Roland, piggybacking on couchsurfing.org’s preexisting infrastructure could be very easy. However, I can think of a couple of reasons why it would not be as effective as adding a google map to LW.
1) There is a big cognitive cost to making a new user on couchsurfing.org and checking it for messages every so often. I’m assuming people in the LW community have a LW username and periodically check their private messages. It would be psychologically easier for people to not have to sign into multiple sites and manage multiple inboxes.
2) For the whole “look at the traveler’s (or host’s) posts to see how long they’ve been a member and read their posts (a fantastic measure of how interesting or obnoxious the potential traveler may be)”, people would have to make couchsurfing profiles that have their LW username, references, how they want to be compensated/how they’re willing to compensate. Then, whoever was reading their profile would have to go back to LW to look up references/the users’ posts. This seems pretty annoying. It would be much easier to just have everything on one site.
3) Not very important, but I’m not sure how many people want to put personal details on couchsurfing.org. I’m also not sure about how couchsurfing.org works, but I would prefer for only people in the LW community to be able to contact me re: staying over.
) Not very important, but I’m not sure how many people want to put personal details on couchsurfing.org. I’m also not sure about how couchsurfing.org works, but I would prefer for only people in the LW community to be able to contact me re: staying over.
You can create a minimalist profile on CS, no personal data, no pictures. You can say in your profile that you only want people from LW to contact you, it’s as simple as that and there is nothing in CS forbidding it, people have arbitrary rules in their profiles. Add a requirement that they have to be members of LW for at least a few months if you want to be on the safe side.
1) You don’t have to check your Inbox on couchsurfing.org. Instead, you select how often you receive email notifications for new messages. It can be set to Instant, Daily digest, Weekly digest or No communication.
2) I think compensation is against the rules of couchsurfing.org and against the spirit of couchsurfing in general, isn’t it?
I got familiar with the idea of couchsurfing via couchsurfing.org. Some people there (not many, actually) either don’t fill in their real names at all, or mention them in the middle of the profile (to filter out the unscrupulous freeloaders?) My profile is not very filled, maybe that’s why I hardly get any couchsurfing requests at all, but all the people that I surfed with were really nice. Anyway, you can set your status as “Couch not available” and not receive any requests at all.
look at the traveler’s (or host’s) posts to see how long they’ve been a member and read their posts (a fantastic measure of how interesting or obnoxious the potential traveler may be)
It’s a good measure of “interesting” but a poor measure of “obnoxious”. I’ve ended up meeting a lot of people that I first knew online: while you can get a good measure of someone’s intelligence, verbal cleverness, and interests from text, a face-to-face meeting has much higher bandwidth when it comes to mannerisms and social skills, and the change in register can often mean a significant change in the tenor of your interactions. That can easily lead to finding new and interesting ways for your friends to be annoying, much as you can be friendly with someone for years but conceive a passionate antipathy within weeks if you decide to become roommates.
Roland, piggybacking on couchsurfing.org’s preexisting infrastructure could be very easy. However, I can think of a couple of reasons why it would not be as effective as adding a google map to LW.
1) There is a big cognitive cost to making a new user on couchsurfing.org and checking it for messages every so often. I’m assuming people in the LW community have a LW username and periodically check their private messages. It would be psychologically easier for people to not have to sign into multiple sites and manage multiple inboxes.
2) For the whole “look at the traveler’s (or host’s) posts to see how long they’ve been a member and read their posts (a fantastic measure of how interesting or obnoxious the potential traveler may be)”, people would have to make couchsurfing profiles that have their LW username, references, how they want to be compensated/how they’re willing to compensate. Then, whoever was reading their profile would have to go back to LW to look up references/the users’ posts. This seems pretty annoying. It would be much easier to just have everything on one site.
3) Not very important, but I’m not sure how many people want to put personal details on couchsurfing.org. I’m also not sure about how couchsurfing.org works, but I would prefer for only people in the LW community to be able to contact me re: staying over.
You can create a minimalist profile on CS, no personal data, no pictures. You can say in your profile that you only want people from LW to contact you, it’s as simple as that and there is nothing in CS forbidding it, people have arbitrary rules in their profiles. Add a requirement that they have to be members of LW for at least a few months if you want to be on the safe side.
1) You don’t have to check your Inbox on couchsurfing.org. Instead, you select how often you receive email notifications for new messages. It can be set to Instant, Daily digest, Weekly digest or No communication.
2) I think compensation is against the rules of couchsurfing.org and against the spirit of couchsurfing in general, isn’t it?
I got familiar with the idea of couchsurfing via couchsurfing.org. Some people there (not many, actually) either don’t fill in their real names at all, or mention them in the middle of the profile (to filter out the unscrupulous freeloaders?) My profile is not very filled, maybe that’s why I hardly get any couchsurfing requests at all, but all the people that I surfed with were really nice. Anyway, you can set your status as “Couch not available” and not receive any requests at all.
It’s a good measure of “interesting” but a poor measure of “obnoxious”. I’ve ended up meeting a lot of people that I first knew online: while you can get a good measure of someone’s intelligence, verbal cleverness, and interests from text, a face-to-face meeting has much higher bandwidth when it comes to mannerisms and social skills, and the change in register can often mean a significant change in the tenor of your interactions. That can easily lead to finding new and interesting ways for your friends to be annoying, much as you can be friendly with someone for years but conceive a passionate antipathy within weeks if you decide to become roommates.