Blogs?

How do we start a blog here? How long do we have to be a member? It says a "few weeks", how long is that actually? Thanks in advance for the answers and help I am sure will be forthcoming.

 

I am following this thread because I would love to know what it would take for someone to have the privilege of entering the hallowed halls of blogdom in this forum, lol.

I have asked so many times that I'm afraid that I am starting to sound like a whiny kid in the back seat, "How much longer 'til we get there?"


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It is good to know that I am not the only one wondering.

 

I managed to post on the blog section one time. Since then it won't allow me to post on the Blog. Being long-winded as I tend to be, a lot of my posts might be better in a Blog. For me, writing is little if any harder than talking. I've actually been thinking about doing a Blog again. I used to do one I called, "In my humble opinion" It was fun but I got busy doing something else and let it go.

 

Tex broke it!!!! It saw you coming again with another famously long post and died of fright! LOLOL!!!

(All kidding aside, I thoroughly enjoy reading your posts, Tex.)



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QFT, I have found your posts quite informative Tex.

 

O.K. I will willingly show my computer illiteracy here, and take whatever abuse is my just punishment. What is the difference between a blog and posting a new thread? Is there something special in the blog section that nobody else can see? Please enlighten me.

 

On forums that have the blog option, I only post there if that forum offers me the option to allow comments or "Comments NOT Allowed". If the only thing available is, "Allow Comments", then I see little point in me posting there.

There are some things I want to post, and I don't want comments. Generally I click on "Comments NOT Allowed", and then post the exact same copy in the open forum, there members can comment. But I never reply or respond to those comments.

So your thinking "Why". There are a very few subjects in which I have a lot of first hand experience. I am willing to publish that information, if it can stand alone, no comments or opinions allowed.

It may be arrogant on my part, but I consider it a gift. I am not willing to give a gift of knowledge, and have dozens of people who have zero or near zero knowledge on that subject post their uninformed opinion. That is what the open forum is for, opinions.

Example: I have spent 50 years living with and studying bears. Have had thousands of bear encounters. I am willing to post what I have learned, but not if there is going to be 70 comments and opinions attached by people who have zero or near zero first hand bear experience.

Not this forum, but most forums, especially high volume forums are just stupid people posting stupid opinions, because it grants them the temporary pleasure of feeling important. Most forums are a kind'a voting place, where the reader is compelled to conclude that the majority opinion on that given thread subject is correct. When it is just opinions posted by uninformed who want to be on the winning team. The longer a thread runs on most forums, the less controversial the input, till it is just a endless series of "I agree with bla-bla-bla" because they can see which point of view is winning and they want to be on the winning side.

 

Back in the days when I had a blog on blogspot.com, I welcomed comments and questions related to the post. The feedback enhanced the blog because answering questions drew more information from me that I would have not otherwise thought to include in my original post. The whole process of answering the questions made for a richer experience for my readers.

Some blogs out there have commenting turned OFF, and some have commenting turned ON. There is no hard and fast rule one way or another.

In my case, for the majority of my blog's life, I accidentally had the commenting turned off but once I noticed it and turned it on... I never considered turning it back off. One thing I enjoyed was the ability to moderate ALL comments, which meant that I got to screen them before they were published. I lucked out in the sense that I did not have any unruly trolls, obscene posters, or spammers. But, if I did, I could eliminate them with a single click.


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There is a reason blogs are dying...

 

Thank you all. I guess that answers the question. When I post I like to share information, and appreciate the feedback. When I am interacting that is when I feel I am really learning.

IBME: I understand what you are saying. I guess I am just willing to take the wheat with the chaff, and I can ignore the posts from the less informed.

 

How can a person tell ?
On a subject about which I have zero knowledge or experience, I can't tell the bullshitters information from the experienced persons information.

The problem now days is most people get what they know to be valid from books, teachers (who got it from books) internet. Most people have very little first hand "EXPERIENCE" with things they think they know. And I expect that over the coming decades it will get worse and worse.

 

That is the beauty of more eyes and ears on the topic. The BSers will be called out by others who have actual experience. In a wide audience, there may a greater chance of more than one with real world experience who will chime in.


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Ronald Regan used to say it, " Trust but Verify ". The social media we have today is both a blessing and a curse. For all of its faults, it is much easier to check and verify information than it has been in the past. If something doesn't sound right you can check other sources.

Grizzlette said it best. The people who do have real world knowledge will call out the BS'ers. You have that wealth of real world knowledge. I'm sure when somebody posts something you know to be untrue you can see it in a heartbeat.

 

I wanted to blog on house hardening defensive techniques that actually work. Including techniques to keep people from throwing a molotov through your window that will keep the bottle outside without it breaking. It won't put the fire out, but will keep it outside where you can turn your sprinklers on. Also easy techniques to harden your doors against being busted by a 60 pound ram or being kicked in by some thug. The ram will get through eventually, but you will have plenty of warning before they get in. I wanted to do it via a blog vs a thread because, in an active forum, threads can get buried and hard to find while blogs are easier to find. I would still like comments and questions. While everything I plan to mention has been tested by myself with very close friends of like mind, that doesn't mean we have thought of every possible scenario. That was why I was interested. If it can't be done, than so be it.

 

Also, I am really hoping GA and some of you others will start blogging on wild herbalism. I am seriously interested in learning more about that.

 

One can tell by researching independent sources.

Often it's the one claiming to be "experienced" who is spreading the BS.

If the information is accurate and honest, comments and questions can't refute anything, and there will normally be other sources which can be used for verification.

 

Ironically when that happens, the ones doing the "calling out" are often called "trolls" and accused of "attacking" or "disrupting" things just because they bothered to check the facts.

 

That is sometimes true, especially if the one doing the calling out has an established record of being trollish or wrong on other matters as well.

If the fact-checker puts up credible links to back up assertions, then that poster is appreciated by most thinking people, and not regarded as a troll or disrupter.

JMO


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There are more than a few really good bloggers and websites out there with excellent closeup photos. (And way too many that will get you killed.) I really need to assemble links to the good ones and put them in a thread until I get my own act together.

That way, the photo visuals can be combined with HANDS ON instruction by a live tutor for a more well-rounded education.

Good news! Tree nuts are the most calorie dense and the easiest wild foods to identify. They also store well, too.

Learn about your native trees, and start using wild nuts in your normal diet. Surprisingly, acorns are excellent food. I love me some Apache acorn stew! (I really should introduce y'all to this wonderful food and how to properly prepare acorns so that it will taste great.)

OK, I will start a thread on this within a few weeks. Hopefully, TPTB will get the blogging feature going by then?


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Don't you have to soak the acorns forever to get the tanins out? Once you do get the tanins out is that liquid worth saving for any medicinal purpose?

 

Some species of oak, such as the white oak, mostly have naturally sweet acorns (although some odd white oaks do not). But even the "sweet" ones need some soaking. I have some tricks that make acorn processing less of a pain in the neck. I will cover this and a lot more later.

Yes indeed, the tannins that leach out in the soak water is useful for medicinal purposes and for tanning hides, too!

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SonofLiberty... I wrote a ton of stuff about acorns here: https://www.survivalistboards.com/showthread.php?t=899692


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One problem is that sometimes "THE FACTS" are flawed or completely wrong. Yes I know that you find that nearly impossible to accept.

Example: Bear Biologists don't really know that much about bears. Their job is collecting harvest data, and estimated population data, dealing with related disease, mortality rates, impact studies related to some pending development project, general office work. Once they are hired by a government department, they are rarely in the field. Other then their personal time hiking or hunting, etc.. They don't tell their supervisor, they are going to such and such valley for two weeks to observe the bears.

Most only spend a few weeks during their third and fourth year at college at a summer internship in the field collecting data about bears (collecting hair samples from trees for DNA analyses, for example).

Strangely.......historically most extensive bear research is funded by private companies, and executed by employees of private companies. Large Oil companies, and large timber companies, they hire or commission private companies to do long running and extensive studies.

Much of what is "FACTS" about bears is at best slightly flawed. Entirely too much of "FACTS" about how humans should safely interact in bear encounters, is fatally wrong.

 

Well and there in is the rub... How is one to know a blogger is an expert vs a BS'r?

Lots of people see a blog and think "oh they must be an expert, they have a blog page" but how does a person know if they are or not. In today's current "fake news" mentality how do you not question what you read and see. Maybe that blogger just lifted it from somewhere else and are passing it as their own. As others said, when I find a blog that doesn't take comments it makes me wonder why? If the blogger isn't willing to answer questions on their post or the topic, to me it's suspicious of what they have to hide or not discuss, irregardless of the topic. Or is the person just arrogant thinking they can speak down from their pulpit and their word is to just be accepted and never questioned? To think no one else out there can add to their knowledge or that maybe some has better knowledge or skill... ...makes me question the content and I usually move on.

In my professional career I was in a training class with a gentleman that is truly an expert and leader in our industry and has been for going on 30+ years. He's an old Marine and not afraid to speak his mind or to have a heated discussion and he constantly questions and reviews and changes as he and others learn. In this training class, while making a point about what are often roadblock characters in our organizations, people who often try to block change and improvement, he summed up the characteristics in Crusty Johnny. Likely many of you all have met a Crusty, hopefully none of you are Crusty. Crusty is the guy who's been at the plant for 30 plus years and who can't be told anything. You can't tell him anything, he's been there forever and knows all. Crusty's are also usually grumpy and soul crushing to anyone working for him. And never dare question his "position" or directions. He has often times convinced his underlings and many times management that he's a guru, irreplaceable and never to be questioned. Yes, he's worked in the same building for 30 years and what he knows was passed to him from the old salts before him. Like them he closely guards his "knowledge" - usually 30 yr old "knowledge". This tribal knowledge is only passed out very judiciously in hopes he protects his position and then sometime freely passed on if he finds someone he earmarks to be his replacement to be the next Crusty. The stereotypical "big" fish when in reality he's a guppy in a mud puddle. He maybe has what really amounts to 6 months of knowledge, just 30 years over, never growing or improving. Often that knowledge is incorrect, misapplied or misguided but he refuses to grow and learn. Crusty has never ventured outside his puddle to somewhere like a pond, stream or ocean where he knows the curtain will be pulled back. Yet he claims to know all; there is nothing out there he can be taught. When you suggest to do something different he's the quick grumpy negative attitude and usually pops off with a comment along the lines of "well we've done it this way for 30 years why change know". Yes, he has 30 years of service but maybe only what amounts to 6 months of knowledge over and over. He typically strives to keep others down and to prevent others from gaining "his knowledge" so as to ensure his safety in his positions and his self perceived "expert" status.

I'm a bit off the original point, but where I was trying to go is by not taking comments or questions bloggers miss out on their own learning. Thru question and discussion, maybe it is that they realize the way they presented something isn't clear or coming across as they expected. From that discussion maybe they learn to be a better writer and blogger. Maybe they miss out on a thought provoking discussion to make them think differently on something or maybe they learn something new or a better way . Yes there will always be asshats and trolls; delete them, ignore them and move on. Without discussion the blogger may never realize they're in Crusty mode.

When we stop learning and trying to improve, we're done.

 

I would dearly love it if you started a thread about these things. (And maybe later you could use your posts in your blog?) The topic is piquing my interest and I sure would love to see your posts... sooner rather than later, if possible.

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The facts are based on years of scientific studies.

I tend to believe the accumulated data over the anecdotes of people who can't prove the things they say.

That's especially true if I've seem them contradict themselves many times, or tell different versions of the same story.

 

I agree that people should be able to prove the things they say.

I try to make sure I can in the majority of cases, but I've found even that won't stop some from claiming they are being "attacked" or "trolled".

They just don't like facing reality.

 

All that data gets published and is available.

They hire those same wildlife biologists to do the field work.

State wildlife agencies also do studies.

There is plenty of factual knowledge about most all the common animal species in North America.

 

So........Here we are. Please produce the "Facts" that all research/data "OWNED" by corporations is published. Please.

See........I have worked for the largest oil companies, and they closely guard their information. Infact not only is that information generally "NOT" published, before you go to work for them you sign an agreement never to ever disclose any company information.

 

So what your saying about "Facts"..........is that for thousands of years the earth really was Flat, and if you sailed to close to the edge your ship would fall off the earth. Everyone knew that it was a "Fact".

Then sometime around 1492 the earth changed shape and became round.

See just because everyone believes something, or that something is common knowledge, that does not make it true. This is further complicated by what is true changes. Today a man can travel hundreds or thousands of miles per hour, but not long ago, it was true man could only go as fast as the best horse could take him.

Just because you can look up so called "Facts" does not necessarily invalidate what others are stating. Facts can be wrong, or outdated.

You can trust facts. I'll trust my personal experience.

 

I worked for a guy just like that once. I only lasted a year and I had to quit. He wasn't just stifling his growth, he was stifling mine too. I was working at a fleet repair shop where they had line item budgeting each year. This guy would get irate with me because I wasn't using the money budgeted for outside vendor repairs, but my budget for parts for internal use was triple what we were paying. The repair budget as a whole was down 60% though. By doing the work in house instead of farming it out, I was saving the fleet 60%. Grumpy McGrumperson was up in arms because I was upsetting the apple cart, plus I was buying shop tools they had never used before. He was the Asst Fleet manager and was all up in my grill. The fleet manager didn't care, he was just months from retirement and coasting to the end. It all came to a head when grumpy wrote me up for exceeding budget line items, it went to the public works manager who looked at the 60% savings even after the purchase of the new tools(capital expenditures normally billed out over 5 years paying for themselves in 1 year and still saving 60%). So the Public works manager trashed the write up which pissed grumpy off even more. I ended up quitting shortly after that.

 

I will do that this weekend. I just have the ideas/information down but it is not organized yet. I figured we still had time before we were going to be allowed to start blogging.

 

Well more then likely Grumpy also had some kind of kickback deal going with those outside vendors or was skimming money from the over payments and u were jacking up his gravy train.

 

Research on bears wouldn't be done by oil companies unless it was for environmental impact studies. There's no logical reason it would be kept secret.

 

Those are still both facts.

"Personal experience" has nothing to do with that.

It just seems a little foolish to me to think all the science and data is wrong just because you haven't seen it yourself.

 

I have had to break a post into several parts a couple of times that I would have done as a blog. There is a limit to how many words you can post at one time in the forum. I'm terrible and love to write. Once I get going I seem to always have more to say than I should.

 

Wow, thank you! (I had hoped to learn more before too many more months pass by...but sure didn't expect it that soon!)

I am so looking forward to your new thread about this, SonofLiberty.


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This link has some suggestions on securing your doors. The one I have seen in use is a barricade across the full door with an extra piece of wood ( in this case an actual door)wedged underneath the barricade and secured to the floor. Hard to describe without seeing a picture, sorry. I couldn't find a picture. This was used in a restaurant in a bad crime area. I have one door I will secure this way using an interior door as the barricade; probably a closet door.



I share your concern about fire. You might be able to secure windows, so a Molotov cocktail doesn't come through, but I don't know how to secure a roof or vents to make anything fireproof.

 

A better way, wait.....am I about to hijack my own thread lol