permaculture

[paul wheaton <paul@richsoil.com>]

I used to have a peace sticker on my rig.  I took it off when I
started to notice a trend that some really hostile people have peace
stickers on their rigs.

I think we should have 1000 permaculture lists and 1000 permaculture
forums and 1000 web sites that have neither.   Each site is managed
exactly the way the site owner wants.  And the sites that are all
angry and want to be "the only" can be that.  And sites that are open
and have links to all the other sites can do that.  In time, everybody
gravitates to the site that is the best match for them.

So then when a site/list/forum says "we're all about hearts, flowers,
rainbows, love and peace, and if you don't like that then I will rip
your eyes from your republican war mongering skull" ... well, folks
that are into that sort of thing can go there.

I think Larry should run this list as he sees fit.  I think if
somebody wants a "better" list, they should start one.  They will
probably discover that it's a lot of work and it takes a lot of years
to get enough people together to make it fun.  And if folks wanna run
something by committee or consensus or something ... well ... that
should be interesting .... and probably a whole new kind of work.

Permies.com now gets about 6000 people per day.  And my bigger forum
site, coderanch.com gets over 100,000 people per day.  There are heaps
of people that seem really adamant that I have no idea what the hell
I'm doing and should be strung up in the name of "what's best for the
community."  But I have yet to find one of those people that has built
a community bigger than a dozen or so - so it's kinda hard to put a
lot of weight in their speculation.  In the meantime, both of my
communities just keep getting bigger and bigger.

Lawrence, you have a big community here.  Based on what little I know,
I have to say that you must be doing something right.   If you try to
please everybody, you're just gonna end up frustrated and sad.
Instead, do what I do:  just please the people that seem to be already
pleased and let the rest go and make their own stuff.   Soooooo much
easier.  And then you find your stuff attracts even more people that
like your stuff.  The people that don't like that sort of thing so
much tend to move on.

If you're not pissing some people off, you're just not living your
life.  If you are pissing off one person every day and pleasing 500
people every day, then I think you are doing a lot more good than
harm.