Yeah, I didn’t mean that all people I met on CS stay my friends forever (I am in touch with many though). I was talking about the way you treat them when you meet. Like, normally I don’t invite strangers to my house, to start with 
And however different we may be, I feel people on CS share certain values and that’s what gives the old friend vibe. Pretty much these values actually:
However, I noticed couch surfing means quite different things to different people. There recently was a discussion on what tells a good surfer from a freeloader in a Russian group, and there were at least three equally supported opinions on it:
- csers are travellers and freeloaders are not
- csers kinda pay back by hosting at their place or by helping around the house, etc., and freeloaders don’t
- csers are first of all interested in meeting people and cultural exchange and all that stuff, and freeloaders are interested in a free place to sleep (this was mine)
I guess all three are legit, but can be even contradictory to each other.