Farming and Forestry Charter (Latest Revision: 18-09-14)

johngalway

The purpose of the Farming & Forestry forum is to provide a general forum for discussions of a farming or forestry nature, along with general queries and exchanges of people's experiences. Debate and discussion are part of the natural flow of this forum - personal chatting should be kept to a minimum.

In addition to the following Charter, it should be noted that any poster who:

Uses their common sense & abides by Boards.ie rule 1, i.e., Don't be a dick, will most likely never have to deal with any moderator in a bad way.

1. Personal abuse, threats, trolling, offensiveness, bullying, defamation, free speech etc.

2. Illegal actions, cruelty, advocating such actions, etc.

3. Advertising / Surveys / Market Research

4. Personal Information & Privacy

5. SPAM

6. Making the most of your thread/post.

7. The editing, splitting, and removal of posts/content.

8. Additional information.

9. Useful links and threads

10. Veterinary Advice

The Moderators

Any problems with the moderators then feel free to PM us. If you are still unhappy then start a thread in Help Desk.

If you wish to dispute an infraction or ban then please follow the steps outlined in the Dispute Resolution Forum.

Questioning a mod action in a thread is considered off topic and unhelpful posting and may result in a ban from the forum.

johngalway

1. Personal abuse, threats, trolling, offensiveness, bullying, defamation, free speech etc.

If you find that another poster is not being civil to you, or to other members, then report the post giving as much relevant detail as possible and let the moderators consider what if any action is to be taken. Do not take it upon yourself to flame, abuse, follow, threaten or otherwise harass any of the other posters involved, this will result in action being taken against yourself as well as others and is self defeating as well as being a waste of time. This is not an exhaustive list of uncivil behaviour and the moderators retain the right to decide what is or is not an issue to take action over, looking for loopholes, attempting to be "clever" will not get you off the hook here.

Abusive PM's can also be reported, look for the warning icon on the post and follow the above directions, just like reporting a post.

This forum should have a reasonably relaxed atmosphere where people can feel they can add positively to threads. If any poster takes it upon themselves to go over the line and harass, bully, ridicule, threaten or otherwise act in an uncivil manner towards members, moderators, or named individuals they will be subject to immediate warning/infraction/temporary or permanent ban.

Trolling the Farming & Forestry forum will not be tolerated from any quarter. Neither shall anyone who creates excessive unnecessary work for the moderators.

You do not have the right to free speech. This is a privately owned website which publishes your opinions. Those opinions from time to time may have to be edited or removed in order to protect the site and its owners.

Any defamation found in this forum will result in the thread/post being edited or deleted. Defamation is when something is said about another person (legal, natural or otherwise, that means companies can be defamed) that is untrue and damaging.

johngalway

2. Illegal actions, cruelty, advocating such actions, etc.

Illegal stuff is illegal. It's Boards.ie policy not to discuss illegality and it's definitely not welcome here. Members have been banned over this previously, seriously, save yourself the hassle and leave it out. Farming especially has a very public image and discussion of illegal practices, cruelty, or other activities damaging to the activities discussed in this forum does none of its members any good and is prohibited.

Members looking for information on, ways to, or advocating the falsifying of records or other illegal or morally dubious practices will be banned.

Illegal actions also include the poisoning, shooting, trapping or other interference with any protected species in this state. With particular reference to threads on Eagles, these tend to veer wildly out of control and fill up with vitriol and ill advised posts, therefore the subject is not to be discussed on this forum at all. At time of writing the Nature & Birdwatching have a thread on the subject and discussion would be more suitable there, while following that forums guidelines and moderator directions.

It should be remembered that the Department of Agriculture, Gardaí, members of various NGO's, charities, etc, read and take note of these forums.

A good rule of thumb for posting on internet forums is that you should not post anything that you would be unhappy seeing on the front page of a newspaper alongside your real name, address etc. Internet users, despite having "usernames", are not anonymous!

johngalway

3. Advertising / Surveys / Market Research


The Farming & Forestry forum is not the place for ads. If you wish to advertise an item 'for sale' or 'wanted', then please use www.adverts.ie or similar.

You may not link to adverts in your posts on this forum, whether they are yours or others, regardless of their site of origin (adverts.ie, donedeal, ebay, etc.);

The only exception is linking to 'for sale' machinery/stock/etc. for discussion purposes which is perfectly valid.


Unsolicited advertising/promotion by anyone, including 'new' posters, will be regarded as SPAM and dealt with as such.

The name of your business should not be part of your avatar/username as that will cause a forum-ban and referral to higher authority (admin).

A simple link to your business in your signature is allowed.

Surveys, Market Research, and other data/information gathering methods are dealt with on a case-by-case basis.

If you wish to engage with the members of the Farming & Forestry forum in any such endeavour, you MUST FIRST contact the forum moderators

You will have to explain your intentions in order to satisfy the moderators that your activity is of interest, and potentially of benefit, to the forum and the farming community in general.

The final decision with any aspect of the above rests with the moderators and is not up for debate.

johngalway

4. Personal Information & Privacy.

Personal information is just that, personal, so keep it to PM. This includes your own or any other private individual's name, postal addresses, telephone numbers, email addresses etc. This forum is openly and freely available to any member of the public, some of whom may have ulterior motives for acquiring such personal information. This is here for your safety and the safety of others.

When posting scans of documents/maps/etc or photographs, take care not to inadvertently include identifying details, particularly those of other people.
Remember that things like identifiable landmarks, signposts, vehicle registration numbers, etc, can be used to narrow down a person's location or identity, or particularly in the case of vehicle registration numbers, be used for unlawful purposes by the criminally inclined.

Be aware too, that a lot of digital cameras and most smartphones these days have GPS functionality built into them, and that details of the location at which the photo was taken can be included in the EXIF data of the image file.
If this is of concern to you, either switch off the GPS function of your camera/phone, or remove the data from the file before posting it publicly.
In Windows, you can see if this data is present by right-clicking on the image file, selecting 'Properties', and clicking the 'Details' tab.
If you wish to remove this data, follow the above steps, then click the 'Remove Properties and Personal Information' link, and follow the instructions from there.


Posting the same image on multiple sites:
Many Internet search tools facilitate 'image search', whereby you can input the URL of an image and the tool will search for that image throughout the Internet.
If you post the same image here AND elsewhere, it's possible for curious minds to link information from multiple sites and perhaps accumulate knowledge you'd prefer they didn't have; your username on other forums, for example, or even your real name and other personal data from social networking sites.
Just something to be aware of, and it's a good idea to regularly check the privacy settings of your social networking sites too.

Links to Image Hosting sites

You can inadvertently reveal much more information about yourself than you might realise by posting links to Image Hosting sites.
The name of the account holder on a third-party image hosting site may be available to anyone following the link.
It's also possible that the entire catalogue of images hosted there would be fully available for inspection.
The name given may also be used to form part of the URL address of the image so we would encourage you to use a pseudonym or username.

It's probably best, for your own privacy, to host images anonymously on a third-party site that allows it.
Examples of such sites would be TinyPic, Anony, PostImage, AnonImg, Imgur, wthax and imagecross.

It is possible to have images attached to your posts ('Post Reply' button, not 'Quick Reply', and scroll down to 'Manage Attachments').
Alternatively, if you have a Subscriber account, create an album under your account here ('Control Panel' >> 'Pictures & Albums') and link to them using the 'Picture URL' supplied or use the also supplied 'BB code' to insert them into the post.

The thread here contains an excellent explanation on how to embed an image when using a smartphone.

Resizing images for display in thread:

Very large image files in threads can cause issues by 'breaking' browser windows or by consuming excessive bandwidth.
For everyone's sake, it's best to keep images to around 800-1000 pixels on their longest side, and file size to 150-200 KB or so.

There are many online image resizing services which will make your images more suited for display in thread:
https://www.google.ie/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=free+online+image+resizer&safe=on
There's plenty of free software for doing it on your own computer too:
https://www.google.ie/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=free+image+resizer&safe=on

johngalway

5. SPAM

This particular section of Boards.ie doesn't usually attract a lot of SPAM traffic, but here's how it will be handled when it happens:

Spammers will be banned from the forum and their posts deleted. At Admin level, they will be site-banned.


Generally speaking, the site software and the Admins do an excellent job of keeping spammers from flooding the place with their content, but if you come across SPAM here (or anywhere else on Boards.ie), here's what you should do:

REPORT the post
Use the little 'Report Post' icon () under the poster's name in the left side column, and the forum mods will be notified and will take action.
You can also post a link to the post (or the poster's Profile) to the Spammer Notification Thread in the Feedback forum. This will bring the spammer to the attention of the Admins, who will site-ban them and delete their posts throughout the site.

PLEASE DO NOT REPLY TO SPAM!!!
Satisfying as it may be to post a witty repost or tell them to eff off, this does nothing but add to the problem.
The vast majority of SPAM is created by 'bots' (short for 'web robots'), software programs that run automated tasks over the Internet. As such, they don't read replies to their posts, don't read their PMs, and they most certainly won't appreciate your scathing wit or feel upset by your outrage.
They DO however, keep track of clicks on their links or page impressions of their images and other content. This is how they 'earn' their money, by selling your 'interest' to their advertisers.
Replying to them (if they've started a new thread) or quoting them (if they've posted in an existing thread) only confirms to them that they're getting 'hits' and that it's worth their while to continue or increase their efforts here.

In short: Don't retort, post REPORT!
See this thread from the Admins for more detail and explanation: LINK

johngalway

6. Making the most of your thread/post.

If you are querying machinery/animals/property etc - and posting a link to something that you would like people's opinion on - please post a reasonable description of what you are linking to - people will be far more likely to be helpful when its not a guessing game.

PLEASE put a meaningful title on your thread; you'll be far more likely to get useful and informative replies, and it saves the mods from having to do it!

johngalway

7. The editing, splitting, and removal of posts/content.

The editing, splitting, and removal of posts/content is entirely at the discretion of the moderators of this forum, should those posts or content breech this forums charter or this sites T&C's or guidelines.

Threads which veer off topic may be split into two separate threads.

johngalway

8. Additional information.

Please take some time to familiarize yourself with the following:

If you have been banned or have a problem with moderation.
How to be a better poster.
Basic site wide rules.
Signatures.
Newbies & FAQ forum.
Legal guidelines.
Verified representatives. (link to follow)

As a final note, when you signed up to this forum you agreed to abide by it's terms and conditions etc. You should familiarise yourself with those T&C's, general site guidelines, etc. and understand them so as not to run into potential problems down the line.

Above all, enjoy the Farming & Forestry forum. Its members are what makes the forum either good or bad. Good content, reliable information, other peoples experiences are valuable to us all and help enhance each members enjoyment of the forum.

PM (Private Message) the forum moderators.

Thank you to all our members and happy posting!

Kovu

9.Useful Links & Threads

Main threads currently in discussion

Farm Safety
Beef General
Dairy General
Goat Farming
Milking Parlours
Livestock/General Farming photos
The Weather
Labour saving tips & general guntering

Price tracker threads

Beef price tracker
Milk price tracker
Grain Prices
Fertiliser prices (ongoing)


Seasonal
Calving cameras
Calving Tips
Calf Prices
Reseeding
Grass measuring
Breeding Season
Silage Results


Farming General

ICBF (Bull search)
Department of Agriculture
Dept of Ag (Direct Login)
National Ploughing Association
ICSA (Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers' Association)
ICMSA (Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association)
Agri Aware
Maptools- Measure field size
Another measure site for fields

& Finally, a bit of humour.
Sayings- Rural/Regional
Funny Farming Pics

Tokyo

Veterinary Advice:

Posts looking for advice for sick animals have been a source of concern to boards.ie for some years. The problem is that veterinary diagnosis is a learnt, professional skill so it is just not possible, or safe, to remotely diagnose an animal through an internet forum. Welfare concerns demand that animals are treated quickly and effectively. Even the best-intended lay-advice may not be sufficient and may delay seeking proper assistance. Additionally lay-advice may lead to inappropriate drug use, which increases the onset of drug-resistant strains of bacteria.

We also have to recognise that there are now legal rules governing the sale and use of animal remedies. It brings Irish farming into disrepute for these rules to be openly flouted, or for illegal activities/remedies to be suggested.

For these reasons a change is being made to the charter. We recognise that animals are not human and that there are economic aspects of treating animals that do not exist with humans. We recognise that there needs to be a forum for the discussion of animal health issues. Consequently the changes, detailed below, may be subject to change in an effort to find a workable compromise.

Animal Welfare:

It is the duty of people involved with animals in farming to properly treat and look after the animals under their care. Mention of procedures/actions/treatments that show a lack of respect for animal welfare will not be tolerated.

Offering Diagnosis:

A competent diagnosis can only be made by a vet and should not be attempted over the internet. It is permissible to recount similar cases and the diagnosis, especially if they had veterinary involvement. Readers will have to be aware of the dangers inherent in making a decision from such advices. Similarly, once an animal has been examined and treated by a vet, there is nothing to be gained by remote second-guessing.

Offering Treatment:

Discussion of over-the-counter medicines is fine. For the more day-to-day conditions treatments can be discussed, but specific (POM) antibiotics should not be prescribed. Mentioning previous similar experiences, particularly where veterinary help was sought, or suggesting supportive therapy or preventative methods is fine. For serious or uncertain conditions, suggesting a treatment is not allowed and will be subject to infraction.

Traditional Treatments:

Conventional medicines must undergo licensing and prove their safety and efficacy. A lot of treatments animals were given in the past are no longer needed, as better treatments of a higher standard are available. Safe ancillary treatments that compliment, or are part of, conventional therapy are allowed to be discussed. Treatments such as poultices, iodine, bread soda, glycerine and similar are safe for mention.

Specifically prohibited from discussion/suggestion as treatments are:

Waste/burnt oil, Creosote, Turpentine, White Spirits, Jeyes Fluid, Domestos. (this list will be amended in future)

Posts recommending such home remedies (or similar) will be removed, and repeat offenders may be infracted.



Hopefully, the result of all this will be to allow the more common ailments to be discussed as before, while preventing attempts at remote diagnosis of the more involved cases and stop the speculative medicinal suggestions.

The discussion of previous experiences is allowed unless it falls prey to other exceptions (i.e. questionable medicinal use).


For more information on animal welfare, the current legislation can be found in the following links:

• Teagasc's Animal Welfare Guidelines For Beef Cattle Farms
• Department of Agriculture, Food & the Marine - Animal Health & Welfare

In summary:

• No complicated diagnosis and No speculative prescribing.
• If you wouldn't say it to a Department Veterinary Inspector or write it down in your Veterinary Remedies Record, don't post it here.