[Noisebridge-discuss] A modest proposal.

[Jonathan Lassoff]

On Wed, Feb 8, 2012 at 4:55 PM, Matt Joyce <matt at nycresistor.com> wrote:
> 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.

Well written! I had a chuckle or two in there.

> 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.

I don't see things as that black and white. I'd love an environment
that's somewhere in the middle. What about someplace that's closer to
the "universally accepting" end of the spectrum during the daylight
hours when there're more people around to deter bad behaviour, while
"after hours" the place turns into a "members"-only venue.
Granted, there may be some bad "members", but with the whole "hot tub
reset" idea being bandied about we can have varying definitions of
what that means.

How has NYCResistor worked out as a members only venue? I'm sure on
some level, you're losing out by not letting awesome hackers passing
through town easily visit, but I can imagine it keeps out a lot of
riff-raff as well.

Cheers,
jof