[Noisebridge-discuss] proposal for noisebridge membership changes

[Dan Cote]

I'm sorry, but I see all of this as an intrusion of unnecessary hierarchy
and rules into a space that doesn't need them. First of all, I respect you
Jake, and this isn't directed towards you, but towards a recent trend.
Everyone, I am not attacking your actions. I am very happy that you care
enough about our community to get involved. I am simply trying to explain a
valuable part of our culture which you may have overlooked, or may not even
particularly like. I support your intentions and I assure you that we are
allies. Unfortunately I may be acting as a temporary roadblock to your
consensus items. I hope that you will be patient and work through the
process to reach a mutually beneficial result.

The primary motivator behind all of this "rules" push is that people wish
to avoid accountability. Many Noisebridgers are uncomfortable making
decisions for themselves and kicking out people who shouldn't be at
Noisebridge. They seek to create written rules to avoid making a judgement
call.

>From https://noisebridge.net/wiki/Vision:
"Noisebridge takes a positive approach, and avoids the practice of
officially enumerating the myriad potential special cases; "be excellent"
is enough."

and from https://noisebridge.net/wiki/Community_Standards:
"The only hard and fast rule of Noisebridge is *be excellent to each other*.
Everything else is *dicta*."

and from https://noisebridge.net/wiki/Guidelines:
"Noisebridge's Vision <https://noisebridge.net/wiki/Vision> eschews the use
of rules, which is why these are guidelines."

Everyone please stop proposing consensus items with the words "rule" or
"policy." Please stop proposing consensus items that promote hierarchies
and specific reasons to kick someone out. Before you counter this, Yes I
want Noisebridge to be safe and accessible to our community and members.
No, I don't want Noisebridge's culture to end and be replaced with numerous
cases of what "unexcellent" means. It seems like I am citing written
procedural mumbo jumbo while simultaneously trashing on that exact
practice. I am open to modifying my opinion, and even stepping out of the
way. I am trying to communicate a part of our culture which I enjoy very
much.

Please instead re-word your intention to fit into our Vision, Community
Standards, and Guidelines. You can speak with the community and strengthen
your position. Then simply edit those documents. You may choose to get
consensus, or just edit the document. Getting consensus will help defend
your edits against future edits.

*None of this is really as important as action. All of our consensus items,
community standards, and guidelines are enforced by no-one and everyone. If
you are passionate about something, team up with the others who are
passionate about it, and spread it into our culture! Because when push
comes to shove, the space is run by the people who are in the space at the
time.*

Maybe you have stuff to do, and can't be in the space all the time, but you
can make the best of the time you do spend here to reinforce positive
actions (like hacking) with positivity. When someone is doing something
overwhelmingly negative, or even doing nothing positive, we need to do
"something." Caring, compassionate intervention by the whole community
comes to mind. *Often our community does nothing. This is why we have
problems.* No amount of mailing list bs, meetings, or rules will ever
change that. When I see our members having an all night heart to heart with
a new visitor who is going through a tough spot in life, it makes me proud
of our community. Some people who pass through our doors are just so far
away from anything to do with us, that the best response is to tell them to
go somewhere else. If nobody does that, then they will be in our space. No
amount of rules is going to change that.

Maybe I am wrong about all this, but there are numerous hackerspaces,
co-working spaces, and other places to hack in the bay. There is only one
Noisebridge. None of those other places are anything like us. Thanks, Jake
for setting up the new front door access system. Thanks everyone who has
been at the space lately, explaining our culture to the noobs and holding
down the fort. Thanks to everyone who is working on our problems with
permanent residents, harassment, cleanliness, infrastructure, and making
Noisebridge excellent.

Sorry about the TLDR.
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