Why don't people fill in their profiles?

Given that their are so few active profiles on Couchers, why do people think people don’t fill in their profiles and get active? Specifically, I’m interested in ideas around why people don’t fill in their profiles immediately. What are they signing up for? Is it to reserve their handle? Or do they get distracted? Perhaps they don’t realise that it’s an important part of building trust? And that this will probably help them get hosting/surfing. Is it an onboarding issue, or is there something cultural at play? Let me know your thoughts.

  1. People are lazy
  2. They don’t know to whom they’re giving their data
  3. There is no immediate incentive to fill in the profile
  4. No simply designed onboarding process
  5. Water is boiling in the kettle (!)
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  1. But not so lazy that they don’t go to the trouble of signing up
  2. Good point. An easy fix, don’t you think?
  3. So you think that people don’t sign up because they want to surf/host, but for some other reason?
  4. Agreed.
  5. See point 1.

Indeed, when folks sign up they may want to check things around, plus it’s a sort of “low investment for potential future gain”. Maybe they’re not interested in surfing/hosting just yet, they want to see how the platform will grow / evolve.
Naturally, an easy and engaging onboarding process could help with better filled profiles, but also the point of to whom people are giving their data – it should be easy to fix, by making it absolutely transparent and visible in the onboarding process.

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