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The Death of Couchsurfing?

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Re: The Death of Couchsurfing?

#61

Post by starpilot »

cmehdy wrote: post #12

Couchsurfing was fantastic in its early days, then came the era of using websites for just-a-little-bit-too-much-dating, then they went .com and tried to be "cool" with redesigns, eventually drowning the simplicity of their concept a little bit too much. That $25 yearly fee slapped onto everything, with no chance to even connect with previous contacts, is disappointing to say the least. No doubt that the meaning of "…

There are creepy amounts of guys who only host young, attractive women. It used to be more like hosting anyone - young, old, any gender, and sharing travel tales.

Re: The Death of Couchsurfing?

#62

Post by h0l0cube »

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…

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 requires time and effort. Such operations need guaranteed vigilance on these issues, and aren't easily sustained by the whims of volunteer involvement.

It might be that many established members are okay with taking risks. I remember one host I stayed with that talked about hitch-hiking on trucks around Europe to save money, but also how she got drugged once and her money stolen and dumped in the middle of an autobahn, and then another time how she 'talked herself out of' being raped. This sort of risk might be okay for the seasoned couchsurfer, but this might not sit well for newcomers who don't know who they are staying with.

Not sure if the situation has changed with CS, and they've become profit-oriented, but it does take some money, from somewhere, to keep things to modern standards. Personally, I would prefer that CS was sustained by those who can afford to by donations, rather than subscription. And I may actually look to bewelcome, or hospitality club if that's still around. (I also used another called 'Trustroots', not sure if that still has a community.)

Edit: To that individual with the privilege to down-vote, could you please correct me where I'm wrong with an actual comment?

Re: The Death of Couchsurfing?

#63

Post by alentist »

ashtonkem wrote: post #51
MattGaiser wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Keep in mind that YC is very visible. As a result, complaints about VC behavior in general will accumulate to YC, since they’re often the public face of startups and startup culture. That might not be fair or ever correct, but it’s how people work. Personally, YC’s involvement in AirBnB is my biggest complaint with the company. I’m not sure how it looked from the inside before hand, but in retrospect AirBnB is one of…

> AirBnB is one of the poster children of VC backed companies extracting profits at the cost of society

Do you have any evidence to back up that claim? Because hard data shows exactly the opposite: https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2018/beyond-bls/how-airbnb-has-...

Re: The Death of Couchsurfing?

#64

Post by seattle_spring »

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.

Not quite. Reddit is owned by Conde Nast, a public company. In fact, Couchsurfing is the one here backed by VC, having taken in $22.5m.

Edit: I'm totally wrong about Reddit. They're both currently VC backed companies.

Re: The Death of Couchsurfing?

#65

Post by seattle_spring »

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?

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.

Re: The Death of Couchsurfing?

#66

Post by MattGaiser »

seattle_spring wrote: post #64
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.

Not quite. Reddit is owned by Conde Nast, a public company. In fact, Couchsurfing is the one here backed by VC, having taken in $22.5m. Edit: I'm totally wrong about Reddit. They're both currently VC backed companies.

Reddit is raising plenty of money too.

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/11/reddit-raises-300-million-at...

Re: The Death of Couchsurfing?

#67

Post by detaro »

seattle_spring wrote: post #64
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.

Not quite. Reddit is owned by Conde Nast, a public company. In fact, Couchsurfing is the one here backed by VC, having taken in $22.5m. Edit: I'm totally wrong about Reddit. They're both currently VC backed companies.

Reddit is still raising large investment sums from outside companies: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-reddit-funding/reddit-val...

Conde Nast did own it at some point, then it was transferred out and Conde Nast's parent is the majority owner (or was? the news report above only lists them as one investor).

Re: The Death of Couchsurfing?

#68

Post by lowdose »

MattGaiser wrote: post #18
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.

Hacker News is smaller than most major subreddits in terms of usage. 400 upvotes is considered a lot here. The site is extremely simple and something that could be replicated in a couple of days at most by most engineers. It doesn't process money or really require a lot of content moderation either.

I think YC doesn't publish the numbers to prevent a bandwagon effect from happening. Or do you know more about the numbers?

Re: The Death of Couchsurfing?

#69

Post by wnevets »

seattle_spring wrote: post #64
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.

Not quite. Reddit is owned by Conde Nast, a public company. In fact, Couchsurfing is the one here backed by VC, having taken in $22.5m. Edit: I'm totally wrong about Reddit. They're both currently VC backed companies.

>Not quite. Reddit is owned by Conde Nast,

not since 2011 [0]

[0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reddit

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