Comment by stonegray

18 hours ago

I’ve done this for a couple years now, cool to see it pop up here. I believe the scale is a touch larger; 3935 acres in 2025, plus a small amount outside the fence line.

On the technical side, we not only log but photograph everything, down to each clump of toilet paper. We check our progress by doing hundreds of tests identical to what the BLM does, both ahead and behind our main crew; bagging up any debris to be photographed on green screens where the pixels are counted to ensure we’re under the 2.29×10^-3 percent limit.

It’s a stupendous amount of walking, with no shade, a moop stick and a bucket. But it’s a hell of a feeling to be part of making sure we remain undefeated against an impossible task that the future of burning man depends on.

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stonegray

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INTPenis  16 hours ago

I'm from a completely different country, never been to burning man, have no plans to visit, but I've been to other hacker camps and the most magical thing is being part of the build/clean up crews, because the 1 week camp is actually a 3 week experience. And those extra 2 weeks there is no bar, no lecture tent, no infrastructure, just you and a bunch of really fun people, in tents, in the wilderness, having a lot of cozy moments together.

Am I right to assume, that maybe this cleanup crew experiences something similar?

  • flylikeabanana  13 hours ago

    Burning Man culture draws a distinction between participants and spectators - one of the best ways to get the “participant” experience is by working and actively being a part of putting it on. This definitely includes build and strike. There are people (many paid by the Burning Man Org) who get there months before the event and stay for months after.

  • throwup238  15 hours ago

    At burning man you can even get early access if you’re working on an art installation. It’s really fun hanging out, drinking beers, assembling art, and watching a mini Vegas sprout of nothing but a trash fence over a week or two.

  • stonegray  16 hours ago

    Yeah, we definitely have a lot of great moments together, that's the biggest reason I come back. But otherwise, I imagine it's very different. We stay in the city and bus in each day. I had a dishwasher the year before last so doubt it's the same wilderness feel.

wdr1  16 hours ago

> It’s a stupendous amount of walking, with no shade, a moop stick and a bucket

That does sound taxing. Is it volunteer or do people get paid?

GaunterODimm  16 hours ago

Have you tried any computer vision for automatic categorisation? Happy to take a look into the data if helps.

  • getupyang  9 hours ago

    I had the same thought when reading this. Even a lightweight CV system that pre-sorts items for human review could save a lot of effort. Happy to help look at a small sample of the data if that would be useful.