Showing Up: Fight the Internet for the Soul of Critical Mass!

After holding out I finally joined The Chainlink last week (I'm a Facebook & Twitter avoider too).  Yeah!  I get an email about events this week.  Yeah!!  After a bad run-in with a car yesterday, I decide to cheer myself up by going to Wicker Park Critical Mass. Yeah!!!

...only to find a 20+ strong crowd of mostly hipsters (and Chopper Carl), the vast majority of whom:
  • heard about the ride from the Chainlink
  • have never been on a Critical Mass
These kids are standing around waiting, no, begging for someone to follow.  I make an impromptu map and we set off 40 minutes late... and it's clear from the start this is not a usual Mass.  No cohesion, no corking, no sense of direction, no parade pace (Carl's buddy with a sound system bike could barely keep up).  And then one kid yells "Let's stop at the grocery store!" and 3/4 of the ride follows him across oncoming traffic and then sits confusedly in a parking lot.  After we get going again, I decide leading is too much work and slip in at the very back of the ride... only to find that folks thought they were following me.  I bailed a few blocks later.

This was not a Critical Mass - it was clueless mob.

I don't blame the kids involved (how could they know any better?  they've never done this before) but the the veteran riders who promoted WPCM and didn't show up.  Last night, The Chainlink showed me that we have an amazing tool for recruiting and organizing - but when we plan events like this and then don't follow through, we put our culture at risk. 

You can't ride your bike on the Internet.  As Alex said: "If you don't show up, you don't get to vote. If you don't vote, you don't get to complain."  Drivers and pedestrians and the public are not on this site - the righteous fury of our keyboards and screens is not going to get us more bike lanes or reduce dooring or show the world how much fun they could have.

Unplug, people.  Your bike misses you.

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Pete Fein on March 7, 2010 at 3:20am
payton said:
Rik, I never appointed myself leader in the first place, and actively tried for many months to try and identify "a new leader." Someone else posted the event with my name on it -- not I.

That's bullshit. Clobber 'em.
Permalink Reply by Pete Fein on March 7, 2010 at 3:31am
Michelle Green said:
And thanks to this site, I ride way more than I would otherwise, in large part because it's helped me immensely to feel like a useful part of an active and welcoming (even to hipsters!) cycling community. So I'm gonna stay plugged in.

Oh come on... what else should we call them? Look, hipster is often a term of derision, but it doesn't have to be... we ride bikes, we're all a little hipster sometimes. ;-) (really not looking to start a new fight here).

And I'll concede that my comment about unplugging was unfair and didn't do much to further my argument. Sorry. But I still think Friday's right highlighted some real problems.

On that note, I'm going to celebrate Critical Mass today by going to a homemade brunch at a friend's. See y'all the last Friday, flyers in hand.
Permalink Reply by Michelle Green on March 7, 2010 at 6:14am
I'm really not trying to nitpick or drag this out way past its logical(?) conclusion, it just rubs me the wrong way when people use social classifications that, in their context, do seem to be genuinely derisive and not like a self-deprecating joke, especially when it's about something like biking, and even more then when it's about a ride like CM. I just think exclusionary parameters aren't helpful to the cause and are one (of many) things we just don't need when trying to imagine "the world as it could be"...

But that's it! I should say I really do understand your frustration with the whole thing as I've felt similarly on (non-WPCM) rides in the past, but I just usually shake it off and enjoy being on my bike with other people who enjoy being on their bikes, or I make up my own ride (which I hope wasn't the one Laura was referencing before! If so, we'll do better in April, darlin'!) :)

Pete Fein said:
Michelle Green said:
And thanks to this site, I ride way more than I would otherwise, in large part because it's helped me immensely to feel like a useful part of an active and welcoming (even to hipsters!) cycling community. So I'm gonna stay plugged in.

Oh come on... what else should we call them? Look, hipster is often a term of derision, but it doesn't have to be... we ride bikes, we're all a little hipster sometimes. ;-) (really not looking to start a new fight here).

And I'll concede that my comment about unplugging was unfair and didn't do much to further my argument. Sorry. But I still think Friday's right highlighted some real problems.

On that note, I'm going to celebrate Critical Mass today by going to a homemade brunch at a friend's. See y'all the last Friday, flyers in hand.
Permalink Reply by Laura on March 7, 2010 at 6:26am
No Michelle it certainly was not your ride! Your ride was a blast. So many people bitch and complain about rides that are not going where they want to go or doing what they want to do (ex- to much drinking, socializing and bar stops, or not enough dancing) More people need to take after your example and make a ride that they want to go on.
the ride that this happened with had anothing to do with the ride itself, just some dumbass deciding to ride in the middle of the road when cars were trying to pass by, just because he wanted to piss them off.

Michelle Green said:
I'm really not trying to nitpick or drag this out way past its logical(?) conclusion, it just rubs me the wrong way when people use social classifications that, in their context, do seem to be genuinely derisive and not like a self-deprecating joke, especially when it's about something like biking, and even more then when it's about a ride like CM. I just think exclusionary parameters aren't helpful to the cause and are one (of many) things we just don't need when trying to imagine "the world as it could be"...

But that's it! I should say I really do understand your frustration with the whole thing as I've felt similarly on (non-WPCM) rides in the past, but I just usually shake it off and enjoy being on my bike with other people who enjoy being on their bikes, or I make up my own ride (which I hope wasn't the one Laura was referencing before! If so, we'll do better in April, darlin'!) :)

Pete Fein said:
Michelle Green said:
And thanks to this site, I ride way more than I would otherwise, in large part because it's helped me immensely to feel like a useful part of an active and welcoming (even to hipsters!) cycling community. So I'm gonna stay plugged in.

Oh come on... what else should we call them? Look, hipster is often a term of derision, but it doesn't have to be... we ride bikes, we're all a little hipster sometimes. ;-) (really not looking to start a new fight here).

And I'll concede that my comment about unplugging was unfair and didn't do much to further my argument. Sorry. But I still think Friday's right highlighted some real problems.

On that note, I'm going to celebrate Critical Mass today by going to a homemade brunch at a friend's. See y'all the last Friday, flyers in hand.
Permalink Reply by Vilda on March 7, 2010 at 6:29am
Laura said: "And this said man who tried to molest Gabe, well I paid him to do it, and want my money back because he obviously failed." ;-)

Damnit! I knew soemthing was up! ;-)

Pete has a stick stuck somewhere. ;-)

love,
gabe
Permalink Reply by Spencer "Thunderball" Thayer! on March 7, 2010 at 6:36am
payton said:
As for CM being "a mob," no, I think that many of us see CM as an experiment in anarchy -- it's not that there are no leaders, it's that everyone's a leader. I know that CM empowered me to become a leader, and it's a shame that others don't see that same opportunity.

GOD DAMN RIGHT! This brings tears to my eyes.
Permalink Reply by Vilda on March 7, 2010 at 6:42am
:-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) All for you Howie! ;-) And a lil for Spencer! ;-);-) none for this pete kid though.... Ok he can have one too. ;-) He prolly needs it more anyway. ;-)

H3N3 said:
Winking smiley abuse. Account suspended for 24 hours.

Gabe said:
Laura said: "And this said man who tried to molest Gabe, well I paid him to do it, and want my money back because he obviously failed." ;-)

Damnit! I knew soemthing was up! ;-)

Pete has a stick stuck somewhere. ;-)

love,
gabe
Permalink Reply by Doug Haynes on March 7, 2010 at 7:03am
Jesus kids, it's a big freakin' informal bike ride with no leaders or plan; if that is not acceptable to you don't go on the ride.

If you are going to complain about lack of leadership shut up and be the leader otherwise all you are doing is wasting everyone's time with your butt hurt crying. If you don't like it change it or create a ride that does what you want.

Coming on here and complaining is a form of saying 'I don't like this so you should make it more like I want.'

Notice the bold pronouns, they are there for a reason.

There are rides I dislike, I don't go on them. There is a ride I want to see happen so I am planning it; see how easy it is?
Permalink Reply by Vilda on March 7, 2010 at 7:09am
Sweet i have a group!!! Pick-up ride. 1 pm at Southport and Addison, Julius Meinl. just for kicks no leaders :-)
Permalink Reply by Joe Studer 8.0 mi on March 7, 2010 at 8:00am
H3N3 said:
... it's time to break out the
complaint generator.

I knew there would be a payoff if I dragged my ass through this thread.

Howard: That complaint generator is a jewel. Thanks!
Permalink Reply by root on March 7, 2010 at 8:17am
whoa. i'm going to have to jump in and call shenanigans here because this thread is way uncalled for.

there was nothing wrong with that mass other than that one moment of distraction into the parking lot. i'd even go so far as to say it went better than most of the WPCMs i've attended.

we moved quick, stayed together, and generally behaved ourselves in regards to the amount of traffic that had to get by. plus i made some new friends and the DOOMposter himself even showed up!
Permalink Reply by gadgetguy on March 7, 2010 at 9:14am
So is the moral of the story is that the internet breeds untimelyness?

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