[Noisebridge-discuss] A potential space - the No Starch Press building (and how we can handle voting)

[Al Billings]

Marc Powell wrote:
> I am excited that Ryan is involved with this project.
>
> I would strongly protest if he was involved as a bottom-liner or lead for
> any potentially restrictive logistical concern (name on a lease, name on
> the internet connection, name on bills, sysadmin).
>
> I and other friends at the san francisco bay area IMC have had issues with
> him in the past with locking out people from their own machines, sniffing
> peoples' irc while having operator access to the irc server, refusing to
> relinquish control over an internet domain after a mediated arbitration
> process, and clever process-control-over-email-list-and-irc jockeying.
>
> This resulted in the indybay.org / sf.indymedia.org schism where ryan and
> the tech collective for SF IMC locked out many non-tech reporters.
> Mediation was requested, and ryan's team still did not relinquish DNS
> control and machine access, in non-compliance with the mediators' split
> agreement. Four years later, and sf.indymedia.org still lays fallow while
> indybay.org is a thriving collective.
>
> http://archives.lists.indymedia.org/new-imc/2004-January/004805.html
>
> If you'd like more URLs and explanations, I can provide.
>
> This is by way of explanation of my concerns- we should trust the people
> who are in control of our collective resources! Ryan should not be a
> bottom-liner for any resource that could potentially schism/screw over
> noisebridge.
>
>   

 I don't want to belittle anyone's concerns as they are valid, on their 
face, if all of this is true but I do want to say that my first reaction 
on reading this is "WTF?!" This seems very acrimonious (for obvious 
reasons). I suppose that in the spirit of openness, it is better to say 
things like this in public rather than doing it covertly but it 
re-raises the concerns about financial and other liability that were 
brought up last night. I don't really know any of you except Jake and I 
only know him peripherally. I do want this space and its goals to be 
positive for everyone though.

 So, nothing really actionable here but I did want to say something.

 Al