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Show HN: Workfrom – The best coffee shops and cafes to work from

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Re: Show HN: Workfrom – The best coffee shops and cafes to work from

#21

Post by prawn »

darrenbuckner wrote: post #18
jakejake wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would think that places who have wait staff would not appreciate people taking up tables without ordering since it would directly affect their pay. But a coffee shop that does mostly take-out business may not mind so much having the appearance of a busy, popular cafe. I do think it's good to be mindful that you are utilizing a business's space and facilities, and they are able to provide these to you by selling foo…

We've gotten a lot of feedback from business owners that the average patron staying to get some work done is a good steward of their space and spends money often. We hear stories of people staying for hours and hours, not buying anything - but we've found this is just not the norm. With that said, we do encourage our community to support businesses with their evangelism AND money.

If you're not there during peak times, then your presence potentially serves as some social proof that the place is worth visiting too. Probably better to have one customer on their laptop than a completely empty café.

Re: Show HN: Workfrom – The best coffee shops and cafes to work from

#24

Post by icelancer »

canterburry wrote: post #13

I would suggest you don't force people to sign up to add a location. I just didn't add Coffee Bar in the mission district because I simply can't be bothered to sign up.

Likewise. Wanted to add hackerspace Metrix:Create Space in Capitol Hill (WA) but even if I used a throwaway it wants me to validate my address. I can't possibly see the reason for this.

Re: Show HN: Workfrom – The best coffee shops and cafes to work from

#25

Post by icelancer »

icedog wrote: post #23

Am I the only one who prefers to work in public libraries? The San Mateo library has plenty of seating/power outlets, a respectable cafe, and free underground parking.

I did this for some time while unemployed but the public libraries here (Seattle) have absolutely awful Internet access. Probably due to the large number of transient people watching... videos.

Re: Show HN: Workfrom – The best coffee shops and cafes to work from

#26

Post by notatoad »

jakejake wrote: post #16
groundhog wrote: post #9

This looks really useful! This isn't meant to be a criticism, but I was wondering how your website will overcome the issue of people not wanting to publicize their favorite work spot to prevent overcrowding? Also, from your experiences so far, are cafes happy to have people sit in their shop for extended periods? My impressions are that while some places (cough, nice people in Portland) encourage such behavior, other…

I would think that places who have wait staff would not appreciate people taking up tables without ordering since it would directly affect their pay. But a coffee shop that does mostly take-out business may not mind so much having the appearance of a busy, popular cafe. I do think it's good to be mindful that you are utilizing a business's space and facilities, and they are able to provide these to you by selling foo…

i think this is one of those self-solving problems: if a place is busy enough that they don't want people working there, it's probably too busy to be a good place to work. If it's a good quiet place to work, they're probably grateful for your business.

But of course, don't be a dick. If you're taking over a table for a couple hours you should buy some stuff.

Re: Show HN: Workfrom – The best coffee shops and cafes to work from

#28

Post by darrenbuckner »

prawn wrote: post #21
darrenbuckner wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We've gotten a lot of feedback from business owners that the average patron staying to get some work done is a good steward of their space and spends money often. We hear stories of people staying for hours and hours, not buying anything - but we've found this is just not the norm. With that said, we do encourage our community to support businesses with their evangelism AND money.

If you're not there during peak times, then your presence potentially serves as some social proof that the place is worth visiting too. Probably better to have one customer on their laptop than a completely empty café.

We've heard this point quite a bit.
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