Hacker News Reader

Comment by peterburkimsher | Hacker News Reader

Trustroots is being discussed as an alternative, but it doesn't have a reference system. I trust the reference system to keep the platform clear from the safety issues you describe. That's why I think BeWelcome is the best alternative to recommend right now.

Servers cost money, and BeWelcome are transparent about that. Having developers to code the site and moderate the forum would be expensive if paid by the hour, but there are willing volunteers. Asking for donations is acceptable, a paywall demanding a subscription is not.

Please come over to the BeWelcome forums; I'd like to discuss the possibilities of starting new meetups, and selling merch (t-shirts, hoodies, stickers) to improve the BeWelcome brand so it can bring together the community, lest we scatter. Any financial donation like that should be discussed democratically though, so that's why your input is needed.

(I didn't downvote, I think your comment is fair)

View on HN

> Trustroots is being discussed as an alternative, but it doesn't have a reference system

I logged in just earlier to have a look, and I see that people do have feedback. I'm not sure if there's anything like 'vouching' that CS used to have.

> Having developers to code the site and moderate the forum would be expensive if paid by the hour, but there are willing volunteers.

I have been to a festival in Australia (the predecessor to burning man) that is completely volunteer run. It's interesting to be a part of operations and see it work, and fail to some extent, and in meat-space the 'look after each other philosophy' can work when everybody is can watch each other.

I'm not sure how that could translate to a platform that has private messaging. I believe CS had a mechanism where communications could be inspected if a complaint was raised.

> Asking for donations is acceptable, a paywall demanding a subscription is not.

I think you're right about this. The people who I enjoyed the most with CS would probably find this offensive, so I'd be more likely to participate in a platform that was donation-based.

My only hesitation is that I lose all my references.

> so that's why your input is needed.

I'll make an effort.

I agree that losing references is a big problem. Thanks to GDPR you can request an export. https://www.couchsurfing.com/preferences/privacy

If that fails, you can also contact me - my account is Taiwan-registered and still has full access. I can save your references, photos, and friends list, but not your private messages.

Ah, I saw that link on the BW forum post and now have my data :) It would be great if the data was signed, and it could be verified with a public key. That way you could have validated references for import into BW. Alas, I see nothing of the sort in the JSON.

I'm one of the Trustroots contributors, we have an old work-in-progress pull request to import couchsurfing data (https://github.com/Trustroots/trustroots/pull/1086), but it needs some love.

As mentioned in https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23219760 references is coming.

The verification issue though for import is a big one, we couldn't just trust a JSON file the user has uploaded to have real references, there would be nothing stopping them writing their own glowing references.

> there would be nothing stopping them writing their own glowing references.

Verification wouldn't be trivial, but a Trusted Human, could check that both their CS and their import match, at a glance - or the public profile could be extracted to partially automate the process.

I still have an active CS account (Taiwan-registered) and can cross-check the references for any imported profiles. If there's a huge rush then no doubt my account could get blocked for bot-like activity, but I'm willing to do the verification for the first few thousand.

At the moment I would think its not likely for you to just scrape the profile on CS and then paste that in the right filled. Its something that if someone wants to exploit they can code anyway, its mostly there so users spend less time filling forms. We did something similar for Thingiverse at the time shapedo.com was in the 3D printing. It worked fine and we had a few hundred people migrating. True validation comes from people accepting friendship requests and some form of endorsement.

> I have been to a festival in Australia (the predecessor to burning man) that is completely volunteer run. It's interesting to be a part of operations and see it work, and fail to some extent, and in meat-space the 'look after each other philosophy' can work when everybody is can watch each other.

I'm curious about that (being an Australian and a Burner).

Which festival? (if you're OK sharing. My email in my profile works if you're OK sharing but not as widely as publishing it here...)

Surely you've heard of ConFest? Still going strong since the 70s. Started by Jim Cairns (the then ex-deputy to the ex-prime minister Gough Whitlam). The name is a portmanteau of 'conference festival'.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ConFest

Ahhh, right. I just hadn't ever heard it referred to as "the predecessor to burning man".

(And I've never been, Easter is BluesFest time for me...)

> I just hadn't ever heard it referred to as "the predecessor to burning man".

But that it is :) It was a direct inspiration for burning man, and also another long running festival in Europe (the name escapes me).

> (And I've never been, Easter is BluesFest time for me...)

Are you talking about the one in Denniliquin that often coincides with ConFest? It's a very short drive away, and I recall bumping into a few curious folks making a detour after BluesFest.

Nah, Bluesfest in Byron Bay...

Reply on news.ycombinator.com