Noisebridge Theory Nights

Notes

2025-11-04

Noisebridge Theory Nights

Not actually night time but i like the name - zoda

attendees: - LX - CarlG - Elan - Robbie - Anh - zoda - nthmost - web-D

LX: thinking today will be a prelude to the event and kinda just setting up context.

Zoda: maybe we can start with intros and what made you want to come to a meeting like this?

LX: I am Alex I came here because some friends from DefCon gave me a key:) It was naiomi's idea and take no responsibility of this and came here bc people were welcoming nb has weathered manys storms and phases and its important to larn from that -- did game dev and also help with wiki and infra

Oliver: I jsut moved here 4 days ago from nyc and hanging out here -- working on a new thing lil microcontroller with mouse context and text to speech

Anh: comingh to nb for about a year and i like to come here to meet new poepe and hang out

Robbie: coming for about a month -- kerfuffle on discord brought me here

Elan: came first 8 years ago -- but really only got involed after pandemic. came here for the same reason interested in best ways of introducing to noisebdridge

WebD: heard old noisebridge story on discord and got em excited

Carl: came here first 2010 made my own space

zoda: Came here for wood, stayed for community. think a lot about noisebridge theory and want to talk about it. noisebridge has inspired a lot of other spaces...

nthmost: 2009 started coming here not one of the founders last people standing me alex carl the idea here is to still around i our rocking chair and share stories to help avoid making the same mistakes as history. theres a lot of things people have to overcome a lto of things.

nthmost: Disposed by __ inspired noisebridge a lot

e: What do people feel are the guiding missions of Noisebridge?

WZ: democratizing access to the means of production!!! culture of mutual aid energy

Oliver: What is anarchy? Is it just an organizing principle?

WZ: I think it is a good principle to democratism.

Nthmost - another name of anarchism is libertarian socialism

LX: libertarianism has different meaning - rather than liberty of capital is liberty of association.... <could not keep up> ... aiming for libertarian excellence. Proselytizing that anarchism can breed excellence.

Zoda: I feel NB has fundamentally changed me and made me realize that there are spaces where people trust-by-default. I think this should be a place where people feel welcome/trust/assume-best-intent by default. I feel outside (--SF--) Noisebridge* there is a very classist environment. As long as you make Noisebridge better your voice matters. It does feel like Burning-man. Badge of excellence. I think in terms of mission providing resources is important. I agree with WZ . Prefigurative politics / Temporary-autonimious-zone. Your job is not to wait for govt to change but to create zones where these things are true. Noisebridge is an experiment / an evolving thing. Our way to do that is provide these tools/resources. Who you are outisde of NB shouldnt matter - whether you're gay/what your politics are- if you're a nazi outside but are a good community member you should stay. It is a social experiment that we should encourage people to be a part of

E - I think a strength of NB is adding rules based on. We do in fact have rules against nazis based on explicitly needing these rules (e.g. Nazi punks previously trying to take over the space or coming through to drive others out feel less welcomed).

Z - I think it is important to consider what is important to NB culture. ie. DNH stickers are a good idea - we should keep doing that for instance.

N - A lot of the issues stem from people seeing an unmanaged community and try to take advantage (Occupy movement sleeping). If you're not aligned with the mission to learn then this isn't a place for you.

D - I don't have aspirations for a world that is anarchist but think it is necessary/useful to have access to such spaces. I grew up in an anarchistic organization - radically open policy.

LX - I don't think Noisebridge is just the bullet points that we define ourselves. I don't think anyone has been shamed for not reading anarchist literature.

Nthmost - I think it strengthens our point to not highlight anarchisms.

E - Maximally flexible with minimal rules that we can agree on.

Z - It is not NB is for everyone but everyone who is excellent. I think there is only one rule which is to be excellent. We have rules that are all downstream of excellent. I don't think we should have as explicit rules. I try to be lenient with rules.

D - I'm curious how NB handles cognative-dissonance of one rules vs many.

LX - a heirarchy of rules!

D - I think that is ironic.

LX - I think that is imporant to defend against. Many-rules-no-rules is to show we have If "Be excellent to each other" is our axiom and if ppl don't believe in that then they should not be a member of our community.

N - I think another way to see it is - by framing it as our one real rule is a cultural hack. It gives impression that all rules are maliable (like govt). It is a way of framing how things work in practice and give the organization as a center of gravity. It is a good takeaway

Z - I think we should only have one formal rules. I think everything downstread of "be excellent". I think the reason to only have a single rules is to avoid cultural deadlock. For example - we had someone we wanted to 86 but there was no evidence but they were definitely not using the space in an excellent manner. Cogdis definitely exists around heirarchy about membership. It ages and changes over time.

C - On the thought of consensus - trying to remember if there was anything that was blocked by a single person.

LX - if someone ever completely blocks we can always remove them for that reason.

D/Z - how does 86 happen?

E- Who knows?! Has happened via consensus and if necessary board decision.

LX - I think this makes sense because safety > process

N - a lot happened in 2014, this was during the reboot. <internet cuttingh out> Will tell the the 2014 story next week