[Noisebridge-discuss] Cynthia

Praveen Sinha dmhomee at gmail.com
Wed May 9 01:42:29 UTC 2012


Note:  I've just donated $10 to noisebridge for adding to this whole
discussion.

I've thought about it, I don't have a good solution.  But I am really
disturbed by the non-stop do-ocratic bannings.

Frankly, I'm considering do-ocratically inviting Cynthia back into the
space (even though I am annoyed by her).  I am definitely going to try to
make it tonight to block on this until it's further discussed.

When "do-ocratic banning" was first used it was in the context of someone
that was actively harrassing people and being violent.  Noisebridge is not
a homeless shelter, but I don't think we should lightly discard radical
inclusion.  There are a million other ways to handle the situation with
someone who at least cleans the kitchen.  If push comes to shove, I'll be
willing to mediate.

This issue isn't going to go away, and I don't think introducing blanket
bans or trying to make sophmoric attempts to "define hacking" is going to
work.  These things have to be a human call, and consensus is there for
situations just like this so people can argue over shit...

On Tue, May 8, 2012 at 1:47 PM, Alan Rockefeller
<alanrockefeller at gmail.com>wrote:

> There is a bit of confusion about Cynthia.
>
> The problem is that she is not a hacker, she is a homeless person who uses
> the noisebridge kitchen.
>
> This would be fine if it was just a day or 2, but she was showing up
> nearly every day for a year.
>
> Do we want homeless people who have no kitchen to use the noisebridge
> kitchen?
>
> Cynthia is a nice person and I have had only positive interactions with
> her.  She is a little crazy, but never in a bad or unsafe way.
>
> Some people think that Noisebridge should only be for hackers.  Other
> people think that Noisebridge is for everyone.
>
> I see it both ways.  If we let all homeless people in SF use the kitchen,
> it would be very crowded.  And not in a good way.
>
> I am fine with non-hackers coming to noisebridge occasionally, but they
> shouldn't be there too often.  When they do show up every day and hack
> nothing, I sometimes ask them to come around less often.
>
> When non-hackers show up to noisebridge once a week or less, that is cool.
>  When they show up every day for many hours, I get annoyed at them and ask
> them what they are working on, implying that they should be working on
> something.
>
> Calling the police on her was bad, but what were they supposed to do -
> admit defeat?  I would have admitted defeat, but I understand why they
> didn't.
>
> I have tried to kick people out of noisebridge before.  9 times out of 10
> they leave.  When they say "no, I am not leaving..." I say ok, and go do
> something else.
>
> I can think of 2 other people  who are rather Cynthia-like.  I don't know
> what to do about them.  I like both those people, but I think they come to
> noisebridge too often.
>
> The fact that none of these people are bad folks complicates the problem.
>
>
>
> We could make a policy about this.  Or we could keep doing what we are
> doing, let people do-ocratically decide.  What we have been doing does work
> - There were about 60 people at noisebridge last night and all of them were
> awesome.  Kicking people out isn't fun or fair and I don't like doing it,
> but occasionally I do because Noisebridge is not a homeless shelter.
>
>
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>
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