Ironically enough some negative reviews that you read online for venues are actually very positive from the point of view of the cafe commuter. Here’s a review for one of my favorite places to work:

Well, Supercore is a definitely cool place, but watch out for the worker-bee/laptop vibe on weekdays. I went there with some friends to hang out on a weekday morning, and got looks from the waitress because we were sitting around and talking. What are coffee shops coming to? Guess you have to keep the cappucinos flowing, or do some important web-surfing to hang out in this joint.

from freewilliamsburg.com

and here’s another:

There is nothing here but laptops. It looks like an office inside, just rows of laptops. . . with a coffee counter. How is it that someone can spend $2.00 on a cup of coffee and be entitled to take up space at the tables for a whole day? Bad place for a conversation because your the only ones talking and its weird, everyone else is “working”. What happened to the days when cafes were social?

from yelp.com

Obviously these are 2 places that would be ideal to spend some hours with your laptop. On the other hand some people work regular jobs, and when they’re not at work the last thing they want to see is a bunch of people busy at work. There are a number of bars in Brooklyn that now offer free wifi but I’ve never been to one where I didn’t feel a vibe like “this is a place to socialize and get drunk, not work on a freakin’ laptop!”

Anyway this is an issue I’m trying to sort out here: distinguishing between places that just have free wifi and those where you’re actually welcome to hang out and do some work for a few hours. I wish venues would be more up front about it and advertise as ‘worker/student friendly’ or something like that but instead you have to rely on more subtle cues, though like at the place mentioned in the second review above they have power strips plugged in all over the place so it’s pretty obvious they don’t mind you hanging out for longer than your laptop’s battery life.