For those of you who mightn’t know we have a sister website to SSM called SSC – Self Sufficient Culture (or the long name is: Self Sufficient Culture Community Forums). You can also access the forum site right from our top menu bar or click the SSC logo in the side panel.
We’re currently running our Xmas Competition to win a $50 voucher and 2 x $20 runners up vouchers to spend online at Booktopia on whatever you desire. The closing date for our competition is 21st December 2013 which isn’t long considering there are some conditions to entry as described in the next paragraph.
Eligibility
Although we want as many people to join and enter our Xmas Competition as possible, I do need to be honest here and state that eligibility is only available to Premium Members.
The good news is Premium Membership on SSC is FREE and not too hard to acquire. Basically, all you need to do is join our forum and become an active contributor. This can easily be done by joining in conversations or by starting your own conversation (called a “thread”) and we also have a reviews/showcase section whereby members can add content, for example, show-off their garden pics etc. Once you've made a bit of an effort you'll be quickly identified as a contributing member and promoted to Premium Member and then be eligible to enter this competition and any future ones plus get more membership features, it's that simple. We've employed this method of premium membership by promotion as a way to prevent spammers, attract quality people, and reward our contributing members.
Software Platform
SSC started in May 2012 running on a forum software platform called Vbulletin; however, in June this year 2013 we changed our forum software to a more progressive and intuitive package called XenForo. Since changing forum platforms, we’ve really noticed a big difference in visitors and also our member participation has improved dramatically from what it was but we’re still eager to entice more people to join our forum to enjoy the unique features and social benefits it brings.
There are some people who think the age of forums is over and big players like Facebook and Twitter are the future of social interaction – this notion is not true. Whilst Facebook and Twitter (or any other social media sites) are indeed huge it’s this very reason why they can’t offer the tailored social experience that forums can. Try asking or searching on Facebook a targeted question like: “what are the best tyres for my model aeroplane,” and see the responses you get; however, ask the same question on a model planes forum and you’ll get answers specific to the question. Why? Because, most forums a full of people who are enthusiasts and are interested in a certain subject – they want to help, get help, they love to learn, and enjoy socialising with other likeminded people.
Features and Improvements
We're always looking for ways to improve SSC and we listen to our members – if we can introduce a feature to make the social experience easier and better then we'll do it. Our software is constantly updated and we ensure our site is safe from spammers and phishing.
In early 2014, we will be introducing a fully fledged review system (to replace our Rate & Review) so we can easily rate and share information about items that are important to our community's lifestyle and interests – I'm really looking forward to our new reviews system so watch this space!
Self-sufficiency forum – sign up and join us!
We love all aspects of self-sufficiency or just parts of it like: gardening, DIY, keeping chickens and other poultry or livestock, acreage living or doing our best with a suburban block and even apartments, health and wellbeing, preserving food, solar electricity or alternative energy, hobby farming, and much more.
So if you’re interested in contributing to or learning from our self-sufficient online community and you would like the opportunity to win a $50 voucher from Booktopia’s online bookstore then get cracking and join the best lifestyle forum in the world! And, it's only going to get better. See you there… Oh, by the way, you can join up and use your existing Facebook account if you wish – just follow the prompts on the sign-up page.
Mark Valencia – Editor SSM (Admin SSC)
Look, and see the Earth through her eyes…
