81–90 of 321 posts
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Who would hate on YCombinator?
Any of the non-founder employees who work at one of their hundreds of portfolio companies that have refused to go public. Literally only one company backed by YC, Dropbox, has gone public to date.
And what does any of that have to do with YC?
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 a…
The cross-pollination effect of Couchsurfing is so powerful. I often wonder — how could you create a digital equivalent of this? We let strangers into our homes, but not into our superuser shell. Why?
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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…
I'm not sure if it's still the case, but I think CS was forced into a 'for-profit' designation for practical reasons: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9633122 ... and it doesn't really represent the operation. At the end of the day, moderation and support for membership is needed, particularly for keeping predators out of the system, mechanisms for people who might have fallen prey to them. It is something that r…
Servers cost money, and BeWelcome are transparent about that. Having developers to code the site and moderate the forum would be expensive if paid by the hour, but there are willing volunteers. Asking for donations is acceptable, a paywall demanding a subscription is not.
Please come over to the BeWelcome forums; I'd like to discuss the possibilities of starting new meetups, and selling merch (t-shirts, hoodies, stickers) to improve the BeWelcome brand so it can bring together the community, lest we scatter. Any financial donation like that should be discussed democratically though, so that's why your input is needed.
(I didn't downvote, I think your comment is fair)
>If community powered websites like Reddit can survive Reddit is backed by venture capital and shifted heavily to be more advertiser friendly.
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.
Networks are so valuable and important to success it’s actually kind of crazy that surveillance and advertising is the only strategy most social networks have been able to come up with so far.
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Thanks for sharing. Couchsurfing is so interesting. Its success relies on it never becoming mainstream. It's like those word-of-mouth-only parties that are so great but if enough people hear about them, they are no longer any good. I had a similar experience with drum circles in Toronto, Canada. They were this hippie heaven of people coming together in a park and playing drums once a week in the summertime. Other peo…
Is that really the case? I couch surfed years ago. From memory I think couchsurfing.com has a reputation system where if people stay at your house, you gain points that give you priority when staying with someone else. so it's kinda like a system for bypassing money in exchanging accommodation. Ideally, if many people start swarming the system looking for free places to stay, it will just mean they won't get chosen,…
hosts will be overwhelmed with requests. many guests will be freeloaders who would be better served with airbnb.
for the site to work, the influx of new members needd to be small enough so that the community csn handle it.
word of mouth is the only way to make sure that new members can get a reference before their first trip.
Not everything needs to be the next WeWork.
>If community powered websites like Reddit can survive Reddit is backed by venture capital and shifted heavily to be more advertiser friendly.
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.
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I'm not sure if it's still the case, but I think CS was forced into a 'for-profit' designation for practical reasons: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9633122 ... and it doesn't really represent the operation. At the end of the day, moderation and support for membership is needed, particularly for keeping predators out of the system, mechanisms for people who might have fallen prey to them. It is something that r…
Trustroots is being discussed as an alternative, but it doesn't have a reference system. I trust the reference system to keep the platform clear from the safety issues you describe. That's why I think BeWelcome is the best alternative to recommend right now. Servers cost money, and BeWelcome are transparent about that. Having developers to code the site and moderate the forum would be expensive if paid by the hour, b…
I logged in just earlier to have a look, and I see that people do have feedback. I'm not sure if there's anything like 'vouching' that CS used to have.
> Having developers to code the site and moderate the forum would be expensive if paid by the hour, but there are willing volunteers.
I have been to a festival in Australia (the predecessor to burning man) that is completely volunteer run. It's interesting to be a part of operations and see it work, and fail to some extent, and in meat-space the 'look after each other philosophy' can work when everybody is can watch each other.
I'm not sure how that could translate to a platform that has private messaging. I believe CS had a mechanism where communications could be inspected if a complaint was raised.
> Asking for donations is acceptable, a paywall demanding a subscription is not.
I think you're right about this. The people who I enjoyed the most with CS would probably find this offensive, so I'd be more likely to participate in a platform that was donation-based.
My only hesitation is that I lose all my references.
> so that's why your input is needed.
I'll make an effort.