DRAFT. Last updated: [DATE]
Field Tested emerged from the idea that permaculture is the default way to grow food, that the modern world has mostly abandoned it, and that permaculture values should be championed to preserve our food resilience.
Puerto Rico boasts a thriving permaculture community, filled with individuals of all different schools of thought, using varying methods, and having a stunning diversity of skills. There is an incredible support structure of permaculture enterprises all around this island of enchantment. But permaculturalists are often by nature humble, and more interested in their projects than in marketing them. As it should be.
This is a passion project designed to strengthen that community by sharing enterprises, and by providing a tool for permaculturalists and permaculture wannabes alike to plug instantly into the wide world of PR permaculture.
Secondarily, it gives people with strong permaculture values a way to share what they know: which vendors and enterprises are actually permaculture oriented, to what degree, and in what ways. As we all know, permaculture is a broad term, and farms rarely fit neatly into broad categories.
Short sentences from here on. Read it once.
The list is only worth something if it is true. Someone will drive two hours based on what you write. Write it like that.
This is the important part. Most of these rules are about accuracy, not manners.
Only add places you know about. Been there, or talked to them, or someone you trust told you. Not "I saw a website."
Permaculture rating. Pick Permaculture or Conventional only if you confirmed it. Ask them. See the operation. If you did neither, pick Unknown.
Unknown is a real answer. It is not failing. A guess that turns out wrong is worse than an honest blank.
Nothing fits the three buckets perfectly. A farm can compost everything and still buy in fertilizer. A nursery can grow beautifully and sell sprayed stock. When a place sits between categories, pick the closest one and explain the rest in a review. The rating is a starting point, not a verdict.
Do not rate a place you have not visited. Ratings are for experience, not reputation.
Rate your own farm? No. If you run it, you can list it. Do not rate it. Ask someone else to.
Friends and family. Same rule. If you would be embarrassed for the owner to see you rated them, do not.
Fix stale listings. Places close. Places move. Hurricanes happen. If something is wrong, propose an edit. That is normal, not an accusation.
Wrong is fine. Everyone adds a bad listing eventually. Correcting it is maintenance, not blame. Nobody gets in trouble for an honest mistake.
Reviews. Say what you bought. Say when you went. Say what it was like. That is it. Not a general opinion of the person.
Do not copy from elsewhere. No pasting from a website or another directory. Write what you know.
Get this right before you add anything.
A vendor is someone who expects to do business with strangers. That is the test. Not whether they grow well. Not whether you like them.
Size does not matter. A vendor can be a registered business, an unofficial one, a side hustle, a nursery, a co-op, a university lab in the States licensed to ship soil samples to and from Puerto Rico. If it is a resource a permaculturalist could actually use, it belongs here.
A friend is not a vendor. Juan sold you a dozen eggs once. Juan is not a vendor. Neither is anyone you barter with, or anyone whose number you have because you know them.
Here is why that line matters. Someone will call every number on this list and say "hi, I found you on Field Tested." If that person did not sign up to take calls from strangers, you have handed their phone number to the island. That is the harm. Avoid it.
Not sure? Ask them. "Would you want people finding you here?" takes one message.
Most vendors never signed up. Members put them here. That comes with responsibility.
Many are one person on their own land. The address may be their house. The number may be their pocket. Only post what they already make public.
A bad review here carries weight. This is a small island and a smaller community. Say what happened when you went. Leave it there.
If a vendor asks to come off, they come off. Tell an admin. No argument, no debate.
If a vendor disputes something you wrote, admins will look. Be ready to say when you went and what happened.
Invites go through an admin. This is a tight, vetted community and that is the whole point. If you want to bring someone in, ask. Do not forward your link.
Disagree about facts, not about people. Two members can visit the same farm and come away with different impressions. Both can be honest.
No harassment. No insults, no pile-ons, no taking something from here out into the world.
What is here stays here. Do not share member names, photos, or municipalities outside Field Tested.
Be yourself. Do not sign up as someone else, do not claim a farm you do not run, do not pose as a vendor's representative. This is the fastest way out of here.
Networking, not politicking. Connecting people, sharing what you know, sending business to someone who does it well: that is the point. Running down a competitor, shading a rating to make yourself look better, using the database to jockey for position: that is not. If a review would read differently were the vendor not your competition, do not post it.
English is the norm here.
There is a full Spanish interface for anyone who prefers it or who does not read English comfortably. Switch it in the profile menu. Write your listings and reviews in whichever language you actually think in. Both are welcome.
List your own operation. That is what this is for.
Do not use reviews as advertising. Do not rate a competitor without confirming what you claim.
No spam. No affiliate links. No recruiting for anything unrelated.
Keep it about growing, land, and the people who supply both.
This is not the place for politics, religion, or arguments that have nothing to do with permaculture in Puerto Rico. Use your judgement. If you are wondering whether it belongs, it probably does not.
Two different things go wrong here, and they are handled differently.
Places move, close, and change how they work. A wrong listing is maintenance, not anybody's fault.
Straight to removal, no warning: harassment, threats, pretending to be someone else, sharing member information outside Field Tested, deliberately false listings or reviews, or handing your invite link to strangers.
Admins decide about listings and members. Only the Lead Admin appoints or removes admins, and only the Lead Admin can act on an admin.
Appeals. Use Appeal to the admins in the profile menu. An admin who was not involved will read it.
Removals are not announced. If someone is gone, that is between them and the admins.
Admins review proposed edits, handle feedback, manage invites, and can edit or remove any listing. Only the Lead Admin appoints or removes admins.
One admin is enough to act. This is a small trusted group and requiring a second signature would only slow down the cases that need speed, like a bad actor getting through the door.
What keeps that honest is the log. Every action an admin takes is recorded permanently, visible to every other admin, and cannot be deleted by anyone. Transparency after the fact, rather than a committee before it.
An admin steps back from any decision involving themselves or their own listing, and lets another admin handle it.
Two different things live in this database, and they work differently.
A vendor listing is not yours. Papa's Pizza is at that address whether or not you typed it in. You did not create that fact, you passed it along. Once a listing is here it belongs to the database, and members cannot remove listings they added. Wrong information gets corrected, and admins can take a listing down if a vendor asks.
A review is yours. Nobody else could have written it. It is your visit, your judgement, your words. You own it.
You can read and remove your own reviews at any time from Your Reviews in the profile menu. Not just on your way out. If a shop closed, or you were unfair on a bad day, fix it whenever you want.
Posting a review gives Field Tested permission to store and show it here for as long as the site runs. That permission covers this site and nothing else. We will not republish your writing anywhere, sell it, license it out, or hand it to anyone. If Field Tested ever wanted to publish something outside the app, we would come and ask you first.
We can also take a report down if it turns out to be wrong, if a vendor disputes it, or if it breaks these guidelines.
Deleting your account does not remove your reviews. If you want any of them gone, remove them before you go. Afterwards you would have to email an admin, because the account you would need to do it with will not exist.
Only post photos you took, or have permission to use.
You must be 18 or older to join.
Accounts that go unused for a long time may be removed to keep the member list current. You will be contacted first.
Use the Feedback button. Please actually use it.
This is a community project, not Google Maps. There is no support team and no army of testers. Real bugs get through, and the only way they get found is someone saying so.
That includes the app being hard to use. If the text is too small, the buttons are hard to hit, or the site does not work with the tools you browse with, tell us. If you use a screen reader or anything similar and something gets in your way, we want to hear it and we will do what we can. This should be usable by everyone who belongs here.
These guidelines will change, usually because something happened that they did not cover.
Changes get posted. Keep using the app and you accept them.
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