Ask HN: Advice for Starting a Hacker Space?

From experience founding and running Droplabs out of download LA for 5 years, get all official members, whatever their official-ness is, written down in a public shared document that includes expectations and boundaries for all behaviors in the shared space, and all financial obligations to the space and between members outlined with boundaries too, with penalties/teeth for non-compliance. Org and general space member behaviors also need boundaries, one of which is to include group decisions, votes, or whatever made as an official decision are closed when a decision is made, and is not forever a talking point until the relentless get their way. Shared anything brings out the worst in people, and your organization needs to expect it, because the stubborn and mentally ill fail to be entertaining when real finances of multiple people are on the line every month. It's amazing how many normal people are downright crazy when group responsibilities and financial commitments are on the line.

> "until the relentless get their way"

> "Shared anything brings out the worst in people"

> "the stubborn and mentally ill"

So on point... thank you for the reminders on these realities... Not sure how many times I'm going to need to learn my lesson with all this... (happens in the art hippie world too, and elsewhere I'm sure)

There's got to be some better way to keep it simple and break out of all that though right? Like keeping it a benevolent dictatorship? That doesn't seem great either obviously...

I only do benevolent dictatorships anymore. Mine or someone else's, committee management drains all energies when even one person is difficult or slow.