User:Nbezanson/FAQ

Some questions that are *actually* frequently asked. Bonus -- some include answers!

When is the space open to visitors?

i3Detroit is a volunteer community — no staff, no regular business hours! Visitors are welcome, without prior arrangements, during Friday Nite Tours, on the calendar. Also check the calendar for other events of interest; most are open to non-members but read the specific details of each to be sure. If in doubt, post on the Mailing list and check.

When is the space open to members?

24/7.

Can I come see the space during the day?

No. Most of us have day-jobs. Drop in during regular open hours.

If you join as a member and want to host open hours during the day, do that! But right now, nobody does that. Be the change you want to see!

Do I need to join as a member to use the tools?

Not necessarily! If you're here as the invited guest of a member, they can supervise your use of whatever tools they're allowed to use. (Some tools require a safety checkout before use, but that applies to anyone, member or guest.) It's actually a good idea to do some work in the space as a guest to get a feel for how things run. Talk with your hosting member about how the space works so you can decide if joining is right for you.

Do I need to bring my own materials?

Yup. Folks often share left-over materials, but it's not practical for the group to try to stock everything you might need. Group-buys may occasionally happen, and the electronics lab is a notable counter-example, but in general, bring your own stuff.

If you bring a big bag of high-quality zip-ties even though you only need a few, it's like bringing classy wine to a dinner party -- you'll make friends quickly.

How to I join as a member?

First, start participating in the community. Watch the calendar. Visit the space a lot. Meet people. Do stuff, fix things, publish projects, get to know the active members.

While you're at it, see New Member Orientation or Membership.

Can you make this thing for me? Even if I pay you?

No, we're not a job shop. We're a community resource, so you can come make it yourself.

You might have some success contracting with an individual to make it for you, and they may be a member here, but those two facts are independent. Post on the public Mailing list and ask.

How big is the laser cutter? What kind of 3D printers do you have?

You can find this information yourself by searching this very wiki! Try the little search box, or try Category:Equipment, or start from Zones and drill down. If the information you seek isn't listed, please post to the Mailing list and ask, then come back and edit the appropriate page to add the answer so that others may find it.

My company would like to host an event at your facility. How much to rent the conference rooms?

The what? We, umm. We don't have conference rooms.

You really should visit the space...

If a noisy, messy, chaotic shop environment really is your idea of a good time, go ahead and shoot an email to contact@, we might be able to work something out. If this is the case, however, the odds are good that one of your employees is a member here already, and you should just go through them for coordination.

Can our gaggle of students/scouts/whatever come to the space for a day?

Probably not.

Lots of our members have kids of their own, and bring them around without incident. But they can't bring unrelated kids (can't legally sign the waiver on their behalf), and the permission-slip to work around that is onerous.

Building a community and facility like ours involves countless choices and tradeoffs. Often, we have to pick between doing things one way that'll be more kid-friendly, or doing things another way that'll provide more capability or freedom for responsible adults. We always pick that latter option.

There are lots of places with things they call makerspaces now, some of which are decidedly more appropriate for kids. They don't have nearly the tools we have. But I repeat myself.

If you have an idea for how to strike a better balance, some of us would love to help you start another space! There's always room for more. Please get in touch.

Do you want a pile of Pentium-era desktops? Some of 'em even have CDROM drives!

No. Odds are, if you have a bunch of consumer electronics sitting around, so do we. Please just take it to SOCRRA.

Lab equipment may be another story. If any of it says LeCroy or Coherent, we should definitely talk. Check the Wishlist, email contact@ and we'll figure it out.

We've just created a site to list all the makerplaces / 3d thingers / communiwhats in the world, but we really mean just the US because all the international bits are broken, and now we want you to spend a few hours creating an entry on our list which is a 99% mimic of what you've already put on hackerspaces.org

Unless you can explain how it fills a need unmet by existing resources, no.

I'm a big important producer with a fancy LA or NYC production company you've never heard of. We've done shows like "Stressful Kitchen", "Angry Knitting Circle", and "Superstition Celebration", and now we're low on ideas. Do you have any photogenic psychopaths people with "big personalities" who might want to audition for our new show where makers have to compete rather than cooperate, while overcoming artificial challenges and tense music? It will be like The Kardashians meets Junkyard Wars, with a little Jurassic Park thrown in. The ideal candidate will have at least 10 years of experience building things from scratch that are sent into space, be able to work with an exciting dynamic team, already have qualifications that probably enable them to have a steady 6-figure job, and be willing to quit a moment's notice to work for $24K a year in a 60-hour per week filming schedule that could end with no notice. Bonus points for having movie star looks and prior film experience.

No.

Really, no.

Can I join as a member and then be cranky when there aren't trainers standing by every machine 24/7 waiting to spoon-feed me? I'm allergic to reading wikis or watching youtube, or otherwise trying to teach myself anything.

This is a DIY space. If you're not self-directed, you'll just have to pay Techshop errr... The Village Workshop to put up with you.

Please don't waste our time and yours. Everything in our space is done by volunteers like you. If that doesn't meet your needs, you can fix it by volunteering more.

Please fill out this survey, or do my thesis for me.

We get a TON of survey requests, sometimes 2-3 *per day*, so responding to them all would be a full-time job. As an all-volunteer hobby group, ain't nobody got time for that! So, we're choosy about how we spend our spare minutes.

Basically, we're only gonna give you our time if you're gonna give something back to the community -- release your data in a freely-licensed way, and/or publish your results in an open-access journal. It's also nice if you notify the contributors when your results are ready.

Before asking, try searching the archives of i3Detroit's public discussion group or the worldwide hackerspaces discusion list or the hackerspaces subreddit to see if someone else has already asked the questions you're asking. If they haven't published their results as a followup on the same thread, contact them directly and ask them to do so. Save everyone some time!

If you can't find any similar work already existing, go ahead and post your questions, but keep in mind that a lot of surveys are horribly-written and piss off the people taking them, so please heed those lessons!

If your request annoys the people you're asking to volunteer their time in taking it, or if there's simply been an overwhelming volume lately, bear in mind that people might just not feel like it.

Do you want to staff our off-site workshop for free? I've never met anyone from your group and never set foot in your space on a visitor's night, and will refuse an invitation to come do so, but I'll be sure to email you a dozen times asking if you have any members who are just made of free time and want to come babysit small children in a halfway-maker-related exercise of some sort.

You're welcome to contract with individual members, but as a general rule, once people join here, they don't have free time anymore! Come to a meeting, or post to the Mailing list.

My associates and I are flying in on a private plane next week, and want to meet with your early stage investors about the collaborative model and how we can bring something similar to [city-redacted]. After doing some digging we found your [oldest, and largest in the area] space. We've got all the right people leading the tech charge, can we jump on a call? Really hope to connect!

Do you always talk like that?

When is the next Underwater Basketweaving class?

When you help make it happen!

i3Detroit is a participatory community, member-run, DIY, inmates-run-the-asylum, whatever you want to call it. So, what would it take to get you to run a class for something YOU know? Probably similar to what it would take to get our Underwater Basketweaving expert to run one. So if you think you'd want someone to help getting people signed in at the door so you can focus on teaching, hey! Maybe the teacher could use someone to help getting people signed in at the door, so they can focus on teaching. You see?

So, take a look at HOWTO_Host_an_Event_at_i3detroit and maybe post to the Mailing_List to get started coordinating.

Also: Lead by example. Personally (Nate B) I'm a lot more likely to want to dedicate my time and share my knowledge, for other people I've seen dedicating their time and sharing their knowledge. No customers, everyone participates!

Why is this FAQ so snarky and hell-bent on not doing anything for me, making me do it myself?

Because feeling like your success depends on my free time is really stressful.