Excellence

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The first principle of Noisebridge is to be excellent to each other. We get a lot more specific in our anti-harassment policy, but there are a whole load of other social norms which keep Noisebridge a safe and happy place to work and learn.

Noisebridge's Vision tried to avoid hard-and-fast rules. Many of these are guidelines, and rightly so. In the past, we've noticed that certain actions and behaviors are good for the space and other actions cause problems. This page exists to help you determine whether something you're considering is a good idea, and to help you work things out when reasonable people disagree.

Although we work together and attempt to ensure that this page reflects what we collectively think, it's not our formal consensus.


Purpose and Vision

  • Noisebridge is a place for hacking, hackers, and learning to hack.
  • Noisebridge should be welcoming to those who visit, and a safe place to learn and work.
  • Noisebridge operates by do-ocracy and consensus.
  • The Noisebridge Vision describes what we are for, and what we are about.


Entrance and Membership

  • You do not need to be a member or associate member to hack at Noisebridge or to participate in the community here.
  • Members and associate members can come and use Noisebridge at any time.
  • If you are not a member or an associate member, you should find one to host you and show you around.
    • It's often easy to find someone on IRC or the mailing list.
    • You can also try coming to the space and introducing yourself as soon as you get here.
    • If you're coming for a class or other event: don't sweat it, your teacher or a fellow student is taking responsibility for everyone at the event.
  • You should take responsibility for the actions of anyone you invite or let into Noisebridge.
  • If you are a regular user of Noisebridge or participant in our community, you should consider becoming an associate member.


Disagreement

  • If you disagree with another member of the community you should try to work out your differences with them.
  • If you cannot work out your differences one-on-one, you should consider mediation.
  • If someone asks you to leave them alone or to otherwise stop a behavior that is directed toward them, please do so. Continued unwanted behavior directed toward another person is Harassment.

Requests to Leave

  • If someone is acting in a way incompatible with our community standards, you are empowered to ask them to leave Noisebridge immediately.
  • You are under no obligation to do so, and absolutely should not confront someone who you think poses a physical danger to you.
  • If someone asks you to leave Noisebridge, you should immediately leave, whether or not you think their request was legitimate or in good faith.
  • If someone asks you to leave, you should not return until the conflict has been resolved, hopefully through mediation, though possibly at a meeting
  • If you ask someone to leave, you should email the mailing list to explain the situation.

Reporting

If you would prefer to privately report unacceptable behavior (including violations of our anti-harassment policy), you can email <secretary@noisebridge.net>. This email address is monitored by a number of upstanding and trustworthy folks. They'll handle your request privately if you prefer, and otherwise work to resolve the problem in a way which keeps you safe and protects the community from unacceptable behavoior.


General Guidelines

  • Talk to people and make friends. Part of the point of Noisebridge is interpersonal interaction, and we want to meet you and learn about whatever cool project you're working on. It's amazing how often random discussions between people at Noisebridge have turned into things that show up on the world stage.
  • On the other hand, do be sensitive to people's desire to stop talking and start hacking. If someone starts looking away, returning to their laptop or project, or begins walking away, consider that you might be the Nth person to strike up a conversation with them, and they may want to actually get something done.
  • Noisebridge is your hackerspace, not your home. Living here is definitely an anti-pattern, so don't even try to do this! If money is a problem, have a look at our page of starving hacker resources for ways to get around and crash if you're short on cash.
  • Pull your own weight. We don't have housekeeping service, so clean up after yourself and put things away when you're done. In fact, you're going to get a lot of good karma by tidying up twice the amount of space you use on a regular basis.
  • Everything in Noisebridge is hackable. If you don't want something taken apart and turned into a giant robot the moment your back is turned, leave it on your shelf, or mark it clearly with your name, a way to contact you, the date, and what you're doing. Even then there are no guarantees -- it's just mildly rude to hack on a labelled thing unannounced, as opposed to positively encouraged.
  • If you find yourself having to explain something in the space more than once, you should probably label it.
  • If you can't throw something away in a full garbage can, you should probably empty it.
  • If you see someone being awesome or something which is awesome, it's awesome in turn to sing its praises. Motivation is a rare commodity among us and a compliment here and there can work wonders in terms of creating more of it. We have a Noticeboard of Excellence by the door which is a good place to leave a semi-permanent thankyou.
  • Bringing minors to Noisebridge might result in them being exposed to ideas outside of your control, and you probably shouldn't bring them if that's going to be a problem.
  • Bringing pets hasn't historically been a serious problem, since we have a pretty big space and allergic folks can usually relocate. You should still ask around and meet people to find out, though!
  • Don't bittorrent from the space, it causes lots of problems for other people trying to use the network. We've also gotten DMCA notices about people snarfing copyrighted content using our links and they're very annoying and unexcellent. Please don't download copyrighted content illegally using our Internet links.
  • If you're going to smoke, smoke downstairs on the sidewalk. Don't smoke on the fire escape -- it affects our neighbour's small children, the ash falls down onto the fruit below, and the fire service get mad at us.
  • At least one Noisebridge member is seriously allergic to marijuana smoke, so please don't smoke it in the space or nearby.
  • Don't talk about politics or religion if you want to avoid conflict. Noisebridge attracts a certain kind of personality that gets irate when they suspect someone thinks they're wrong, and even mentioning you support a different political or religious group than them can really push their buttons if they're having a bad day.
  • Going on the roof is, except in narrow conditions that you almost certainly aren't covered by, a violation of our lease agreement. It also causes leaks, and in the past a leak destroyed some irreplaceable artwork belonging to a member. Don't go up there without talking to someone who knows about the lease details.
  • Taking stuff from the space temporarily without leaving a note with your contact info is a surefire way to cause problems. Taking stuff permanently, even if everyone agrees it needs to go, can cause tax issues which you should bring up at the weekly meetings.
  • Please ask before playing music through the public audio systems, especially if people are quietly enjoying the space.
  • Try to keep infodumps to new acquaintances to under a few minutes. Many people at Noisebridge are walking libraries on their field of expertise, but no one likes being fed a textbook through their ears.
  • Do not do anything at Noisebridge or involving Noisebridge which could affect a political election campaign, express or implied, incumbent or not. While not illegal, it is grounds for the IRS to revoke our tax exempt status, no exceptions.
  • Noisebridge must not be involved in anything which could affect legislation, with certain limited exemptions. Talk to the officers of the corporation for guidance if you are unsure whether your proposed activities will be exempt or not.