wi-fi free weekends : trend spreads to vivace
vivace: take a break!
Continuing this site’s ongoing fascination with the evolving standards of cafe wireless internet access, it’s worth mentioning that the Espresso Vivace Roasteria has joined the ranks of cafés like Victrola in a bid to get people to break their online addictions. I’m not sure how long they’ve had the policy (I usually stop at the sidewalk location), but today I noticed a sign announcing that WiFi would be turned off in the cafe from 8 am to 6 pm on Saturdays and Sundays.
Everyone knows that you should take a break from your weblogs on the weekends. That time is better spent suffering over your attempt at the Great American Novel.
previously on metroblogging seattle:
Why don’t they just ban laptops entirely? Or not have any wifi?
There’s a cafe here that has wifi all the time but does a clever thing–no plugging your laptop in to their power outlets. With only batteries, you can only stay so long.
Ellen has an excellent idea. My laptop will only run for 3 hours on battery.
As long as cafes keep trying creative solutions and communicating with their customers everything will be fine, but if they start getting rid of wireless, I’m going to get annoyed. Why not also ban the reading of really exciting books or conversations over 30 minutes?
Besides, in a few years they’re going to have to face this problem on a much larger scale when citywide wireless is available.
I agree. I really don’t see the point of shutting down wi-fi on the weekends either. It seems to impose some weird sort of values judement about acceptable cafe use. Amazingly, there are a number of laptop-related activities that don’t require an internet connection.
There’s a cafe in D.C. called Tryst that turns from a cafe to more of a bar at nights. They shut off the wi-fi on weekend nights, and this sort of makes a little more sense to me, even though it’s along the same lines.
I think the no power outlets is really the way to go–accomplishes the goal of people not staying all day while also being practical. Although I guess you could buy two or three extra batteries and bring them, all charged up. But who is *really* going to do that?