Good observation, it does make your point. However of course, that could easily just be another example of either a small decision made by a very small group of people or individual who might not have chosen those images (and the name) with a deep philosophical belief… or a long term strategy about marketing and org culture.
Changing my tactic a bit: have you stayed with someone via a connection on Couchers? I haven’t, as I just joined a month ago or so. and in fact, I never even stayed with anyone with CS - I hosted a number of times, and hung out/made friends with someone while traveling once. Most of my hosting and traveling experience is from another org. What was your Coucher experience like? was it sleeping on a couch?
I sure can answer, but it’s one drop in the ocean of Couchers.
I have not stayed with anyone on Couchers. I have hosted on Couchers. I have joined some Couchers in-person events we’ve had in my city. Currently I offer a private room with a folding bed or mattresses depending on surfers’ preferences. In the past (on CS) I offered couches or mattresses in the living room and sometimes my own bedroom (while I took the couch). So far the people I got the chance to interact with in person were all ex CouchSurfers and my experiences with them were similar to what I would experience on CouchSurfing. People are similar. What changed is the platform.
To me it feels like you’re a bit mixing up two perspectives: Not finding our marketing approach convincing. And suggesting there’s no long term strategy for marketing.
I’m not on the marketing team, but I believe there’s a couple foundational decisions for this project in place:
we want to evoke continuity with the couchsurfing experience. The great experiences we all had on exactly that platform and we want to continue having and enabling others to have.
So we focus our distinction on getting the things right where couchsurfing the company failed and corrupted the platform:
building with and for community and supporting community builders
empowering users to take better care of the platform and themselves, so we don’t have a toxic hook-up culture
generally offering a transparent and open platform, technically and legally, that will not financially profit a small group while exploiting the dedication of many
That’s why I think the name decision is well aligned with our general strategy. And concerns for comfort are not so central to our messaging right now.
I’d actually doubt that. We had passionate opinions about the name at the time as well. But in the end, only 3 volunteers voted against Couchers. While as many who didn’t vote probably didn’t have a strong opinion about it in the first place.
In any case, if it’s fun we could have a small follow-up poll in this topic?
“1 year on, how do you feel about the Couchers name and brand?”
i don’t know if you read it before it was removed/hidden, but yesterday i commented approving of your analyze.
Then I got a: “your post was hidden. Your post was flagged as inappropriate: the community feels it is offensive, abusive, or a violation of our community guidelines.This post was hidden due to flags from the community, so please consider how you might revise your post to reflect their feedback.”
there was no explanation, what was “inappropriate”. Made me laugh because this goes online elsewhere.
a brief summary: I linked to online documents from 1996 and 1997, about the meaning of “couchsurfing” (in one or two words). The etymology of the word is hard to date accurately, without exploring libraries, I put an excerpt from Google books of a novel published in 1989, where “couch surfing” is used. Otherwise comprehensive etymological work will require then to spend time in libraries.
anyway, as you correctly stress it, the word/expression refers to transient semi-homelessness or freeloading.
I reminded that the current company “Couchsurfing International Inc.” has since the beginning been marketing the freeloading aspect, already in the choice of the name.
Other hospexes, and the old pre-internet snail mail Servas, are all be trying to stress the in name and symbolism the hospitality factor.
So I was just illustrating in more details all these FACTS, as well a reminding that “couch” doesn’t echo anything to people who know very little english, because the furniture called couch in english is called sofa or divan across most languages.
I also reminded of what I pointed out earlier (last year???): in french they will experience quite a lot of jokes because “coucher” becomes “coucheur” with means cheater (from “couche”=“bed”, et de là la dérivation, coucher dans un autre lit que le légitime).
Then i commented about the main page of the site couchers.org.
It is obvious that the “team” doesn’t know the difference between an idea/concept, in this case hospex/hospitality and particular implementations or they know but their use of “coucher” is obviously only in order to catch the people of CS.
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so this was a summary of my deleted post. Don’t know what they consider “inappropriate” and if forums are not for debating and pointing also to glitches, non-senses and flaws, well…
I know not everyone feels that way. My first exposure to the term couchsurfing was through the Couchsurfing.com site. And most of us who have used CS over the years attribute it to mean a lot more than just staying on couches or freeloading. In fact, I think that’s an outdated interpretation of the term. Like you said, your sources are from the late 90s.
May I ask why you put team in quotes here? There have been hundreds of people working on this project, and yet more offering ideas on the forum (which the team watches closely). Your post was hidden because a moderator found the tone of your post a bit toxic. It’s fine to discuss ideas but when you have a sarcastic and/or biting approach it creates a negative vibe, especially for newcomers. Thanks for reposting your comment, as I think your second reply is a bit more moderate. If you want clearer reasoning for what could be considered inappropriate in your post, I suggest you PM @moderators.
Antonio, I did see the first message, and this one. I agree with your fundamental point, that the name is weird. It seems though, that others feel different, and maybe even want some of the associations that you and I find odd. That’s how it is with groups.
This post was a very good analysis! I do not know French, but the author’s English is superb and much gratitude here for its elucidation of the origins of the word couch and its current meaning and usage in French. Maybe there should be a better name? Coucher does not have any meaning in English. The author does not suggest that the name be changed in view of its French usage, but it probably should. Maybe it should emphasize the surfing aspect. It does not even need an English name.
This strong disapproval of the couch symbol, rejection of anything CS and of so-called “freeloading” sounds like the consensus on BeWecome’s forums. Why do all projects have to be the same? Of course the founders here have a vision and are sticking to it… it seems normal to me.
Also about freeloading, it is really the least of the problems that CS had, the main problem being all the safety incidents that were pushed under the rug. Freeloading really is a non-issue in comparison.
Personally I like the word Couchers , as a word only! Simple and easy to pronounce. However my concern is CS’s bad reputation. There is a bad example like CS, so what would be the motivation of copying their name, symbol and even color code? I guess the motivation is, remembering CS’s old good shiny days and expecting people to remember those days too. But who could proof that Casey is still not behind of this organization? There are plenty of examples available they sell their start-up and then go make something similar to continue making money based on your know-how. I’m not saying that this is the case but wouldn’t be difficult to explain this to every one? And what is our selling motto here? We are Couchers, we are like CS but better. Is that it? If it is too late for sure I won’t request to change the name but if there is still a possibility maybe a market analyst could confirm if I worry for nothing and this is bull s.hit or they could confirm this is an existing risk on the table with this name Couchers.
Despite all the safety issues, despite the greed and lies of the original founders, despite gross mismanagement by the current owners, I think the community and the name still have a good reputation, thanks to all the memories and friends we made along the way
I know this is an old thread, and this is surely considered settled by now, but “couchers” really is a particularly bad name for several reasons, and I don’t think that is as small of a problem as some may assume. This was a problem that Couchsurfing.com had, and were able to overcome, but it’s not something that is wise for a challenger in a fractured market to copy and add to their difficulties. It is still not too late to rebrand, and it would be beneficial to do so.
A significant number of users have recognized this, and it’s not their imagination. “Couchers” is bad branding. While it’s not a serious problem to any of us, these kind of branding decisions have a serious impact on reaching new markets.
I know I’m probably kicking a dead horse, but I would seriously encourage the core contributors here to think about how much extra work a name like “couchers” creates for future branding and marketing.
With the advent of alternative top level domains, there really are a lot of other name options available that could help our branding (and SEO) instead of hurt it. The biggest obstacle to constructive branding that does not necessitate extra marketing is not finding a web domain or updating legal documents; those are very easy to do.
Ah, the perennial question appears once more! @Marmaladeskies you are probably right. I’m not wildly keen on the name myself, and despite ample conversations pertaining to this very subject, including many proposals for replacements, there have been no further polls conducted, or real research and therefore, no changes forthcoming.
To be fair, it is quite difficult to get people to change their minds about things like names at the best of times. But to date, all efforts to do so have withered on the bough.
Perhaps if enough users kicked up a fuss at the same time, there would be a chance of running a new poll. But given that most profiles are dead or ghost accounts at the moment, I’m not holding my breath for a sudden bout of critical mass.
It’d probably help a lot to have some strong alternatives to rally around, rather than a vague “we can definitely do better” sentiment. I’ll see if I can think of some good suggestions. The name and brand should reflect a core description of what these communities really are. Something about hosting or helping travelers experience different cultures…
CS really screwed up their forums, but there really is a great opportunity to combine some of the travel oriented sites into one go-to place, with travel guides, lists, and reviews and forums related to specific activities that should easily pick up a lot of search engine queries. I think you could have a site that is used well beyond the host/guest community, and to the extent CS had that, before they became concerned that the grassroots forums would be used against their plans, it was useful.
Actually, there’s been quite a lot of effort from forum-users put into coming up with alternatives. I don’t see much “vague “we can definitely do better” sentiment” here, but perhaps you are referring to something in particular? Despite this effort, and plenty of decent alternatives suggested, the name still hasn’t changed.
Anyway, I look forward to reading yours.
And I like what you say here…
I wonder if there are any plans to do this kind of thing in the future?
The initial post got me whistling the Christina Aguilera version of the Lady Marmalade song.
@michaela brought up a good point, perhaps only the platform changed. However, I’d like to think that people (like myself) who were viscerally turned off by CS charging for things might be different? Perhaps it’s wishful thinking, as I’m not yet experienced.
My idea for the name pile: “Stay it Forward” (the domain is available!) The idea I like best about being a host (about to have my first couple of Couchers) is the chance to pay it forward. Or for the Coucher side of the interaction: Couch4Culture. Or substitute Room vs Couch. I’m not offering couches, only rooms. That was something that turned me off about CS many years ago. The only people I knew who would use the term “couchsurfing” were people who bounced around wherever they could stay for free.
