[hackerspaces] Leadership abusing powers. Bullying. Extraordinary General Meetings.

[michael howard]

You are not in Kansas anymore.

The hackerspace is not the same as your day job.

2015-02-25 15:56 GMT-03:00 Edward L Platt <ed at elplatt.com>:

> I have to say, I really love this thread. It contains some clear examples
> of the very best and very worst in hackerspace culture.
>
> On Wed, Feb 25, 2015 at 1:54 PM, Red Davies <noiddicle at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> So I'm going to regret this...
>>
>> On Wed, Feb 25, 2015 at 12:51 PM, peter <phm at riseup.net> wrote:
>> > I beg to differ. I don't care what the 'law' says. I care about what is
>> the
>> > right/moral thing to do.
>>
>> I think we all care about what is "right/moral" Peter.  The issue of
>> course is that we disagree as to the right/moral thing to do in this
>> case.  The law is a parseable emotionless framework which is designed
>> to address this issue.  Is it perfect? no... but it provides a
>> consistent and known framework and sometimes that's the best we can
>> do.
>>
>> > (there is no appeal process, but I can try to call an EGM, which is
>> what I'm
>> > doing)
>>
>> Good!
>>
>> > If your government starts committing genocide, would you say 'oh well,
>> they
>> > passed a law to make it legal, so there is nothing I can do?'.
>>
>> I'm actually really disappointed with you that you erected that
>> specific straw-man.  You seem very intelligent so you know already in
>> advance why your argument is made of straw.
>>
>> In a Hackerspace you volunteer to be a member until the bylaws as they
>> are written.  You are free to leave at any time.  When it comes to
>> government wanting to commit genocide of their own people those people
>> have no choice.
>>
>> > I like philosophy/logic/reasoning/rhetoric/critical thinking. I think
>> it's
>> > good to practise these skills, and fun to do in it's own right.
>>
>> Just like sex.  I like it, I think it's good to practice and fun to do
>> in its own right.  That still requires however consenting parties.
>>
>> >The problem is people who don't like being told why they're wrong.
>>
>> Sure, nobody does.  They are however in a position of leadership and
>> responsibility which means that they get to make the decisions because
>> they're the ones that have to deal with the consequences of the wrong
>> decisions being made.  The members have the ability to either:
>>
>> 0. Hold those individuals to account when it comes time to elections.
>> 1. Just leave and do something less boring instead.
>>
>>
>> > Why don't they be all chill and just ignore me?
>>
>> ... because as leaders of the organization they have to show
>> leadership and deal with PR.  Some allegations have to be responded
>> to.  If you make the same, tired assertions again and again then they
>> have to be answered to again and again.  This is exhausting.
>>
>> There are what, over a thousand members of LHS.  Let's just take 1000
>> as a round number.  If every member were to take up as much resources
>> as you are then there wouldn't be an LHS.  That doesn't mean that
>> people shouldn't engage or shouldn't complain.  It means that people
>> should respect those people's time and not waste it over thrown away
>> pasta.
>>
>> Proportionality please.
>>
>> That's it.  Please respect the time of the volunteers.  They sacrifice
>> their own project time so others can work on theirs.
>>
>>
>>
>> Red
>> _______________________________________________
>> Discuss mailing list
>> Discuss at lists.hackerspaces.org
>> http://lists.hackerspaces.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Edward L. Platt
> http://elplatt.com
> http://civic.mit.edu/users/elplatt
> http://i3detroit.com
> @elplatt <http://twitter.com/elplatt>
>
> This electronic mail message was sent from my desktop personal computer.
> Please forgive any long-winded, overly-prosaic ramblings.
>
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>
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