Hello
I've just joined Appropedia and am interested in achieving energy self sufficiency while limiting my environmental impact. I am a teacher of english, science and math at the High School level in Northeastern Ontario, Canada. My background is in Environmental Toxicology and industrial waste management. I believe in the idea's of community and responsibility hence my sharing of projects here. Rights without attendant responsibilities/duties are a pet peeve of mine. Talk to you later.
Max
Welcome aboard!
Hi Max, glad to have you! I'm in sync with you on the rights/duties dichotomy. I think you've just helped my find my next blog topic :-) --CurtB 10:36, 30 November 2006 (PST)
- I'll be working on developing my projects here, backyard wood gasification, energy self sufficiency (probably a stirling cogenerator) and the building of my dream retirement home using timber frame and straw bale techniques. I also plan to help out and as you seem to have been here a bit longer than I a few pointers as to where I can be of most use would be appreciated.
- Great stuff! Yeah, I'm an old timer now...been here almost 3 months, and had only been fiddling with wikis for about 2 weeks when I got involved. I don't have much hands-on sustainable or appropriate technology experience. I think you've got more. So I spend my time doing promotional work, looking for good content for our site, asking permission, and porting the content. I did that for 3 separate content providers, and recently I got permission to republish a lot of pretty good content from Practical Action. See the Porting page for more info. There's a lot of work there. You'll be my hero if you chip in on that project!
- It may seem like republishing information that's already available online is of questionable value. However, there are several values that I see. First, I actually got involved in the wiki because I got frustrated with the level of fragmentation (there's a ton of info, but it's scattered all over), so I see the consolidation as performing a real service (I think this consolidation of encyclopedic info was/is part of the value of Wikipedia). Second, most of the content that's visible elsewhere is fixed content, whereas content here can be enhanced and evolve. Third, by adding content we get more search hits and attract more eyeballs. This helps encourage other contributors (like yourself, I suppose) to step up and add their content, which helps the wiki idea gain momentum and become self sustaining.
- We're going something right. In the past 5 weeks or so, our page views have taken a huge leap. The site is over 7 months old, but 35% of the traffic is very recent, which is very encouraging. But other forms of promotion are probably helping as well. I'm fascinated by our progress, and I've been tracking this a bit at Appropedia_talk:Statistics_tracking, though I'm not sure anyone else cares. Or maybe it seems like jinxing progress?
- Anyhow, I encourage you to consider signing up as a "Category:Porting helper". (Actually, you can do porting without being a helper. But adding yourself to that list will be helpful over time.)
- As if this long note wasn't enough, here are two more pointers...
- Sign your comments using 4 ~'s (or use the 2nd-from-right tool button above the edit window). It's nice because it adds timestamp, and also shows your user name in link form. If you don't want your full user name, you can put your "nickname in your profile.
- When you're making edits, especially if you're making several, use the "Show Preview" button. It's quicker for you (the edit window stays open), and generates fewer "recent changes" for us admins to look at (part of our "spam checking" work), so it's a kindness.
- Hope I haven't scared you off with my tome :-) --CurtB 12:31, 30 November 2006 (PST)
- I recently found some help info on the "Gallery" command at:Help:Contents, near the bottom. I'll add a link within Help:Images --CurtB 10:20, 4 December 2006 (PST)
Protected and moved Vermicomposting Toilet
Hi Max, Great work! I have moved the page as part of the protection process. The old page name still works as a result of the "move" auto-creating the redirect page, but over time we may well delete that redirect. The policy here for page names uses lower case for all words except the first word unless there is a name/acronym involved. I guess that policy was just copied from Wikipedia, so not defending it, just explaining what I did. I also added the name of the source, since presumably the original name might not be that unique (hard to say, but I figured no harm in adding "Ersson"), and I also added the requisite "(original)". All this to clarify that there was really nothing wrong with the name that you used.
I added some additional steps to the porting process, mostly related to inserting some templates to make the process a little more automated. Doesn't matter just yet, but will be nice as traffic expands (which we can see already! woohoo!). I'd appreciate it if you would take a new look at Help:How to port pages when you get a chance, and make improvements or comments on the talk page, as you see fit.
Thanks for the great porting job! And I can see good stuff with your own Gasification content! Please take a break from porting to work on your own stuff, and I'll be glad for more help whenever your ready! --CurtB 20:24, 5 December 2006 (PST)
Thanks for the editing help!
Hi Max, I just saw your work at the "bench" page (as well as the Gasification work). Glad to see you're still charging along! --CurtB 20:03, 11 December 2006 (PST)
Spelling/Grammar Notification
Curt, is there a process to remove/notify someone for removal when an artical that was in the Help, spelling & Grammar section has been updated. I looked and do not find one. Though it may be early in the site's history I can see that list forever growing if there isn't a way of removing articles from it. Also a little frustrating eventually if someone wants to help and they find many of the articles already done. I'd also suggest a way of putting a flag on the file if someone takes on the gramatical editing so someone else doesn't end up duplicating the effort.--Vacuum1313 09:23, 12 December 2006 (PST)
Hi, Max. Yes, there is a way to remove the article from the list. The list is automatically generated based on article category. Articles are marked by the inclusion of the {{copyedit}} template at the top of the page. Removing that template will remove the article from the list. (You will need to do the save, then refresh the list page to see this change.) I just did this to the "Bench" article to confirm that it works, and tried to highlight this step better on the Category:Articles asking spelling and grammar review page.
I'm not too worried about multiple editors correcting a page, but here is a thought. If you know you are going to make all the needed changes fairly quickly, you can remove the template at the beginning of your work (and do a "save" before continuing), and then others won't be tempted to come to the page. If you need to leave the job (not just for a day or so, but semi-permanently) before finishing, you can restore the template to put the article back on the list.
This process doesn't need to be too formalized...most wiki pages are always subject to change, and there is lightweight maintenance going on all the time. Still, having some structured processes definitely makes work go more smoothly, so I'm truly open to more feedback on this (and other) procedural topics... Thanks for your help! --CurtB 09:52, 12 December 2006 (PST)
Got it. Just performed on the "Bathroom Toilet Unit". Hadn't seen that little sucker but also hadn't edited the title section which is where it was. Still some editing comments however the spelling/grammar was done. Hope that's OK.--Vacuum1313 15:32, 12 December 2006 (PST)
Hi Max, I have somehow neglected appropedia during the last weeks... I was too much occupied with studying...
but, thanks a lot for revising my articles! merry christmas, greetings, --Demotech (anna) 15:23, 17 December 2006 (PST)