Alternatives to Community Social
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Posted on: Wed, 02/13/2008 - 12:26am
Alternatives to Community Social
Hi everyone,
The Community Social at Drupalcon will not be some people’s “thing”, plus it is illegal for some people (including myself) to attend. I therefore would like to mention that we are planning a “mini code sprint” as an alternative option for people who either don’t like the sort of environment that will be at the social or are not allowed to attend.
Please post below if you’re interested in this instead of the social so we know approximately how many people there will be, as we are planning on providing brownies. For, after all, the average coder’s efficiency goes up 50% on an excess of sugar. ;)
I will be there. Bars are totally not my thing. Code sprints are. Brownies are on me :)
Will they taste any better that way?
Count me in!
Place: anyone’s hotel room if its big enough. Or a coffeeshop. Or something :)
The party is not at “a bar”. It is at a very cool venue with pool tables and a lounge and 4 different floors. Each floor has its own atmosphere. People who want to dance to trance can do that. People who want lounge can do that. People who want pool can do that. Free food will be there. We will be having some extraordinary live music on one of the floors. I think everyone will find something to love at this party.
All—
Moshe has it right. I picked Felt as a venue precisely because it offers at least 2-3 different types of atmospheres that you can be in:
- The first floor is very open, bright, “street-level,” and has some nice places to sit for more casual conversation
- The second floor is spacious, with plenty of room to socialize with your fellow Drupalers
- The third floor is similar to the second (and overlooks the second), but will also have a WII console (and big screen) set up for fun gaming with friends
- The top floor is where Orbit and the DJ will be playing music later in the evening for the creative types in the crowd
But the purpose of the evening is not to “be at a club.” It is to have an opportunity to spend time with the entire Drupal community in a fun, social atmosphere. Acquia is buying the food & renting the venue so we can gather as many Drupalers as possible together in once place (vs. scattered around Boston.) I’m a bit sorry that we ended up with a place where a few under-21 people can’t get in. It’s the law; we can’t change it. But I hope as many as can will want to be with their buddies in a place where a lot of their peers will be gathered.
I do encourage the under-21ers to gather somewhere they can. But let’s try to avoid a “social fork.” Keep the center of gravity at the single event, so the value of the event is as high as possible for all. (Just like open source.) ;-)
It may not be a ‘bar’ but it excludes the under 21 crowd completely. Which is not an insignificant number of contributors so to all intents and purposes, it is a bar. As such I can see no way to avoid a social fork unless we ignore all those under 21.
So even though it is ‘neat’, people can’t come.
I won’t be able to attend at the Community Social as well, due to age restrictions (haha!) and welcome an alternative for that evening.
I do agree it’s best not to fork if possible. How about this. Try to make the alternative venue as close to FELT as possible, therefore, if some of the FELT people wanted to drop by the alternative venue, it wouldn’t be that big a deal. There are a lot of places in that area.
Well, it’s already been mentioned that if people want an alternative, it’s up to them to come up with one. Evidently a ‘social fork’ would be bad.
Not forking is all very well. But you cannot expect forks to not occur if you do not allow some people to come. So all your complaining about forking is useless. I really do not care, I will be doing something that night. If you don’t want forks, let us in. Otherwise, just be quiet and let us do something else.
Respectfully,
Charlie
I was at Fent looked around and then looked around in Google too for a cafe or a teahouse — found really not much. But how does Diesel Cafe at Davis square sound? It’s a few stops on the Red line from Fent. Also, I bought a Powergrid boardgame and so far cwgordon7, dmitrig01 and kkaefer said “sound good”.
Not to mention, I am not going to be taking a 10 month old child to a club. It’s probably not legal anyhow.
I’m actually a little irritated by this whole thing.
I think everyone will find something to love at this party.
Where ‘everyone’ is ‘everyone 21 and over’. Gr.
I’ll be at the main party, but as a local, thought I’d mention that Diesel is a cool spot. Great cafe au lait. It’s fairly large, though I’m not sure how easy it will be to get tables…maybe a few people there early can start taking over tables in the back room. There is actually a pool table there (and a photo booth that occasionally eats people’s money but is otherwise fun).
Off-topic…There’s also a beautiful old bowling alley very nearby. A fine, unspoiled specimen (before 1950 sometime?) of a classic candlepin (ask the google) alley. Wood pews, balls return on a wood rack above ground.
It’s called Sacco’s Bowl-o-rama.
I will probably be tagging along with you all especially if there’s an opportunity to dig into code and do some helping out with the likes of people who I REALLY want to meet (namely everyone who’s posted that they’ll be there!). Bars aren’t my thing either (and yes, this is a club/bar despite the fact that one can “lounge”), and while I do like live music, I feel like I’d get more out of the conference by digging into some code and chatting with people in a smaller group setting.
I don’t know the BCEC area that well, know Cambridge just a tad, but really know the South End/Back Bay area if people are willing to take the train a few stops. Otherwise we can gather wherever we can. Let me check around with a few friends/contact of mine that’re still in the area and see if they might be willing to host. If I find anything, I will let you know.
.cw.
I will be there unless something changes.
We have got an offer for space at the Harvard Berkman Centre which I immediately accepted with heartfelt thanks, thanks, thanks! http://maps.google.com/maps?q=23+Everett+St,+Cambridge,+MA+02138,+USA&sa...
I am bringing a powergrid, and Merlin likely brings some card games. We will have fun.
And I don’t drink, so I’ll make an attempt to come as well.
I will book the space tomorrow (Feb 27) around noon EST barring hearing something totally to the contrary in this thread before then. I welcome a discussion, but at least it’s a nice big space with WiFi that could accommodate a dozen comfortably, if not more. Looking forward to meeting y’all.
.cw.
cwells / sceo
I agree with the under 21’s here, even though I’m over 21 and I do drink. Holding the event at a venue where some section of the attendees are barred from attending is a major oversight. I’ll probably throw in my lot with the coders…I don’t code (yet), but maybe I’ll learn something interesting :)
Not sure how we can avoid forking the event at this point.
Dave.
…Acquia could buy dinner / non-alcoholic drinks for the mini-sprint? That way their sponsorship would still extend to the entire community, and the current “exclusion” of the under 21s might be mitigated.
Dave.
As decided from previous comments, I do not think there will be any coding, rather board games and card games. :D
As for Acquia buying non-alcoholic drinks and dinner… sure, would be nice, but I am not optimistic given previous obnoxious attitude in this thread with the whole “I think everyone will find something to love at this party.” philosophy.
And anyway, chx is bringing fudge brownies and chocolate chip cookies, iirc. :D
-Charlie
I really love board games, but I’ll still bring my laptop and potentially be doing some coding or maybe try and knock out a DROP task while I’m there or something if I don’t get roped into a game. So I wouldn’t rule out that some people may want to Drupal it up. I think with some plans more solidified, it’s possible that other people might opt for this event over FELT. So I would say that as of now, we’re planning on potentially coding and/or games. Anything you can really do in a conference room that has wireless. Well, within reason of course. :)
.cw.
After two days o’ DrupalCon even I would like to do, well, something else than Drupal coding. The all-day sprint is different — at least we will have some sleep before that, even if not much :)
I was under 21 in Boston for two years and it sucked, a lot.
Given we’ve just had GHOP, it seems like an oversight not to include those students, and they’re pretty clearly pissed off about it (as would I be in that situation). Not to mention people who aren’t high school students and work full time on Drupal are barred for age reasons as well.
I’ll probably end up in the bar. But for next time a couple suggestions:
We are penned in for using the space at Berkman for our “alternative social.” There is a class in the room that we are using that lasts until 7:30, so we can’t go before then. The event coordinator said we could get 40 people max into the room, but if I’m thinking of the correct room I think we’ll want to set a cap around 30.
So far I’m assuming we’ll have:
Seems to be about 10.5 people ;)
If you want to come, please post in this thread, so we can have a rough head-count. I’m sure there may be some people just finding out about the event on Tuesday night, so hopefully we can accommodate another handful of people at that time.
We should probably try to gather together and go over as a group; it would probably be easier from a need-to-take-public-transportation-in-a-big-city-and-don’t-know-it-very-well perspective.
.cw.
I’m not into the club scene, so though I’m not positive I’ll be forking with you, I’ll probably be there.
I’m missing out on the code sprint on Friday, so I’d like to make up for it by joining you guys on Tuesday.
Hey guys, also interested in this event. count me in!
I work here: Raincity Studios.com
I hang out here: Steve Krueger.com
I will be at the alternate social too.
No, I am not underage (quite the opposite), but a kid at heart.
Hey cwells,
I was wondering if you could post a google map for directions to the event?
I work here: Raincity Studios.com
I hang out here: Steve Krueger.com
View Larger Map I'm going to walk to South Station, take the Red Line to Harvard, and walk from there to Everett St. It's a lot of walking... but I hear that's good for you. :) I need to be there for about 7, so I'm going to leave around 6 to make sure I get there. If anyone wants to come that early and tag along with me, I'd love to have you and chat you up on the T. It was mentioned that we were welcome to hang out in the kitchen area until the class gets out of the conference room at 7:30. Hope this helps! .cw.
I’m interested in joining you cwells. Mind if we drop by the Apple store on the way there? I was hoping on picking up an iphone while I was here. Contact me on skype at steve_krueger.
I work here: Raincity Studios.com
I hang out here: Steve Krueger.com
What time will this be at?
Also, I’ll be there.
Let’s meet at the cloaks at 6PM tomorrow, eat something enroute and that’s it.
The PDF at http://www.boardgamegeek.com/file/download/15841 could be useful for you guys.
Hi Steve -
I’m going to go over with the group and eat with them. We would be happy to let you in the building whenever you arrive. Perhaps you want to to come with us, eat with us, then head over to the store once we get settled, then once you’ve picked up your phone you could come on back and call my cell and we’ll let you back in.
Incidentally, for anyone that might need it, my cell is +1-508-250-4292.
We’ll meet by the coats at 6, as chx said… sounds good. I’ll send out a twitter about it, too.
.cw.
Ok, after the noisy scene at Lucky’s last night, I’m definitely up for something smaller/mellower. I’m going to grab a bite, stop by my hotel, then head out to Cambridge.
-Andy
Sorry I missed you guys - I guess I was too late?