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Comment by cageface | Hacker News Reader

I think their treatment of the victim is really a sideshow. The real issue here is that the underlying assumption that it was relatively safe to let total strangers into your home has been publicly shattered.

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Give it time, and people will get out in the streets again (terrorist attacks), people will eat meat again (mad cow disease), people will buy cucumber again (killing cucumber), strangers will shake hands again (H1N1 influenza), hell, people will even go visit Chernobyl as tourists.

It's not a "real" issue, it's more of a temporary difficulty. AirBnB's business exists since the dawn of time. A setback, if you prefer.

The naive level of trust on which they've built their business is gone. I think they can survive this but not without some significant structural changes.

To think a business can only survive if the savvy feel at ease is itself naive, though. Most people in the world are deliciously ignorant about the dangers of any activity. People still take hitchhikers for a ride, still cross the road without looking, still share their public details on Facebook for everyone to see, and still use Bed and Breakfast services, still get on one night stands with complete strangers.

Change is often a good thing, but I don't think they should make hasty "significant structural change" because it's clearly not what's needed right now. Subtle evolution is much better to improve trust.

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