Hi All,
I’d been using CS since 2007 and HC before that. Now missing this sort of platform A LOT so keep my fingers crossed for Couchers!
Not sure though if replacing CS one-to-one is the best idea. Why? Because something brand new is being created, so why not make it stand out and unique?
But to the point - I was thinking about the question posted in here and have few ideas I’d like to check with you guys. How Couchers could stand out and make even bigger impact than CS? It revolves around money, I’m afraid.
- I totally appreciate that the project is non-profit, but… as number of members goes up (and eventually members should be counted not in thousands but in millions, right?), running this platform will require some significant money and this money could and should come from members. In this I agree with brenontheroad, who wrote great article about CS - paid services are usually way better than free ones.
And this is only fair in my view as it shouldn’t be expected that core team works their butts off and finances everything. Few ways to make money:
- ads, although this would be great to avoid this route and keep the platform as ads-free as possible.
- paid membership. One option is to keep basic profile with all funcionalities free to use for everyone and introduce voluntary paid premium membership only as a way to show support for the project.
- voluntary donations.
Now, as soon as money appears, it is great to keep everything super-transparent. So after end of each fiscal year there should be a financial statement published and available for all users.
-
As money comes in, not everything will be spent on the platform, so why not give some of the money back to users?
Each year there could be a call for projects, which benefit local community or local environment. For a project to be accepted, at least 50 (or 100 or even more as platform grows) votes from users must be gathered. Once all projects are accepted, there’s a general vote among all users to select winning projects. And this could be a great addition with significant wow-effect. -
No ghost profiles, no fake profiles, only verified members. Profiles of inactive members (no hosting / surfing / logging / no activity at all for a certain period) are being deleted.
What are your thoughts on the above?
Love and light,
Lukasz