permaculture

[venaurafarm <venaurafarm@bellsouth.net>]

On 12/1/2012 2:05 PM, paul wheaton wrote:
> Well, you know how to get my attention!
>
> >    If forums are used how nice it would be to have a chat
> >    option
>
> Well, maybe.  I guess the thing that is really slowing me down is that
> I'm not keen on chat.

Having thought about it I would agree. If they can type into chat they 
can type a new message or reply, same difference but greater benefits
from the latter.
> > Could you hack the source code for your online web forum app
>
> :)
>
> Dude, the forum software we use is a copy of JForum.  Heavily modified
> by the staff at my larger web site CodeRanch.com.  I suspect that
> there are a dozen people on this list that have used JavaRanch or
> CodeRanch at some point.  Probably to help them get through a college
> programming class.
>
> These wonderful people are making new changes to JForum every week.
> And a handful have heard me talk about permaculture so much that they
> are glad to make changes that help permies.com but doesn't do much (or
> anything) for coderanch.  Our image uploade stuff, for example, was
> overhauled for permies.

Very impressive! Much credit is due to them.
Next time I visit I will take a close look at Permies' forum features, 
bells and whistles.

> > With old BBS's you would have a door app doing chat but this mod would
> > probably have to be fully integrated into the app source code.
>
> Now you are guiding me down memory lane.
>
> It was with BBSs that I first discovered that I did not like chat.  :)

I think I used VT100 terminal emulation to log into a friend's Unix bbs
running on an AT and as best I can remember some kind of chat process 
was enabled, i.e. it wasn't a matter of sending Unix mail messages back 
and forth. This fellow was involved in the experiments at Duke sending
text messages between remote computers at the very beginning of the 
Internet.

People like the idea of messaging back and forth in real time but in 
reality email and forums work just as well, usually just as fast, and 
you have time to think about your input ahead of time.

>    In 1995, my terminal software (BananaCom) was the most popular for
> DOS/windows computers for accessing BBSs.

I wish I had had a chance to install and use that. I migrated from BBS's 
to the Internet in early nineties. Took all my 1.2mb floppies and put 
the data online in an ftp site, later gopher. I was running RA under FD 
and wanted to run another BBS app in a door; the author wrote a patch 
for me and it worked. Remember TBBS and Wildcat, JoHo's (Joachim 
Homrighausen) Front Door, fossils, Remote Access and other delights USR 
9600 baud modems, 14400? I started with Opus, created initially for the 
gay community dealing with the emerging aids epidemic and needing to get 
much needed information out and help network victims and their friends. 
It required altering a configuration file that was then compiled with an 
included compiler. I was so proud to get it to work, my first BBS, 
running on an IBM XT under Dos 3. Dos batch files automating network 
connections and daily maintenance late night. Then came Fido and the 
need to join the network so I migrated to FD and RA. We had such an 
interesting BBS community here in the RTP area of NC.
And we got to eat sausage biscuits and coffee at our Saturday morning 
tri-city gatherings. Sysops talked shop and had a great old time.

> I found one of the old boxes a coupla months back and posted pics:
>
> http://www.coderanch.com/t/589650

OMG, I have gone bananas....halcyon days of yore.

I can see you have been a marketing wizard for some time, Paul.
to quote your ad:
BananaCom "Its software with a-peel" "Buy the banana and save a bunch."

I should have kept my bbs up. I wonder if anyone is still using them.

> > It would be nice to see this mod be made available in the Fukuoka
> > Farming forum at Permies. the FF list is lagging, i.e. not really
> > serving a global audience despite the importance of its subject. It
> > would be good to boost your Fukuoka forum and stimulate activity.
> > It is a super important topic not only to permaculturists but many
> > others, i.e. Chadwick, Bonfils, Hazelip, Jeavons, Coleman advocates.
>
> Hmmmmm ...  I suspect that we can come up with stuff to build up the
> traffic in the forum.

Now you have my attention. I rely on Fukuoka's knowledge in garden site 
management, weed control or non control. Fukuoka, too, offers a lens 
through which one can view Nature, agriculture, the Earth and 
Permaculture. Merging Fukuoka Natural Farming and Permaculture is an
interesting, challenging and complex idea. Larry Korn's post in your FF 
forum were very inspirational.

Eventually I hope you will create an Alan Chadwick forum. Many of todays 
notables in thw world of natural agriculture learned from or were 
inspired by Alan Chadwick. See the posts about the Alan Chadwick Archive 
Project I posted today. This is a topic as important as Natural Farming 
and Biodynamics and is an inseparable component of Permaculture.

> Start a thread on "building fukuoka traffic" in the tinkering forum at
> permies.com.  Let's see if we can get some brainstorming there.

Will do.

> Apparently, Fukuoka's birthday is February 2, 1913.  So this upcoming
> Feb 2 would be his 100th birthday.   I think we should explore a
> massive celebration!

Absolutely; we will do this.

LL