[Noisebridge-discuss] Sleeper problem.

[Danny O'Brien]

On Fri, Jul 15, 2011 at 12:51 PM, jim <jim at well.com> wrote:
>
>
>    hey, danny! you willing to show up in the
> early AM?
>    hey al! what about coordinating a show-up
> with at least me and maybe others who'd be
> willing and able?
>    anybody else willing to show up in the
> early AM hours and see what's going on and
> maybe wake people up and explain things?

I have Ada right now, so it's a bit awkward, but possible. I have a
list of people who also offered at the meeting.

d.

>
>
>
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> On Fri, 2011-07-15 at 12:37 -0700, Danny O'Brien wrote:
>> On Fri, Jul 15, 2011 at 11:55 AM, Al Sweigart <asweigart at gmail.com> wrote:
>> > I came to Noisebridge this morning to check for sleepers. I haven't
>> > done so in a while. There were about half a dozen people up and
>> > working on stuff, and two people crashed on couches and chairs.
>> >
>> > One them was Lennie, who's a new guy who started coming to the space a
>> > month or two ago. I bring this up in particular because this is the
>> > third time I've found him sleeping at the space. As usual, I woke him
>> > up and talked to him a bit about Noisebridge's sleeper problem and
>> > then asked him to leave. (When I wake people up and don't ask people
>> > to leave, they just go back to crashing at Noisebridge when I walk out
>> > the door. I've checked.)
>>
>> Hey Al,
>>
>> As I've said a couple of times in private email, and several people
>> said in the meeting, it'd be useful to coordinate so you don't end
>> being the only person turning up in the mornings or checking up on
>> these things.
>>
>> I think what you say and do to people who are just using the space to
>> sleep in has added force if others are doing it also, and also having
>> some co-operation on this also helps prevent burnout or the idea that
>> this is just something you're doing off your own bat. It's a lot
>> harder for someone to protest that you're exclusively conducting a
>> guilt trip when there are several others talking to them about their
>> behaviour. It also means that they are reminded about it when there's
>> no Al around.
>>
>> My understanding was also that one of the reasons why you're unhappy
>> about the lack of a concrete rule about opening times or whether it's
>> appropriate to sleep in the space, is because without such a rule, you
>> feel diminishes your capability to actually ask people to leave, and
>> it makes you feel awkward because you are unsure of the level of
>> support. Many people at the meeting said that you do have support, and
>> that the NB way to provide that support more concretely was to provide
>> some structure and co-operation for what you're doing.
>>
>> Some people also wanted to know who was sleeping at the space, because
>> it was confusing to hear rumors and conflicting reports. You said that
>> you felt uncomfortable giving names in public because of the criticism
>> over privacy that you received last time this had happened.
>>
>> In response to that, I agreed to act as a resource so you and others
>> could inform me of who you've seen, and I could keep a tally and
>> publicise in a way to nb-discuss of the level of the problem that
>> would both help preserve people's privacy and Googeability, actually
>> collect them some concrete data,  document whether this problem is
>> getting worse or better, etc. I willing to spend some time working out
>> how to be both public about the facts and protective of privacy,
>> because it's actually something I face pretty repeatedly when doing
>> the secretarial tasks.
>>
>> I'd like to repeat, in public, the offering of both of these
>> solutions: people to help you, and some system to track and publicise
>> the level of recurring sleeping. What do you think?
>>
>> >
>> > I was polite, he was polite. He explained that he was just taking a
>> > short nap and not sleeping (which was the same explanation he gave the
>> > first two times, and it wasn't very believable then either.) He said
>> > he thought it was disrespectful to wake people up and ask them to
>> > leave. He implied that people stopped hanging around the space because
>> > I was waking up sleepers in the morning (I usually arrive between 6am
>> > and 7am), and some other guilt-trip remarks. His stalling went on for
>> > about half an hour, but I kept replying that he's free to work all
>> > night at Noisebridge but needs to make plans for getting home before
>> > he gets sleepy, and that he still had to leave this morning. Lennie
>> > packed up and walked over to Mitch and spent another half hour
>> > explaining himself, and finally left. I left a little bit later. After
>> > I got on my bike and was riding away I noticed he was back at the
>> > Noisebridge gate.
>> >
>> > This isn't a one-off thing, and Lennie never said he'd stop doing it.
>> > Talking to him about doesn't phase him one bit. If this becomes a
>> > problem again (and tell me if it does), I'm going to tell Lennie to
>> > stop coming to Noisebridge.
>> >
>> > -Al
>> >
>> > Also, the sinks were full of dishes, there were fruit flies hovering
>> > around food that had been left out, and vegetables are being stored in
>> > unsealed containers again where the rats can get to them. On the plus
>> > side, the kitchen counters were clean and the hackers-to-sleepers
>> > ratio is a complete inversion of what it was a couple weeks ago.
>>
>> The kitchen, and a lot of the space was *really* clean yesterday
>> (though I noticed as I left that fruit was being brought into the
>> space). A couple of people commented to me on how much more organized
>> and tidy the place is  looking, and as I left, Espen was finishing on
>> his work tidying up the workshop.
>>
>> I think maybe we get a situation where plates are left in the sink
>> overnight, but cleaned afterwards (whether by the same people or just
>> grumpy/generous people cleaning I don't know).
>>
>> d.
>>
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