The MegaProbe Lab is growing quickly, and we need some rules to ensure everyone can get their work done. Different spaces have different rules, and I'm not one for strong or strict rules, but we need something.

I was going to propose we use noisebridge's community standards and just be excellent to each other, but we need a bit more structure than that. Therefore, I'm proposing these slightly modified rules, adapted from noisebridge's under their creative commons license.

Purpose and Vision

The megaprobe lab is a place for hacking on one of the lab projects.
megaprobe should be welcoming to those who visit, and a safe place to learn and work.
megaprobe works by do-ocracy and consensus day-to-day, but Humberto Ortiz-Zuazaga is the benevolent dictator for life.

Entrance and Membership

You do not need to be a member to hack at megaprobe, or to participate in the community.
Members can come and use megaprobe at any time.
The megaprobe key is in the department office. Use it when you need to, and leave it for others to use when you go. Please don't take the key home/to lunch.
If you are not a member, you need to find one to host you.
Members are responsible for the actions of anyone they bring to the lab.
If you want to be a member, come talk to Humberto.
Since space is limited, priority is given to members actively working on megaprobe projects, non-members and members not working on a project may be asked to leave.

Disagreement

If you disagree with another member of the community you should try to work out your differences with them.
If you cannot work out your differences one-on-one, you should consider mediation.
If someone asks you to leave them alone or to otherwise stop a behavior that is directed toward them, please do so. Continued unwanted behavior directed toward another person is Harassment.

Requests to Leave

If someone is acting in a way incompatible with our community standards, you are empowered to ask them to leave megaprobe immediately.
You are under no obligation to do so, and absolutely should not confront someone who you think poses a physical danger to you.
If someone asks you to leave megaprobe, you should immediately leave, whether or not you think their request was legitimate or in good faith.
If someone asks you to leave, you should not return until the conflict has been resolved, hopefully through mediation, though possibly at a meeting
If you ask someone to leave, you should email the mailing list to explain the situation.

Reporting

If you would prefer to privately report unacceptable behavior (including violations of our anti-harassment policy), you can email humberto.ortiz@upr.edu. I'll handle your request privately if you prefer, and otherwise work to resolve the problem in a way which keeps you safe and protects the community from unacceptable behavoior.

Noise

People that live in glass houses should not throw stones.
They should also keep the noise down. If I can year you in my office, you're too loud.
Please use headphones, and try to use your indoor voices.

Juggling

The lab has some juggling props, you may borrow them for less than a day.
When juggling in the lab, you are allowed to drop one prop (see Noise above), after that, you must practice outside.

General Guidelines

Talk to people and make friends. Part of the point of megaprobe is interpersonal interaction, and we want to meet you and learn about whatever cool project you're working on. It's amazing how often random discussions between people at megaprobe have turned into things that show up on the world stage.
On the other hand, do be sensitive to people's desire to stop talking and start hacking. If someone starts looking away, returning to their laptop or project, or begins walking away, consider that you might be the Nth person to strike up a conversation with them, and they may want to actually get something done.
megaprobe is your hackerspace, not your home. Living here is definitely an anti-pattern, so don't even try to do this! If money is a problem, have a look at our page of starving hacker resources for ways to get around and crash if you're short on cash.
Pull your own weight. We don't have housekeeping service, so clean up after yourself and put things away when you're done. In fact, you're going to get a lot of good karma by tidying up twice the amount of space you use on a regular basis.
Everything in megaprobe is hackable. If you don't want something taken apart and turned into a giant robot the moment your back is turned, leave it on your shelf, or mark it clearly with your name, a way to contact you, the date, and what you're doing. Even then there are no guarantees -- it's just mildly rude to hack on a labelled thing unannounced, as opposed to positively encouraged.
If you find yourself having to explain something in the space more than once, you should probably label it.
If you can't throw something away in a full garbage can, you should probably empty it.
If you see someone being awesome or something which is awesome, it's awesome in turn to sing its praises. Motivation is a rare commodity among us and a compliment here and there can work wonders in terms of creating more of it. We have a Noticeboard of Excellence by the door which is a good place to leave a semi-permanent thankyou.
Bringing minors to megaprobe might result in them being exposed to ideas outside of your control, and you probably shouldn't bring them if that's going to be a problem.
Don't bittorrent from the space, it causes lots of problems for other people trying to use the network. We've also gotten DMCA notices about people snarfing copyrighted content using our links and they're very annoying and unexcellent. Please don't download copyrighted content illegally using our Internet links.
Taking stuff from the space temporarily without leaving a note with your contact info is a surefire way to cause problems. Taking stuff permanently, even if everyone agrees it needs to go, can cause tax issues which you should bring up at the weekly meetings.
Please ask before playing music through speakers, especially if people are quietly enjoying the space.

Lab Rules