[Noisebridge-discuss] Does NB want a combo washer dryer?

[Scotty Allen]

Ugh.  I think adding a washer/dryer to the space would significantly
encourage those not interested in hacking to visit the space.

As I've gradually become a more frequent user of the space, I've been
thinking a lot about the balance of hackers to nonhackers, and what
seems to encourage the latter.

Seems to me like there is a relatively small number of resources
which, while definitely useful for hacking and "excellent" activities,
are for obvious to use for nonhacking activities.  A couple examples
are the public terminal currently between the couches and electronic
benches, the nintendo, the kitchen, and the couches.  Don't get me
wrong, I can come up with a long list of cool hacks and learning that
can be done with each of these resources.    However, I don't think
the average oogle sees any of these resources in the same light - they
see a comfortable couch to crash on while they play video games, a
kitchen they can make themselves food in, an internet terminal they
can check their email, and not much more.  In addition, these
resources are all relatively easy to obtain elsewhere.

Comparatively, the darkroom, the laser cutter, the oscilloscopes, etc
etc are all really useful tools for hacking, teaching, learning, etc,
but are relatively non-useful and unattractive to someone who's not
interested in learning or hacking.  In addition, many of these
resources are expensive, rare, or hard to get access to, even for many
hackers.

I think it would be worthwhile to carefully consider how attractive a
potential resource is to a nonhacker versus how useful it is for
hacking and learning, particularly while the community is struggling
with dilution of excellentness and hackitude.  I'm not necessarily
suggesting that we remove any of the examples of resources that
already fit this description, but I think we should be careful of
adding new ones.

-Scotty

On Tue, Apr 3, 2012 at 3:03 PM, Andy Isaacson <adi at hexapodia.org> wrote:
> On Tue, Apr 03, 2012 at 02:49:55PM -0700, Rubin Abdi wrote:
>> Still think it's a useful thing at Noisebridge, and we've built the
>> space for it, and it's for free, and if it actually becomes a problem
>> later on it can be removed.
>
> Agreed.  I've been pretty horrified every time I've tried to dry my
> hands at Noisebridge in the last 2 years.  We might or might not
> actually wash the hand towels given the chance, but I can guarantee that
> we will continue to not wash the handtowels if we don't have a washer.
>
> -andy
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