Do you like reading instructions? Do you wish more websites had a brief user's manual that explained what the developer was thinking?

Many would say that if a site isn't "intuitive" then it must have serious design flaws, yet even the simplist of physical electronic goods comes with a manual in several languages. I have an electric toothbrush whose only interface is the on/off button, and even that thing came with a book of instructions.

Sure, this guide isn't strictly necessary. You could eventually discover everything the site has to offer just by browsing it. You could read every page. Follow all the links.

On the other hand, you could also just take a quick look at this index.

Site Contents

An outline of the major types of content you'll find on the site.

Articles

Articles comprise the majority of the content on the main site. These pieces are written by myself and others within Farm Columbia. It will soon be possible for the public to contribute to the site as well by posting to the forums.

Article Series

An "article series" is a group of articles which share a common theme. You'll see some of the most recent ones prominently featured on the homepage.

You can also browse any series, past or present, by using the "Article Series" filter on the search page. Use the dropdown to select a series by name to see a list of all the articles in that series. You can narrow it down further by using the other filters as well, like the "keyword" and "category" filters.

Shop

Coming soon. Please take a look at the site roadmap.

Forums

Coming soon. Please take a look at the site roadmap.

Finding Information

A brief guide to searching and browsing the site effectively.

Browsing

There are a number of ways to browse the site. For example, you can use the category menu at the top of most pages to browse by category and subcategory. There's also a list of categories to choose from within the Main Menu, which you can access via the button at the top-right of screen.

The homepage is also a good place to see the latest articles across a number of curated topics.

Searching

The search page allows you to browse and search the entire catalog of articles and shop inventory. Searching by keyword alone will give you the most relevant results for the given word or phrase. You can also search by category and article series.

Search - In Depth

A more complete guide to searching the site. You can search across articles, forums, and the shop catalog.

Search by Keyword

Perhaps the most straightforward way to search. Just enter a word or phrase, and the site will search the content of every article or shop item to find matches, which will be displayed in order of relevance. You can also change the way the results are sorted by using the "sort by" filter.

Search by Category

Say you wanted to see every article about beekeeping in chronological order. On the search page, select the checkbox for the "Beekeeping" tag, set the "sort by" filter to "Date (Newest)," and make sure the "keyword" and "series" filters are empty.

You can expand some of the category tags to reveal subcategories. You can use these to refine your search.

You can also combine categories. For example, selecting "Beekeeping" and "Animals" will show you results where each article is a member of at least one of the selected categories.

Search by Article Series

A "series" is a curated group of articles I've put together following a common theme. The latest and most relevant ones are featured on the homepage. You can browse by any series by selecting a series by name from the "series" dropdown.

Sorting Results

You can sort the search results by using the "sort by" dropdown. Use "relevance" for keyword searches and category searches. Use "date" when you're interested in seeing the articles in the order they were published. There are options to sort by date ascending and descending.

Miscellaneous

Get Notified About New Articles

Want to know when new articles get published? Just fill out the small form at the bottom of each page, including this one. It's titled "Keep In Touch," and features a prominent button labeled "Sign Up For Emails." If you submit the form, we'll email you whenever new articles come out. We won't email you more than once per day, and you can cancel at any time. We don't sell your information to data brokers.

Unsubscribe from Email Notifications

If you subscribed to email updates and wish to cancel your subscription, please find the "unsubscribe" link at the bottom of one of the emails. Follow the link to complete the unsubscribe process.

Forgot Password

Forgot the password to your account? Follow this link to the password reset page. Enter the email address you registered your Farm Columbia account with. Press "Send Reset Link" to complete the password reset request.

We'll send you a link via email to securely reset your password if an account exists.