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Paradise lost: The rise and ruin of Couchsurfing.com

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Re: Paradise lost: The rise and ruin of Couchsurfing.com

#161

Post by htrp »

brianguertin wrote: post #160
mdasen wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think AirBnB was trying to have that vibe at the beginning. The problem is that you end up in a situation where that vibe doesn't scale. If you're trying to create a business worth billions, you need a lot more hosts and transactions than amateurs accommodate. An amateur might host someone for a few nights a month or a few nights per quarter. A professional is going to have an investment property that they're looki…

Same thing happened while I worked at Turo. They pivoted from "If we all shared our cars, we won't need as many! Less traffic and better for the environment!" to "We need to optimize for people who are buying cars/fleets and renting them out like a business, as they bring us the most value"

When did the pivot happen?

Re: Paradise lost: The rise and ruin of Couchsurfing.com

#162

Post by rsj_hn »

stjohnswarts wrote: post #156
glandium wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't tell about the US, but paying money to sleep in spare bedrooms was a thing in Europe well before Airbnb.

Same here. Usually informal and under the table cash transaction. Not nearly as common as a formal lease though, but some people have issues with those.

People forget that prior to the middle class boom when cheap land in the suburbs was opened up with the automobile, home ownership rates were much lower in the US and it was quite standard to supplement your income by hosting a boarder to live in your home. This was very common all throughout the 19th Century and well into the 20th.

There is a nice census article on this. Here's a sample quote:

"In a study of Boston neighborhoods circa 1880, 37 percent of boarders were between 20 and 29 years old, and 27.5 percent were between 30 and 39 years old (see also, Scopilliti and O’Connell 2008). Widows and single women commonly made up their ranks. Indeed, estimates from 1900 show that 38 percent of working single women lived away from their families as boarders, often in the homes of their employer (Goldin 1980)."

https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/working-pa...

Re: Paradise lost: The rise and ruin of Couchsurfing.com

#163

Post by asimpletune »

I remember using CS in 2008, and there was also this ensuing feeling of magic. Like, things always worked out in incredible, and unexpected ways. It never occurred to me at the time that none of that was owed or guaranteed, and it could just as easily come to an end. That magic after all was the byproduct of groups of cooperative, uncoordinated actors, all participating in experiment of radical acts of selflessness.

It's a shame that as a business CS didn't work out, but it also urges me to think of what things exist now that are equally magic that I don't appreciate. Craigslist?

Re: Paradise lost: The rise and ruin of Couchsurfing.com

#164

Post by nisegami »

h0l0cube wrote: post #149
zwayhowder wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was well thought out too, hard to spam with fake comments etc. My family hosted people for a year or two and we were never empty. The appeal of a family home with a private room that had dozens of reviews from well travelled guests was so overwhelming people would take an air mattress in my study if the private room was taken by others. We regularly had multiple groups of people staying. Our record was 11 which in…

> he was accidently still wearing his police uniform from work Wait, this was a cop? Did they face any consequences for this?

Friend was a cop, not the guy who trapped the woman.

Re: Paradise lost: The rise and ruin of Couchsurfing.com

#165

Post by 1_player »

kragen wrote: post #153
xtracto wrote: post #118

I tried to use it once around 2005 while studying my PhD in the UK. I needed to stay in London for a couple of days but was rejected and couldn't find a bed. I ended up going into a Hostel (hostelworld) at that time. It didn't work for me (maybe because of my nationality?).

From your web site I understand you're Mexican? What kind of attitudes about your nationality did you encounter in the UK? (Man, you accuse the US of pervasive racism and you get flagged into fucking oblivion in this fucking racist-dominated shithole. I only mentioned it because I have a lot of experience with US racism toward Latinos, which is fucking pervasive , but none with UK racism.)

You're the one making it about race here.

Re: Paradise lost: The rise and ruin of Couchsurfing.com

#166

Post by kragen »

1_player wrote: post #165
kragen wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From your web site I understand you're Mexican? What kind of attitudes about your nationality did you encounter in the UK? (Man, you accuse the US of pervasive racism and you get flagged into fucking oblivion in this fucking racist-dominated shithole. I only mentioned it because I have a lot of experience with US racism toward Latinos, which is fucking pervasive , but none with UK racism.)

You're the one making it about race here.

xtracto said, "maybe because of my nationality?" What alternative interpretation do you have of that remark?

Re: Paradise lost: The rise and ruin of Couchsurfing.com

#168

Post by blaeks »

Beldin wrote: post #98
zwayhowder wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was well thought out too, hard to spam with fake comments etc. My family hosted people for a year or two and we were never empty. The appeal of a family home with a private room that had dozens of reviews from well travelled guests was so overwhelming people would take an air mattress in my study if the private room was taken by others. We regularly had multiple groups of people staying. Our record was 11 which in…

> he was accidently still wearing his police uniform Hear, hear, fine sirs!

I like this feeling in my forearm bones when I just strike and hang my axe in a swollen vain of a pure and juicy Gold-pressed latinum of the Internet.

Naw, no judgement here - it's just a _gut feeling_ of a high-resolution detection/detector of the decline of the civilization-type-of-situation.

again, namaste to us all \m/

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