Less Wrong is throwing a party this Saturday and wants to invite any Bay Area SSC readers who are interested. Consider this an experiment to see if inviting people to parties via blog is a good idea.
It will be at 2412 MLK Jr Way in Berkeley (a private house), from 7 PM on. The Facebook page is here.
I’m going to be there; so will the Less Wrong website team and other interesting people.
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This is the same weekend as the Annual General Meeting of the Cryonics Institute and Immortalist Society, unfortunately.
This kinda reminds me of a relative who worked as a mail admin at a univerity.
Every year some first years would try to send all-students emails (to about 15K-20K people) with some variant on “house party at number 123, college road this friday! Everyone welcome!”
and he had a form response basically saying “have you informed the police that you’re holding an event you’re inviting 15K people to? Have you invested in security staff for the night?”
Likely less extreme as the blogs readership is spread around the world… but kinda wordering about the venue capacity.
There started to be a real concern that some random Facebook Event someday was going to accidentally virally create a flash mob of a million people, and it was going to get someone killed.
I myself went to a couple of events from my extended friends network that I went to in part because they already had an unnaturally large number of “RSVP Yes” to, even while knowing I was adding to the problem. Birthday parties that should have had 20 people that had 200, etc.
The FB Events feature now has various UX and nudge “breaks” to make it harder for it it happen. You can no longer join a public event, and then fast-invite all of your own friends, for example.
Can I do the thing where I tell people I’m you?
Urgh, I used up all of my introvert energy for, like, a quarter on last weekend’s convention.
(Chuckle) I really like the concept of “introvert energy.”
Did you you burn all of that on *thinking* about going, or did you (gulp) actually *go*?-)
I not only went, I vigorously danced on all three days.
As in… tomorrow? Somewhat short notice – I feel like the meetups usually have a few weeks lead time. I’d be cautiously interested but already have plans to see Massive Attack.
Sounds like a hell of a party, but I think flying from Colorado would be a bit much. Have a good time though. XD
I don’t recognize this username, but I’d like to extend an invitation to the Denver and Boulder LW meetups, assuming you live anywhere nearby and don’t already attend. We usually have a good time.
Man, it’s things like this that make me want to move to the Bay Area. Maybe someday… How difficult is it to afford rent though? Are there rat group houses where I could live?
Difficulty of affording rent: Not terrible, if you have a decent (read: above minimum wage) job, and there are many rat group houses, although not knowing you I’m not prepared to say you can live in any of them. When I came two years ago I found a place fairly quickly and have lived in several group houses since.
How selective are they about new membership?
Depends heavily on the house, but there are about 40 rationalist group houses in Berkeley alone, so most people who want to can find a group house to live in 🙂
I like to ask a lot of questions, and some people find that annoying.
Might that be problematic?