hawaii, comfrey, invasive plants, Paulownia, etc., etc., have all been 
relevant to permaculture, even though some have been of less than immediate 
use for me. I subscribe to a few lists and newsgroups, and find by far the 
least chit-chat on this one. On most lists, a single informative post is 
usually followed by a half dozen or more "gosh that was wonderful" or "you 
really suck" posts that don't inform the other subscribers one bit. This list 
is amazingly free of that, as well as of flames. Compare this list to the 
"alt.permaculture" newsgroup for info-to-chit-chat ratio (I've learned to 
accept the chit-chat on alt.pc because I've seen how it builds relationships, 
but it was frustrating at first).

As far as defining what should be discussed on this list, I'd rather not go 
that way. When it was attempted on alt.pc, it led to weeks of contentiousness 
and argument, hurt feelings, people leaving the list in a huff, and a general 
agreement at the end that it couldn't be done and wasn't desirable (and took 
up a lot of space and energy that could have been devoted to Pc). This list 
discusses what is of interest to those in permaculture. If a subject isn't of 
interest, the thread dies a quick death. We've come to a few consenses, e.g., 
not many people are interested in posts about GMOs, but in general I think 
this list does a great job of self-policing and self-organizing. I support 
those who want to describe their own interests and dislikes re this list; 
that's always useful information. But I'm quite happy with the status quo 
here. I'm grateful you're all out there, you--as Mollison calls us--mutinous 
rabble.

Toby