The reason why the Australian Superenuation scheme (what Kiwisaver should be) has been so successful is because it can't be raided.

These clowns have no idea! They clearly don't understand compounding interest. How could they possibly lead the country?

Setting aside the Te Reo argument, in my opinion the OP is guilty of much of what they accuse others of and appears to taunt others into further participation (again, my opinion). If lemmy.nz is going to become a closed community, it will simply become an echo chamber of that closed community - this is the biggest failure of social media - is that what users want lemmy.nz to become?

Keep it open. If it becomes a closed community, I'll probably wander off.

I suspect Lemmy will grow (or die) to allow those that create continual problems to be banned or similar - perhaps we just need to wait a little longer for those features? Defederation seems far too coarse/broad brush to me for what I perceive to be, at this point in time, just a nuisance that can be ignored.

Having moved to Southland around 10 years ago, I've seen the ongoing denialism of Diary Farmers and Councils that this is/will/must happen. It is near on impossible to have a discussion about it, as you simply get dismissed, usually with comments in the form "what would you know, we've been farming like this all our lives, we know what's best". Unfortunately, nothing could be further from the truth.

The Southland District and Regional councils have been heavily weighted with dairy/sheep farmers, even though farmers make up only a small percent of the population. Their voice, at the moment is simply too loud, I'm not sure how it got so loud (money talks?), but it is very hard to tone it down, so others can be heard.

Having grown up in a different place, but on/around farming (crop based), I believe it would not take all that much to switch from Dairy to plant based farming. After all, Dairy and Sheep farming requires growing grass/swede etc., much of which is reseeded/grown each year.

The biggest issue is the will and re-education of the farming community and building infrastructure and exports to support the switch. Unfortunately, many in the farming community are not well-educated (source: Census) in anything other than the farming practices that they have learnt "on the job".

Many rely on Frontera or fertilizer companies to tell them how to best manage their farms, and most just reject whatever the Government tries to impose, even though it is typically for the betterment of all.

Personally, I think it will happen quickly. I suspect there will be a sudden collapse or forced change that will be devastating for many. Frontera, with its export strengths, may be able to lead the way to a more progressive/stepped change, but they need to get moving, and soon.

There are some innovators now, but without significant infrastructure, they struggle to get a foot hold. Many don't know that Oats were grown in quite a large way many years ago in Southland, before Sheep then Dairy took over - all driven by the almighty dollar. So when the value of milk drops (as it is right now), and another crop becomes more profitable, or perhaps becomes more acceptable in our current climate change - we will see the change that some of us are hoping for...

nginx

Not sure why others are suggesting a Raspberry Pi and nginx would cause problems? I run three public facing websites on a single Raspberry Pi 4 with 2GB RAM. Has been working flawlessly for 2 years. Typical uptime is measured in multiple months.

Running Wordpress, fail2ban and certbot. Booting and running of a USB drive - have considered SSD but no need as I cache to RAM for performance.

In the last couple of days I've planted some Butternut Pumpkin, Zucchini and Yams, into pots to get a start for when it warms up.

Potato seeds (yes seeds, not seed potatoes) I planted a little while ago have sprouted. First time I've planted potato seeds. I'm interested in how they grow and what the results are like. I collected the seeds last year.

The Grey Oyster mushrooms I bought last weekend have come on strong, and I've ordered some Shiitake mushrooms to try as well. Testing which ones the boss likes the best before inoculating some logs.

Dairy farmers should be planting trees on 90% of their paddocks right now or at least starting the paperwork at MSD.

But instead they are howling in protest about any farms being converted to Forestry! Apparently, if any land that can be used for Dairy, is not, it is a travesty. Just ask any Diary farmer (at least in Southland).

Exactly what value do NZ farmers bring to the world?

If you are talking Dairy, most of their production is exported and consumed as luxury food - if it disappeared tomorrow, the world would not suffer!? (~3 percent of the world's milk solids) Dairy is one of the most inefficient ways to produce "food". We could do much better producing plant based food for export.

Considering the damage to our waterways, the environment in general, and Climate Change - there is NO value in that.

Per Capita is the correct measure to use in my, and many others' opinion - there is no other fairer way to attribute the effects.

Bringing in another 5 million people into the country would see our Carbon Emissions rise... Removing a good portion of 5 million dairy cows would see a rapid and significant reduction!

Just a quote I found of interest this morning from ABC Australia:

"Other countries, including Australia, take GST off fruit and vegetables. In fact, most countries that have a form of GST have carve-outs for certain items, and if anything, New Zealand is currently an outlier."

Not what the various pundits will have you believe. I remember when the change came through in Aus. (I was there), there was a lot of bluff and bluster, but it turned out not to be nearly as difficult in the end.

Great summary. Looking forward to part 2.

Living amongst the Southland Dairy community, I can honestly say I cannot believe the influence that they reign on Local Councils (regional and district) as well. They have repeatedly come up with schemes that delay any meaningful change and often claim best practice changes without actually measuring outcomes.

Agree, I think there will be a hard swing towards the Greens.

A similar thing seems to be happening with ACT, I think some people are just fed up with the majority parties, their antics, and lack of true commitment to any meaningful cause.

Looks like a lot of IT types on Lemmy NZ by the discussion today (I'm one too). But I've had enough of that in my lifetime, so, another gardening topic:

I've been growing some Asparagus from seed over winter in our sun room and have just got them into the ground. They take a while to establish, so I probably won't start picking them until after next winter.

Really easy to grow from seed, just have to wait a bit longer. These have gone into a no dig bed with pretty rough compost, but by the time they establish it will have rotted down well. I'll try to collect some seaweed sometime during summer and add that as well, which is recommended for Asparagus beds.

Netting to keep those hard-working blackbirds from moving the garden bed to somewhere I don't want it.

I'll make a suggestion - take it or leave it - but I can vouch for it 👍

Go "No Dig", I've been doing this for a while now and can say it is one of the easiest and best ways to garden. To get started you need cardboard (or similar) and either buy in compost or work on making your own. Obviously, no digging is required. Simple as...

I highly recommend spending some time watching Charles Dowdings' youtube channel - he has books too, but the detail on youtube is all you need.

The soil I've developed with this method is so much better than I have ever had before, and I just don't find the need to use any chemicals/fertilizers. We buy very little/no vegetables now! The quality of our veg. has improved using this method too. (Shit, that almost sound like I'm trying to sell you something - I'm not... 😜)

Oat milk production uses a lot less water than Cow milk production? (>1/10th) and won't shitty up our rivers.

Perfectly good port at Bluff.

Instead, they want to grow Oats down here and then transport to CC for processing - yeah nah - makes little sense to me.

Not useful to make everyday purchases is it?

Completely nuts to get rid of it! Without incentives like this, most will just continue on as normal, which will result in a very prolonged, if ever, move away from high polluting fossil fuel vehicles.

Some other subjects are simply crazy too.

Finding amazon.com.au to be offering some of the best prices for many things at the moment, with free international shipping on spends over $50. I'm finding I can often purchase the same product for 1/2 or less than I can purchase locally. Happy to support local, but not when I'm being fleeced!?

As an example; I'm planning to make some cabinets and bookshelves and need hinges, wood glue etc.. A large bottle of wood glue, purchased locally and delivered, will set me back $141 - on amazon.com.au I can get it delivered for ~$76. Even better for hinges, that I either had to buy in multiple small lots or huge lots (which I didn't want) locally. Even the huge lots were more expensive!

Anyway, worth a look if you're spending $ in these 'tight' times.

Thanks Dave. I've got the will, the gear, the bandwidth and the skills - just can't see the point at the moment since I don't have a community to support. Happy to support lemmy.nz instead :)

Heading out to the Winton market today. Hoping to buy some "grow your own mushrooms".

Spent an hour or two replacing a battery into a ~7 year old Chromebook - ASUS C302CA. This has been my daily interface to the Internet and has done, and is still doing, such a great job that a $75 upgrade to a new battery seemed like a good bet.

Have gone from 2 to 3 hrs of battery life back to around 8 hrs. Awesome.

Can highly rate thinking about keeping ageing tech alive if it's still fit for purpose. Better than just chucking it out and replacing.

Could have been worse if they asked for "mashed"!