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How Do I Prevent Lan Party Theft?
DragonTHC writes "I'm thinking about hosting a lan party open to the public. I'm aiming for approximately 60 people to attend. I can handle all the logistics of operation. The only thing I can't wrap my head around is: how do I prevent theft at the lan party? Do I hire security guards? Do I need security cameras? I don't know the people who will attend, and I don't know if they're trustworthy enough to not steal other people's equipment. What do I do?"
...stating you are not responsible for lost/stolen/damaged equipment.
"Useless organic meatbag" -HK-47
Your better off not trying to do anything to secure anything short of your own equipment. Just post a sign at the door that states that there is "no security" and that every individual is completely responsible for their own property.
20th century Marxism is not progress...
Post signs saying you will record video. And do it (assuming you have a large rectangular space, 4 cameras to get a 360 degree view should be easy to set up, and relatively cheap). Record video capturing the face and ID of each person attending, at a bottlenecked entrance. If you have a venue with a parking lot, notify everyone that there will be videotaping of the parking lot, and again, do it. If you have the budget, hire a professional to do the ID checking. This should pretty much make any theft a non issue to prosecute. Be sure to post a disclaimer that you're not responsible for items lost/stolen though.
"Who is the Journal of Quantum Physics going to believe?" --Stephen Hawking
Better yet, don't invite people you don't know. It's that simple. If you don't know someone well enough to trust them not to walk off with your stuff, you shouldn't be inviting them into your house. I sopose you could hire a gaurd, or delegate security, or any number of any other things; the question is, do you really want to have to do that in your own house?
Suppose somebody gets hurt? Are you ready to handle a big personal liability lawsuit?
Oh please. If you're constantly worried about being sued you might as well just never get out of bed in the morning.
The reality here is this is a LAN party, not a frat-boy keg party. The risks are low.
If you're really concerned about it, most homeowners policies have a personal liability coverage in them.
AccountKiller
Suppose somebody gets hurt? Are you ready to handle a big personal liability lawsuit?
I would NOT do what you are describing.
Not even trying to be funny but honestly, in no other country than USA would this be among the first things people think. I can't imagine that anyone in Finland would ever sue some organizer if they get hurt... Aside from it being clearly organizer's fault, such as letting toxic gas (not just farts) into the room. I mean... what? How do people even hurt themselves in lan parties?
I'm not saying the parent didn't have a valid point. If this is in USA and people really do raise law suits as easily as the rest of the world claims they do... Sure, get some sort of insurance.
But to thieving issue... Just tell people "Hey, if you have no friend here to watch your belongings and can't keep them safe yourself when sleeping, etc., you can leave the small valuables to me for a receipt.
Can't imagine this being an issue, though. I've been on countless lan parties from a dozen people to five thousand people (Assembly 2003, 2004, 2005, 2008), often without knowing anyone and always leaving laptops and often more (still packaged graphics cards, etc.) and such on the tables. Nobody has ever stolen anything from me nor have I heard that anyone else has lost anything in any of the events I've been in...
Have some trust in people. I know some would say "Yeah, you'll regret that trust when someone demands you two grands for that equipment someone stole from him" but seriously, guys:
If you can't have enough faith in humanity to throw a lan party because you fear for all the items that could be stolen, accidents that could happen, insurances, law suits... Your attitude to life sucks.
It sort of depends on where he lives.
Some people here actually don't live in the I'll-sue-your-pants-off US of A.
If you can't have enough faith in humanity to throw a lan party because you fear for all the items that could be stolen, accidents that could happen, insurances, law suits... Your attitude to life sucks.
I guess its pre-emptive pessimism (new word?), because your attitude in life doesn't currently suck, if somebody steal a $2000 system your attitude WILL suck.
But I personally find that outlook on life better: Go to a party expecting it to suck, when you are surprised and happy with the entertainment. You got more than you expected and a nice surprise. Expect a present to have coal in it, now you can be appreciative and happy when its a new video card for your PC. Didn't get what you want? So what, you knew it was gonna suck right, you can't be unhappy.
Disclaimer: I am not god.
We may not be created equal
But we can be treated equal.
I run a business out of my house which entails some 30-40 people passing through each week.My homeowners insurance explicitly excludes home-run business liability.
That's interesting, but irrelevant. The OP isn't hosting a business, so I don't really see how your situation applies.
AccountKiller
Wishful thinking doesn't solve real problems. His "attitude to life" isn't what will prevent theft or defend against lawsuits. His attitude didn't create thieves or lawyers, why would changing his attitude make them disappear? It's not his fault the US is filled with lawyers and thieves.
That goes for both the LAN guy and the commenter guy.
In the US, you need to protect yourself from lawyers and thieves. No one else will do it for you and the lawyers and thieves protect each other.
St. Paul wrote that "faith is the evidence of things unseen." Which, when it comes to the core goodness and decency of humanity, is entirely appropriate.
God invented whiskey so the Irish would not rule the world.
This is honestly the first time I've ever heard these things mentioned when it comes to organizing LAN parties.
The purely logical side of me wants to say, "Hey, yeah... nice advance planning. I never even considered the idea of maybe looking at insurance for such an event."
But the practical side of me? It thinks "WTF is wrong with people today?!?" I've been to a number of LAN parties hosted at people's homes, and even hosted a couple myself. Everyone I've ever met at them was MORE courteous and considerate than average. The closest thing to a "theft" I ever saw was a situation where someone accidentally picked up and packed up another person's Ethernet cable. I think that got sorted out when another individual offered to just give the guy one of his to keep, for free, since he had plenty of them at home anyway.
The way I see things, sure ... ANY time you have some sort of party or get-together involving multiple people, you have a "non zero" risk of something bad happening. Maybe someone will fall down a flight of stairs and break an arm? Maybe they'll plug a defective network card or cable into your gigabit switch and fry the thing? But like the parent post says, you can't even get out of bed in the morning and do anything useful if you're scared of everything.
Ultimately, I'd feel FAR safer around a bunch of avid computer gamers willing to drag their expensive computer gear over to my house than the random mix of individuals drinking at the corner bar. (You have to remember, they're all taking a certain amount of risk coming to some "stranger's house" with their equipment in tow, too. The host isn't the only one putting himself out there.)
indeed if you are going to host a nontrivial sized lan party (more than about 10 participants) power arangements are going to be a big deal. If you allow 2A at 240V (4A at 120V) per participant and you have 60 participants that is 120A at 240V you need to find. A normal domestic service simply will not supply that. Depending on what power is availible at the venue you may need to hire a sizeable generator.
and when you have found that you will need to work out how you are going to distribute it safely and effectively. And you need to pay particular attention to earthing arragements too as those PCs are going to have quite high eath leakage.
If you are running a nontrivial sized lan party in a location that does not have fixed wiring intended for large numbers of PCs a local electrician who understands both event supplies and large computer installations.
note: i'm known as plugwash most places but i screwd up registering that here somehow in the past and now can't register
Hah, It would be interesting to see how strong the age/uid correlation would be. I'm probably a hundred years old by slashdot standards.
At a guess - you got an ID in the first week or so that Slashdot had them. Perhaps even the first day. This means you had access to the internet during the day. And had plenty of time. So - perhaps you were at Uni (college). Say 19 years old.
add 10 years - at a guess - 29 years old now?
Am I close?
You meant, "insensitive clod".
I hold very few opinions. I hold information based on observation and fact. If you wish to disagree, please use facts.