In uni I participated in a 20+ person hackerspace in Australia. It was great, you had tons of space to set up your project, event nights were a group of loosely allied friends, and there were never more than 5 people using the space at any time.<p>When I came back to the states I joined the local 100+ member space and absolutely hated it. Met some really cool people but the majority were a bunch of jerks who either couldn&#x27;t give you the time of day or just wanted to do things the hard way.<p>Maybe the idea of a hackerspace should be like 3.2 bars were in 20th century midwest. One in every neighborhood that served the values and needs of a small core group.