Don't come to the Thunderdome unless you are willing to pay

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Post by Guest » Wed Jun 08, 2005 9:08 am

Flea wrote: I had this strange image ( since I have never been to BM and only told how awsome it is by a friend) that no money was used and people just gift stuff to you.. you dont have to pay but its the offerings of gifts back to those who give to you as a means of thanking them

Don't worry Flea - BM is just how you first imagined it. This thread is just an exaggerated conversation intended to antagonize.

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Post by Flea » Wed Jun 08, 2005 9:20 am

yeah, Im thinking I should quit reading it because its starting to blow my excitment....I actually considered last night laying in bed maybe I shouldnt go since my friend isnt going and I wouldnt want to burden others with my company nor do I want to spend the entire week being rejected.. I can get that here at home! But I do have a camp and if anything Ill just make myself available to help with anything they need and be a loner the rest of the time... Ive got a bike, imagination and a good book if I need it! I will still enjoy myself I am sure! :)

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Post by blyslv » Wed Jun 08, 2005 9:25 am

Nightterror wrote:Burningman is a gift community. Barter Frats are the exception and should just be ignored.

[.....]

The experience can be anything you want it to - it's up to you.
Internal contradictions are the bane of any existence.

Don't worry, I'll stand downwind.
Fight for the fifth freedom!

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Post by blyslv » Wed Jun 08, 2005 9:29 am

Nightterror wrote:
You want to talk about expectations - You expect something in return for your drink. I would walk away every time from an establishment such as yours. Barter is the exchange of one value for the other without the use of money. I find no value in acting like a monkey for your entertainment in exchange for shit booze. I can do that in the real world.
Now I feel rejected. Why so angry?
Fight for the fifth freedom!

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HughMungus
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Post by HughMungus » Wed Jun 08, 2005 11:07 am

Dork wrote:
I still fail to see how accepting $20 worth of booze to put someone at the front of the line is any better than accepting a $20 bill. It's still commerce, even though it has a slight under the table vibe to it.
Because you can turn around and gift the liquor back to the participants.
It's what you make it.

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Post by HughMungus » Wed Jun 08, 2005 11:14 am

Nightterror wrote:You want to talk about expectations - You expect something in return for your drink. I would walk away every time from an establishment such as yours. Barter is the exchange of one value for the other without the use of money. I find no value in acting like a monkey for your entertainment in exchange for shit booze. I can do that in the real world.
Where? How do I get there?

One of the things I learned from working at a "bar" at b-man is that the point seems to be not "give me this and I'll give you that" but rather, "Instead of giving me money like you would in the real world, do something for us that is DIRECTLY of, by, or from you. Give us a piece of you." That is a HUGE change for most people and, I think, changes a lot of people's perceptions about how they interact with others and forces people to think about what they have to offer to the world that's CREATIVE.
It's what you make it.

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Post by blyslv » Wed Jun 08, 2005 11:27 am

DallasPlaya wrote:[
One of the things I learned from working at a "bar" at b-man is that the point seems to be not "give me this and I'll give you that" but rather, "Instead of giving me money like you would in the real world, do something for us that is DIRECTLY of, by, or from you. Give us a piece of you." That is a HUGE change for most people and, I think, changes a lot of people's perceptions about how they interact with others and forces people to think about what they have to offer to the world that's CREATIVE.
Bingo!

Gifting is one way, barter is interactive.

Gifting is passive, barter is work.
Fight for the fifth freedom!

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Post by theCryptofishist » Wed Jun 08, 2005 11:35 am

Flea
There are plenty of poofy people on the playa. There are also a disproportionate number or real sweethearts. This board is a magnet for the wise reared among us. Some of us actually have hearts in real life. Go, have fun, even if you don't have one single worthwhile interaction (unlikely) you'll enjoy the spectacle. ONly one week of your life to learn what it's about.
The Lady with a Lamprey

"The powerful are exploiting people, art and ideas, and this leads to us plebes debating how to best ration ice.
Man, no wonder they always win....." Lonesomebri

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Post by falk » Wed Jun 08, 2005 2:00 pm

Flea wrote:... and I wouldnt want to burden others with my company nor do I want to spend the entire week being rejected..
Don't worry, you won't be a burden, you won't be rejected, and you *will* have a good time.

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Post by blyslv » Wed Jun 08, 2005 2:15 pm

falk wrote:
Flea wrote:... and I wouldnt want to burden others with my company nor do I want to spend the entire week being rejected..
Don't worry, you won't be a burden, you won't be rejected, and you *will* have a good time.
Too true blue, too true!

Why do we all keep coming back? It ain't for the endless pedantic blather, I'll tell ya that!
Fight for the fifth freedom!

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Post by HughMungus » Wed Jun 08, 2005 4:47 pm

blyslv wrote:Why do we all keep coming back? It ain't for the endless pedantic blather, I'll tell ya that!
For the naked chicks and free drinks. DUH.
It's what you make it.

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Post by TheJudge » Wed Jun 08, 2005 6:03 pm

To restore my faith in humanity. Plain and simple.
"Be at one with the dust of the earth. This is primal union." - Lao Tsu

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Post by blyslv » Thu Jun 09, 2005 8:59 am

I'm trying to wrap my mind around something and am asking for some help.

A group of people expend a lot of time, energy and yes, money to put on a bar on the playa. They have a vision of how they would like people to participate. Someone does not want to share in that vision, but they still want a drink. If they don't get one, they walk away pissed or hurt or in general feeling bad.

Is this is a sense of entitlement?

Is that what "gifting" is?

Is that "participation" and "radical self sexpression" or is it just a lazy petulant teenager upset 'cuz he didn't get his way.

Inquiring minds want to know.
Fight for the fifth freedom!

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theCryptofishist
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Post by theCryptofishist » Thu Jun 09, 2005 9:06 am

life is messy.
Rules help and hinder.
Fishes are useless at some matters, but very philosophical.
The Lady with a Lamprey

"The powerful are exploiting people, art and ideas, and this leads to us plebes debating how to best ration ice.
Man, no wonder they always win....." Lonesomebri

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Post by Phreddiva » Thu Jun 09, 2005 12:50 pm

dragonfly Jafe wrote:
Nightterror wrote:It goes against what burningman is to me. I let people look at my art which takes months to prepare without asking for anything in exchange. I prefer to say "yes" you may or "no" you may not.
Then don't go to Thunderdome. Or build your own dome, and let people fight in it for free.

I have never heard of "paying" to fight in Thunderdome, but I have been sometimes turned away. There are times when it is closed, when they are doing private fights, women only, whatever - it is their attraction. As long as they do not violate any actual "rules" (of which there are few), they can do what they want.

Barter is a well established principal at Burningman. Bars do it all the time. Just because they charge YOU barter, and not the person next to you, doesn't mean they are singling you out - quite the opposite, they are singling the other people out for "free" admission. This is backed up by the bit about bringing a Woman along to get in free (another common tactic, as there are far more single men that want to get in). This is nothing more than an attempt to limit the number of people that want into a popular attraction...

...and static Art is different from a participatory theme camp (thanks for bringing your Art, btw). Only 2 persons can "play" in Thunderdome at once, and it takes several people to "run" thunderdome. Thousands of persons could conceivably look at a static art piece at the same time w/o issues, and no one is required to be there to hold their hands. Try running a highly popular theme camp with a particpatory element that can only handle 2 people at a time, and you might see things differently....

Remember - this is a vacation for the folks who run Thunderdome, they are doing this as a favor to you. They owe you NOTHING.

Hint: friends of the thunderdome people don't have to pay to fight...
Wow, apparently we've created quite a stir without knowing it.
Thanks for this response - I've only read the first page of the... ELEVEN (Christ!!!) pages, but this answer comes closest to embodying what I would have said. Don't like it? Don't come. Burning Man isn't about everybody adhering to what one person's idea of Burning Man should be. If there are a lot of people signing up to fight, good scotch will go a long way to getting you to the front of that line. It's one thing to look at art. It's another thing to ask the artist for a paintbrush, paint, and free reign on their canvas.

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Post by Phreddiva » Thu Jun 09, 2005 1:02 pm

bullD wrote:
GuinivereElise wrote:(as a side note of minimal imortance, a group of us, including most of Happy Camp, drove up to DG, got out of the car, invaded yelling "Happay!" and proceeded to HUG THEM, KISS THEM, and BE NICE TO THEM, and then ran for our lives. I'm pretty sure we have a spot in TD next year...)
he he he, keep doing what you do, they are a bunch of softies, on the inside.
Shhhhh!!! Don't out us!
;)

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Nightterror
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Post by Nightterror » Thu Jun 09, 2005 1:10 pm

It's another thing to ask obviously underage boys to provide the artist with alcohol to participate.
I express my excitement by brutally interrogating whomever is nearby

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Post by Phreddiva » Thu Jun 09, 2005 1:16 pm

Nightterror wrote:Well Bob - I am not sure how to respond to you accusation of snarkieness of my conclusions since snarkieness is well not a real word.

I presented the facts as they happened to me. Bartering for play time led to these two underage shits stealing booze so that they could participate. Either let them in or tell them to fuck off that is my conclusion whether it be snoodiilfried or not.

Oooo!
Underage shits stealing booze = instant participation.

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Post by Phreddiva » Thu Jun 09, 2005 1:19 pm

Bob A wrote:
geekster wrote:One more thing ..

I think TD is truly a gift. If they ask you in to play, I would bet they would expect nothing in return. However if you walk up there demanding your gift, they have every right to demand theirs ... you call that barter. Whatever.
Maybe its semantics but how is asking demanding? You do an interactive project and someone comes up and asks to interact with it. How do the creators know you are interested if you do not ask? Now if you walk up like you own the place making an ass of yourself truly demanding, then you are an ass. The OP never wrote anything that implied they did anything more than truly ask.

As for the barter, it seems a little harsh to me. TD should give their gift away, find simple ways to limit attendance, maybe theme days, riddles or challenges etc. If people like TD they should gift spontaneously. I did this with a few theme camps I liked. I dropped off booze to one after having had a good time, water to another that needed it.

Now maybe in TD's defense, being a very visible attraction they may attract more than their fare share of yahoos and have developed a defense mechanism. Maybe they don't get a lot of gifts so have started demanding them for better or worse.

Bob A
The latter is certainly true. Being a high-profile theme camp on the esplanade = every yahoo & their brother, sister, or uncle-dad coming up to us with a sense of entitlement about being able to fight. Add that to the faux-violence factor & you get, frequently, the most annoying mix of variables. Since the sense of entitlement rarely comes with a gift, if it's not a pleasure for us to work with you, then we'll request something that will make it pleasurable.

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Post by Phreddiva » Thu Jun 09, 2005 1:24 pm

stuart wrote:
find simple ways to limit attendance
use real weapons
I know this is sudden but I may love you.

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Post by Phreddiva » Thu Jun 09, 2005 1:30 pm

DNAinVEGAS wrote:This sounds about right for how they run their camp concidering how some of their members are to other camps. I ran a large theme camp last year (Vortex casino) which stayed packed all night "with lines". No problem with the lines though.

We had a back room with the computers in it for our other attraction (The black hole) that was CLEARLY marked "DO NOT ENTER. One guy went back and I stopped him verbally. He told me to F_uck off and refused to leave. Our security ejected him. He caused a scene outside and kept yelling "You don't know who your F_cking with! I'm with Thunderdome and we're going to F_ck your camp up." and things like that.

About an hour later we lost ALL power. Checking the generators in our "private" camp area, the spark plug wires were pulled and cut, perminantly killing our entire camp for the rest of the event. When reported, Thunderdome reps denied anyone in their camp would do that. Then laughed as we walked away.

It doesn't surprise me that they would mistreat their guests also.
...
This shocks me.
Had you ever considered that this person was lying about being with Thunderdome? Can you confirm definitely that they're camped with us? We certainly don't condone that kind of behavior, and we got a lot of blame because we're a large target.

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Post by Phreddiva » Thu Jun 09, 2005 1:35 pm

TheJudge wrote:I just love the people who think that because they spent the money for a ticket, it gives them carte blanc to do whatever they want at any theme camp they choose.

Point of fact: There is not one single camp out there that could accomodate 30,000 people wanting to visit it. If slipping the guy at the door a few bottles of good stuff helps make the door open a little wider for ya, so be it.

Barter is against the rules, but bribing is still well and good.

And you are not going to get very far with most camps if you try to push your warm PBR at them as a bribe. For Thunderdome, I would suspect that Absynthe would get your pretty far.
A man (or woman) after my own heart. :)

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Feeding the troll...

Post by Phreddiva » Thu Jun 09, 2005 1:45 pm

Nightterror wrote:It's another thing to ask obviously underage boys to provide the artist with alcohol to participate.
Define "obvious"?
We don't ask for ID. Just Id.

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Post by Nightterror » Thu Jun 09, 2005 2:10 pm

Define "obvious?"

I would say by the way they looked and by the way they acted, it was obvious they were just boys. And I realize it's Burningman and the artist is not responsible for every underage burner. Being a high-profile theme camp on the esplanade you must agree that you bare some responsiblity to provide a safe attraction. The same responsibility a bartender has for serving a visibly intoxicated person.
I express my excitement by brutally interrogating whomever is nearby

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Post by Phreddiva » Thu Jun 09, 2005 2:59 pm

Nightterror wrote:Define "obvious?"

I would say by the way they looked and by the way they acted, it was obvious they were just boys. And I realize it's Burningman and the artist is not responsible for every underage burner. Being a high-profile theme camp on the esplanade you must agree that you bare some responsiblity to provide a safe attraction. The same responsibility a bartender has for serving a visibly intoxicated person.
..."radical self-reliance".

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Post by Nightterror » Thu Jun 09, 2005 4:37 pm

I see your point -

Radical Self Reliance = Take advantage of whomever you can
I express my excitement by brutally interrogating whomever is nearby

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Post by Clownsuit » Thu Jun 09, 2005 5:40 pm

What we need to do is hire a bunch of armed security guys to walk around making sure that everyone follows the rules. We can give them all uniforms and special insignia so we know who they are. Then we can hire people to figure out the rules, and hold elections to see who gets the chance to make the decisions. Then, we can form a court system so if a rule is broken we can take the offender to court to figure out his punishment. Then again, if we do that we need to provide the Black Rock City jail to hold them until trial, and hire judges. Of course, all this will need a beaurocracy to support it, so we'll need some sort of central, permanent structure.

Oh wait...this is Burning Man. Maybe we should all just fucking deal with it. If you don't like how you're treated at a camp, then don't go back, and tell all your friends they're assholes.

Christ, half the people on this board seem to want Crossing Guards at every BRC intersection.

Come to the Guns and Dope Party camp and I'll give y'all an honorary nomination for the unneeded city job of your choice.
Everything in moderation, including moderation.

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Post by blyslv » Fri Jun 10, 2005 9:53 am

I've been thinking for a few years that a Judicial System Inc. Theme Camp would be fun. Dispute resolution right on the playa. You supply the dispute, we'll supply the kangoroo court.

But then I realize that the world would be a lot better, if everybody was just a little bit more like me.
Fight for the fifth freedom!

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Post by MrMullen » Fri Jun 10, 2005 11:21 am

blyslv wrote:I've been thinking for a few years that a Judicial System Inc. Theme Camp would be fun. Dispute resolution right on the playa. You supply the dispute, we'll supply the kangoroo court.

But then I realize that the world would be a lot better, if everybody was just a little bit more like me.
Set a time so that people have 1 minute to argue their case and the jury has 2 minutes to rule on the case.

"Your case in 3 minutes or your next case is free!"
--
Mr Mullen

blyslv
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Post by blyslv » Fri Jun 10, 2005 1:00 pm

The judge is now accepting bribes!

Jurisprudence the way YOU want it!
Fight for the fifth freedom!

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