[Noisebridge-discuss] noise at noisebridge

Mon Mar 2 01:48:57 UTC 2009

Yeah, well the party in question just seemed to be a lot of people dropping
by.  Apparently someone asked people to meet them there and the party
stayed, with the expectation that "we have the space." You can ask 5 or 6
people to leave, but 20 or 30, and when they keep filtering in it's even
more of a problem.  I personally was in an exceptionally anti-social mood at
the time, although I thought most of the people there were interesting and I
didn't want to offend (which I probably would have as a result of my
anti-social mood).  On the bright side, I managed to get my headphones
working that night... although even that wasn't enough to keep people from
bugging me.

If you want to throw a party, please go to a place that is more party
specialized?  Spontaneity is nice, but you wouldn't consider throwing a
party at the Box Shop/Shipyard/NIMBY without clearing it with people first,
would you?

Christie

On Sun, Mar 1, 2009 at 4:45 PM, Mitch Altman <maltman23 at hotmail.com> wrote:

>  It's not necessarily easy, but if something like this comes up again, you
> think you could say to the folks something like:  although you're happy they
> came by Noisebridge, there's a bunch of people working on projects now, and
> would it be OK for people to come back another time when things are less
> busy?
>
>
> Mitch.
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
> Date: Sun, 1 Mar 2009 16:12:06 -0800
> Subject: Re: [Noisebridge-discuss] noise at noisebridge
> From: avniow at gmail.com
> To: longobord at gmail.com
> CC: noisebridge-discuss at lists.noisebridge.net
>
>
> The last one I wholeheartedly agree with. I was there with you when we had
> a massive amount of people coming in from another unrelated event close by
> that seriously interrupted the things that people were already working on. I
> knew a fair amount of these people and I like them (the party led to at
> least one person wanting to become a member though) but it was very
> disruptive to have an unannounced event with a fairly large crowd that
> seemingly appeared out of nowhere when people are already doing other
> activities.
>
> -Ani
>
>
>
>
> On Sun, Mar 1, 2009 at 3:58 PM, Christie Dudley <longobord at gmail.com>wrote:
>
> I think this discussion is an important one in many ways.  I think a lot of
> people might agree with me that when dealing with people like us it's
> probably not entirely safe to consider common sense in social situations to
> be universal.  Besides, I think our values are different enough from the
> mainstream that it is worth articulating them a little bit.
>
> I think we could benefit from an exercise that's popular in project
> management: "Is/is not".  I'm not talking about hard and fast rules, more
> like setting expectations.  Basically, if we list what we expect the space
> is and what we expect the space to not be, then we'll all get along better.
> Maybe we could add it to the wiki if people think it's a good idea.  I can
> start with my expectations:
>
> Noisebridge IS a space where interesting things happen.
> Noisebridge IS a space where people can drop in and work on projects.
> Noisebridge IS a space where you can reasonably expect to hold a
> conversation without being interrupted.
> Noisebridge IS NOT a space where you should have to wear headphones to keep
> from being bothered.
> Noisebridge IS NOT a library (although we have one!).  Noise and
> Noisebridge are not incompatible.
> Noisebridge IS a space where you can hang out and talk to friends.
> Noisebridge IS NOT a party space.  Parties interrupt other activites.
>
> What do you think?
>
> Christie
>
>
> On Sun, Mar 1, 2009 at 2:01 PM, Mitch Altman <maltman23 at hotmail.com>wrote:
>
> One of the (several) explicit goals at the outset of Noisebridge was to
> have a space where people could come to hang out, to create a geek community
> space.  Lots of people don't have projects in mind that they want to play
> with or work on, and coming to a space where there are people already
> working and playing on projects can be a great inspiration and motivation
> for others.
>
>
> Balancing all of this has its challenges.  We certainly don't want a space
> where it is only allowed to work on projects without talking to one
> another.  And we don't simply want a hangout space, where few people feel
> comfortable working and playing on their projects.  And I don't think
> we want a space where everyone is wearing headphones and not open to
> communication with anyone else in the space.  It seems to me that hanging
> out and working and playing aren't mutually exclusive of one another.  We do
> need to remember to be excellent to one another.  To me that means
> respecting one another.  And respecting one another's boundaries.  For
> instance, if someone is busy playing or working on their project, I would
> hope that it would be fine to ask them if it's OK to ask them a question, or
> if it's OK to talk to them.  And I would also hope that it is fine to
> answer, nicely, "no."
>
>
> We do need to keep in mind that not all of us geeks have the greatest
> social skills.  So, if someone is seeming bothersome, it's probably
> not because they're purposely trying to be annoying.  If you're feeling
> annoyed by someone in the space, it is up to you to let them know (as
> obvious as it is to each of us when we're feeling annoyed, others can't read
> our minds, so we have to let them know).  And it should be possible to do
> this while being excellent to one another.  No need to be mean or a jerk
> about it.  Like, maybe:  e.g., "I'm sorry, but I'm trying to get some work
> done, and can't talk now."  So far that's worked very well for me.
>
>
> On the other hand, one of the reasons I love being at Noisebridge is to
> help others with their projects, or to inspire others to explore what they
> may want to work on or play with.  I realize that's not everyone's desire or
> role.  And we all have different desires for what we want out of
> Noisebridge.  I hope we can respect all of each others' desires and goals
> and roles.
>
>
> Mitch.
>
>
>
>
> --------------------
>
>
> > Date: Sun, 1 Mar 2009 13:33:14 -0800
> > From: quinn at quinnnorton.com
> > To: noisebridge-discuss at lists.noisebridge.net
> > Subject: Re: [Noisebridge-discuss] noise at noisebridge
>
> >
> >
> > this thread is getting very hackier than thou, which i find dissapointing
> >
> > On Sun, 1 Mar 2009, peter wrote:
> >
> > > Re: Josh's comment.
> > >
> > > Thank you for reminding us all that this is meant to be a space
> > > specifically for hacking projects. While I am not a great offender on
> > > this front, I, at times, find myself treating noisebridge as a hangout
> > > space. We can all hang out anywhere! Let's try to keep a space
> > > dedicated to hacking for hacking.
> > >
> > > Which is not to say that there is no place for socializing at
> > > noisebridge, but srsly, let's try to focus on hacking at the hacking
> > > space, shall we :)
> > >
> > > Best,
> > > Peter
> > >
> > > On Sat, Feb 28, 2009 at 8:15 PM, Paul Böhm <paul at boehm.org> wrote:
> > > > Well,
> > > >
> > > > personally i've managed to tell people clearly i don't want to listen
> > > > to their bullshit - and that works.
> > > > having to overhear nonsense is hard, but headphones work.
> > > >
> > > > however i'm worried that if we have too much nonsense-talking people
> here, then
> > > > only people with a very high tolerance for nonsense and bullshit will
> > > > stick around.
> > > >
> > > > this is especially true since the people i'm thinking about, almost
> > > > hunt after newcomers, who are too polite to verbalize that after 15
> > > > minutes of nonsense they are feeling really uncomfortable.
> > > >
> > > > paul
> > > >
> > > > On Sat, Feb 28, 2009 at 7:18 PM, Josh Myer <josh at joshisanerd.com>
> wrote:
> > > >> On Sat, Feb 28, 2009 at 06:54:36PM -0800, Paul Böhm wrote:
> > > >>> ok, my brain is about to explode - there's people here at nb who
> > > >>> constantly babble nonsense because they are attention starved
> > > >>> this alienates newcomers (since they haven't learned to ignore
> these
> > > >>> people yet) and makes me want to avoid noisebridge
> > > >>>
> > > >>> opinions on this?
> > > >>
> > > >> I totally agree with the frustration, and feel it acutely.  As for
> > > >> fixes: Wear headphones?  Set expectations that you're not someone
> > > >> who's going to just listen?  These two strategies have served me
> well
> > > >> thus far...  Then again, I'm pretty comfortable with being a jerk.
> > > >>
> > > >> In the same vein, we have a lot of people who think of noisebridge
> as
> > > >> a place to hang out, not a place to come and hack.  It's frustrating
> > > >> many of us, especially because we haven't found a good way to say
> > > >> "It's awesome that you're here, and we'd love to help you work on
> > > >> stuff.  What do you want to work on, and how can our community help
> > > >> you accomplish that?"  It's sort of insidious: there's nobody who is
> > > >> clearly abusing the space, it's just that people's behaviors are
> > > >> shifting the way people use the space.  noisebridge is inadvertantly
> > > >> becoming a place to come and surf youtube in the evening instead of
> a
> > > >> place to hang out with others who are soldering, coding, or sewing.
> > > >>
> > > >> Personally, I only come in to work/collaborate on specific things.
> > > >> It's kind of a bummer, but it's not so bad.  I wind up being a
> > > >> floating question-answerer (or, at least, reference-pointer-outer)
> > > >> anyway, so I get sucked into interesting things beyond my little
> > > >> focus.  If I was less flexible or pragmatic about how I used my time
> > > >> in the space, though, this would be incredibly frustrating.
> > > >>
> > > >> I think the general problem of people-who-are-distracting is solved
> > > >> with a single question: how do we integrate people into our
> do-acracy
> > > >> and minimize idle hands at 83c?
> > > >> --
> > > >> Josh Myer   650.248.3796
> > > >>  josh at joshisanerd.com
> > > >>
> > > > _______________________________________________
> > > > Noisebridge-discuss mailing list
> > > > Noisebridge-discuss at lists.noisebridge.net
> > > > https://www.noisebridge.net/mailman/listinfo/noisebridge-discuss
> > > >
> > > _______________________________________________
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> > >
> >
> > Freelance Journalist & Photographer
> >
> > quinnnorton.com || +1 408 813 8064 || aim, skype, msn: ambiguousquinn
> >
> > "Samual Beckett once said: 'Every word is like an unnecessary strain
> > on silence and nothingness.'
> >
> > On the other hand, he SAID it."
> > - Art Spiegeleman
> > _______________________________________________
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>
>
>
> --
> --
> Freedom is not worth having if it does not connote freedom to err.
> ~ Mohandas K. (Mahatma) Gandhi
>
> If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what
> they do not want to hear.
> ~ George Orwell
>
> Freedom is the will to be responsible to ourselves.
> ~ Friedrich Nietzsche
>
>
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>
>

-- 
-- 
Freedom is not worth having if it does not connote freedom to err.
~ Mohandas K. (Mahatma) Gandhi

If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what
they do not want to hear.
~ George Orwell

Freedom is the will to be responsible to ourselves.
~ Friedrich Nietzsche
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