April 2, 2003

This is how we originally explained this list :
Time to get back to basics.

When one goes to Burning Man, the atmosphere gives new meaning to the word "relaxed". People are accepting of a wide range of quirks and viewpoints, much more so than in "the real world". This is one of many reasons why we go to the event. But, much of this spirit hasn't carried over to the BMORG-dominated Burning Man forums, online.

It's time that this changed.

This is not exactly a discussion list. Mainly, we hope you'll come to talk about local (Chicago area) events you'd like people to come to, and Chicago-based camps that you are trying to get going. (To qualify, a "local" camp should have at least 80 per cent of its membership live in the Chicago metropolitan area, comprised of Cook, DuPage, Will and Lake counties in Illinois, and Lake country in Indiana).

We do expect you to be civil, and be on topic. Political postings are not on-topic, and flaming is not tolerated. One strike and you're out. Self-defense we understand. "Winning through intimidation", we don't.

Lurking is not allowed here, as the whole point of this list is to build community, not to give the socially challenged yet another place to hide from it.

Please keep in mind that this is an alternative list for those who want to get away from the BMORG appointed control freaks. People should be free to do their own thing without some BMORG appointee being put in charge from 2000 miles away. If you feel otherwise, please either keep it to yourself or go somewhere else. We don't want to hear about it. Considering how free and easy BMORG has been in censoring its critics, we're not about to apologize for this anytime soon.

In the cultural context of "Burnerdom", this notion was as radical as it was simple, and some weren't ready for it. (Or for the idea of a non-discussion announcement-oriented mailing list, which we've since abandoned. If you want to discuss something on the list, and it's on-topic, go right ahead). As we explained on the original homepage for the list ...
September 5, 2002

" The whole idea of this page is based in what is the simplest observation, a matter of mere common sense, and yet manages to be a source of endless controversy. Ready for this? Here goes :
' There is no such thing as the right to be included or invited in a recreational setting. '
If somebody shows up in one's house and is rude to one, or to one's guests, one has every right in the world to throw his sorry butt out. If somebody deliberately comes to a pot-luck dinner without a dish and tries to bum a meal, he is told to go. This much is just common sense. Until recent times, nobody would have disputed this ... "

But dispute it people did, as bizarre as this should seem, with Fire Fabulon and "Jack" going into absolute hysterics over on E-Playa because we were excluding people "merely" for being obnoxious. "What's wrong with being a loudmouth" asked Fire Fabulon, who later deleted her posts. We didn't take this complaint very seriously, and found ourselves taking it even less seriously when we noted that these same people seemed to have no problem with unpopular people being banned from E-Playa which, unlike this list, is a central meeting place for the community.

Not that we were surprised. As our earlier commentary continued ...
" What happened to change this? The Internet happened. The kind of people who were shunned in real life because they didn't know how to behave, suddenly became semi-celebrities because they had more time to waste than anybody else in this new mass communications medium. Some of the worst people our society produced were suddenly setting a lot of its cultural tone, perversely enough, because they were the worst! Not surprisingly, these people who had never been invited to anything soon tried to con the rest of the population into thinking that getting an invitation was a birthright.

It isn't, and it never was. This list was created in an effort to reclaim some of that lost common sense. If somebody comes here with the thought that he'll get people to go along with what he wants just by being rude enough, he's in for a nasty surprise. There isn't going to be any poll of the membership, giving him a chance to play politics and sway the results. There isn't any charter that he can go looking for loopholes in. There is just a list owner who doesn't give a d**n about politics and will toss his sorry butt out, end of discussion.


What that means to you, the subscriber, is that you can get things done here without having to deal with a lot of the unpleasantness you see elsewhere, because you're dealing with adults ... "

Even so, given the opportunity to go about their business in peace, very few of those signing up were conducting any business at all. People weren't posting, and took their non-participation to the ludicrous extreme of refusing to answer questions like "would this kind of event sound interesting to you", and of refusing to post introductions when asked for them. As we continued our explanation, we tried to guess why, and described how we would take action :
"Part of being an adult is knowing that you have to do your part. This, unfortunately, is something a lot of people have gotten out of the habit of doing. Understanding why is easy. 'Stay quiet and you won't get attacked'. This is an excellent reason to be intolerant of flamers and other tantrum throwers. They get in the way of the rest of us being able to get anything constructive done.

But, even after the flamers have been driven away and there no longer is any reason to feel shy about speaking up, bad habits linger. 'Let somebody else take care of it'. On a mailing list, we can't accept that, because there is nothing here other than what the subscribers put on it. If everybody is sitting there silently waiting for somebody else to make the effort and take the chances, nothing ever happens. What we eventually realised was that by letting people who did that stay, we were undercutting the effectiveness of the list.

The response was fascinating. People who didn't have time to answer questions like "would you be up for a Burning Man movie night - yes or no" suddenly found the time to write and sent five page long, obscenity filled rants to the list which, much to their unpleasant surprise, had become a moderated list. The rants were rejected and as we had announced a "no flames" policy in advance, those sending them in were banned without further discussion. We had our ideas of what some had signed up for this list in order to do, and now were seeing them confirmed.

I'd like to tell you that with the deadwood cleared away, a more vital, active list resulted, but to date that hasn't been true. Silence is a hard thing to interpret, but there have been a few semi-competing theories:
Some of the more cynical suggestions:

1. Somebody came across mention of an article entiled "Burning Man as a cult" alleging that BMORG has a history of encouraging community members to not talk to its critics, much as outspoken members of a cult will become targets of a group shunning, with the encouragment of the leaders.

In other words, psychological warfare. Go sign up for a list you don't like, and then drive the moderators crazy by not saying anything.

2. BMORG has already driven out almost everybody who had anything to say that differed from the party line, leaving lists like ours in the position of trying to pump an empty well.

3. Maximum cynicism from the one of the list's members: "Don't overanalyze this. Burning Man isn't about to run out of pot, and marijuana users are notoriously apathetic".

Some of the less cynical suggestions:

1. Signing up for Yahoo lists is just too damned easy. Some of these people probably signed up for 50 or 60 of these free lists and never get around to contributing to any of them.

2. Prisoner's dilemma situation : People would like to post, but now they're asking themselves "if I take the time to post, is anybody going to take the time to read and respond to it ?" Inertia takes on a life of its own.

3. People know that BMORG isn't fond of us. (The feeling is mutual). They're afraid if they speak up, BMORG will start disliking them, too.

Which, if any, of these are true? You tell me. How does one interpret silence? But here's how we break it : Do you and some of your friends want to have a place online where you can talk about things relevant to Burning, or to interactive arts, and other positive things associated with Burning Man? Feel free to drop by here and act like our list was a coffeehouse (only without the coffee). As for the lurkers, don't even think about the fact that they're here, and if one of them tries to play "net cop" tell him that the list owner said to cut it out.
What this list is, now.

An alternative Burning Man list for the Chicago and Ft. Wayne metropolitan areas, and Northern Illinois and Indiana. This is a list for the discussion of Burn-type events, not politics. The owner is Medius and the moderator is Edd Thompson (euphoria_dj), who makes most of the decisions around here.

What do I see as defining the Burning Man experience? The camps. The art, especially when it is interactive or pushes the boundaries of our expectations. A page of links which may be of interest to Chicago burners may be found by clicking here; perhaps it will help you come up with a few ideas of your own. If so, we'd love to hear about them.

Please keep in mind that this is a generally anti-BMORG list, and we won't take kindly to efforts to make the Burner subculture more centrally controlled and bureaucratic than it already is. Even if some people in San Francisco have a hard time remembering this, Burning is supposed to be about individual freedom. For those who feel otherwise and want a BMORG appointee put in charge of their efforts, we recommend the old Burningman Chicago list, and don't say that you weren't warned. We're here to give you a shot at a better experience than that.

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