What A Mess! P-n-P and MOOP Scandals Collide in Sad Day for BRC [Update]

The MOOP data is coming out. And it’s so far, not so good. MOOP was out of control this year. There are reports of piles of bikes being left at the portapotties. Approximately 10% of all the Yellow/Green bikes were painted or modified in some way by Burners wanting to claim them as their personal steed for the week, then dumping them somewhere when done. Another 12% were stolen outright. Painted/modified is the same as stolen, to the people actually providing the bikes. When nearly 1 in 4 of the FREE bikes get stolen, I think it’s fair to say that bike theft is a serious, out of control problem in Black Rock City.

So, it seems, is MOOP.

From burningman.com

This year, for the first time, we’re releasing the map of abandoned moop.

We’re not posting details of what was found in each spot. If you are a theme camp, your Placement representative may have more detailed information for you in a few months (when the entire Moop Map is finalized). Please be patient: these are simply the results of our very first sweep through the city, and we have much more work to do before we can pass detailed information along.

So what does each of the red X’s represent? It could be garbage bags. Could be a greywater jug, a couch, a tent or just the tent stakes. Or it could be something worse. The X’s don’t represent the size or impact of the abandoned moop—just its location.

 

 

Everyone’s favorite Sherpa Safari camp, Burning Man Project Director Jim Tananbaum’s Caravancicle, left lots of MOOP. The 120 guests who paid upwards of $13,000 to rely on someone else to leave no trace for them, were sadly let down. It seems it’s hard to hire good slaves help to stay longer in the desert to clean up after you – or find room in your trucks, containers, and private jets to remove the mess you made.

Between them and their neighbors Lost Hotel, who built both camps, they got 6 red X’s. This is just for abandonment – further MOOP scores will come. The preliminary indications, though, are not good. Once the trash is moved, we’ll see what damage has been done underneath.

However, they were far from the worst Plug-N-Play. One of the more low-rent Hotels did some serious damage, as well as sullying the good name of Gypsies.

Just how many of these “pay for someone else to pack up” camps are there? How many more do there have to be, before BMOrg says “you know what, it’s hard enough to survive in the desert, you’re all doing great at radical self reliance, we’ve found some rich Billionaire Burners to sponsor us having a daily trash pickup service”. I mean, this is not just an issue for the workload of the volunteers who have to pick this up. It’s environmental pollution, and potentially hazardous. What point are we trying to prove?

If there were a trash pickup, we could create a mountain at the end – and measure that. And then recycle/incinerate the fuck out of it. Let algae devour it. Radically innovate on what we can do with all the trash that a couple of weeks’ worth of Burning Man makes on the Playa, now that 70,000 people live in Black Rock City. Burning Man is about the size of the Mission and Marina neighborhoods of San Francisco, combined. Let’s face it, the event really is a city now, for longer than a week. It’s not just a long weekend, like when they began. It needs trash service.

We could use this Trash Mountain image to educate Burners to bring less packaging, and create less trash out there.

The Playa is precious. Right now, it only takes a few hundred idiots to destroy the environment for everybody – and display behavior that others will mimic and follow.

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DPW reports that Gypsy Flower Power International were the worst MOOPers in history, leaving a mountain of trash 4 feet high:

 

BMOrg described the carnage:

Campers at Gypsy Flower Power International (a theme camp at 4:20 & Haifa) seem to have found themselves in an extraordinarily moopy situation, when their planned infrastructure apparently failed. As a result, the camp abandoned a 4-foot-high “mountain” of trash; a broken shade structure; a rolled-up tent; a dirty mattress; burn barrels full of ash; lumber; big oil and greywater stains; jugs of mystery fluids; and an array of smaller items.

It may be the worst impact we’ve ever seen a camp leave on the playa.

We don’t know why or how this situation got so out of control. So, we’re asking: What happened? Why did Gypsy Flower Power abandon its moop on this scale?

They were lazy with the clean-up at 4:20? Hmmmm….

Burners weighed in on social media.

A spokesperson for Gypsy Flower Power, Dancing Beaver, apologized and fingered the culprit. Thankfully, the camp weren’t responsible for their MOOP. The fault lay somewhere between the guy who took their money, and a paid clean-up crew which turned out to be a mirage:

So I’m from the Gypsy Flower Power camp. 420 and H. Let me start by saying we are deeply sorry for the shortcomings of our camp this year. Please understand our camp was scammed by one leader that embezzled money and made empty promises, including a clean up crew. Please understand the rest of us are responsible loving human beings that have been victimized by this dude. We are forming a new camp and absolutely kicking this dude out of our camp. We love you all and we are so sorry for his actions. They do not represent our camp as a whole.

Moopsie Daisy, also known as “Journey”, blamed the whole caper on a Nutter named Moonshine:

Dear Resto Team and Burner community,

I camped with Gypsy Flower Power until I was kicked out of their camp, thankfully, on Thursday. The head of the camp, a man from Hawaii named Jonathan Nutter, who goes by the name Moon Shine, scammed everyone in the camp for tens of thousands of dollars. He did this by creating a FB page for the camp, and inviting over 250 people from around the world to pay aprox. $250 a pop (some paid less). Dues were to cover tents, bikes, food, water, showers, shade, a stage and bar, waste management, etc. This was primarily meant to meet the needs of international travelers who stepped off the plane in reno with only their luggage. The whole thing was a scam. Jonathan Nutter ripped off these people, as he provided none of the above. In fact, he never even showed up at the camp until Thursday. I was personally kicked out of the camp at this point, as I was the only person to publicly confront him on this issue. He ripped off the entire Nordic Regional crew, as well as everyone else. As a result, I was sheltering “homeless” people in my tent, and my bike got stolen in my own camp since people felt entitled to bikes which they paid for. i organized a recycling and composting system for the camp, using my own personal bins, since there were none for the camp. I also mooped the camp CONSTANTLY, to no avail, and when Moon Shine got in my face after finally showing up, his words to me were, “All you ever do is pick up trash because you are a fucking piece of trash. Get the fuck out or I’m kicking your ass and calling the Rangers.” Well, he did call the rangers, who escorted me out of the camp. But not before I filed a report of harassment and theft. DPW, please see the Ranger report log for more info. I also did one last Moop sweep before I left the camp on Thursday, in my attempt to leave as gracefully as possible.

M: If you or someone you know can testify and validate the claims of fraud by the organizer of Gypsy Flower Power International camp, definitely leave a comment at the link or message the author. If substantiated, he could be liable for wire fraud, mail fraud, and littering on federal land, and at the very least the word will get out about shading dealings with this camp. 

D: The two mayors are claiming he said he said. One says the other stole the money and the other is saying the other stole the money. What a god damn cluster fuck

L: I was in this camp. We’ve reported Jonathan Nutter AKA Moon Shine to all the proper authorities. It was a serious negative side to my first burn but there was also a good amount of perseverance too. At the burn, love dominated. But after the burn the cuts still run deep and people are pointing fingers everywhere (specifically Moon Shine is trying to find any scapegoat possible).

I got scammed out of a whopping $25 (I’m not crying about it). But some of my campmates paid this dude for tents, bikes, sleeping gear, and an art car that never showed up. In an “expense report” to the FB group he even outlined how he used the money for his own hotel rooms and drugs. Needless to say I’m happy EVERYONE will know about this fraud. He can no longer buy a BM ticket in his name but that doesn’t stop someone else from giving him theirs. Harumph.

Please send your good thoughts to the gypsies if you care to. Gypsies got gypped in a big way and we’re still dealing with it. No excuse for MOOP left behind though so I am sorry that we let the BM community down. It was one of many principles violated during our experience.

F: I camped with them a couple years ago. Definitely a similar story… Moonshine invited everyone under the sun, had a lot of big ideas about art cars, suspension rigs, shade structures, etc., but didn’t organize or prepare for any of it, and still charged dues (not much, but some). Once everyone was actually there it was basically up to any veterans who had their shit together to try and pull things back in order, but you can only care so much about a random, rag tag group of people who clearly didn’t prepare or follow the burning man principles.

At burningman.com, there was also outrage:

G: I helped one of the Will-Call orphans (Jenny) get a message (Monday) to Moonshine, who did come up with at least two tickets. As of Tuesday, he was still AWOL from his own camp and scathingly denounced by numerous swindled members. He eventually showed up with a trailer full of “stuff”, but not what was contracted. Since he specifically targeted international Burners arriving by air and the Bus, he HAD TO have known there would be extra “stuff” to haul out. He apparently hadn’t the capacity or the will to do so. When I did meet Moonshine, he was friendly and mildly apologetic, but seemed to think the “stuff” he’d brought fulfilled his obligations. Federal law applies at BRC and it would appear he may be chargeable for wire fraud, mail fraud, conspiracy, witness retaliation, AND littering.

R: I visit the MOOP Masters this year on Wednesday and as I arrived I was met by a nice guy from Germany who was literally begging for rice. He said they were told there were meals, he hadn’t eaten for a day and asked, how can I find food. I was shocked. I told the nice chap that you can find food but you need to do you share. Find camps needing dishes washed, check out farmers market, go to volunteer sign up and find some work. I didn’t say The Playa Provides, I just said, there are ways to make things work, but you’ll need to use some common sense and get some help. But man, what a real downer. Most of these folks came with the best intentions and they were scammed by a con artist. Darn shame, these were good people who good literally robbed by a very bad situation.

C: Hi, I was part of a group of about 30 virgins from London, we were all ripped off by this con artist, we payed him thousands and got nothing in return, luckily we had tickets, water and shelter unlike some of the other groups in the camp, upon realising that we had been duped we set our Rv’s up on the outskirts of the camp and had no further involvement. I speak for all of us when I say that we feel ashamed to be associated with this mess and that we all followed the principles and left no trace. There were alot unsurprisingly pissed off people in this camp and it’s unfortunate that they decided to protest in this fashion but in a way good that this scumbag has been brought to light, I just hope that he is banned from this event in future. It tarnished what was a memorable and beautiful experience for us

A: The truck, which was rented by a friend since moonshine didn’t show with our money, was supposed to carry all this moop.
Since the truck seems to have vanished …
This guy also took money from camp fees to pay his flight tickets, which is not acceptable.
I feel very sorry that all this happened.
Best quote from Moonshine “i left your early arrival pass under a rock near the gate”.

M: I was originally part of the camp, arriving late Tuesday night. The camp was in big disarray and items I had paid camp dues for to be there were not. A friend who was supposed to stay in the camp together with me had already decided to move elsewhere, I followed the next day. For the size of the camp, very little organization was there. I never got to meet the organizer, called Moon Shine (first name Johnny?), or the person I had sent my camp fees to (Tara Reynolds). I checked in one more day (Thursday), and a few things (but not all) that were supposed to be part of the camp had been built up or provided. All in all it was a camp with a large number of people, most of which seemed rather young and internationals, which would naturally not have the most resources, as they have to fly into the country. I highly recommend not letting the organizers of the camp step up in the future to have another camp.

MT: I’m not going to comment on the pile of trash left – pictures tell it all. However can add a bit to the history… 3 of us signed up to camp with Gypsy Flower Power, were supposed to get early passes to build – usual stuff, you know. Everything seemed to go pretty well in the beginning of summer. I camped with small & large camps before and once the number of signed up burners went over 200, the whole thing started to look a bit suspicious – I do have an idea of how much effort, time and $ it takes to run something of that scale. Together with promised bikes, tents, shades, water, food and you name it, the fishy smell was getting persistent… Long story short – for some unexplained reason MoonShine couldn’t email early passes, said he would give them out at his friends farm few miles out of Reno. That, of course, never happened – been there 3 times, he never showed up. Next thing he said he was going to leave them under some rock by BM entrance sign. By that time (Friday 22nd) none of ~30 pple waiting for him at the farm believed that crap. Quite a few folks haven’t had the tickets, counting on MoonShine to deliver them as promised. Relatively large number were virgins with pretty vague idea of what was awaiting them on the playa and how to get ready for it. By late Friday it was clear that the camp was a total no-go as projected and 3 of us ended up camping elsewhere. The whole thing turned out to be a total shame, since it pretty much ruined the first impression of BM for so many people who came from 13 or so countries. Quite a few of them are trying to get their $ back via PayPal – not sure it will work out though. As for MoonShine – this crook has to be banned forever – again, the procedure on that is still has to be figured out. And, of course, PnP camps should be avoided – those, who doubt it are welcome to sign up for the next MoonShine venture next year and trust him on every promise.

D got the scoop from the Mooping Moon Man of the moment:

 

 

Blame it on the French!

 

It wasn’t just the French, of course. It was the Gayte people who wouldn’t let them back in, and the mysterious “king” of the camp who was really the one who did all the bad things and stole all the money, and the guy who didn’t show up with the rental truck, and the Burners who left the MOOP and weren’t Self Reliant. In other words, anyone but Moonshine.

Was this a genuine case of mistaken identity, a heroic Burner unjustly getting the sole blame for the actions of many others? Or a hastily concocted excuse? You be the judge:

 

 

 

Moonshine seems to be taking his behavior lessons from BMOrg. He wants to follow up his Safari camping #fail and MOOP violations, with a good ‘ole law suit:

 I will meet you in court Journey i have receipts and proof of all money spent and money donated to camp via pay pal lol your a liar just like how you told entire camp I made and printed out the 30 early arrival passes I had in my hand to hand out to people in Reno lol and how you said we weren’t a registered theme camp and our group page was fake and how you said I wasn’t at burning man lol what happened to those lies? Oh they all are documented truth on my part just like every lie you spew I will prove you’re lying. that’s why rangers kicked you out and got back all the peoples items you aquired somehow while snooping around ppls private areas at camp lol I was going to let this slandering all slide and your little camp mutiny go because I’m above petty ppl like you but now I will bring legal actions against you and the other guilty party. Lol 125 ppl paid 25-75 dollars in camp donations some paid 50 for us to get them a bike or tent and deliver it and we did that as in buying a bike for 25-50 bucks them letting them use on playa lol your so far off base and your lies created chaos and who knows how so many bikes got stolen on playa but instead if helping me organize you chose to gather ppl and try to form a mutiny and when you approached my wife at camp lol not knowing she’s my wife and my friends and spewed your venom they caught you lying and that’s when you were removed from camp. Your violent, unstable nature in this comment if yours shows your true colors good job… I may not be the best leader but I tried and did what I said id do and u really care and try to make a communal camp of participators and did nothing to harm anything

Oanamama gives us a report from inside the camp:

This was my first year at Burning Man, and let me just say that it was definitely an initiation for me. I was one of the campers with Gypsy Flower Power and a lot of us are really disappointed, embarrassed and angry at how things turned out. First off, I’m glad that even though I was a newbie, I came completely prepared and self-reliant. If I had to rely on any of those wobbly shade structures, dirty showers, and even filthier kitchen, I’d have been SOL for sure.

So, here’s the lowdown:

I joined the Gypsy camp in January because they seemed to be the most active on Facebook at the time. The camp looked really interesting: 11 countries, performances, a caterpillar-shaped mutant vehicle, partnerships with other camps (the highly organized Nordic Crew, for one). And TONS of people (which, I discovered later is a really BAD idea because I realized by week’s end that I hadn’t even MET most of my campmates. I basically hung around with the 20 of us that arrived first on the Playa for set-up). With a rumored count of 188 members, how does one even monitor who belongs in the camp in the first place? I’m sure there were many interlopers just taking up space and making a mess. But I must say, before I continue, that I met a lot of really great people and hope to reconnect next year under a different, and much more organized camp – the first priority being that we all KNOW each other.

OK, so here goes:

BEER CANS – I’m a tad OCD, so I constantly putz around picking up trash because I hate when things are out of place. But after 4-5 days of picking up other people’s empty beer cans, some of them half-full and HOT with cigarette butts inside of them, I felt like I was waging a losing battle. The fact that I dislike the smell of beer made this task even more challenging, and I really started to resent it – even though I’d still do an occasional sweep if things got too messy. I had found out later in the week at Center Camp that you could donate your camp’s beer cans at the recycling center. So I came back to Camp on the last day and started crushing cans to take them back to the recycling center. After about 70 cans, I just gave up, because so many of them were filled with cigarette butts and roaches.

TRASH – Some of the people at our camp were so strung out that all they did was lie around in the shade, smoke, toke, drink and eat – and leave their trash EVERYWHERE. People, there were TWO GIANT BURN BARRELS in the middle of the camp. You couldn’t walk 5 steps and throw your butts, cardboard and paper in there instead of on the FLOOR?
By week’s end, what was once organized trash in the kitchen that had been initially separated into cans, bottles and food became just big black bags of “whatever”. There were some people that took over this trash-separating task later on in the day, and I’m not sure how far they got. I’m sure they became overwhelmed like me with the beer can situation. And the smell? I gag just thinking about it now.

KITCHEN – Well, I was looking forward to having an occasional group dinner, but that never seemed to happen, at least to my knowledge. My gift for my campmates was offering massage (I did an average of 4 per day, at my choice). So whenever there was a big meal being cooked, I was unaware (and usually in session), and by the time I’d come up for air, there’d be nothing left for me. At first, this bothered me a little, but after a few days, I was GLAD I brought all of my own food, because the kitchen became unbearably filthy. Other people would cook, then leave dirty dishes in the sink, and worse – leave perishable food lying out in the sun for hours. Even a couple of people who volunteered to cook backed away towards the end of the week because they couldn’t deal with the unsanitary conditions.

GREY WATER – As far as I could see, there really wasn’t an evaporation pond – all we had were empty water containers that we dumped our gray water into. These were next to – of all things – the SHOWERS. I think in the picture, that tarp was from the bottom of the “showers”, actually. Those were kind of scary – I stuck to my baby wipes and did just fine until I got to Reno for a real shower.

LEADERSHIP – The visionary for our camp over-promised and under-delivered, leaving a lot of not-so-radically-self-reliant campers SOL. The 2nd-in-command was left to basically put out fires and handle crises, but only one man can do so much. A few stepped in to help, but really? The situation was just so HUGE that it was almost impossible to manage.

I’m keeping my new Burner friends, and we’re moving along to create a better situation next year. One where people have a certain level of maturity and personal responsibility, and take the 10 Principles seriously.

After this “Trial By Fire”, I’m certain next year will be easier! 30 people MAX.

Contre was first in, and one of the first out, catching Burner Express at noon Monday with the maximum allowed 2 trash bags:

the start of the camp was a mess. I came from reno with burner express bus on saturday with the “only” real early entry pass, but this was not from Moon shine. I don’t know where he used the about 40 early entry passes as the team who was waiting on a farm in reno with rv and cars did not get these. Therefore i was the first and only one on the camp with the exception of the nordic core team which are located closed in one corner. I was surprised that on this huge area.. really no one was preparing anything or was already there. The team from the farm came sunday afternoon. We tried to post in facebook that there will be no chance that the promised “hostel”, “food” and “water” is in the camp and that everyone should take care and responsible for themselves to have this available before entering BRC, thanks to BMIR, who allowed me using their internet connection.
I already expected that the exodus of the team will end up in a mess but i did have a bus ticket and a fix date on monday noon and packed my 2 burner express bus trash bags for my trash und left the playa with a really bad feeling that nothing will work.
Very sad to read this now but when i left there was about 100 people still there.
We have seen that a lot of virgin burners just pit there moop and trash sacks in the kitchen area and leaving playa, expecting that others will take care on their shit. Clearly i guess these virgin burners might know that this is not okay but i guess they were angry about “no shade, water, food, bicycle” that they decided to act like this i would assume. For sure the last one left the area is now blamed but it is not this small team who might have gone with a much more worse feeling as this was just the end of a long journey that starts with scamming of several hundred people, no responsibility at all and i guess moon left also playa on sunday or monday. Moon and Tara (his paypal account managerin) are the source and “yes” the people in the camp failed to organize this themselfes. I personally have seen this as a social experiment but it is sad to see that it fails in such a way.

Moonshine’s defense to all this? Since he wasn’t running a plug-n-play, his guests should have been more Radically Self Reliant.

the truth will come out in the court of law and the guilty parties will pay for slandering and bullying me and the theft of camp property unless it’s returned. I did nothing wrong accept trust a cpl ppl and try to run a communal camp accepting donations for only 25-75 bucks for fuel, firewood, etcetc and loaning bikes to ppl for 50 bucks. some ppl paid zero money as they brought supplies instead of donating cash. Most ppl had a great time others chose to believe lies that I wasn’t even a burner and didn’t go to bman then when I showed up the lies of me going to Mexico with tens of thousands of dollars didn’t make sense lol. so then they said i had no ea passes and when I presented them she said I made them and printed them out lol. then another guy said I sold ea passes lol all lies to sabotage a camp, pull a mutiny to have power of being the leader and I suppose try to convince my friends to join them in a new camp next year. Now after wanting the leader title they blame the moop on me too lol. I have proof and receipts and those who know the real story and witnessed rangers escorting one of the guilty ppl from camp all believe me and my lawyer is laughing at them. What’s sad and disappointing is we had a great camp and a lot of us spent alot of time, hard work and money and a cpl bad apples created chaos but truth always prevails
about an hour ago · Edited · Like

Moon Shine: Pending legal actions against those ppl I remained silent and have yet to reveal screen shots, receipts and delivery verification proof of all items I bought with camp donations
about an hour ago · Like

Moon Shine: I bought 2 tickets from a guy in camp who resold them to the ppl spreading the lies. I have pay pal receipt proof and his texts…. He also gifted me a ticket and sold it also I have proof. I had no ticket so I couldn’t arrive until wed night after finding and buying a ticket
about an hour ago · Edited · Like

Moon Shine: How the hell could 25-75 bucks be enough money to pay for someone’s food, water and shelter lol I told all bring own food and water and said we cook food daily when and if we want too but do not rely on us. All this stuff is in posts from months ago on our group page. I bought 2 enclosed canopies via amazon and they were delivered to my so called friends house along with countless other shade materials and supplies and I was told they didn’t arrive . Those canopies were for shelter for 20 or more ppl . So when those were stolen I went and bought tents for the people who were to sleep in the canopies and those tents went unused. I made 3 trips to Reno and back trying to replenish stolen supplies and spent way over any amount of camp donations. I am a victim and some of the people are victims and now some want me to give them donations back and that’s what I was doing until all this….. Now I’m seeking legal actions
about an hour ago · Like

Moon Shine: How can one person be to blame for that pile of moop? What part of radical self reliance and inclusion does not bringing own food, water and shelter play? Yes I offered to bring tents for about 10 ppl and I did. We had a 30ft Uhaul truck to use for shelter after the 10×30 enclosed canopies disappeared but my so called friend chose to sleep in it as his own tent and tell people that I didn’t provide them shelter and to go get fucked. Why didn’t these ppl get to sleep in in the Uhaul on mattresses ? Where’s the 2 canopies? Those are the real questions to be answered! Also myself and friends cooked all kinds of food and shared drinks etcetc
about an hour ago · Like

Moon Shine: The 30 French ppl all pissed off left 100 bags of garbage and junk and a note saying they did it and I guess surrounding ppl piled on top of it after we left with one load of garbage bags. I paid some people to haul bags out others volunteered and I was told the Uhaul was taking the rest out
about an hour ago · Like

30 French people now? He found another 10 from somewhere to blame. “I was told” is always a great excuse at Burning Man.

Oh dear. It sounds like yet another story of a plug-n-play gone wrong. Radical self reliance being confused with Radical Someone Else Reliance. I wonder how many of the 188-250 campers from all around the world were Virgins.

With all the commercialization going on there everywhere these days, more things like this are probably going to happen in the future. For every Burner who reads this story and thinks “tsk tsk, MOOP”, there’s some scam artist looking at the goldmine of money making opportunities presented by the city: from promotional videos to ticket scalping to bike theft to selling fake timeshares to prototyping new technologies. If you don’t mind working for a living, there’s honest money on offer for a hard day’s work as a Sherpa or a Mistress of Merriment.

BMOrg have never told us that everyone at Burning Man is good. Their first ever theme was Good vs Evil. Their second theme was Helco, about an Evil Corporation. Evil is there, you better believe it. And so are scam artists, and petty criminals.

How can a place that bans commerce and consumerism, have a Department of Consumer Affairs?

Burner: “I got ripped off in a transaction!”

BMOrg: “But that’s impossible, there are no transactions allowed here!”

And who gets to clean it up? DPW volunteers, that’s who.

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[Update 9/20/14 11:22am]

D has updated us with some more investigative reporting, with the man himself Moonshine the MOOPer:

While someone does have to take responsibility for the camp leaving a 4-foot high garabage dump behind them, it seems like 250 people could’ve done a better job with taking their trash with them. It also seems like someone out of such a large camp could’ve bit the bullet and rented a fucking truck to get the mess out of there.

The timing of this story is certainly convenient for BMOrg. A camp has been singled out as an example of the worst of the worst of MOOPers. This is unprecedented. The “Abandonment” map has been released before the MOOP map. This is also unprecedented. A Burning Man Director’s camp, Caravncicle/Lost Oasis, has been quite controversial over the last couple of weeks. They scored 6 red X’s for the city block they had dedicated to them. Perhaps BMOrg hope that diverting the attention onto Gypsy Flower Power, a camp with a “perfect scape goat”, will take some of the Burner community’s attention away from the Commodification happening at the very core of their event.

One thing I know for sure – Caravancicle and Gypsy Flower Power, were far from the first, or only plug-n-play camps that treated the Playa like crap, and the Tin Principles like loose definitions full of loopholes. This is going on everywhere now, and affects more than just a few hundred people, as some snarky commenters have suggested. Banning AirBnB from Burning Man, ironically or otherwise, would be a good step that BMOrg could take. They would acknowledge that this is truly a problem they desire to solve, and not a new opportunity they desire to commercially exploit. Somehow, I don’t imagine that is going to happen any time soon, since 2 of Burning Man’s directors are really working for AirBnB.

 

[Update 9/20/14 1:26pm] A comment from Facebook, from Burner Pasha:

I would just like to express some thoughts regarding the MOOP left behind by Gypsy Flower Power and the conversations that followed.

Just in general – The mutant vehicles, the art, the music, the workshops, the temple, the man, the burns are all amazing visual, emotional and spiritual stimuli. But at the core of it all, what makes Burning Man function as its own society with its own culture and customs, are the 10 principles. Without those principles and our unwavering commitment to upholding them, Black Rock City is simply an empty desert. It’s not easy. We are all conditioned to live a certain way, follow certain rules, value certain ideals for decades.. and then we come to this crazy place where our way of life is completely turned upside down and everything we were raised to believe and do is challenged. We are challenged at our core. All in our own unique ways.

[Update 9/20/14 2:25pm]

Some more of Moonshine’s own words: