[Noisebridge-discuss] I want NoiseBridge to change.

[Crutcher Dunnavant]

There have been many discussions about the various cultural and
security problems NoiseBridge currently has. I could jump into the
threads, I could continue to talk to people at the space, I could even
put forward a few ideas I have for consensus, based on other hacker
spaces. Instead, I'm going to ask, who else wants it to change?

We have very few active members (<40) paying for a large space. How
many of you are active and happy with what we have now?

I am an active member of NoiseBridge, and I want NoiseBridge to change.

We have far past any point at which I'm concerned about preserving
NB's culture. The space has been completely colonized by people with
no interest in making, learning, or teaching. It has become a hostel
for the disaffected remnants of Occupy SF, and a shelter for a random
smattering of the city's homeless.

So I'm not concerned about preserving NB's culture, the culture I
liked has been occluded; and I personally want the current state of
things to change rather dramatically.

I'd like a future NB where the majority of people in the space at any
given time were either members, or guests of members currently in the
space. I'd like a future NB where we have 3-4x as many members as we
currently do, and could afford a larger space with a street level
rollup door and concrete floors and NICE TOOLS. I'd like to see a
future noisebridge that does not tollerate the rampant
anti-intellectual math-is-a-tool-of-the-man demographic that's so
totally occupied the space. I'd like a future noisebridge where people
are expected to have showered.

I'm not sure if NB is worth my time anymore, because I don't really
know where the other active members stand on this. I've talked to
maybe 10 of them, and some form of change is clearly wanted.

We could make it easier to join (less time, less money), and then
start restricting access privileges.
We could cut the buzzer (done a few times already).
We could actively ban people caught sleeping in the space.

We could do a lot of things.

But I don't know if the membership is ready to set about actively
changing things, or still at the bitching and slowly leaving phase.

It seems to me, if NB was healthy, the active dues count would be growing.

How many 'incidents' away are we from shutting down? How many people
need to get pissed off, or disgusted, or just tired, before we can't
afford the space?

Are the holdouts so stalwart, and our consensus process so strong,
that we should be talking about taking our dues and starting a new
space instead?

Why do we permit it to be this bad?
-- 
Crutcher Dunnavant <crutcher at gmail.com>