[Noisebridge-discuss] A modest proposal.

Matt Joyce matt at nycresistor.com
Thu Feb 9 00:55:58 UTC 2012


Firstly, almost no one actually solders at 4 am.  There a number of
reasons for this.  And even if you've done it once or twice that's
hardly worth crying over.  Your life would have been better with a
full nights rest anyways.

But the real issue, is that eventually this escalating situation will
result in a catastrophe.  It might be that someone starts a fire, or
the place gets robbed.  Or it might be that six very violent
individuals decide to visit late in the evening to rob the place.  Or
to put a comedic spin on the grossly frightening...

Imagine it's 2:30 am.  An industrious young urban white male of
protestant heritage is sitting at his chair soldering together LED
crucifixes for children in Haiti.  His blue blazer is resting on a
couch where his phone is safely nestled in it's pocket, while he
relies solely on the warmth of his sweater tied neatly about his neck.
 He is intent on the work at hand knowing that in the early AM he will
be called upon to lead our industry and rise to great heights amongst
our economic elite.

He fails to notice the entrance of several female street urchins.
They look upon his virtuous body with malice and discontent.  They
close in.  Our hero is soon set upon by these lustful hooligans.  He
struggles to preserve his innocence but they are too many and he is
too few.  By morning the hopes of an entire nation of refuges are
dashed, and a young man who could have been something great is now
shamed and lead to relive the terror of the night he spent at
noisebridge for the rest of his life.

Now eliminate the comedic extremes and realize that the risk here far
outweighs the reward.  And so far all of existing experience has born
that out.  So the myth of the post midnight solder session as a
legitimate reason for entertaining the more vicious aspects of social
engagements that routinely occur in every part of our society at 4am
is probably a hell of a worthless argument.

You can have a place to solder at 4 am.  Or you can have a place that
is universally accepting and open to the public.

You cannot have both without tempting fate.  We've had every warning
possible that something bad will happen here.  When it does some
asshole will probably say you were told this would happen.  But that
doesn't change a goddamned thing.

Stop tempting fate for no good reason.


On Wed, Feb 8, 2012 at 4:43 PM, Danny O'Brien <danny at spesh.com> wrote:
> On Wed, Feb 8, 2012 at 4:38 PM, Matt Joyce <matt at nycresistor.com> wrote:
>>
>> Problem:  Noisebridge has some security / personal safety issues.
>> Solution Proposal:
>>
>> Close noisebridge at 11pm PST every weekday and close at midnight on
>> Friday and Saturday evenings.
>>
>
> Like many proposals currently being kicked around, this is perfectly
> reasonable one, which has been somewhat discussed to death in previous
> rounds. A lot of NB members really like it being open late, and it's one of
> the things that a lot of people want to keep that there's somewhere in San
> Francisco where you can hold a soldering class at 4AM.
>
> It, and the related one of it being members-only after hours gets discussed
> a lot in meeting, carefully considered, and then rejected.
>
> I know, we is crazy. But we're very picky in what craziness we want.
>
>
>>
>> And I mean universally closed.  No exclusions and no exceptions.  Like
>> last call at a bar.  You can always go home but you can't stay here.
>>
>> Results:
>>
>> No more crazy vagrants show up in the late hours to prey upon folks.
>> No more crashing at noisebridge by homeless jerkfaces who like to ruin
>> a good thing for everyone.
>> No more drunks showing up to annoy people.
>> No more risk of getting jacked up on your way to the bart / bus / bike
>> / hanglider... etc because the sun is not around.
>> No impact on the open nature of the space, as when the space is
>> available all are welcome.
>>
>>
>> TADA!
>>
>> Mission Accomplished.
>>
>>  - Matt Joyce
>> _______________________________________________
>> Noisebridge-discuss mailing list
>> Noisebridge-discuss at lists.noisebridge.net
>> https://www.noisebridge.net/mailman/listinfo/noisebridge-discuss
>>
>



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