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The Death of Couchsurfing?

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Re: The Death of Couchsurfing?

#41

Post by Mediterraneo10 »

qu83rt wrote: post #38
Mediterraneo10 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

CS inititally grew through communities like hitchhikers, bicycle travelers, Rainbow Gathering hippies and other alternative demographics. For people driven by wanderlust and keen for a sense of community with other sympathetic people, government-enforced COVID travel restrictions may compel them to stay put for a while, but the virus itself won't put them off traveling and hosting for long. No one wants to give up on…

The person above claimed that hosts would be reluctant because visitors might have COVID, not that the travellers would be more reluctant.

A certain amount of people invested in the community will still be willing to host simply because they crave the social contact with other members. But besides that, a lot of passionate travelers are keen to host on CS because contributing in this way makes it more likely that they themselves will be able to save money on accommodation and meet interesting people when they travel. So, COVID won’t dissuade everyone from hosting.

Re: The Death of Couchsurfing?

#42

Post by MattGaiser »

coronadisaster wrote: post #37
MattGaiser wrote: post #7

>If community powered websites like Reddit can survive Reddit is backed by venture capital and shifted heavily to be more advertiser friendly.

Reddit gold, etc is probably a small portion of their revenu?

Reddit has about 100 million in revenue.

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/11/reddit-users-are-the-least-v...

The coins seem to be a couple hundred thousand a month.

https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/comments/ak1769/red...

Re: The Death of Couchsurfing?

#43

Post by Stratoscope »

mschuster91 wrote: post #23
peterburkimsher wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know how Hacker News manages to stay so pure, given that it's run by venture capitalists, yet still remains free of ads and open to newcomers. Monetising CS is like demanding a signup fee to join HN: it will drastically change the community.

HN is run as a side gig, modded by iirc 2 or 3 staffers. Simple tech stack with next to zero new features, so not too capital intensive. Plus: there are a shitload of people from all over the world here, ranging from broke devs in "third world countries" over German journalists to US VC CEOs. HN is essentially a gateway to a lot of influential people... a "soft power" in politics terms. And one with real monetary val…

> HN is run as a side gig, modded by iirc 2 or 3 staffers.

I think it may be just one now - sctb's last comment here was 8 months ago.

Re: The Death of Couchsurfing?

#44

Post by MattGaiser »

ashtonkem wrote: post #36
MattGaiser wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who would hate on YCombinator?

There are some legitimate arguments about how VC backed startups have behaved as of late, and YC is part of that overall system. I’m not sure where I personally sit, but I think it’s a bit silly to pretend that YC is universally beloved or beyond reproach.

I did not think it was universally beloved, but just never read any negative viewpoint about them so was curious.

Re: The Death of Couchsurfing?

#45

Post by owenversteeg »

So I imagine there's a lot of people here that don't know Couchsurfing or what the big deal is. Couchsurfing has been one of the most important things in my life, so I'll do my best to explain why it's so special.

The basic idea is you stay at a stranger's place, or you host a stranger at yours - completely for free, no money involved. Everyone does it differently. Some people plan their trip meticulously months in advance and give arrival times to the minute, while others send a message at 9pm the same night asking if you're free. Some people ask to stay one night, some three, some far more; some bring bags of delicious food and artwork of their culture and some bring nothing.

I mostly host, and I've had all of the above - and then some. You have an incredibly diverse group of people. I've met artists, musicians, dancers - everyone from a Syrian man who lived under ISIS for years to an evangelical Christian woman who wanted to try shrooms.

The beautiful thing is that it's anything you want it to be. People have profiles that are often filled out with a good amount of detail (I usually skip the skimpy profiles) so you can pick out whoever or whatever you want. You want a pastry chef? You want a violinist? You want an architect? You want someone tidy and on-time or a hitchhiking hippie? Simply search for one to host or stay with.

The friendships and relationships I've made through Couchsurfing have been some of the best and most interesting I could have asked for. And the best part - you can do it all from home, traveling the world from the comfort of your couch.

Anyway, that's the beauty of it. I really hope that the network of people can be saved. Long term, I think it can, with something like BeWelcome, but of course it's a network effect problem - no hosts=no guests.

If anyone is curious about Couchsurfing (or wants to couchsurf my boat in the Netherlands - seriously, anyone is welcome, please come!) then feel free to send me an email (it's in my profile.)

Re: The Death of Couchsurfing?

#46

Post by barry-cotter »

MattGaiser wrote: post #33
bcassedy wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ehh there's a really pro ycombinator slant and ever notice how any yc announcement, hiring notice, or article quickly hits the top? They're getting a lot of value out of that stuff that helps with the VC side of things.

Who would hate on YCombinator?

Haven’t you noticed the years long media campaign to try and get the public to hate tech? It hasn’t been very successful but it’s not like there aren’t a lot of people who hate every single person who work in the technology industry.

Re: The Death of Couchsurfing?

#47

Post by dvtrn »

Mediterraneo10 wrote: post #41
qu83rt wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The person above claimed that hosts would be reluctant because visitors might have COVID, not that the travellers would be more reluctant.

A certain amount of people invested in the community will still be willing to host simply because they crave the social contact with other members. But besides that, a lot of passionate travelers are keen to host on CS because contributing in this way makes it more likely that they themselves will be able to save money on accommodation and meet interesting people when they travel. So, COVID won’t dissuade everyone fr…

Is this your own opinion or, other than meticulously picking through couchsurfer forum posts, how does one gather the sentiment of such a large community of hosts?

Re: The Death of Couchsurfing?

#49

Post by MattGaiser »

barry-cotter wrote: post #46
MattGaiser wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who would hate on YCombinator?

Haven’t you noticed the years long media campaign to try and get the public to hate tech? It hasn’t been very successful but it’s not like there aren’t a lot of people who hate every single person who work in the technology industry.

I get that angle, but have never read any criticism specific to YC.

Re: The Death of Couchsurfing?

#50

Post by barry-cotter »

peterburkimsher wrote: post #8
willio58 wrote: post #3

An alternative will rise eventually. Couch surfing is all about experiences, friendships, and not thinking about money. Any person creating the alternative will have to understand and accept that.

BeWelcome is open-source, has been around for a decade already, and has excellent financial transparency. Their fundraising target for this year is 1300€. I've already contacted their developer to ask if I can help create a data import tool so people can easily transfer their C$ profiles. It's heartbreaking to see such a wonderful community be divided like this. There are no "rich" and "poor" countries, only ones wit…

Thank you for putting real effort into solving a problem you see in the world.

> There are no "rich" and "poor" countries, only ones with more inequality.

This is true only in the same way that there are no tall and short people, only taller and shorter people. Most of the population of the DRC lives worse lives than the bottom 1% of the US population in terms of material consumption. The US is rich. The DRC is poor.

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