[Noisebridge-discuss] Noisebridge-discuss Digest, Vol 32, Issue 10

Fri Jun 11 04:26:34 UTC 2010

Hm.  Interesting perspective.  As one who's been directly involved in these
squabbles (having offered the "CPA advice" and voiced criticism over the
Elixir event) I do wish to extend apologies for what seems to be a lot of
squabbles.

I think what appears to be an uncomfortable situation stems from a few
sources.  First, we're all pretty familiar with each other and tend to
dispense with a lot of the niceties that you might expect from more formal
communications.  And yes, this means occasionally we squabble like siblings.

Also, there are a lot of idealists amongst us.  We Believe in things, and
don't always think about the them the way we're told to.  It's admirable to
be amongst people who have dedicated their lives to noble causes, but there
are sometimes philosophical discussions on things associated with
non-mainstream convictions that seem like criticism from left field.

We recognize lately that the mailing list has become less-than-pleasant and
we're all thinking of ways we could improve that.  That said, for the
environment we all support where we encourage greater freedoms, the cost is
a lot of messiness in terms of what is actually done.  People will be people
and continue to be emotional beings and sometimes allow things to get away
from them.  I like to think it's because we care about what and how things
work and emotions get tight when they worry about them.

So yes, if you'd like to spend some time hanging out in a space where people
are connected, yet open, and genuinely care about what's going on in the
space and world around them, please come stop by Noisebridge.  We turn no
one away and welcome everyone equally.  If you want an environment a bit
more... sanitized, then maybe you'd prefer a place with more rules and less
chaos.  But I, like everyone else here, do strongly encourage you to pop in
and check it out before judging us too harshly.

Sincerely,
Christie

_______
"Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities. The
latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to
hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence."
-- Albert Einstein

On Thu, Jun 10, 2010 at 8:35 PM, Jack Perkins <jackaperkins at gmail.com>wrote:

> Jim,
>
> I hear your concerns. I see the squabbles and argumentative chit-chat on
> this list too, and I'm not the kind of person who enjoys such things.
>
> However, I am also someone who has actually been to the space. I think if
> you drop by, say on a Monday night, you might find a very different
> noisebridge than the one you like to imagine.
>
> If you come by on a Monday and find me, I'll be happy to give you a tour
> and introduce you to some incredible people.
>
> -Jack
>
>
>
> On Thu, Jun 10, 2010 at 8:12 PM, - <noisebridge at splattercast.com> wrote:
>
>> Hi.  You don't know me, and at the risk of making enemies of people i've
>> never met, I wanted to say something about this recent thread.
>>
>> I moved to SF in January and have been looking for a good place to hang
>> out, learn more tech skills, and work on "stuff". I checked out the Hacker
>> Dojo down in Mountain View - and found it to be really cool in its own
>> disorganized ad hoc busy-busy-busy way. I would be glad to pay $100/mo to be
>> able to plop onto a couch with my laptop and work there, go to the informal
>> classes, meet people. I need to meet people. Good lord, do i need to meet
>> people. But its way too far away. Parisoma and the other places like it are
>> much too expensive for my casual needs.
>>
>> Noisebridge sounded a lot like Hacker Dojo, and that was exciting,
>> especially because other places "like" Hacker Dojo, here in SF, seem to have
>> fallen apart and gone away.
>>
>> And so i write this note only cuz I loves ya, even if i doesn't knows ya:
>>
>> What i've seen on this list is tons of squabbles, people correcting one
>> another in public and not in a happy way, someone accusing someone else of
>> "illegally" offering accounting advice while not being a CPA (that's not
>> illegal unless you charge for it and/or advertise that you're a CPA) and now
>> someone is in trouble for trying to raise money for an organization that, in
>> my limited experience, is about to face a cash crunch. I have a sense of
>> who's senior and who isn't, and frankly, senior persons, take it from
>> someone who has been "senior" in many roles - the most gracious way to be a
>> senior person anywhere is to do it in a way that is not noticeable by
>> anyone.
>>
>> All this grumpiness makes me sad.
>>
>> I've been involved with a number of nonprofits (formal and otherwise) over
>> the years, from grunt to board member to president, with budgets from
>> $-infinity to $millions. Some worked better than others. Some really were
>> not very great at all.
>>
>> Anyway, I hope you guys can get back to having fun, because what I see
>> (only through this list) is kind of off-putting and a little bit
>> intimidating. If I was afraid of saying the wrong thing before, and not sure
>> I'd ever want to enter the space. But i hoped that maybe an outsider's
>> perspective might be useful. This is all I'm going to say about it.  My
>> hunch is that someone who sees this will want to respond with a curt
>> "goodbye" and ejection from the mailing list. I can't do anything about
>> that. I just hope that there is some hope for a chill gathering place in
>> bicycle range of SF, not just for my own sake, but for all the people like
>> me, and this town is full of such people...
>>
>> Best
>> - jim
>>
>>
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>> https://www.noisebridge.net/mailman/listinfo/noisebridge-discuss
>>
>
>
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