How to get banned: Painting at DMS

DMS General
1

There was another case where someone painted the concrete.

I want to make my view extremely clear on this, if you do this and do not clean up yourself I don’t feel that you should be a part of the Dallas Makerspace.

I consider it disrespectful at it’s best intention and vandalism at it’s worse.

So effective immediately if anyone is caught doing this and not cleaning up after themselves I am going to use my powers to remove them from membership till the next BOD meeting where there fate will be decided.

If anyone sees someone painting on the concrete please let them know or email [email protected]

If you see someone and they did not clean up after themselves please email [email protected] asap and if possible a time when they the painting occurred.

Thank you to the majority that treat the place with respect,

Robert Davidson
Dallas Makerspace Director

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Amen!

twenty characters…

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Rather blatant, especially since it has happened multiple times and warnings were given.
Maybe we need to step up policing ourselves and holding each other to a higher standard?

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Maybe a camera is warranted out back.

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There are cameras out there, above the roll-up doors. I don’t know if they’re ours or the landlord’s though, and I don’t think they can see that close to the building.

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Yes we own the cameras I will pull the footage when I get home but like most things around DMS a time stamp helps a lot

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It would have been between Saturday night when the (absent-from-the-photo) backdrop was placed and Monday morning when the incident was reported. I suspect Sunday during the day.

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Good grief… If you wouldn’t do this at home, why in the world would you do it at the Space?

I’d hate to see some of our members’ homes. Paint everywhere, piles of cut wood scraps and sawdust, tools laying everywhere, parted out gear laying around, damaged tools, etc…

People sure can be rude and inconsiderate of others. Treat the Space like you would tools borrowed from your father-in-law or a huge musclebound hot-headed friend. You return them in better shape than they were when you used them.

9

Do we have the ability to email/notify everyone at DMS? I don’t think everyone reads talk.dallasmakerspace.org and we’ve really had a bad rash of not-excellent things happen of late. I think it would be useful to send out emails to remind folks of certain standard, expectations and rules. Whether it is stolen items, not cleaning up after oneself, or painting outside it seems we need some way to let everyone know it is not excellent to do this. I know it seems redundant since every orientation and most training classes mention safety, accountability, respecting others etc, but maybe another form of reminder would be useful. It is amazing that some people don’t think the rules apply to them.

I know in many other organizations repetitiveness is one of the means of constantly reminding people of proper behavior. Sort of a “Your mother doesn’t work here thing.” Thoughts?

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Well you have a 2 different breeds that occupy makerspace, the makers and the breakers.

The return makers have a respect for DMS, the tooling etc, cause they have a desire to come back to make something else.

The breakers are normally one shot members, with this glorious project in mind that they want to get done, and that’s all they are concerned with. The hell with the rules, whatever they destroy or deface, the goal is just to get their project done, and then they disappear like a ghost.

Common sense does not register with a lot of folks that destroy whats at the space, so you have to just chalk it up cause the space doesn’t and wont discriminate and or start screening folks before they join. Its a quick walkthrough, then a do you like it, you wanna join.

Yes, ok, login, heres your key. Which leaves you with did I just let a clepto, pig pin, saboteur etc in the building?

The only thing I can suggest is to have clear obnoxious signs posted, such as DO NOT PAINT ON THE CONCRETE, YOU WILL BE BANNED.

If you don’t spell it out in crayon, people are gonna do what they want as they wont see any repercussion, and half of those folks don’t get on the forums anyway.

I for one bitch and complain about the state the CNC is sometimes left in, you know what, it still keeps happening and its gonna keep happening.

Its a crap shoot, we may rave about the increase in memberships, but with that rave comes the fact that you will get some bad apples that are gonna do the above.

Why not put together like a 2 hour orientation safety video, with all of this havoc in regards what not to do, and make all new members sit through that video prior to getting their key. If they survive that video then they will know what they are signing up for and they won’t have a case for pleading ignorance of not knowing.

My advice is more appropriate signage so people are in the know, and a more in depth orientation process, that may help this rising not being excellent issue.

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Problem is most people don’t read the signs, or don’t want to. Posting a sign or note on everything probably some we have to do only so we can then point out; “Didn’t you see the sign?”

I know having a piece of tape that says “Don’t Touch” has no meaning to someone who want’s to steal the parts off of a piece of equipment. :frowning:

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This is not a reason to not put up a sign IMHO

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Nothing wrong with signs, but they really don’t stop or even give pause to the intentional trouble makers.

Folks like those that have stolen Fluke multi-meters and stripped the pcb mill, like @Lampy is referring to.

The only thing that will stop some people is to identify them and permanently ban them.

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14

Signs inform a well-intended person to not follow in the footsteps of the person that left the maker graffiti. It’s not unreasonable for an honest person to see the painted concrete, think that it is acceptable, and then spray all over it again. A post on Talk has virtually zero real world impact.

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I have nothing against signs, but I also don’t expect them to do anything to change the situation. When people see that others get away with breaking the rules, they tend not to place a lot of concern about the rules when they apply to themselves. Until we start seeing some real consequences for such behavior, I don’t think signs are going to do much.

For instance, who on this board can honestly claim they never exceed the posted speed limits?

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Yeah a thief is a thief, new or old member, can’t really guard against that.[quote=“MathewBusby, post:14, topic:7700”]
Signs inform a well-intended person to not follow in the footsteps of the person that left the maker graffiti. It’s not unreasonable for an honest person to see the painted concrete, think that it is acceptable, and then spray all over it again. A post on Talk has virtually zero real world impact.
[/quote]

It won’t stop the behavior, but I think it would help it. I know that I paint all over my garage floor, not that big a deal to me, so if someone has a piece that larger than the setup we have outside, then the next best thing is the ground outside, unless you tell or say different.

Thievery and blatant abuse is one thing, but miscommunication is another, if we didn’t in someway form or fashion confirm that painting is not allowed on the ground outside, how is anyone suppose to know that rule?

I agree however the speed limit signs are there and if you so choose to exceed it and get caught then you get a ticket, how is a cop gonna give you a ticket if there is no sign?

So the signs wouldn’t be the cure-all but more of a non-verbal you’ve been warned get caught and your done. At this point that person is innocent cause we didn’t do anything but assume nobody would ever spray paint a project on the ground.

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Interesting idea. Does anyone know if the membership/billing numbers support this?

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It is this idea that we can’t punish someone if we don’t have a sign that I object to. In the instance of the speed limits, even when not posted you can be ticketed for a number of offences, reckless driving being the most obvious. The point about speed limit signs is that even though they are everywhere, no one obeys them–every body speeds. The reason is that they are not regularly enforced. And that is my point about the proposed sign-age here. Unless it is strictly and consistently enforced it will do no good.

As to the maker space and the need for posted rules. I believe that this is a basically flawed premise. Do we need to tell people that they can’t steal? That they should not be acetone fuming 3D parts in the electronics lab, that they should clean up after themselves? I don’t think so. I think that such behavior should be self-evident, and anyone caught violating it should be subject to a progressive level of punishment that is dependent upon the violation.

As I said above, I have no objection to posting signs; however, I don’t think we should do so and expect it to solve the problem. There seems to be a strong reticence among our members concerning any kind of conflict and I think that is why we are seeing what appears to me to be an ever increasing problem with people following the basic rules.

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Sorry, this is not what I was trying to convey, I am in total agreement that those that abuse the space should have consequences. I just think we should start with communicating the rules appropriately first, regardless if people read them or not, that just gives you more ground to initiate the ban…

Oh I didn’t know, well theres a big ass sign that says you shouldn’t do that along with the repercussion. Convo over.

The main roadblock I’ve seen recently is who is gonna be the sheriff to start the banishment. I mean we here about folks looking at video etc, then that’s about it, stops there, what happens after the culprit is identified?

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The only persons who have the authority are committee chairs and board of directors. The former can ban members from committee areas while the latter are the only ones who can do so for the entire space.

BTW, The comment about needing signs to punish people wasn’t really directed specifically at you, I have heard a number of members make that claim.

Don’t get me started on the video system, its apparent cumbersome nature, and the lack of transparency for its use.