@couchguy after reading @jasonalexander25
" I also like the way it makes the document clearly not just another generic buzzword-filled corporate mission statement."
I agree with this part a lot, it got my attention and made me think about it. I think I was unknowingly bringing a perspective from working for companies with very generic boring mission statements lol. “Anti-metaverse” may not feel relevant to me but i do sort of like it now
I also love that section, but would probably favor a different heading. I’ve seen related design choices being called “Viral by design”. So instead of using “Anti-” we could say “Offline by design” or “Real world by design”?
Found this values compass on Enroll yourself/Huddlecraft. They have 7 key values, but they don’t just spell them out as pillars, but make them directional with questions leading towards or away from them. Just want to share it because I think it’s an inspiring take:
I like this, and not just because it rhymes.
For me, all the best internet projects have made it possible to do things we couldn’t do in material reality before. Yet it feels like the internet has been hijacked by orgs with different priorities: they wish to ensnare people in their “virtual” universes rather than set them free; instead of providing for the emergence of agency, they control it, or remove it. In my opinion, Couchers is not about a free place to stay, but about articulating and making provision for bringing people into the real world, into uncoralled free flow, and above all, into the physical presence of the other, that is to say: the wonderment and mystery of life and people and interaction.
They say there’s an epidemic of loneliness in the world. What is loneliness? Why does it cause pain? How can we ease this suffering of alientation and disconnection? Are we not truly social (as opposed to “social”)? Perhaps Couchers is a way of providing an antidote? Perhaps its a mode of resistance to the nihilistic forces that have buckled our humanity and made us addicted, servile and impoverished?
I love this quest to find the people, or “find your people”. There’s more people on the planet than we’ll ever know. We won’t even find a tiny fraction of a fraction of them to truly connect with. So if platforms like Couchers can increase my chances of knowing them, of making those profound, life changing connections that make life worth living, then articulate that as the values.
I love Graeme’s post here, very inspirational and seems heartfelt: “articulating and making provision for bringing people into the real world” is a great way to put it.
If I can briefly catch the same wave as him: one thing that made Couchsurfing great in its heyday was that it had a constant crowd of uniquely awesome but like-minded people flocking to it. Not just for a few years but near on a decade. That’s a long time in tech.
Meanwhile, I experienced and witnessed the transitions from AOL, to Yahoo, to MS Messenger, to Skype, to Facebook, to WhatsApp, to now, but through all that ephemera, Couchsurfing remained a reliable harbour both for welcoming “unknown people” (different from “strangers”) into your house, to rocking up in a new place and joining the local CS meeting. Whereas those other platforms were means of arresting the loneliness as well, CS was a means of doing so by promoting a real-world presence without a monetary incentive.
The reason I’m here and wish for this site to succeed is that a world without that “Couchsurfing spirit” is a much lonelier, alienating and atomized place.
