[Noisebridge-discuss] Sleeping in the Space AND Death and Taxes

[Jacob Appelbaum]

On 12/23/2010 09:02 AM, Al Jigen Billings wrote:
> You know, the 25+ message thread of BS in the last 12 hours or so,
> once AGAIN, about people sleeping in the space may actually have
> something to do with the Death and Taxes thread and why NB cannot
> seem to get people to reliably give money to the space. Why give
> money to an organization that, even when it consenses on how it wants
> to be, where people will simply, in the name of anarchist principles,
> do whatever the hell they want to do in spite of consensus?
> 

What? This has almost nothing to do with anarchism Al.

I think that Kelly quite clearly stated that we're at three months of
reserves and that things aren't actually as dire as Shannon had first
suggested.

So honestly - now that we've got that out of the way - why don't you
stop trashing Noisebridge because things don't *appear* to run smoothly
all the time?

> Jake, some people don't want to talk to every person sleeping in
> order to find out *why* they are doing so. They simply want them not
> to do it, class distinctions or not. I find it amazingly stupid that
> y'all spent a month of arguing at great length about this recently
> and yet here it is again. Is it a hackerspace or a hippie crashpad,
> people?
>

You're showing your compassionate Buddhist side again Al. :-)

I haven't been arguing for a month about anything.

I suggested that if someone is sleeping at the space you'll not solve
"the problem" by making a rule they're apparently going to ignore
anyway. If you or someone else talks to them, you'll either be able to
understand why or helpfully correct them into something new. Perhaps
you'll find that the problem does require some intervention by the
larger group; I hope that if that ever happens, we won't repeat the
treatment of our Czech friend.

Just like you'd do if someone spilled a hazardous chemical or if someone
was blasting Merzbow while you were trying to do a sound study.

I think that real change comes through understanding - not through
pretend enforcement that isn't going to happen. Each member of our
community has to want to not sleep at Noisebridge or they're going to
keep doing it. If they're not members of our community, I think that's a
different conversation but only slightly.

I have personally encouraged people not to sleep in the space and it
didn't happen because I rained down threats or bitched them out. I
listened to why the person was sleeping in the space and then I helped
them to the best of my ability. They stopped when they realized it was
doing damage to *our* and thus their community - they understood and
they changed themselves.

All the best,
Jake