Hacker News Reader

Comment by stokedmartin | Hacker News Reader

In some cases, going to the bathroom with your stuff is almost like leaving your place vacant for any one else to take. In crowded cafés, this may not be optimal. I wonder if cafés provide customers with pamphlets to put on the table saying `Occupied` while they are gone to the bathroom with their stuff would be helpful.

View on HN

It's like leaving your place vacant because you ARE leaving your place vacant. That's a good thing.

If a coffee shop is so busy that you won't have a place when you get back then take a break and come back when things are quieter. Or pay for a coworking space.

(I remember trying to get a table with friends at Blue Bottle years ago... each one was occupied by a loner staring at a laptop, nursing a coffee, and ignoring everything else. It was sad.)

At least in US bars, you can leave your glass on the bar with a napkin over the top to indicate that the seat is taken and the drink should not be tossed. I don't know if cafe patrons might honor this convention?

Depending on your gender and/or the bar's orientation, or other factors, this may not be entirely safe either. Drugged drinks are not unheard of.

Presumably the cup is empty? And it's just a marker?

I've seen this done with non-empty drinks, so no, not always.

These warnings should be given with some care, because they can create a false sense of security.

Most studies have found that most of the time that people believe a drug was added to their drink, the only drug they actually consumed was alcohol. Alcohol is by a long run the most common date rape drug; it is far more likely that your attacker will trick you into drinking more than you realize.

So if somebody is buying you unfamiliar cocktails, merely guarding your drink against adulterants can leave you vulnerable to the cocktails containing far more alcohol than you are aware.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Date_rape_drug#Alcohol http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Date_rape_drug#Media_coverage_a...

I wasn't aware that date rape drugs could tell the gender of the drinker.

Date-rape drugs are likely more often delivered to women than men. It's not the drugs, but the drugger, who is doing the discrimination.

It's also not unheard of for same-sex drug- or alcohol-based assaults to occur.

I do this with coasters. However I have been told that in some areas, a coaster on top of your glass means the opposite, signalling to the bartender that you are done with your drink.

In a way, it also helps turnover of tables - it's a soft way of ensuring new customers can get seats and the people who got there first don't stay all day (short of an explicit X hour limit)

If the café is that crowded, is it actually a problem if people working on laptops lose their spot if they take a bathroom break?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com