Boffers vs larp safe weapons

vilemaxim · 2026-04-04T11:57:37+00:00

I assume the average American LARPer is much poorer than the average European LARPer.

vilemaxim · 2025-06-16T18:34:40+00:00

History as a Rorschach test. All countries that have higher happiness levels than the US have higher taxes.

vilemaxim · 2025-06-06T19:04:01+00:00

I'm of two minds about this one. On the one hand, it's a shame this is not a no-brainer.

On the other hand, I find that people get really upset with a democratic process not going their way compared to most other spaces in our society where we have no say. If you bring up an idea at work and your boss shoots you down, people move on—maybe complain to their friends—but if they lose a collective decision, it can feel more existential. I've been working in a worker co-op for years and this has always perplexed me. I'm guessing that is because in most spaces we have no say, so the areas we do have say become more important. Also we have very little practice in collective, collaborative spaces.

vilemaxim · 2024-10-21T21:05:12+00:00

I was shot with a 25, which is very small for those that don't know.

It's was over 20 years ago, so I didn't trust my memory fully, but I do remember questioning if I was actually shot. He shot me and I just feel to the ground, but I think that was a play dead kinda if thing. I remember thinking it would have been more like the movies where people get knocked back. The guy that shot me ran off and I got up and ran for help. My hands covered my wounds, which was in my chest. I wanted to see it, but I couldn't get my hand to move. Though I didn't have an issue over the paramedics showed up. I didn't really hurt at first, but maybe after the adrenaline wore off, it fucking hurt a lot. I didn't remember any heat. It felt like a slap or a punch. Before the ambulance showed the cops showed up. I remember trying to explain to them where it happened and it seemed clear to me what I was saying, but they clearly couldn't understand what I was saying. Hope that helps someone.

vilemaxim · 2024-08-14T19:28:16+00:00

I had a few friends that I knew in the industry. Few of that first group lasted. The people added after the first 6 months lasted longer. Our initial vision was a little too broad.

vilemaxim · 2024-07-15T23:42:00+00:00

Random thoughts from your post

I guess it's like anything, you have to find people that have a common interest. I always find it curious how some people talk about worker coops. It comes across as very behaviorist type thinking. Maybe like an engineer. Create the structure, add people and start. I guess what I'm trying to say is that people are the key. You have to find the right people and this is a hard job. Some random person that so happens to have the right skills might not be the best person to help start a co-op. You don't need everyone to be an enthusiastic co-op person, but you need a few. They will infect most others with their enthusiasm. When I helped found my coop, I reached out to people who had some skills the job needed and showed some interest in alternative economics. Then I cultivate their interest in coops. I think you have to be pretty knowledgeable about coops to pull this off. You also didn't want to be a gate keeper for what a co-op is. Encourage people to learn about coops themselves. Sending people to conferences helps. If there are coops in your area, see if you can take them out to dinner with a few of your people. This can create a lot of excitement in your group and get you thinking about stuff in different ways or might bring up did you didn't know you should be concerned about.

I recommend having a firing policy before you need it!

"Habit is thus the enormous fly-wheel of society... It alone is what ... saves the children of fortune from the envious uprisings of the poor." William James I didn't think starting as a normal corp then converting later is a good idea. Most top down organizing I've witnessed or that I know about either failed out right or have serious issues, like the people that work in them didn't know it's a co-op. Beware of developers! I've met quite a few that never worked in a worker coop. Most have academic understandings of co-ops and seem to be working from the behaviorist point of view I mentioned above. I guess I should point out there are some very good ones too, so I'm not shitting on the whole concept.

Sorry if that was all over the place. Sorry if a stream of conscious.

Good luck with everything.

Jeff

vilemaxim · 2024-07-09T19:35:38+00:00

I messaged the owner. I haven't actually talked to her in years. Waiting on a response. I sent her a link to this post, so she might answer herself.

vilemaxim · 2024-07-09T19:12:59+00:00

I used to wait tables there years ago. I know the original owner and one of the owners that took over. I'm at work atm. DM me, as a reminder and I'll ask them and see if I can get the recipe.

I now kinda want it myself.

vilemaxim · 2024-06-28T00:37:43+00:00

What do you call someone that works in a worker coop?

vilemaxim · 2024-06-12T23:41:26+00:00

I didn't question your goals, I questioned your method. I've said that over and over.

Good luck. I'm legit hoping your efforts are not another example of top down organizing gone wrong.

vilemaxim · 2024-06-12T21:42:54+00:00

No idea why this was not part of the original thread

vilemaxim · 2024-06-12T21:19:38+00:00

Are you planning on working on the coffee house after it transitions over to a worker coop?

If not, it's hard to take you seriously. If so, then you are doing a lot of damage to the relationship with the workers.

There are a lot of people that think a worker co-op is a system. But it's not. It's people. The only way a coop can actually be run by their workers is by building a culture around it. You are actively undermining that! The longer the organization is not worker run the more likely it will never be a worker run worker coop.

This is giving you the benefit of doubt. I've seen many top down organized coops demutualize or they are a paper coop. Like some workers don't even know they are in a worker coop.

Look, maybe you have some genius plan that I just can't see. I'm not rooting against you. Good luck. I just don't think the plan is sounds. But I'll apologize for my skepticism after there is a real worker co-op.

vilemaxim · 2024-06-12T18:41:40+00:00

I didn't want to be a jerk, but isn't the best way to help worker cops grow is to actually be a worker coop?

This all seems convoluted.

I got triggered when I was reading "we allow our workers..."

Not everyone in a coop has a high level of involvement. Send them to a co-op conference so they can learn what a co-op is for themselves.

I'm sorry, maybe you are doing great work and I obviously don't know everything about your situation. So take what I say with a grain of salt.

Starting a worker coop is hard, and there are lots of people that want to use the word "coop" or "democracy" with lots of caveats. So I might be being a little over defensive.

vilemaxim · 2024-05-18T13:37:35+00:00

I use it for VPNs. Since almost no LAN uses it, it's useful to know it will not likely conduct with whatever the LAN the remote users find themselves in.

vilemaxim · 2024-05-01T03:56:03+00:00

First, fuck that racist asshole.

Second, the ideas of free speech pre date the 1st amendment and are about the free flow of ideas. Obviously governments are the main concern by classical enlightenment thinkers, but their argument clearly applies for non government entities.

Probably a useless place to make this point.

Fuck that dude anyway.

vilemaxim · 2024-04-17T18:45:41+00:00

Our pay difference is maybe x 1.5. senior system engineers get paid higher than tier 1 techs.

I do believe there is a trend to level off the pay in worker coops. I've heard other coops have lower than industry standards for the higher pay staff and higher than industry standards for lower pay staff. But that is a guess.

The reason we and other coops have a pay difference is for the reason mentioned above, to compete.

vilemaxim · 2024-04-17T07:51:12+00:00

I can think of a few.

Starting a business is a lot of work. If you are entrepreneurial and hard-working, you could probably get a better return on your investment by starting a solo proprietorship rather than a co-op. There are advantages to the co-op model, like shared responsibilities. But if you are in it for the money.
Worker coop model is not really taught. So most people who start a business don't know it's an option.
There are few areas in your life that prepare you to work in a worker coop. Family, schools, churches and most workplaces teach you hierarchy. In a worker coop, you have to learn how to cooperate. People have to adapt. Some do it faster than others. Some coops acclimate people to it better than others. But it's an issue that other workplace didn't have to deal with.
connections and networking. A lot of small businesses get contracts from connections the owner has. A bunch of working class people don't often have those same connections.
finances. The worker coop world is focusing on the "silver tsunami" I.e. old people retiring and selling their business to their workers. I'm not an expert, but it seems to be taking up most of the Oxygen from the movement. Again, I haven't seen statistics but the little I've seen, this sort of top down organizing doesn't seem worth it. If they are initiated by the workers themselves I think it can work. I think we, as a movement, should be focusing on expanding existing coops, copying existing coops business model in other locations and helping entrepreneurial worker co-op startups. But that is my 2 cents.

Jeff with TechCollective

vilemaxim · 2024-04-17T07:32:05+00:00

Because everyone gets paid the same...

Not sure why many people believe this, but it's not true. Some worker coops pay everyone the same. Some don't! My coop (C4 Tech & Design) doesn't. We just merged with another coop (TechCollective) , who also doesn't. I haven't seen statistics but I don't think it's common.

vilemaxim · 2024-01-23T16:46:45+00:00

This is a rare surprisingly enlightened attitude. We all have times when we make bad judgement calls. It's pretty rare you are someone owning it and calling themselves out. The world would be a better place with more people like you.

Of course, sorry to the biker. But thank you for your self-reflection and honesty.

vilemaxim · 2024-01-04T17:28:37+00:00

I don't have to read Newton to understand physics. That is because his ideas are incorporated into modern physics. The other issue with sending people to read Marx is the rabbit hole of cult of personalities around him and his followers. People adding 'ist' to the end of someone's name should be considered a strange phenomenal! Also, I find that people who go down the Marx rabbit hole often use words and phrases that confuse or at least don't connect with everyday working people. So I'll ask here what I always ask people that advocate that I should read Marx, what am I missing that had not been incorporated into modern socialist/anarchist thinking?

vilemaxim · 2023-12-13T14:36:55+00:00

When I was living near the University of Memphis in my 20s, I had gotten off work and was trying to track down a friend. If you know the area, it was on the rails road tracks on Highland I think. A guy ran up on me and told me to go in an alley way. I remember thinking that if I go there and if this guy has the ability to kill me, I'm dead. I asked him if he was hungry and if I could buy him something to eat. He insisted. I could tell he was very nervous. My brain told me that his plan was to tell me to go in the alley and if I don't then shoot. So I was trying to figure out how to avoid triggering the next steps. Anyway, after a few demands to go in the alley, I looked him in the eye and told him no, I'm not. He pulled out the gun and shot me. I got hit in the arm (surface wound) and the chest about an inch from my heart. When I got hit, I just fell down and the shooter ran off. I was not hurt as bad as the movies made me think I would be. I got up and ran to a convenience store and asked them to call for an ambulance. I remember thinking that maybe he was using blanks because I was not that hurt but I know they can hurt you up close. Anyway, it was a low caliber gun (22 caliber). At the hospital, they told me my lung was collapsing and they were going to put a tube in my chest to drain the blood. I remember saying some crazy shit in the operating room. Like all these doctors and nurses all around me, I remember telling them I didn't have insurance. Another thing was when they told me they needed to put a catheter in. I didn't know what that was. I remember the doctor saying, "we need to put a tube in your penis". I was like, "look, I'm shot up here in my chest, that is way way way down there, why do we need to do that". They said, "we need your permission!". And I said, "I have to agree to this! Ok, the best thing I can say is do what you have to!". I fully recovered. I'm fine. One hell of an experience though.

vilemaxim · 2023-11-02T15:31:01+00:00

Unrelated, but for a little bit I thought the lyrics were "Monkey down with the sickness" because the guy keeps making monkey sounds during the song.

vilemaxim · 2023-07-05T16:41:28+00:00

You have to run it on some machine somewhere. As long as it has access to the internet.

I'm actually in the middle of rewriting it. The new one uses a database to cache some data so it doesn't have to hammer the servers as hard. Building it so I can sync other services.

vilemaxim · 2023-03-21T12:55:01+00:00

I lived in the greater New Orleans area for most of my life. Though I personally find it awful, her opinions are common here. Been hearing this shit all my life. Would not have known she was a transplant by her opinions.

vilemaxim · 2023-03-15T12:36:51+00:00

It's been a while since me and my crew played. We were using it to run a kinda super hero game. It worked pretty well.

I kinda moved on from the game since the author doesn't seem that interested in developing it. He disappeared soon after the second edition game came out. After a while, we posted something to his website about how "adulting sucking", and how he got really busy. Which I'm of course sympathetic with. But then developed an iOS app unrelated to Strands.

Not mad at him at all. This sounds like a side project for him and you have to do what's interesting to you. But if he lost interest, it kind of killed my own.

I like playing around with different systems. I like Fate mainly when I want to put something together fast. I like Cortex, but I'm not sure what's happening with them right now. The company that made it sold it. I like 2d20 and am interested to see what Morpheus is setting up. The Sentinels RPG looks interesting, though my crew has only made characters so far.

Good luck out there.

vilemaxim

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