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A comment on MIT’s Senior House dormitory closes, and a crisis blooms at colleges. Parent comment

Re:MIT’s Senior House dormitory closes, and a crisis blooms ... by indigochill on Monday September 11, 2017 @08:51AM (#15218102)
I was chatting with a guy on the plane the other day who was bemoaning the disappearance of old-school BBSes and rise of homogeneous social media sites. I think my answer to his concern and yours are the same:

There are still places for clever weirdos. Particularly online. I know of at least two hacking communities, for instance, which only let in people who can hack the invite process. At that point, you can assume with some degree of safety that you're with like-minded individuals. Even if people cheat the system, that at least means they cared enough to cheat and it also means they probably won't get very far with the additional tests once they get in (or they do, which requires they learn something, so everyone benefits).

Okay, but all that's online. What about actual physical places? Hackerspaces/makerspaces are probably the place to start. Places where what you're passionate about making is more important than who you are.

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Re:MIT’s Senior House dormitory closes, and a crisis blooms ... by TheAdamAndChe on Monday September 11, 2017 @11:07AM (#15219041)
That's true, and it offers a way for those types of people to group together. However, if those kinds of people aren't given a way to succeed in college or any other kind of upper-class signalling system, they won't ever get into positions of power where they can thrive.

More and more, college is selecting for a certain kind of personality while weeding out those outside of the norm.

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Re:MIT’s Senior House dormitory closes, and a crisis blooms ... by bsenftner on Monday September 11, 2017 @11:22AM (#15219162)
Love to find one in Los Angeles. Tried making one, a free hackers coworking space for years, but could never get it off the ground. It was there, Drop Labs, for years, free and empty. Evening events drew people, but beer always does that.
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Re:MIT’s Senior House dormitory closes, and a crisis blooms ... by wolco on Monday September 11, 2017 @09:46AM (#15218442)
Would love to learn more about those communities that require a hack of the invite system to get in.
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Re:MIT’s Senior House dormitory closes, and a crisis blooms ... by indigochill on Monday September 11, 2017 @12:15PM (#15219604)
https://www.hackthebox.eu/en is one

There's also http://3564020356.org/ (Actually I misremembered this one - you gain access by reading an intro to crypto and then answering a question about it. As I recall you get additional access by solving other, more challenging tests)

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Re:MIT’s Senior House dormitory closes, and a crisis blooms ... by totony on Monday September 11, 2017 @04:13PM (#15221862)
I tried hackthebox.eu... https://i.imgur.com/Axq0GPu.jpg
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Re:MIT’s Senior House dormitory closes, and a crisis blooms ... by Veelox on Monday September 11, 2017 @06:48PM (#15223143)
I think that is what you are suppose to see.
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Re:MIT’s Senior House dormitory closes, and a crisis blooms ... by indigochill on Monday September 11, 2017 @07:33PM (#15223418)
No, there is an actual landing page. Might want to follow up on that via the provided instructions if you're getting that page.
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Re:MIT’s Senior House dormitory closes, and a crisis blooms ... by Gargoyle on Monday September 11, 2017 @11:39AM (#15219321)
This makes the case that colleges are not those places in the same way they used to be, and so colleges are now missing some of the utility they once provided. Both to students and to society at large.
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Re:MIT’s Senior House dormitory closes, and a crisis blooms ... by seriff on Monday September 11, 2017 @12:23PM (#15219674)
What online communities are you talking about?
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Re:MIT’s Senior House dormitory closes, and a crisis blooms ... by indigochill on Monday September 11, 2017 @02:44PM (#15221020)
See my response to wolco above.
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Re:MIT’s Senior House dormitory closes, and a crisis blooms ... by Balgair on Monday September 11, 2017 @10:47AM (#15218895)
Black Rock City also comes to mind.
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