Elle, I hope you’ll consider joining one of the women’s working group meetings, which we try to do on a monthly basis. A lot of us know how little CS did to help make the experience safe for women and Couchers.org is trying to change that. There’s a pervasive belief that couchsurfing is not safe for women, full stop.
May I ask what turns you off from web meetings? I run quite a few of them so it would be helpful to know what platform or format would be better for you to discuss and chat about your experiences and brainstorm.
l joined this forum because of the ID verification thread. ID verification does not promote safety: the men who molested me were a government employee and an international corporate employee respectively, both verified.
I’m glad the verification thread is what grabbed your attention! However, it’s worth noting that our approach will require in-person verification by real people and not just a credit card payment. Hopefully, since you’ll have to interact with other members, it will be an extra layer for creeps/abusers to pass, and might lead to them being held more accountable, if we can use it purposefully.
Good also to mention the aspect of it excluding stateless persons. I wonder if there’s been any thought put into how to verify such people - @moderators?