[counterpoint1]

Ya, how dare some people want to use a field they had reserved ahead of time!

Sometimes I wonder what bizarro world other people are living in. Every city in America has public spaces which can be reserved - playing fields, gazebos, park areas, picnic spaces, museums, art spaces. Only because it was tech workers in SF does anyone suddenly pretend like first-come first-served laissez faire is the only acceptable use of shared resources.

[sverige]

Obviously the kids that were there had no idea that it could be reserved. See another comment here about that reservation being available only on an app, not the website.

The cluelessness is in the aggressive assertion of their "rights" and their complete failure to listen to what the local kids were saying. Hell, they couldn't even be bothered to play a pickup game with them.

The frightened / annoyed looks of the two Dropboxers when they realized they were on video adds to the hilarity. I was pretty sure they wanted to be cops asserting some bogus right not to be filmed in a public space at that moment.

[JBlue42]

>Hell, they couldn't even be bothered to play a pickup game with them.

That would've been the emotionally intelligent thing to do.

[red75prime]

One party paid the money for reservation, other party is ignorant of the rules. Situation is pretty clear to me, but I'm programmer and have trouble noticing subtle unwritten social rules.

[gyom]

Sure, the rules are simple, but if you listen to the guy who says that he grew up here, he explains that field has NEVER been reserved. It’s easy to imagine how some bureaucrat updated the rules and accidentally destroyed a nice social space by turning it into a field that people pay for, use, and leave (opposed to a more spontaneous meeting place for young people who aren’t that organized).

You can’t fault the Dropbox people there for making a reservation and expecting that it would be valid. They’re a bit clueless in how they respond, though, not realizing that those rules are clashing with the unofficial social dynamics happening there.

(Semi-related : That’s why we might feel that banks are assholes for foreclosing houses that belong to deployed soldiers. Legally they can do it, but it sounds like it’s the shittiest application of the law.)

[mcguire]

Please don't blame your failings on your membership in a heterogeneous group of people.

[bpyne]

As a kid, the neighborhood basketball court had norms for use that developed over generations. If you wanted to play and a game was in progress, you’d call out, “Got next!” (If someone else on the sidelines had already called it, they’d let you know and you’d wait your turn.) When your turn came, the winning team stayed on the court and you went onto it with your team, picking up players from the sideline as needed. In this way, people from the outside still had their chance to play, but they integrated into the system. (They were probably made better players as well since they had to play against a wide-array of competition.) The system was true of any urban court I visited around the US.

If our neighborhood court suddenly had to be reserved, it would be a major disruption to norms established for generations. Neighborhood kids, who knew nothing about local government and how to work with it, would have suddenly felt pushed out. Worse, assuming they observed the reservation made by the “outsiders”, they would have been left with nothing to do except wander the streets. That’s often the scenario courts were built to prevent.

I understand that leagues need to schedule ahead. I also understand that local governments need supplemental income to maintain neighborhood facilities like basketball courts and soccer pitches. But, neighborhood kids need open time during after-school hours and weekends to meet with other kids and play without the formality of a reservation process. The Dropboxers in the video would have been a lot smarter if they explained to the locals about the reservation and offered to have a big game “subbing in” as needed.

[mcguire]

You are describing what happened on the soccer field.

[bpyne]

Watching the video in full, it was not clear that the two parties played together. They seemed to head that way until the guy with the permit arrived. Then it became a territorial standoff again.

What would be truly interesting is how the Dropboxers handled the situation afterward. Did they get local authorities involved? Did they come back the next week, without a permit, and blend in the way the guy from the locals suggested? The answer would be a good measure of their Social IQ and value systems.

[mcguire]

Specifically, as I recall when the event was originally reported,

"As a kid, the neighborhood basketball court had norms for use that developed over generations. If you wanted to play and a game was in progress, you’d call out, “Got next!” (If someone else on the sidelines had already called it, they’d let you know and you’d wait your turn.) When your turn came, the winning team stayed on the court and you went onto it with your team, picking up players from the sideline as needed. In this way, people from the outside still had their chance to play, but they integrated into the system. (They were probably made better players as well since they had to play against a wide-array of competition.) The system was true of any urban court I visited around the US."

describes the situation on the field when the Dropboxers arrived.

"If our neighborhood court suddenly had to be reserved, it would be a major disruption to norms established for generations. Neighborhood kids, who knew nothing about local government and how to work with it, would have suddenly felt pushed out. Worse, assuming they observed the reservation made by the “outsiders”, they would have been left with nothing to do except wander the streets. That’s often the scenario courts were built to prevent."

And that was the community's reported response.

[gerbilly]

> ... how dare some people want to use a field they had reserved ahead of time!

Even if they had the permit, maybe they should just play pickup with the neighbourhood kids.

Sounds like a lot more fun than arguing for ten minutes and it would allow them to form bonds with the local community.

That they overlooked this obvious solution is an example of exactly the kind of cluelessness that silicon valley tech workers are bing criticized for.

As tech workers, we are good at creating little sandboxes for others to play in and we really like our rules. Tech workers are actually very conservative in a way despite the proclamations of liberating the masses.

A good opportunity was lost to make friends with he local kids. Sport is a great way of bringing people together.