Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: What happened to hackerspaces?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

111–120 of 126 posts

Re: Ask HN: What happened to hackerspaces?

#111

Post by Tabular-Iceberg »

reaperman wrote: post #106
Tabular-Iceberg wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

> What, you're looking to join an Antifa-adjacent sex club? Please re-read the HN commenting guidelines. This is not appropriate. ———————- Be kind. Don't be snarky. Converse curiously; don't cross-examine. Edit out swipes. Comments should get more thoughtful and substantive, not less, as a topic gets more divisive. When disagreeing, please reply to the argument instead of calling names. "That is idiotic; 1 + 1 is 2,…

The same can be said for a snarky “please reread…” instead of directly addressing the comments that you take issue with.

And is not the strongest interpretation a friendly tongue-in-cheek rather than a cross-examining demand for you to justify your follow-up question? I know some communities like to use the /s convention, but under that principle it seems redundant to me.

Re: Ask HN: What happened to hackerspaces?

#112

Post by mkmk3 »

clausecker wrote: post #89

In Germany, they are alive and well with new hackerspaces being founded frequently. There was a pretty big slog due to the Corona restrictions, but it's slowly all coming back.

Netherlands too, even in my smaller city, I know of one that has a pretty serious space thanks to some grants.

But as others said, libraries can also fulfill the same function. I went to Zwolle recently and saw that they even seem to have a regular volunteer repair cafe. Thought that was super cool

Re: Ask HN: What happened to hackerspaces?

#113

Post by ShamelessC »

rendx wrote: post #83

It seems like most people have given up on the idea of community, sharing, and collective action, and prefer to take pills or other substances against the resulting depression/anxiety/loneliness. Many comments here confirm this attitude, where what they see in spaces is reduced to "shared access to tools". Nobody wants to put in the effort just to have the majority be leeches.

> It seems like most people have given up on the idea of community, sharing, and collective action, and prefer to take pills or other substances against the resulting depression/anxiety/loneliness.

Oh, didn’t realize I was watching Fox & Friends.

Re: Ask HN: What happened to hackerspaces?

#114

Post by ogou »

I've been a paid member of 3 hacker spaces and a couple of niche creative communities over 20 years or so. There was a time when people were actually interested in experimenting, tinkering, and holding workshops. I think that has been replaced by hustle culture. I saw a lot of shops turn into laser cutter and C & C focussed fabrication shops. People were using the equipment to run under the table sign shops and Etsy production lines. They would book the equipment for 6-8 hour blocks and pay a premium. Indie users could never get a slot and learners were even more frustrated. There was rarely a density of users in there at the same time because everything was booked. The actual community just faded away. The infrastructure of shared resource communities got exploited by people who are purely motivated by money.

Another challenge is governance. Managing a volunteer organisation can be tricky, especially if a few get paid for various things. Passionate people burn out and leave. That leaves a management vacuum that is easily exploited by people with an agenda. I watched one shop get completely taken over by political issues and the original mission was left behind for identity focus. It was a real bummer.

The only ones that seem to survive have a strong professional management core and strict monetary oversight.

Re: Ask HN: What happened to hackerspaces?

#115

Post by sokoloff »

Animats wrote: post #97
threatofrain wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hacker Dojo recently fired its executive director and has been running mostly rudderless in terms of the management of the social space for several months. They're been looking to hire a community manager. Unfortunately Hacker Dojo daytime attendance nowadays is quite low, so they're not really attracting people as a WeWork space. I wonder how they're going to pick it back up.

Yes, cramming people tightly into a small room all day is a bad idea. COVID isn't gone, and winter is coming.

We live okay in the presence of many endemic diseases.

Re: Ask HN: What happened to hackerspaces?

#116

Post by sokoloff »

samtho wrote: post #51

I was involved in makerspaces for a while. While I have not given up on them, I will admit that I have become thoroughly disillusioned with the idea. Real estate is expensive and a makerspace should be near public transport (which will likely be closer to the city center) but should be able to to facilitate some parking and/or transfer of large items to/from a vehicle. Cheap real estate does come in varieties that su…

> community of people who have the tools at home and choose to work there because is a great place to collaborate

If I have the tools at home, why would I commute to the makerspace to work? This seems like the remote work thing, only amplified (because I’m probably not commuting to do 8 hours of work on my project, now I’m paying instead of being paid, and I have to drag my project and raw materials with me [with the risk of damage and PITA that entails]).

If RTOffice isn’t desirable, why is RTMakerspace going to be popular?

Re: Ask HN: What happened to hackerspaces?

#117

Post by koromak »

William Osman and Allen Pan commented on it in a recent-ish podcast, Allen used to run a space.

Basically, the politics of the situation is impossible. Maintaining a space like that costs an incredible amount of money and time. You'd hope that the community could pitch in together, but you always end up with a single person being the primary patron, spending their own time and money, while others abuse the space and the machines for themselves.

The only spaces that seem to have survived are ones that gets large grants from some institution like a university or local government, and therefore can be run like a business, with leadership and staffing.

Re: Ask HN: What happened to hackerspaces?

#118

Post by _spduchamp »

We got married, had kids, and a pandemic. Though under utilization was a long running problem before all that.

As someone who spent many years as a volunteer at a couple spaces, there were a lot of lonely nights of nobody showing up. Getting adults off the couch and out for an evening of nerding out with free access to laser cutters, 3D printers, and well equipped electronics workstations is more challenging than one would imagine.

Re: Ask HN: What happened to hackerspaces?

#120

Post by reaperman »

Tabular-Iceberg wrote: post #111
reaperman wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What, you're looking to join an Antifa-adjacent sex club? Please re-read the HN commenting guidelines. This is not appropriate. ———————- Be kind. Don't be snarky. Converse curiously; don't cross-examine. Edit out swipes. Comments should get more thoughtful and substantive, not less, as a topic gets more divisive. When disagreeing, please reply to the argument instead of calling names. "That is idiotic; 1 + 1 is 2,…

The same can be said for a snarky “please reread…” instead of directly addressing the comments that you take issue with. And is not the strongest interpretation a friendly tongue-in-cheek rather than a cross-examining demand for you to justify your follow-up question? I know some communities like to use the /s convention, but under that principle it seems redundant to me.

That was the only part of a comment I took issue with and I did “directly address” it. None of the rest of the comments were part of “an argument” and I took no issue with them; there was nothing else to “address”.

Looks like other community members also agreed that you were out of line, judging by the flagged status. It seems that your creative interpretation of the guidelines might need some revision. That includes whether my corrective comment was “snarky” - that comment has received positive karma votes from the community and is not flagged for violating HN commenting guidelines.

Post reply on HN