Fair points. I only considered @antoniob’s comment within the context of existing hospex platforms. On other platforms, there are implicit ramifications to making an unwanted pass at someone and getting kicked out / ejecting someone. You’d get a bad reference at a minimum, would struggle to ever make another connection on the platform or even ejected from the platform if it was more serious. Sexual harrasment, in this sense, is addressed, just not as blatently as some may prefer, but what can be achieved is built into the system. I found your reply skirting the edge of the current cancel culture that I personally find a turn off but hey, I might be the dinosaur here.
Just read the community standing page and you’re right, it is very similar to what I had in my head. I still don’t know how the proposed publicly accessible rating system avoids the revenge review dynamic.
“We destigmatize negative reviews by moving the goalposts from expecting everyone to be 100% as it is in Couchsurfing™ to putting people around 60-80% on average.”
I still don’t see how that destigmatization is going to be achieved. How are the scoring goalposts actually being moved? Basically, if you host me, are friendly and decent, don’t rape or beat me, I’m giving you 100%. If we don’t jive on some level, say we are politically opposed or have different levels of swearing in our speech patterns, I’ll give you… 100%. Why? Because the world is filled with different kinds of people and who am I to say “if they’ve done something wrong”? Who knows, maybe I’m wrong, maybe I’m hypersensitive or simply more sensitive to something than they are. They still let me into their homes and I walked away unharmed with a new experience. Some experiences are better than others and if you think you can design a platform that filters out less than ideal experiences, forget hospex, run for president of the world.
But who’s to say which party needs the education? I agree with many of your points and suggestions but not this one. Does that mean I should I be named and shamed? People that hold views like that are the reason people like me have names like XpXnx. Additionally, we are not hiring an Uber. Even if it were possible, would you want to hang out a person on a hospex platform that had the super-fake, super nice disposition of an Uber driver?
Me, when I travel, I want to meet real people. When I host, I want people to be comfortable enough to be themselves, I want to get to know them. A platform that sacrifices that basic tenant in the name of
will not be long for this world in my opinion. The community standing page floats three questions -
- Would you recommend this person to other members?
- Does this individual contribute positively to the community?
- Did this person talk or act in any way that made you feel unsafe or uncomfortable?
If a person recieved many negative replies to those questions, do you really want them on the platform?