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

Liz Henry liz at bookmaniac.org
Sat Oct 15 02:31:03 UTC 2011


On 10/14/11 5:42 PM, Al Sweigart wrote:

> I think the members-hours thing would be a good way to short-circuit
> the whole thing. It prevents sleeping overnight by people who don't
> even want to become members, and nobody has to directly confront
> sleepers. And I think if we plan it out, we can work around any of the
> downsides to members-hours too.
>

Al, I don't see how making NB a members-only club after a particular 
time changes the dynamic at all. Someone still will fall asleep and 
someone won't like someone else and someone, member or not, will need to 
get kicked out of the space sometimes and people will just let other 
people in. There is nothing magic about "being a member" at all! The 
same tensions will be present, but you seem to want to relocate them to 
a single membership meeting or moment of acceptance, past which a person 
gets to do whatever they want and push around the people who aren't. 
That's just weird.

Are there specific people you are trying to exclude here, because you 
think they won't make it through a membership meeting and then you can 
kick them out with that as your backing? If so, I wish you would just 
say who you think shouldn't be in the space past whatever the magic time 
is. Anyway, the whole thing is silly since people will just come sleep 
during the day if they are that desperate.

We just had some difficult incidents which I think were successfully 
resolved over a few meetings.  Noisebridge is financially solvent and we 
have new members joining every week or so and good projects are 
happening. We had stuff stolen and people responded by being more 
vigilant and backing each other up. I don't see that there's a crisis 
such that we need to change the fundamental nature of the space.

There are other hacker and maker spaces which limit entry more strictly 
to members only.  We have built one that is different and with politics 
that lots of people value.  I actually can't see why you are being so 
negative and heavy handed. It's completely unnecessary, and honestly, 
you're starting to sound like you're on a total power trip.

Here are the things NB people have done recently in response to people's 
concerns about safety and inappropriate or disruptive behavior, which I 
think are successful:

- 311 backup number which anyone can join to help with immediate response
- Lots of people have talked about how to back each other up and when to 
/kick some one and seem to feel individually empowered
- Friends of NB photo wall so people are encouraged to talk with each 
other and recognize each other better (strengthening community)
- Basically letting Rob/dank, Wish, and Jay know they are not welcome 
until they can convince the community they can behave differently

We did that without losing our radical inclusion stance.

And other ideas brought up that you are ignoring as possible solutions:

- How about lockers?!
- Homeless hacker task force (help with core problem of housing rather 
than polarize people around class)
- I am sure there are others....

Al I also just wonder how the irony of you acting like this while half 
of NB is actively supporting the OccupyWallStreet movement can escape 
you...  Come one! Really!?


Cheers



- Liz



------------------------
Liz Henry
liz at bookmaniac.org
http://bookmaniac.org

"Without models, it's hard to work; without a context, difficult to
evaluate; without peers, nearly impossible to speak." -- Joanna Russ



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