Nottingham Hackerspace Rules

Nottingham Hackspace Rules

What - The letter of the rule

• Do not knowingly take an action that will result in personal injury or injury or hurt to others.
• Hackerspaces by their very nature should be places that contain dangers. They should NOT be dangerous places.
• It is YOUR responsibility to guard yourself from those dangers!
• A hackerspace is not a work place but the Health & Safety at Work Act 1974 still applies.

How - The spirit of the rule

• If you do not know how to use equipment and its use is apparently dangerous then seek help.
• Weapons, explosives and bio-hazards should not be brought to the space for hacking.

Nottingham Hackspace DO NOT approve of any illegal actions.

• Do nothing to endanger yourself or others.
• Do NOT dick around with tools, electricity, fire or anything else that could be expected to hurt or damage yourself or other people.
• Do NOT assume that the Hackspace is insured against YOUR stupidity.

Abandoned things

• A member will be considered to have left the space 4 months after no longer paying a membership fee by Standing Order. (from The_35L_Rule)
• At such times a combined notice to sell or dispose of abandoned goods should be sent via recorded delivery or registered letter. This is to meet legal requirements under the Torts (Interference with Goods) Act 1977, Schedule 1 - Uncollected Goods parts I and II.

A sample notice is given below, and must include the address of NottingHack.

Dear [former members name],
Following your recent departure from NottingHack, we hereby serve you notice that your goods [list of goods which have been abandoned] should now be collected. Goods must be collected within [14 days if member lives in Nottingham or 28 days if they live further away].
Goods which are not collected during this time will be disposed of by NottingHack. If any goods are deemed by us to have a monetary value they shall be sold, and expenses for arranging the sale will be deducted from any amount raised. Any sum remaining shall be forwarded to you.
Any goods which we believe the value of will not cover the costs of arranging for sale will be destroyed/disposed of.
Yours sincerely.

Once the notice has elapsed then the potential value of any goods should be discussed at the next board meeting and an agreement to sell or dispose of the goods should be reached.

DO NOT HACK means DO NOT HACK

This rule is put there with the aim of people's projects not getting damaged or misused.

Objects In the Hackspace:

Some things are obviously not to be hacked, like tools and bits of infrastructure. Sometimes the presence of an object is ambiguous though. Do Not Hack signs are a simple way of disambiguating them, and protecting your projects from the awesome ideas of others.

There are all kinds of reasons for projects to be around the space; for instance some are too big to go in a member's box, or something might be a part-built piece of hackspace infrastructure. If it's not in a materials store or a consumables box, then assume it's not for hacking. It's possible that something not in materials storage or a consumables box IS available for hacking, but you should make sure first.

Protecting Your Projects:

When you've started work on something and it might be ambiguous that others aren't to mess with it, put a do not hack sign on it. For instance, you've found the perfect piece of board to make a mug rack later that week, or you've built a piece of furniture but need to store it until you've got time to finish the wood. For something so unfinished, it might be easy for another hacker to assume it can be used for something or even consumed as material for a different project.

Some tips:

• Attach the sign to the project with tape or something. Make sure the sign itself is prominent and can't easily go missing.
• Put your name on the sign. If someone needs to ask about it, or something happens to your stuff, this will make things a lot easier.
• Store your stuff in a way that mitigates possible damage. Bubble wrap and cardboard are cheap ways to shield your project from things going on in the space, and if you know it'll be there for a while it's well worth packing it like this.

No CRTs Thank You

A lot of people ask if Nottingham Hackspace needs donations of old cathode ray tube based TVs or monitors. In completely non-technical speak, that means non-flatscreens.

The answer to CRTs is always no. Take them to the tip instead. They're old, power-hungry technology, and if anyone has a use for them, we don't know who. Nowadays you generally have to pay to have someone take them away.

Pay monthly

• Members make a payment by Standing Order into the Nottinghack bank account. This payment should be received on a monthly basis. Where possible members should use a reference that states who they are and that the payment is for membership.
• Members who do not pay by standing order or miss payments for more than one month will be removed from the members mailing list and will not be informed of changes door codes or WiFi keys.
• Members who continue to attend Hackspace but have not made membership payments will be reminded to pay and ultimately excluded from the membership benefits.

Talk is Cheap

• Rule 3 is becoming an important part of the culture of Nottingham Hackspace.
• Talk is very cheap, and hackers love to gabble about stuff, and speculate on the directions a project could go in. Before you can say "Gantt chart", a relatively simple and practical project suddenly morphs into a massive technical specification for something that will, say, automatically display a tiny superfluous lolcat while performing its actual intended function. The person who just wants to get on with it may feel paralysed by the intentions and ambitions of others. The Bikeshed Anti-Pattern is a good explanation of the problem.
• When it's not a contentious issue, doing stuff counts far more than talking about stuff. If you're actually doing the thing, and it won't interfere with infrastructure or other hackers, then your opinion generally counts a lot more than the kind of idle speculation we're all prone to firing at ideas on the mailing list.

There are several ways to interpret Rule 3:

• Don't mistake speculation for intention.
• Just get on with it.
• If you're doing something awesome, you probably don't need permission from anyone else.
• Rule 3 is not carte blanche to do whatever you like; all members are expected to take other members into account. However, don't be put off doing something simple just because people have more ambitious ideas that they're unlikely to execute on.

The letter of the rule

• Only members may store projects at the Hackspace
• Each member may have a 35L Jelly type Box with lid
• The box is provided by the Hackspace, members do not bring their own 35L box. This is just to make sure they all stack.
• Do Not go through another members box without their express permission.
• Members who pay £20 or more in membership fees may (for now) buy additional boxes of the same type
• Hackers may increase their membership payments to increase their storage space by negotiation.
• The Hackspace should not become overrun with parts for projects in progress and "DO NOT HACK" signs for projects that never get started

Abandoned things

A member will be considered to have left the space 4 months after no longer paying a membership fee by Standing Order. At such time a trustee, or a member nominated by a trustee shall give notice of intention to dispose of or sell any abandoned things.

The two box system

There are a couple of large grey boxes in the space, which serve to filter donations. One of these boxes is "active", and all donations should be placed into it. Any member (see rule 1) may take anything from the two grey boxes and hack it, or put it in their personal 35L box to hack later. Periodically, these boxes are sorted and useless stuff thrown away. Useful items like magnets, motors etc will be filtered into the "Wall O' Boxes" where the Hackspace consumables are kept for later use by members. The hackspace as a whole may also take things from the box system to be stored for later use.

Bigger Projects

Some Other Hackerspace

Policies listed here are currently tentative.

• Treat everyone excellently.
• No smoking inside the hackerspace. Smoking outside is permitted.
• However it is up to the smokers good will to have ashtrays, keep them clean and safe.
• Clean up after yourself, your mama doesn't hack here.
• Ask before you use someone's tools.
• You break it, you buy it.
• Stuff that should be done behind closed doors should not be done in the public space at Hackerspace.
• Everything should be a Give and Take
• We want your contribution- ideas, creativity, good will, and everything else!
• There are no stupid questions.

See also

• Xinchejian Membership Code of Conduct