<html><head><style type='text/css'>body { font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; }p { margin: 0; }</style></head><body><div>Spot-on, Arclight! You forgot the bit about "big personalities", which is Hollywood code for "you're gonna need to make Gordon Ramsay look like Gandhi".</div><div><br></div><div>-Nate B-</div><br>Arclight wrote:<br><blockquote style="margin-left: 8px; padding-left: 8px; border-left: 1px solid lightgrey">
Let's not forget this type of inquiry:<br><br>"We're a talent agency seeking enthusiastic, diverse creators to host<br>the most AWESOME reality show about makers ever. It will be like The<br>Kardashians meets Junkyard Wars, with a little Jurassic Park thrown<br>in. .<br><br>The ideal candidate will have at least 10 years of experience building<br>things from scratch that are sent into space, be able to work with an<br>exciting dynamic team, already have qualifications that probably<br>enable them to have a steady 6-figure job, and be willing to quit a<br>moment's notice to work for $24K a year in a 60-hour per week filming<br>schedule that could end with no notice. Bonus points for having movie<br>star looks and prior film experience.<br><br>To apply, send a resume and a 10-minute, professionally-produced video<br>to this burner gmail address. Oh, and fill out this 16-page "maker<br>challenge." Expect to hear from us several times per day until we pick<br>someone else and this e-mail and skype address get disconnected and we<br>disappear."<br><br>Arclight<br><br>On Mon, Oct 27, 2014 at 1:25 PM, Nathaniel Bezanson <a href="mailto:<myself@telcodata.us>" target="_blank"><myself@telcodata.us></a> wrote:<br>> Okay, the children's puppet shows are a new one, I haven't seen that. We<br>> usually get:<br>><br>> A) Crowdfunding spam. SO MUCH crowdfunding spam. Because when Kickstarter's<br>> community guidelines say not to do a bunch of things, they go and do<br>> precisely those things. And yeah, project promotion is explicitly welcome on<br>> our public list, if it has any sort of local relevance, but see, joining our<br>> public list would mean people might ask questions back, and they're totally<br>> not interested in that. Just the spam, thanks! (And every single one is<br>> convinced that nobody has ever crowdfunded a 3d printer or a robotics kit<br>> before so THEIRS is SPECIAL.)<br>><br>> B) "Please do my market research for me" or "please do my thesis for me",<br>> usually with questions about how many investors we have, or whether we feel<br>> our transformative resource has recontextualized the dynamic millieu of<br>> hyperlocal fluxmuster ideation.<br>><br>> C) "We just created a site to make a list of all the makerplaces / 3d<br>> thingers / communiwhats in the world, but we really mean just the US because<br>> all the international bits are broken, and now we want you to spend a few<br>> hours creating an entry on our list which is a 99% mimic of what you've<br>> already put on hackerspaces.org". It's to the point where simply updating<br>> our listings on all the various sites we could be listed on, would be a<br>> full-time job. And when checking back on these things later, invariably they<br>> end up with *more* cobwebs than the actually-quite-good list on the wiki in<br>> the first place.<br>><br>> (Above this line, the true bulk ones. Below this line, the<br>> specifically-directed-at-us ones.)<br>><br>> D) "Do you want my rotting barn full of e-waste?" Actually some of these are<br>> real gems, and we try to be nice to them while directing the majority of the<br>> real junk to a recycler. Much worse are the ones who just show up with a<br>> truckload of festering CRTs and pound on the door, or worse yet, unload it<br>> and flee the scene.<br>><br>> E) "Do you want to staff our workshop for free? I've never met anyone from<br>> your group and never set foot in your space on a visitor's night, and will<br>> refuse an invitation to come do so, but I'll be sure to email you a dozen<br>> times asking if you have any members who are just made of free time and want<br>> to come babysit small children in a halfway-maker-related exercise of some<br>> sort". Actually some of these do sound interesting, but an awful lot of them<br>> boil down to daycare.<br>><br>> F) "Can I join as a member and then be cranky when there aren't trainers<br>> standing by every machine 24/7 waiting to spoon-feed me? I'm allergic to<br>> reading wikis or otherwise trying to teach myself anything. I really want<br>> something like Techshop but even more tolerant of needy jerks, but for way<br>> less than half the price and with more equipment. Also why don't you have a<br>> blast furnace?"<br>><br>> G) "We're running a mini maker faire in [town 1,200 miles away], can you<br>> bring [large project that doesn't travel well] to it?"<br>><br>> H) "My associates and I are flying in on a private plane next week, and want<br>> to meet with your early stage investors about the collaborative model and<br>> how we can bring something similar to [city-redacted]. After doing some<br>> digging we found your [oldest, and largest in the area] space. We've got all<br>> the right people leading the tech charge, can we jump on a call? Really hope<br>> to connect!"<br>><br>> Okay that last one only happened once, but it's a very close paraphrase of<br>> the original email and I had to include it for laughs. (Bonus: they seemed<br>> to be unaware of an also-years-old actual hackerspace right in their own<br>> hometown. Wow.)<br>><br>> I'm gonna include, by way of positive example, some of the really GOOD ones<br>> we get:<br>><br>> I) "I'm from [not-quite-local area] and working on putting together a group<br>> that might end up starting a space here. I've read a bunch of stuff on your<br>> wiki and have a few specific questions, is this an appropriate venue to ask<br>> for details about a few things? Also I'll be in your area next week."<br>><br>> J) "My student group is working on a documentary about local DIY resources,<br>> and we'd like to arrange a time to come do some filming and interviews with<br>> your members, if that's OK. I've attached our standard talent release so you<br>> can make sure it's acceptable ahead of time."<br>><br>> K) "We're a [slightly similar group] in [neighboring town] and it looks like<br>> people interested in your classes might be interested in ours too. Plus<br>> we're totally interested in yours. Can we work something out, maybe a<br>> reciprocal deal? Or let's just see how we can help each other."<br>><br>> -Nate B-<br>><br>><br>> Sector67 Team wrote:<br>><br>> Lol - and I thought we were special! I get the exact same set of 4<br>> requests all the time :-)<br>><br>><br>> Chris<br>><br>> Chris Meyer<br>> Director<br>> Sector67<br>><br>> 608-241-4605<br>> <a href="http://sector67.org" target="_blank">http://sector67.org</a><br>><br>> 2100 Winnebago St<br>> Madison, WI 53704<br>><br>> On Mon, Oct 27, 2014 at 10:51 AM, Alan Fay <a href="mailto:<emptyset@freesideatlanta.org>" target="_blank"><emptyset@freesideatlanta.org></a><br>> wrote:<br>>><br>>> It comes with the territory of being a public space. Freeside gets four<br>>> distinct types of spam (aside from your typical email spam):<br>>><br>>> 0. "Can you advertise my [product, service, website, kickstarter] to your<br>>> members?" Really, what these folks want is an endorsement. We have an open<br>>> public mailing list that gets this sort of thing from time-to-time, but they<br>>> are after is our credibility and access to our platform to sell our members<br>>> or social media audience on something.<br>>><br>>> 1. "I have an idea but I need a team of people to work for little to no<br>>> compensation to execute it for me. Can you help?" A similar flavor, this<br>>> person wants to sell us on an idea and get us to recruit on their behalf,<br>>> for free.<br>>><br>>> 2. "Are your members interested in [paying to attend, or managing and<br>>> hosting (for free)] a hackathon?" Companies now use hackathons to spot and<br>>> recruit talent, and perhaps even manage to develop the start of something<br>>> with free labor. So they're looking for everything: credibility, access,<br>>> and recruitment - for free.<br>>><br>>> 3. "Can I use your space as a venue for [something unrelated,<br>>> exploitative, or weird], for free?" Our goto example of this is that we've<br>>> received not less than three (yes, 3!) separate requests to host children's<br>>> puppet shows at the space. Other requests include time-share presentation<br>>> variants, shooting rap videos, repairing air bags workshop...<br>>><br>>> On Mon, Oct 27, 2014 at 10:19 AM, Nathaniel Bezanson <a href="mailto:<myself@telcodata.us>" target="_blank"><myself@telcodata.us></a><br>>> wrote:<br>>>><br>>>> We get/got a LOT of maker-targeted spam to our contact address. Once in a<br>>>> while, the spammers wouldn't understand BCC, and we'd get a look at the<br>>>> address list: All hackerspace contact emails. I finally realized that these<br>>>> folks were just scraping addresses from the hackerspaces.org wiki.<br>>>><br>>>> I finally went and changed the contact address on our entry, and the<br>>>> volume seems to have fallen off quite sharply. A real human trying to<br>>>> contact us should figure it out in no time. But I wonder whether anyone else<br>>>> has taken this step, and how many more will be pushed to do so, and what<br>>>> this suggests for the future of the resource.<br>>>><br>>>> -Nate B-<br>>>><br>>>> _______________________________________________<br>>>> Discuss mailing list<br>>>> <a href="mailto:Discuss@lists.hackerspaces.org" target="_blank">Discuss@lists.hackerspaces.org</a><br>>>> <a href="http://lists.hackerspaces.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss" target="_blank">http://lists.hackerspaces.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss</a><br>>>><br>>><br>>><br>>> _______________________________________________<br>>> Discuss mailing list<br>>> <a href="mailto:Discuss@lists.hackerspaces.org" target="_blank">Discuss@lists.hackerspaces.org</a><br>>> <a href="http://lists.hackerspaces.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss" target="_blank">http://lists.hackerspaces.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss</a><br>>><br>><br>><br>> _______________________________________________<br>> Discuss mailing list<br>> <a href="mailto:Discuss@lists.hackerspaces.org" target="_blank">Discuss@lists.hackerspaces.org</a><br>> <a href="http://lists.hackerspaces.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss" target="_blank">http://lists.hackerspaces.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss</a><br>><br>_______________________________________________<br>Discuss mailing list<br><a href="mailto:Discuss@lists.hackerspaces.org" target="_blank">Discuss@lists.hackerspaces.org</a><br><a href="http://lists.hackerspaces.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss" target="_blank">http://lists.hackerspaces.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss</a><br></blockquote>
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