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The Death of Couchsurfing?

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Re: The Death of Couchsurfing?

#211

Post by globular-toast »

00deadbeef wrote: post #208
globular-toast wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tinder and Grindr are also about "meeting people".

Yes and both are more specific about the type of meets. Grindr even has fields for your sexual preferences.

The number of sexual relationships that start off with the explicit intention of being sexual are vanishingly small. Grindr is an exception because it's aimed at gay men. Most other platforms provide at least a small amount of reasonable doubt. On Tinder you merely select which demographics you are "interested in". There is absolutely no mention of sex or sexual preferences on the app. And Tinder is considered one of the more obvious ones.

If Couchsurfing was truly about meeting people then the profiles wouldn't have gender and age on them. But they do.

Re: The Death of Couchsurfing?

#212

Post by galoisgirl »

eanzenberg wrote: post #138
joshvm wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, this does happen, but it's very rare. Anecdotally the most common issue is non-violent sexual assault - e.g. guys hitting on girls. That's largely a risk for solo female travelers unfortunately. If you travel as a couple, for example, the risk is far less. On the other hand the vast majority of solo travelers, male and female, don't have any issues. There are some safety nets in place, like you can get verified…

Guys hitting on girls is sexual assault now?

If it's not, let the guy just say on his profile that he's looking for something more, and see who comes along.

Re: The Death of Couchsurfing?

#213

Post by inimino »

Noos wrote: post #144
inimino wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

/s? I almost wonder if you've ever met anyone in need. This brand of smug entitlement preceeds revolutions ...bro.

If you are in need why on earth are you couchsurfing and traveling at all? If you cant afford $15 for the site what happens when you get sick or any emergency whatsoever forces you to shell out money?

Maybe a relative gets sick in a foreign country and you'd like to see them? Maybe you can't afford health care and you just get sick and die if you're in a first world democracy with American-class health care, or if you're in a civilized country, maybe they just treat you? I don't know, man, use your imagination.

Re: The Death of Couchsurfing?

#214

Post by inimino »

trianglem wrote: post #132
inimino wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

/s? I almost wonder if you've ever met anyone in need. This brand of smug entitlement preceeds revolutions ...bro.

Nope, stop right now. Anyone in America can come up with $25 of disposable income a year.

Therefore, by induction, infinite subscription services at $25/year can find customers! Convenient for pitching to VCs no doubt, and how fortunate for us that no-one ever wants to travel to America from anywhere else, because that would be unthinkable.

Re: The Death of Couchsurfing?

#215

Post by globular-toast »

galoisgirl wrote: post #212
eanzenberg wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Guys hitting on girls is sexual assault now?

If it's not, let the guy just say on his profile that he's looking for something more, and see who comes along.

Come to think of it why don't men just walk around town with a big sign saying "SEX WANTED" on it? I can't believe nobody has thought of this before.

Re: The Death of Couchsurfing?

#216

Post by welly »

fxtentacle wrote: post #153
owenversteeg wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is indeed very unusual, I've never heard of an experience like that! I wonder what happened, maybe they were all part of a group or something? Middle aged women make up a very small percentage of Couchsurfing, and when I see them they're usually hosts only. I get a ton of requests, and I think it'd be more likely for me to get a message from an astronaut than two middle aged women. I just checked my references a…

Did you ever actually meet an astronaut through couchsurfing? The weirdest stay-over that I ever had was a Korean religious pilgrimage who mistook me for a monk because apparently one had lived in my apartment before I moved in.

Not an astronaut but a couple who had been working on the Antarctic (he was a driver, she was working in the kitchens/cafe/bar) during the summer season.

They had loads of really interesting stories and it sounded fascinating. They'd talked about how those who had done the winter season (24 hours of pitch blackness for 4 months) were all a little bit on edge and twitchy.

Re: The Death of Couchsurfing?

#217

Post by FartyMcFarter »

FartyMcFarter wrote: post #83
danicgross wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

It's harder to pretend you're a human in physical form than in digital form?

Furthermore, there's more law enforcement on physical crimes than digital crimes.

Re: The Death of Couchsurfing?

#218

Post by roadbeats »

Couchsurfing was the website that allowed dozens of young people from developing countries to do world trips. Imagine being in your early twenties surrounded by limitations; no money, no job but a bright & open mind who wants to see the world, despite all the travel restrictions. Couchsurfing was the magic of internet that helped young & bright but not rich young people. Some investors bought it and killed it.

Re: The Death of Couchsurfing?

#219

Post by dan-robertson »

peterburkimsher wrote: post #9
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.

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.

1. Moderation, by thoughtful paid moderators. In particular I think the style of moderation is pretty good here

2. Light curation (pushing posts that aren’t a “good fit” down the rankings; asking people to resubmit good submissions that flopped)

3. I feel like it’s changed quite a lot in the last 10 years or so I’ve been reading the site. The popular topics have changed. I see fewer of some kinds of stupid comment and more of other kinds of stupid comment. But it’s hard to describe what the changes are.

Re: The Death of Couchsurfing?

#220

Post by at_a_remove »

Chris2048 wrote: post #207

For hosts that provide their guests with a bed: Are bed-bugs a concern? I can imagine bad hosting varied travellers who themselves may be sleeping in many different beds would be terrible for it.

This was literally the answer I expected when I saw the title.
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