[Noisebridge-discuss] Are people okay with people sleeping at the Noisebridge space?

[Al Sweigart]

I just want to clarify this some more. So the members-only hours thing
would be a solution to people coming to Noisebridge who keep crashing
and sleeping overnight at the space (which has almost always been
non-members). This has some apparent downsides, but I think we can
hack around them so they won't be significant obstacles.

We could hold off on implementing for four or five weeks (or even
longer) so that current non-members could go through the membership
process. That way we this plan doesn't interrupt non-members from
being at the space late at night.

Noisebridge intentionally made as painless a membership process as
possible. You just fill out a membership form with your name (or even
pseudonym) and get two members to sign. After four weeks, show up to a
Tuesday meeting and people consense on it. In the last three years, I
think only two people have ever been rejected for membership.

And if membership dues are a problem, there's a clever hack that they
can just put their membership on hiatus after becoming members.

So this seems like a lot of work, but it's not really: we do nothing
for the first several weeks, people fill out a form and get a couple
signatures, and then they don't have to pay dues.

For people who are introduced to Noisebridge later, I don't think this
would scare them off. If anything, if they were hacking on stuff until
midnight and saw that the space was closing for non-members, they
would probably want to become members and more involved with the space
(especially if they didn't have to commit to $80 or $40 a month as a
prereq). (Though then the month-long thing _would_ be a pain. Maybe
have it as hours for members and applicants then?)

And remember, this is just an idea for a way to encourage people to
use the space to hack on stuff rather than as a bedroom. I'm just
mentioning all this hiatus membership and what-not stuff to assuage
concerns that members-only hours would be an unnecessarily large
obstacle. It's way easier to prevent people from crashing at NB at
midnight rather than booting out sleepers at 7 in the morning. But if
there are other ways of encouraging people to not crash at Noisebridge
that other than having members-only hours, then we can just ditch this
idea.

-Al

On Fri, Oct 14, 2011 at 3:59 PM, Dan Cote <terminationshok at gmail.com> wrote:
> I think a "membership" option for people who can't pay could be a good
> thing. It shouldn't be a mandatory precursor for participating in the space
> though. You are suggesting that people should have to go through the month
> long process to be accepted as members and then go on hiatus before hacking
> after a certain time? I think this is bureaucratic procedure for procedure's
> sake. This can scare off some cool new members. I also think that the
> proposal would radically alter Noisebridge's entire method of operation in a
> negative way.
> I agree with what Liz said as well.
>
> When you see someone who may not belong in the space, you make a judgement
> call and take action. Ask for help and opinions from the others. If the
> person fights back or keeps returning, we talk about it at the meeting.
>
> On Fri, Oct 14, 2011 at 2:33 PM, Al Sweigart <asweigart at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> I've got the solution to that side too.
>>
>> If it's just the $80/$40 membership dues that is keeping people from
>> becoming members in the membership binder, then the hiatus membership
>> hack would work perfectly. We could hold off implementing it for four
>> or five weeks to give people time to put their names in the binder.
>> People who are regulars wouldn't have any problem at all finding
>> signatures.
>>
>> On Fri, Oct 14, 2011 at 2:29 PM, Andy Isaacson <adi at hexapodia.org> wrote:
>> > On Fri, Oct 14, 2011 at 02:03:21PM -0700, rachel lyra hospodar wrote:
>> >> Maybe you find it odd that I think it would be an asshole move to kick
>> >> people out at midnight,
>> >
>> > I think it would be a *terrible* idea to try to kick non-members
>> > (whatever the heck that means) out at midnight.  That's the peak of
>> > productivity at Noisebridge.  Pretty much every time I'm there at
>> > midnight there are dozens of people happily hacking away on useful
>> > projects; it doesn't quiet down until much later.
>> >
>> > Most of the people who do cool shit at Noisebridge aren't "members".
>> > This is a big part of our secret sauce.
>> >
>> >> I am not burning bridges, but trying to make it clear how fundamental I
>> >> believe radical inclusivity is to Noisebridge. It is part of what we
>> >> do, and it is part of why I am here.
>> >
>> > Our radical inclusivity's a huge part of why I'm here, too.
>> >
>> > -andy
>> >
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