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The Death of Couchsurfing?

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Re: The Death of Couchsurfing?

#261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every woman I've met on couch surfing has been a victim of some kind of sexual harassment or violence due to someone they meet on couchsurfing. Basically they stay with a guy and he has expectations and is vocal if not forceful about it. Women would be surprised that I had a bed just for them, didn't expect them to sleep with me, didn't ask them for sex, etc. I hosted for two years living in Berlin. That being said I…

Why would they keep signing up to stay with a guy if not being harassed was out of the norm?

I know women who get harassed pretty frequently walking down the street, there would be very few things they could do if they avoided all places they have been harassed more than twice.

Re: The Death of Couchsurfing?

#262

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…

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…

> 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 people would come by and picnic, sit around, dance, hula hoop, whatever.

My brother lived near a big ole drum circle in Santa Cruz, CA and had the same experience. Originally it was a small crew and they weren't a problem. They hung out, didn't get too loud, and were respectful of the properties nearby. Definitely some LSD and other substances floating around, but nothing out of control.

Couple years later it's essentially a quasi-homeless community and lots of problems with litter, noise, and, eventually, overdoses.

See also: Mop Theory & Subcultures -- https://meaningness.com/geeks-mops-sociopaths

Re: The Death of Couchsurfing?

#263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is all true but the real answer is that it is run as a charity project by billionaires. So it doesn't need to be monetized.

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.

> Ehh there's a really pro ycombinator slant and ever notice how any yc announcement

The site is literally news.ycombinator.com... and you're surprised it's slated towards ycombinator?

Re: The Death of Couchsurfing?

#264
Wonder how they survived for such a long time. I used to use it when I was a young adult with no family and little money, and stopped using it once I was not young any more, and had something to pay. My impression of my guests and hosts was that they were about the same kind of people as I was, so I'm not sure where they could ever get money from.

Re: The Death of Couchsurfing?

#265

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.

> I don't know how Hacker News manages to stay so pure It's heavily moderated, more so than Reddit. Right now is an interesting time because COVID posts are weighted to quickly fall off the front page (I'm not really complaining, this is a tech link site and I can see how those get annoying; no one wants to think about that right now, but if you see one of those threads, they are some of the most interesting and cont…

> COVID posts are weighted to quickly fall off the front page (I'm not really complaining, this is a tech link site and I can see how those get annoying

Agreed. There is no shortage of COVID coverage, like, everywhere so I'm glad that they slide away quickly.

That said, I do appreciate the hard looks the HN crowd takes on some of the posted studies.

Re: The Death of Couchsurfing?

#266

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.

> Ehh there's a really pro ycombinator slant and ever notice how any yc announcement The site is literally news.ycombinator.com... and you're surprised it's slated towards ycombinator?

I don't think the parent is surprised, no.

Re: The Death of Couchsurfing?

#267

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…

Every woman I've met on couch surfing has been a victim of some kind of sexual harassment or violence due to someone they meet on couchsurfing. Basically they stay with a guy and he has expectations and is vocal if not forceful about it. Women would be surprised that I had a bed just for them, didn't expect them to sleep with me, didn't ask them for sex, etc. I hosted for two years living in Berlin. That being said I…

Wow! I've hosted a good bit and that's completely different from my experience.

> Women would be surprised that I had a bed just for them

It sounds like you were taking a lot of the desperate people on the site that aren't mostly in it for the cultural exchange but to save $5. Because here's the thing - everyone's profile has a section detailing what kind of room/bed the Couchsurfer will get. A "shared bed" is a red flag the size of Russia.

That's the other thing: I like to read the CS profiles of the guys accused of being creepy. 95% of the time, it's VERY obvious who they are. Guys will have "sex" in their interests, only have a shared tiny bed, or pictures of them shirtless, or 100% references from young women, etc., etc. That's the beauty of Couchsurfing - if you see a profile that you're not 100% confident in, then just move on; there are fifteen million people.

The real problem on Couchsurfing stems from people not reading each others' profiles. People get greedy, see a way to save on hotels, then send out copy-paste message spam that's not unique to your profile. I only host people who send me a message personalized to my profile, and even then that's after a lot of reading their profile, references, etc. I simply ignore the copy-pasted messages - if you don't care who you end up with, then you're not Couchsurfing for the interesting experience, you're doing it to save a few bucks.

If you don't read profiles and carefully select, then you're basically rolling the dice. This is the #1 cause of bad Couchsurfing experiences.

TL;DR: if you choose a host without reading, Couchsurfing just becomes Omegle IRL.

(If you're a woman reading this and want to Couchsurf 100% safely, you can do things like only surf families, other women, places where you'll get your own room, etc etc.)

Re: The Death of Couchsurfing?

#268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had some really good experiences on couchsurfing (hosting and surfing) about 10 years ago, then I moved to a very touristic part of the world, and started getting 90% of requests from couples who were basically looking to get free accommodation for their holidays. I accepted the first 3 times, and each time they would arrive in the evening, unpack, drive to a restaurant they had already booked, come back to sleep a…

A key technique to avoid those situations was the "poisoned pill": buried in your profile there is some keyword they must include in their request. With that (which I copied once I was reading a full descriptive profile) you get a great filter. I have done a good share of CS, both as host and guest, over the last ~10 years, having either good or amazing experiences.

> ading a full descriptive profile) you get a great filter. I have done a good

can you explain? what keywords do you have to put to avoid this?

Re: The Death of Couchsurfing?

#269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They are women who have chosen to stay at a male stranger's house They are people who have chosen to stay at a stranger's house > Do you think women are completely naïve about how the world works No, but I don't think they want to have to take every decision based on probability of getting raped > I've known two women who couch surf and it was de rigueur to have sex with their hosts And I know male hosts who had se…

You seem to be confused between what you think should be true versus what actually is true. If you think women can afford to take the same risks as men when travelling then I just really don't know what to say to you. That's just hopelessly naïve. Attractive girls learn very early on that every man wants to have sex with them. It's just part of life for them. > Does that mean that if I couchsurf at a man's flat I sho…

> No, but if I were you I would at least consider that there might be a "misunderstanding" leading to you having to find alternative accommodation.

Why, on a site like couchsurfing, would there be any implied sex, or opportunity for misunderstanding around 'sex for surfing'? It's blatantly outside the standards and norms of the community.

Re: The Death of Couchsurfing?

#270
post #178

In related news, https://www.warmshowers.org/ (a couchsurfing, but only for cyclists) also changed "business model" this month. However, they will not charge existing active users and only ask new sign-ups for 30 USD once for lifetime access. https://www.warmshowers.org/sites/default/files/files/inline...

Thanks for sharing. WS is a great case study. I've known a lot of people who have used it and it doesn't have the sexual harassment and/or hookup thing of CS.

It also feels much more barebones, which I'd say people kind of like.

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