Chronological Documentation
New to this documentation? Don't start at the top. The chronological timeline below begins with incidents that involve more interpretation. For the clearest, most documented evidence:
→ Jump to September 2025: ATL During Mediation
Why this incident?
Start with September 2025 to see the incident with the least interpretive ambiguity, then return here to see similar patterns across the full timeline.
Expandable timeline showing key incidents. Click any item for a summary, then follow links to detailed evidence below.
Technical disagreement reframed as identity attack; ally recruited to DM opponent
"TL:DR: If not sexism, what? How are we all now in Bravespace? It started I expressed a specific concern about safety, Wyatt. When my concern was dismissed out of hand... they were also treating the only 2 women in the conversation like we were idiots." — Elle, July 14, 2024
"I don't appreciate being put in a position to have to defend myself against an accusation of sexism over a disagreement about what types of materials are safe to be used in our makerspace." — Wyatt, July 14, 2024
Key context: Nicole (twiceasnice) DM'd Wyatt "on Elle's behalf," escalating further. Cloud, another woman, pushed back and was dismissed as "tone policing."
"I feel like I'm being bullied at this point... I don't want to come to noisebridge this week or like teach the class I've been working on because of how uncomfortable this is." — Wyatt, July 15, 2024
Private DM forced public; non-existent rule cited as justification
"Bravespace is where :noisebridge: ers work out differences, not private texts. I have not responded to your private text. I ignored it." — Elle, December 21, 2024
"This was never a rule. Never. Ever. Not once. The rule was actually to use Restorative Communication. Which.. this is very much not." — nthmost, December 2025
Impact: Justin Morrison, who had nonprofit fundraising experience, disengaged from fundraising-wg. The fabricated rule was cited as precedent for a full year before being challenged.
Elle contacts Cloud despite 9-month disengagement request
"The ask to disengage has never ended since July 2024. I feel strongly about maintaining it based on how often that disengagement has been breached online and in-person by you." — Cloud, April 17, 2025
"I forgot, it has been so long. Seems silly, I was the one who asked for it and do not care now. But will honor it." — Elle, April 17, 2025
Key context: Elle frames Cloud's boundary as "silly" and centers her own feelings rather than acknowledging the boundary.
Elle invokes Cloud without consent to bolster position at meeting
"Elle: Agree with you but there is a high need for obvious safety efforts - one of the reason there is such a high need for that - (...) people with a low acceptance of chaotic situations (two women in the room)." — Meeting notes, July 29, 2025
Cloud's annotation: "i feel uncomfortable she is mentioning me"
"I did not consent to being used like that and was not okay with the false consensus building... Elle uses my gender to attack other people she does not like and ropes me into discussions I did not consent to be a part of." — Cloud, July 31, 2025
Formal mediation starts; both parties agree to stay off Bravespace
"While I'm here, I'll make an update about the mediation: cocomittens and I did a session with Elle and Cloud each... In the meantime, both are honoring the do not engage request while mediation is ongoing." — zoda, August 30, 2025
The mediation agreement included: not talking to each other, not referencing each other, no public messages about the conflict, and staying off Bravespace.
Mediator calls it "abuse of process"
"There had to be consequences. Otherwise, she may have done the same thing, again…" — Elle (as reported by zoda)
"I've informed her that's not what Ask To Leave is for and have said this feels like an abuse of process. I'm not really sure what more I can do. I don't know what the tools in our community to deal with something like this are." — zoda (mediator)
"ATL is totally unconditional by design. It is the main tool in the toolbox for addressing urgent threats to safety in the space. But unfortunately this use of the tool tells me that we need more safeguards in place to prevent its misuse." — EigenVexer
The double standard: Cloud honored all mediation agreements. Elle posted in Bravespace despite agreeing not to.
Unilateral authority claimed; newcomer leaves shortly after
"Later, you said you came to apologize. But then you told me 'If I say something is unsafe, then it's unsafe'. I replied that this isn't how things work here." — EigenVexer
Impact: "The woman who was working on the motors left shortly after."
Fabricated scheduling rule; actual authority says it's fine
"Again, Tuesdays are bad nights to have events at sewing. All Tuesdays." — Elle, December 10, 2025
"Our only real issue would be if we couldn't hear our writers read their work aloud. In other words, if you were willing to keep the sewing room door CLOSED, our two groups probably wouldn't interfere with each other..." — Ms. Judy (who actually runs the Writers Workshop)
The contradiction: When overruled, Elle suggested "Would this private convo work better in DMs?" — opposite of her fabricated "public only" rule.
Friendly request misrepresented as "ATL" to recruit defender
"I literally just asked her to take a break from the meeting. That's it... I told her she's a very valuable member of the community and she's 'not in trouble'... Elle responded very well and even gave me a hug" — WE/Z (Wheezy)
"Elle just told me someone ATLd her I'm assuming its WEZ, and this is honestly a NB sabotaging move of all time" — LX (after talking to Elle)
Impact: LX spent significant energy advocating based on misunderstanding. nthmost spent "an hour" explaining context.
Channel: #cnc → #bravespace
Parties: Elle, Wyatt, twiceasnice (Nicole), Cloud
A technical disagreement about cutting carbon fiber materials escalated when Elle posted MSDS information and Wyatt didn't respond within a day. Elle interpreted this as "being ignored" and publicly accused Wyatt of "blatant sexism."
"Both [user] and I posted the MSDS for the materials being discussed, and we were both ignored. There's some blatant sexism protruding here and it's not a good look for Noisebridge." — Elle, July 2024
Wyatt's response:
"I wasn't intentionally ignoring it. I actually just hadn't seen it. I'd also appreciate if you didn't call me sexist for not replying to your message within a day of you sending it." — Wyatt, July 2024
In Bravespace, Elle escalated the identity framing:
"TL:DR: If not sexism, what? How are we all now in Bravespace? It started I expressed a specific concern about safety, Wyatt. When my concern was dismissed out of hand... they were also treating the only 2 women in the conversation like we were idiots." — Elle, July 14, 2024
Key claim: Elle positioned herself as speaking for "the 2 women in the conversation" — herself and Cloud.
Elle claimed to represent women's experience. Cloud — the other woman Elle cited — actively contradicted her.
Cloud's response to Elle's sexism framing:
"Honesty without kindness is just cruelty. Not once have I heard you give Wyatt the benefit of the doubt. Not once have either of you have been open to suggestions or compromises." — Cloud, July 14, 2024
"I would like to promote safe environment for women in the space, but this is not the way to go about it. Some of us do not want to see someone we know attacked on here." — Cloud, July 14, 2024
"I feel silenced for voicing my concerns and discomfort about how Wyatt is being spoken about here. Even as another minority woman in the space, what was accused of Wyatt by Elle made me so uncomfortable and worried that I felt the need to step in." — Cloud, July 15, 2024
Elle's response: dismissal
"You are tone policing and I have no idea what tone you want from me." — Elle to Cloud, July 15, 2024
The reframe: This wasn't about whether sexism occurred. It's about Elle claiming a consensus that didn't exist, then dismissing the woman who contradicted her. Elle claimed to speak for women while silencing a woman who disagreed.
Nicole entered and escalated the identity framing:
"It's very much a systemic issue of casual dismissal of concerns that women and minorities have... we literally just lost a core of excellent women and minority hackers earlier this year because NB was tolerant of casual sexism and microagressions." — twiceasnice, July 14, 2024
"Instead of jumping to defend this dismissiveness, try considering how many excellent hackers we've lost that are women and POC because our community failed to step up to the death by a thousand cuts." — twiceasnice, July 14, 2024
"I'm really tired of that and I would like it to be addressed because I'm really not down with Noisebridge becoming a boy's club." — twiceasnice, July 14, 2024
Nicole then DM'd Wyatt directly "on Elle's behalf":
"I don't think you have any idea how exhausted Elle is from dealing with how easily you and others dismissed her concerns with this fiberglass guitar project." — twiceasnice (private DM to Wyatt)
Wyatt revealed this publicly:
"I'm assuming this is somewhat directed at me because @twiceasnice you also went out of your way to privately dm me on Elle's behalf that she is exhausted with having to deal with this situation." — Wyatt, July 14, 2024
"I brought the conversation here to bravespace because you privately DMd me Nicole, which now you've also done Elle, and I want accountability for whatever that conversation is going to be." — Wyatt, July 15, 2024
Interestingly, Elle herself rejected Nicole's race framing:
"I am not sure I see this as a person of color issue. I think that part is an unfortunate coincidence." — Elle, July 14, 2024, 18:43
Yet Nicole continued escalating along identity lines.
The critical escalation pattern:
The irony: Elle claimed sexism while dismissing a woman's voice. She claimed to speak for women while silencing one who disagreed.
This demonstrates how Elle's escalation pattern exploits others' legitimate concerns. Nicole genuinely cares about sexism and microaggressions at Noisebridge — these are real issues worth addressing. By framing a baseless assumption ("being ignored" when Wyatt simply hadn't seen the message) as "blatant sexism," Elle weaponized Nicole's values and recruited her as an amplifier.
Nicole entered with strong language about "death by a thousand cuts" and "boy's club" — not because the facts supported it, but because Elle's framing hit Nicole's triggers. The actual sequence (post → wait 1 day → assume malice → declare sexism) vanished beneath the identity narrative.
"I don't appreciate being put in a position to have to defend myself against an accusation of sexism over a disagreement about what types of materials are safe to be used in our makerspace." — Wyatt, July 14, 2024
"I'm honestly not sure I want to come and discuss this at the meeting though anymore if this is the position I'm going to be put in for trying to find an amicable solution." — Wyatt, July 14, 2024
"I feel like I'm being bullied at this point into accepting and validating yalls experience at the expense of my own. I don't want to come to noisebridge this week or like teach the class I've been working on because of how uncomfortable this is." — Wyatt, July 15, 2024
"I really am not sure what level of involvement I want to continue to have here though if people are going to lightly throw around such strong accusations." — Wyatt, July 15, 2024
Channel: #bravespace
Parties: Elle, justinmorrison, fineline (intervening)
Date: December 21-25, 2024
Following a contentious Jitsi meeting about a fundraising letter, Elle posted a lengthy public accusation against Justin in Bravespace. Justin had sent a private DM attempting to de-escalate.
"Bravespace is where :noisebridge: ers work out differences, not private texts. I have not responded to your private text. I ignored it." — Elle, December 21, 2024
"Also @Elle I did not consent for you to respond to my DM with a post here, and since you excluded it, I will reproduce it below" — justinmorrison, December 21, 2024
"Wow ok, so we all just blew past this 'Bravespace is where Noisebridgers work out differences, not private texts' comment and didn't realize what a huge fucking problem this is.
This was never a rule. Never. Ever. Not once.
The rule was actually to use Restorative Communication. Which.. this is very much not." — nthmost, December 2025
"There's a huge difference between saying something like 'we should talk about this in bravespace' and 'according to Noisebridge rules you cannot privately text me.'
You could have said the former and had plausible deniability. It's the latter that makes me really, really concerned." — nthmost, December 27, 2025
"In this case, though, you did manufacture the rule in order to escalate conflict.
It wasn't at all necessary to insist someone talk about this conflict in a public forum. You're literally the only person who's ever tried to name an exclusionary rule as if it's just 'how Noisebridge does things.'" — nthmost
| Date | Demand |
|---|---|
| Dec 21 | "This is a request (a demand, really) for full disengagement between you and me for the next 48 hours" |
| Dec 22 | "I demand an additional week of disengagement. Reconciliation will require mediation." |
| Dec 23 | "Stop talking to me J, not here or anywhere else. Disengage for a week, starting yesterday." |
| Dec 24 | "Disengage means leave me alone." |
"I will not participate in further exchange about this unless these points can be addressed in person rather than over text." — justinmorrison
"When you're ready to speak in person with a third party, give me a few options for times and days and I'll do this work with you." — justinmorrison
After Justin forwarded the Bravespace channel guidelines (written by nthmost):
"Disengage means leave me alone. It is not a request for you to mansplain Noisebridge to me." — Elle, December 24, 2024
"Hi @Elle, I'd appreciate you replacing 'mansplain' with another term that isn't, you know, sexist as fuck. Sexism is frowned upon, and dare I say, not tolerated, at Noisebridge. Thanks for your understanding." — fineline, December 24, 2024
"That is an interesting take on the term, @fineline. Most consider it an anti-sexist term used to help people who are out-of-line to understand that their behavior is falling into a mysoginistic pattern..." — Elle
Elle did not retract or replace the term.
Channel: #general-chat-aka-hackitorium
Parties: Elle, Cloud
Nine months after Cloud's initial disengagement request (July 2024), Elle contacted Cloud again.
"@ellewrite thank you for the offer but I would not feel comfortable with that based on my past interactions with you. The ask to disengage has never ended since July 2024. I feel strongly about maintaining it based on how often that disengagement has been breached online and in-person by you." — Cloud, April 17, 2025
"I forgot, it has been so long. Seems silly, I was the one who asked for it and do not care now. But will honor it." — Elle, April 17, 2025
"I have copies of that conversation if reminders are needed. :) Please do not contact me or interact with me again @Ellewrites." — Cloud, April 17, 2025
Location: Tuesday Meeting (July 29), #bravespace
Parties: Elle, Cloud, noname, Arity, Loren, Zachy
Earlier in the week before the July 29 meeting, someone called "noname" got into a heated argument with a patent lawyer upstairs at Noisebridge. The situation was handled immediately:
From the meeting notes:
"They came down here and responded appropriately, came down, ask to leave, noname left. Safety group ppl will pursue conversation with noname to see if they can see the errors of their ways, and correct." — Meeting notes, July 29, 2025
The incident was resolved. That should have been the end of it.
At the Tuesday meeting, despite the incident being handled, Elle insisted on continuing to discuss it:
"There was an altercation at Noisebridge last week, Noname was asked to leave. That should have been it. Very straightforward. @Arity wanted to move on from that discussion. But Elle kept bringing it up, stating 'when is the right time?'" — Cloud's account to Elan, July 31, 2025
From the meeting notes, Elle demanded:
"Elle: we need to have this conversation because inciting violence and kicking someone out because you disagree with them there were 6 things noname did that were wrong. there were people observing and they did not see that is wrong." — Meeting notes, July 29, 2025
When Loren tried to de-escalate and move toward productive next steps:
"Loren: We covered 3-5 topics. this is worth discussing and handling better. But want us to decide are we seeking a decision or we are going to get people to get lessons from this. We heard enough for what we could do. Step back and think about what is useful for us to do as a community." — Meeting notes, July 29, 2025
Elle pushed back:
"Elle: Loren I think you are cutting off a conversation that may be necessary." — Meeting notes, July 29, 2025
Loren explicitly flagged the danger of Elle's approach:
"Loren: what is the potential goal? This feels like run away this could be a specific person or concerns - escalating into scapegoating - be more excellent in the community" — Meeting notes, July 29, 2025
This incident demonstrates a documented pattern: When Elle's own meetings have low attendance, she escalates conflicts in general meetings to dominate attention.
Elle's insistence on continuing the noname discussion despite:
...demonstrates that the purpose was not resolution (already achieved) but rather dominating meeting attention and positioning herself as the safety authority.
It was during this gratuitous discussion about noname that Elle used Cloud as a rhetorical prop without consent. Just 3 months after acknowledging the disengagement with Cloud, Elle referenced her in the meeting:
"Elle: Agree with you but there is a high need for obvious safety efforts - one of the reason there is such a high need for that - (...) people with a low acceptance of chaotic situations (two women in the room)." — Meeting notes, July 29, 2025
Cloud's annotation in the meeting notes: "i feel uncomfortable she is mentioning me"
"Also, I find Cloud's obsession with me disturbing and her mistaken belief that I am communicating with her when a) I am not or b) I reflexively say hello to a group that she happens to be in, distressful." — Elle, July 30, 2025
Cloud explicitly connected being used as a prop to the gratuitous noname escalation:
"I took notes but I had no interest in taking part of that discussion. In that discussion, Elle used me by stating 'there are two women in the meeting with a low acceptance of chaotic situations' while looking at me. I did not consent to being used like that and was not okay with the false consensus building. It gives the impression to Noname if I am roped into that conversation - that I feel a negative certain way about him (when my feelings were ambivalent at the time). I don't want my name used to attack another person." — Cloud, July 31, 2025
"Roping me into that meeting discussion is not okay. Speaking for me, putting words in my mouth, twisting my words around, using subtly and implications that I intend something towards a person is not okay with me." — Cloud, July 31, 2025
"Elle uses my gender to attack other people she does not like and ropes me into discussions I did not consent to be a part of." — Cloud
This incident demonstrates how Elle's patterns compound:
"Learning that she is going behind my back to gossip and complain makes me feel a) hurt by her slander, b) that backbiting and dragging 3rd parties into a negative whisper campaign is detrimental for the community and c) that Cloud should answer for that." — Elle, August 1, 2025
Channel: #bravespace
Parties: Elle, Cloud, zoda (mediator), EigenVexer
"While I'm here, I'll make an update about the mediation: cocomittens and I did a session with Elle and Cloud each... In the meantime, both are honoring the do not engage request while mediation is ongoing." — zoda, August 30, 2025
The mediation agreement included:
Two days into active mediation, zoda announced:
"Continuing the process of documentation: Elle has officially Asked Cloud to Leave for 2 weeks today. This includes digital as well as physical spaces. Most excellently, Cloud has agreed to honor it, on top of the already agreed upon disengagement rules she had accepted a few days ago." — zoda, September 1, 2025
"I would respond but have agreed to not reference the mediation or ... during the mediation. The simplest answer is I have not felt safe. That there have been incidents, even after this mediation began." — Elle
"There was a post Cloud had made that references the mediation and Elle (outside of bravespace, and outside of mediation process). It used harsh words. I had addressed it with Cloud and Cloud had agreed to new disengage rules that I had listed up there. I shared this update with Elle, but Elle insisted on an ask to leave of 30 days, and then of 2 weeks. She said she felt unsafe and would like peace for a while. Today she mentioned it was about consequences.
'There had to be consequences. Otherwise, she may have done the same thing, again…'
I've informed her that's not what Ask To Leave is for and have said this feels like an abuse of process. I'm not really sure what more I can do. I don't know what the tools in our community to deal with something like this are." — zoda (mediator)
"Ask To Leave Policy: If someone behaves in a way that makes you feel unsafe or attempts at diffusing an argument fail and it escalates, you can ask a person to leave." — Noisebridge Wiki (quoted by zoda)
"Ask to leave is also only supposed to be used when mediation and conflict resolution is not being handled and de-escalation is needed." — zoda
"I'm going to add my voice to this and say that I think this is an un-excellent use of the ask-to-leave. There was a dialogue going on about how to allow both parties to participate in the space. Using an ATL during that undermines the mediation process. Especially given that both parties are still expected to follow the non-engagement rules during that time, there is no way for the other party to make their voice heard without it being interpreted as breaking the terms of the mediation." — EigenVexer
"ATL is totally unconditional by design. It is the main tool in the toolbox for addressing urgent threats to safety in the space. But unfortunately this use of the tool tells me that we need more safeguards in place to prevent its misuse." — EigenVexer
"I'm going to propose a change to the ATL rules, specifying that parties to a mediation can request an ATL of another party only if at least one mediator agrees." — EigenVexer
"I'd also like to remind you that both you and Cloud had agreed to stay of Bravespace (along with other stuff). Cloud has upheld her end of the deal, but you have not. Again, I worry you are taking advantage of Cloud by making her agree and then not really holding up your end of the bargain." — zoda
When zoda called out the ATL as "abuse of process," Elle responded:
"Describing my efforts for safety as 'abuse of process' after I have been repeatedly maligned even after calling for and agreeing to mediation and after it had begun is unfair." — Elle, September 2, 2025
Rather than accepting her mediator's professional assessment, Elle:
Zoda's final public assessment:
"I think it was wrong of Ellen to ask for the ATL of Cloud. I stand by that... It's very excellent of Cloud to keep her cool, respect the atl, and keep on mediating so public kudos to her." — zoda, September 11, 2025
Elle's response:
"I am getting tired of being dragged into Bravespace for the same thing over and over again. I stand by the ATL and I would like a 3rd person in the mediation." — Elle, September 11, 2025
Result: Seven days later, zoda quit mediating, citing "bad sleep and compulsive thoughts" and eventually left Noisebridge entirely.
Location: Patio
Parties: Elle, EigenVexer, newcomer woman
A woman was working on motors on the patio near sunset. Elle confronted her about accessibility concerns.
"I'm one of the people you seem to be talking about. And what I remember doing is telling the woman you were speaking to that I thought she was fine, and not to take it too seriously. I did that because I felt that your tone was out of proportion to the situation, and might leave her feeling unwelcome." — EigenVexer
"Later, you said you came to apologize. But then you told me 'If I say something is unsafe, then it's unsafe'. I replied that this isn't how things work here." — EigenVexer
Channel: #sewing
Parties: Elle, aether (newcomer), Ms. Judy, Elan
A newcomer (aether) was organizing a sewing circle and found Tuesday evening worked for participants.
"Again, Tuesdays are not a good night for events in sewing since they may interfere with the Writers Group in the upstairs hackitorium, that is why I recommended you visit on Tuesday before holding an event that night, but, whatever, I am sure it will all be fine." — Elle, December 10, 2025, 1:46 AM
"Again, Tuesdays are bad nights to have events at sewing. All Tuesdays. It is the night for the Writing Group and the weekly meetings." — Elle, December 10, 2025, 1:57 AM
Elan went directly to Ms. Judy, who actually runs the SF Writers Workshop:
"Sorry I missed you tonight! I'm one of the four moderaters for the SF Writers Workshop. Our only real issue would be if we couldn't hear our writers read their work aloud. In other words, if you were willing to keep the sewing room door CLOSED, our two groups probably wouldn't interfere with each other... Would love to meet with you and chat--let me know when you might be around next." — Ms. Judy the Mad Jotter, December 10, 2025
Once Ms. Judy and aether started arranging to meet:
"@Ms. Judy the Mad Jotter @aether, would this private convo work better in DMs? Or are you setting up a group mtg?" — Elle, December 11, 2025
Location: In-person / DMs
Parties: Elle, WE/Z (Wheezy), LX
"I'm the one that asked Elle to not participate in the Tuesday meeting for a month. I also explicitly told her it's not only her that talks more than she listens. It's also LX and I will also be asking him to take a break from the meeting for a month if he so kindly can." — WE/Z (Wheezy)
"I literally just asked her to take a break from the meeting. That's it and she is the one that said she wanted to take a break from the space." — WE/Z
"I told her she's a very valuable member of the community and she's 'not in trouble' which she thought she was" — WE/Z
"Elle responded very well and even gave me a hug" — WE/Z
"Elle just told me someone ATLd her I'm assuming its WEZ, and this is honestly a NB sabotaging move of all time to push away people actually doing things that need doing because of what seems very personal resentment driven and resolveable." — LX (Alex Peake), DM to nthmost
| WE/Z's Account (first-hand) | LX's Understanding |
|---|---|
| "Take a break from meetings for a month" | "someone ATLd her" |
| "You're not in trouble" | "sabotaging move" |
| "I'm asking LX the same thing" | [not mentioned] |
| Elle "gave me a hug" | [not mentioned] |
Within a week of the Wheezy conversation:
"Hey fundraising folks! Fundraising guild is looking for a new organizer, I am leaving that role at NB." — Elle, December 19, 2025 (#fundraising-wg)
"Hey Sewing folks! ...finding a new organizer. I am leaving that role January." — Elle, December 19, 2025 (#sewing)
"I am not leaving, really, just doing my own thing and not answering questions or helping out so much." — Elle, December 23, 2025