Torsten

we don't delete accounts, but I can lock it and even change your username if you like. But unless I know you personally or you email me from the registered email address I will not be able to let you back into your account if you change your mind. I better go and read that thread you mentioned. Sounds like a topic with a predictable outcome.

Until a few months ago this has never been an issue, but things are slowly getting out of hand. I encourage sig lines below posts because they often tell a lot about the member, but these sig lines should not become a nuisance for other members. It kinda started with Eli posting whole tripping conversations and others using multiple quotes as part of their sig. I've been getting a lot of complaints about some threads now being more than 50% sig lines and very little content. One member has taken this to extremes now and there are a couple of threads where the content accounts for less than 10% of the total thread space. I think this is being disrespectful to others and hence it appears we'll need to put aside self regulation and impose some guidelines. I propose that sig lines - be limited to a maximum 10 lines of size 2 type, but that folks should try and keep it to less than that. - Larger font sizes will require a lower line limit (equivalent to the 10 lines of size 2). - Blog links etc should be counted as part of this 10 line space. - images in sig lines should meet equivalent size restriction. Due to some confusion about some rules I am rewriting the rules page (which, as a great testament to the peopel on this forum hasn't even been up for about a year and hasn't really been needed) and would like to incorporate this. Any further suggestions on this or other matters?

I have no sympathy for pedophiles, but i think there are definitely different levels of harm and the legal and judicial systems largely recognises this. The penalties for owning an image of a 17 year old are different to owning one of a 5 year old. I also find it odd that many people with very strong views on pedophilia have no issue with 'barely legal' porn which is often not actually legal. It is one of the most popular porn categories, so there is a bit of a disconnect between what the cultural expectations are publicly vs privately. ie many people are hypocrites. And because of this it is possible to unknowingly be in possession of pedophile material. There is a well known story of a 15 year old gay porn actor who scammed his way into the industry with fake ID and later used this deception as leverage. It was even turned into a movie. Anyone owning these releases is technically a pedophile and is breaking the law. Yet how many 'consumers' would even know this? I've read several articles about MSS and while I absolutely disagree with Auxin that such offences are none of our business, I recommend people look at the details before getting on their high horses. He downloaded a torrent. The torrent contained some images of minors. We don't know the age of these minors. Let's assume this was one of those questionable collections of 'barely legal' porn that had been identified by the authorities as being younger than barely legal. if so then MSS did nothing more than most porn consumers who are into that category. His only problem was that the torrent download was traced. If you're a porn downloader, have you checked your HDD to make sure you don't have the same torrent? Is all your porn definitely legal? I know I did a clean up of my porn collection about 10 years ago and found plenty of stuff in torrents I didn't think was appropriate. Stuff I had never looked at before - hadn't even opened the zips. I doubt many people do that, but I was expecting to get raided for other things, so it seemed prudent. Realistically, having some 'slightly' underage porn on your computer is almost inevitable unless you're only into oldies, simply because the industry is geared that way. On the other hand, if MSS had images of 5 year olds being violated then I hope they throw away the key. And this is really where I find the law and the sex offender register is coming up short. There are no 'mistakes' with 5 year olds. But we have no way of knowing. That's why I haven't posted about this before. I find that judging him on the basis of the incomplete information is problematic because it leaves open a range from 'I hope he doesn't make it out alive' to 'unlucky bastard getting caught for what everyone else is doing'. Obviously the fact that he was a social worker in the mid teen age group isn't a good thing either, but like the articles state, there is no suggestion he ever behaved inappropriately at work. And as a consequence he won't be able to work in his career again, and appears to have lost his house and family over this too. So the punishment is far more than just whatever time he is spending in jail. Now go and clean up your porn drives before throwing stones

will have to check with the venue sharxx. I brought mine for the first ever camp out, but that's 15 years ago, so who knows what the rules are now.

I remember that school holiday weekends are a bad idea, so it will definitely be once kids go back. Another date to keep in mind is university semester start. When is that? I'd love some advice on that for all states (school hols I can look up myself). Usually the best dates are between end of school hols and start of uni.

I hear great research ideas every other day. Followed closely by all the reasons why that person isn't doing them. Most of the time the reasons aren't very good. It is often simply a matter of good planning and taking the first step. We want to help you get your head around the design so that you don't need excuses anymore. Most of the things you've ever wondered about can be turned into an experiment so you can get results and stop wondering... and stop other people from wondering. Having data is so much more fun than just having questions. So we will run you though some essential processes and make sure you are confident in applying them before we let you lose on a fun and rewarding experiment where you get to apply those concepts with instant rewards. You may have noticed that both Darklight and myself focus a lot on fun. That's not to make light of the work, but rather is an indicator of how we approach experiments. We've been doing them for a long time, voluntarily, out of personal interest. If they weren't fun we wouldn't still be doing them 30 years later. And we want to make sure you experience how good experiment design can ensure you ALWAYS get data that is of significance, ie every experiment is a success. Our workshop is NOT suitable for joining more than a few minutes into it, so make sure to be there from the start. You will need pen & paper, but everything else will be provided.

As mentioned in a previous thread, I have a FOAF in Brazil who has mature Diplopterys cabrerana plants. I had to ask for permission to post these pics. They are courtesy of Alceo Lucea . These plants have not produced seed, so don't ask me for any.

The only time the server should be laggy is during back up and transfer time. back up is at midnight and goes for about an hour. It doesn't affect performance too much usually. But off site transfer (which starts after the back up) does slow it down a bit. It should not be as bad as described here though and I hope that was just temporary. I have not noticed any lag at all.

Young JD, the second species you ask for is illegal in all states. It would be just like asking for cannabis plants. Please edit asap. Also be aware that Ephedra is also illegal in Qld, but that's your own risk

Not to be a downer, but I know a lot of people who THINK they have D.c., but only two who actually do. Even McKenna's vine is the wrong species. And so are the two species sent out by everyone's favourite seed/plant source in Peru. And the shipment of rooted cuttings that made it into the USA a few years ago and should be on the market by now. One good botanist I know even thinks that the D.c. that the papers were written about isn't D.c. Yeah, LOL. I am not good enough at IDing it, so can't be sure about this one, but will find out. Nonetheless, the many so called D.c.'s I've obtained over the years are all interesting plants. Some possibly even more interesting than D.c. itself. So even if this one is another misID, it will probably be worthwhile growing it anyway.

SAB has always supported EGA in some way. This year we will do so again, but a little different to usual as we will be supporting both EGA AND our members. If you do not have an EGA ticket yet and are struggling to scrape up the funds, then here is your chance. SAB will pay 10% of your ticket cost if you are in the first FIVE to put your name down in this thread. How does this help EGA? EGA is a non profit event and in fact usually runs at a loss. That means all the money is spent providing the ticket holders with an awesome experience. To plan for this properly EGA has a lot of costs well before the event. So by getting some extra funds now EGA can book more speakers and provide better services. We all win. Check out the EGA thread for why you don't want to miss this event. The speaker program is now available and it is awesome. Conditions: 1) Maximum 1 per member. 2) You must be ready to purchase your ticket in the next 2 weeks, ie you must have 90% of the cost of the relevant ticket ready by then. 3) The discount is not available to tickets already purchased. 4) If there are already five names, but less than 10, then you can put your name down anyway. Just in case someone falls through - I will then pick next in line. 5) Discount only applies to entry ticket, not to accommodation etc.

Ok, so we've got 4 so far. Awesome! Gem trans-diff A.subliminata Andy amine Please make sure you PM RonnySimulacrum asap and he will arrange for the discount. Who is going to grab that last one????

Oh wow! Thank you so much to both Master B and Darklight. This went way over what i thought it would and really helped the fund raising along.

I'll be doing an SAB/Koda hamper with plants, seeds, books, herbs, etc.

A flat earther warning us about celestial bodies. It must be true.

Looks like they are doing a 'membership drive' on various forums to bring people into their subreddit. I wouldn't mind if it was a long term member here, but with zero posts to his credit I think it is a bit rich.

I have never used this function. no idea where it is or should be.

with the lower traffic volumes I am hesitant to split the forums any further. if a tek is well structured it will come up in searches easily. or we could put a tek index as a pinned thread.

That's how we used to have it, but then people kept complaining about how they can't find stuff that was listed the week before and also can't sign up for restock notifications. However, there will be a few changes in the next few weeks anyway which will tidy up the big sections (like echinopsis) to make them more manageable.

Done.

and PMs are working again too. I just realised I cleared a cache as a matter of habit, so that's probably what fixed it.

Minor security update seems to have deleted the chat function just now. Sorry about that, but no other option. Will try to get chat back asap.

neither I nor tech support actually did anything, but looks like quote function is operational again.

will try and sort this out today. sorry.

Looks like PMs and quote function are stuffed. will try to get this fixed today. sorry, but security updates are important, even if they fuck everything else temporarily.