[Noisebridge-discuss] Upstairs door latch mechanism?

[David Estes]

Right, we definitely shouldn't be using "Hispanic" and "wearing a
baseball cap" as criteria for rejecting someone.

On Feb 10, 2012, at 1:57 PM, Liz Henry <liz at bookmaniac.org> wrote:

> I would let someone in who wanted to use the wifi and would give them a
> tour, and do not care if they look scruffy or where they live as long as
> they don't live at Noisebridge.... I have asked people to leave when
> they behave badly. Here is hoping that we don't bar people from entering
> because they "look homeless" whatever that means. Heinous!!!! Base that
> on behavior.... Even if that is behavior as they're asking to come in.
>
> If they are drunk and loud and out of control or make some kind of
> threat then find enough people to ask the person to leave all in a group.
>
>  - Liz
>
>
>
> On 2/10/12 1:43 PM, David Estes wrote:
>> On Feb 10, 2012, at 12:43 PM, Danny O'Brien<danny at spesh.com>  wrote:
>>
>>> On Fri, Feb 10, 2012 at 09:06:30AM -0800, Casey Callendrello wrote:
>>>> It is being proposed as an imperfect but doable solution to a known
>>>> problem: gate riders. We saw it happen last night, thanks to your video
>>>> camera (which, btw, is awesome). It was someone who lived in a SRO and
>>>> been told that Noisebridge was "a cool place to sit and use the
>>>> Internet." We told him otherwise, that NB is for projects, and he
>>>> wandered off. It happened to be myself, Shannon, and WillS. I would not
>>>> have felt comfortable with these sorts of confrontations alone, every
>>>> day, and I don't think that's weird.
>>>
>>> I want to just touch on this event, actually, because I think it shows
>>> some of the many social complexities of the camera, an access code
>>> system, and other ways of applying more social pressure.
>>>
>>> What happened, as I saw it, was the guy was buzzing to be let in. A
>>> group of three people (Casey, Shannon and WillS) were standing by the
>>> camera, discussing its use, and pretty much decided not to let him in,
>>> based partly I think on the experiment of not letting people in, and
>>> partly because his appearance: he was a hesitant-looking hispanic guy,
>>> in a baseball cap. I can't think of any other way that you'd be able to
>>> judge who should come in apart from appearence using the current system.
>>>
>>> Anyway, just as everyone was deciding not to let him in, he got buzzed
>>> in anyway through the pony.noise/gate button.
>>>
>>> I wasn't paying much attention to the details of the conversation that
>>> ensued, but from Casey's description, Will, Shannon and Casey managed to
>>> get from this guy that he lived in an SRO, and asked him what he wanted
>>> at Noisebridge, and then he left. From the outside, it was three guys
>>> pretty much being bouncers at the Noisebridge top door.
>>>
>>> Afterwards, there was a general discussion about how fantastically
>>> awkward and somewhat upsetting doing that whole thing was. I think that
>>> was true for all parties.
>>>
>>> I don't know whether he was gate riding -- when I got there, he had just
>>> buzzed and was waiting to be let in.
>>>
>>> Here were the conclusions I drew from this:
>>>
>>> 1) A camera means that people may end up deciding not to let people in based
>>> solely on their appearance.
>>> 2) Not everyone is going to agree with that decision, so people are going to be
>>> let in anyway.
>>> 3) Somebody still has to act all bouncerly. Unless we tool up MC
>>> Hawking, somebody still has to Not Let Someone In, which is actually a
>>> far more active thing to do than it sounds.
>>>
>>> I guess I'm going to continue to think and act more on improving 3) than
>>> other stuff. I do want us to think more about how to preserve our
>>> diversity -- there's no reason why we can't maintain our boundaries and
>>> also be welcoming to people.
>>>
>>> My immediate suggestion for 1) is to maybe put the 86 list
>>> https://www.noisebridge.net/wiki/86 by the camera, to make it clear that
>>> it's supposed to stop *certain* people coming in, not certain *classes*
>>> of people in.
>>>
>>> anyway, that's all.
>>
>> I believe this was me.
>>
>> I'm not equipped to handle vetting anyone who happens to be standing
>> in front of the gate. I also don't feel safe enough in this city to
>> directly tell people on the street not to follow me inside, especially
>> when they've heard we let "anyone" in.
>>
>> What would have been a better response to this situation?
>> _______________________________________________
>> Noisebridge-discuss mailing list
>> Noisebridge-discuss at lists.noisebridge.net
>> https://www.noisebridge.net/mailman/listinfo/noisebridge-discuss
>>
>
>
> --
>
> ------------------------
> 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
> _______________________________________________
> Noisebridge-discuss mailing list
> Noisebridge-discuss at lists.noisebridge.net
> https://www.noisebridge.net/mailman/listinfo/noisebridge-discuss