I really like this idea! This would be a fun little mechanic that gives people more options on how they want to present themselves.
I do agree with others that it should be optional so that people can have more control over what they do or do not share on their profile/some people might not be comfortable boiling themselves down into pre-chosen personality traits. But it could be a fun thing to have on your profile for those who opt in.
Personally I don’t think people lying about themselves (making their personality say “friendly” instead of “flirty” to not scare people away) is actually an issue, since this is an extra feature. People are already lying about being friendly rather than flirty when they choose how to word their messages to people in their surf/host/hangout requests. So the issue already exists, regardless, at a deeper level, and I don’t think adding this layer would necessarily cause extra concern. I don’t see how it would enable creeps anymore than they are already enabling themselves…
Would you be able to see people’s answers tot he questions in addition to the personality traits results? Because while I don’t agree that the actual result you get say enough about who you are for someone to make a proper judgment, the actual answers you give to particular questions could.
If you do that, you literally make “being flirty” (aka: using the app to hook up) an option. A “legal” and valid option. That´s exactly what should never happen. Then creeps are going to say “why is it wrong that ïm hitting on you? It´s in my profile that I am flirty, you knew it, that´s what I´m here for” Mmmmhhh heck NO. I don´t want that to be an option. From the hundreds of apps, CS was the only one where I could go ahead and meet with only one male for any activity, even for a beer, feeling safe that he was not going to hit on me… ok: creeps are gonna creep, but mostly guys were super cool and respectful of that rule, and we could hang out and make friends safely. I want that. I want to feel safe that noone is going to think that they have a green light to hit on me. We need to reinforce this idea, not make that attitude ok among certaing people, because that´s going to spill into the rest of the community.
I get that you hate the idea of “flirty” being allowed as a personality type and I completely understand why but it was just an example of a potential variable, didn’t mean to present it that seriously. It was supposed to be for fun
Do you hate the entire idea of making a questionnaire about what your type is though? Or would you just absolutely not want “flirty” as a rating?
I have to say since we both know these people exist and will be out there, I really liked this idea when I heard it so that we could then actively be able to avoid them rather than be surprised about them when they are already on our couch.
I like the idea actually. Let me explain. I am from Sweden and I am introvert as a person. If i meet someone from, say, Brazil or Italy, they have a totally different personality and they can perceive me in a negative way being introvert.
My idea is more: How would you difine yourself and not a test,
with things to click on, as you like or not like. Not a test divines me, i do myself.
Again I dont care if they are flirty. and I NEVER used for hookup. The things i am interested in are way different. Like:
race (yeah we all one human race, still i am against white supremacy and i would like this option to see statistics)
religion
political orientation
vegetarian/vegan/…
wealthy/ low budget
What would you want to add to difine yourself? (gender, age, country we already have)
i prefer cultural exchange or finding persons with same poltical orientation over being flirty or no. So yes i also meet “Sex Surfer” (if they not cis white man)
. Actually my best Cs friend probably is mostly sex Host. But i showed him one part of my culture and he teached me a part of his and he always takes care of me bc of that. Who am i to judge him having agreed sex with surfers?
I think even some of my guest would say i am flirty as well, some confuse being kind and friendly with flirting… Like user above writes, different cultures also.
I absolutely not like or want flirty. As said in several places over this forum: I would not be part of a community where using it for sex was one of the official options. Why? Because then you are going to end with a lot of users that openly use it for that. And the people that don´t will get fed up and leave. I won´t even sign up if that´s the case.
I want to hug you after reading this, because I know where you are comming from, but I think your approach is super candid and naive. Right now it is against te rules, and people do it anyways. If it´s part of the rules of the game, what do you think will stop them to hit on you?? Right now at least they try to be discreete about it. Imagine if they didn´t. That would be hell.
I see where the rest of the comments are aiming, but I have dobuts this will be really useful for the community, or if this will just lead to prejudice and not giving some people a chance. I´ve met people that were very diffrent from me and I had a great time, and very interesting exchanges with people that, if I´d know in advance, I probably had not been so keen to meet. But since I didn´t know, I met them, and it was super interesting to hang out with someone I´d naturally wouldn´t.
Do we really want to allow filtering that much? Wouldn´t we make the community smaller based on biases we may have?
And also: I don´t really like “bexes” for people. Sometimes I want to cook and have a quiet chat, sometimes I want to party, sometimes I am super extroverted, sometimes I feel like being alone, sometimes I want to talk, sometimes I prefer to read a book in silence, compared to some people I am doing great, compared to others I am super poor… In wich box are you going to put me? Why do we need to put labels on people? I don´t think me or anyone else is or acts the same with everybody, so why limit people under one label? Why dont just let life happen?
I think the main takeaway from your reply is that if it’s mandatory to answer a few extra questions about your couchsurfing “personality,” you feel it would damage the community.
Perhaps as long as it was strictly optional, as some others have suggested, it could be fun and potentially useful for some people? Like, if they wanted to look at that they could, but if they didn’t care, they could just ignore this aspect?
I guess my real question is: will they? Will any of us? Are we really able to overcome our biases once we know?
Yeah, maybe it´s a bit too pholosophical for this thread, but it´s a valid question we need to ask and have an answer for before implementing something like this that will literally set people appart.
I wonder if another option is thinking about what the results of such a CS personality test would be and adding a profile option to add them as tags to your profile as: “Travel types I am compatible with”
Then you could have a test (if you like), it tells you what you got at the end and you can optionally add it to your profile. As well as any others you like!
So if you are a party animal and hate staying home, you add “Party animal”, and leave out “Chilling at home”. Or vise versa. Or add both if you like both!
Other possibilities: Sightseer, wanderer, art lover, late sleeper/early riser/night owl, plans carefully, doesn’t plan, etc?
So basically the same thing a profile text does. All these ideas for a “test” we’ve seen so far would wonderfully work as writing prompts for profiles and I don’t think we need any more beyond that.
Yes true. But maybe it is really important to you being vegan- you would want others to see it first (like gender and city).
On the other hand, if i dont want to host vegans- i can easily filter them out.
I remember a straight host from a worldreligion, only hosting man or couples, bc he didnt want to have troubles. His religion also was really important to him.
On the other side if a gay man would do the same, you might call him a “SexHost”. And not just womxn told me about abusive behauviours. I heard two creepy storrys from man surfing at mans place. One was gay, the other not…
EDIT: to be clear, i am against discrimination bc of religion or race. I am for a positive reinforcement- like badge- this host hosted people from all worldreligions, races…
To stay in your example – if you want to filter for or against vegans, just look at their profile text. I don’t see the need for lots of automatic filters at all. Rather, put something in your couch section and trust that possible guests will read this (after all, we want to be that sort of community)
CS had special search options for people hosting or not hosting pets and children. I find these sensible because they come with actual hosting issues. Under this aspect I could actually imagine a food preference/allergy option in the couch section, too (though in the past I’ve never had trouble with this. I would ask my guests before arrival whether there was anything they couldn’t stomach and have been asked the same by many hosts. Those that had restrictions themselves would usually state them in their profile anyway and there never have been any incompatibilities. My imaginary limit for vegans staying with me would be about three to four days, that is, if they don’t cook at all, because after that I’d run out of fancy recipes). I don’t think anything like religion or race could be any useful. If it’s not stated in the profile text anyway it can’t be that important. Completely against such a badge or anything, too, as I cannot think of any serious improvement that’d bring.
It seems the topic on the personality test is all mixed with discussing general profile information ( like in Profiles for users) … but that might also be a good takeaway from the conversation so far, suggesting that the test will need a distinct feel and questions to set it apart.
Maybe we could collect more concrete questions that are actually lighthearted, whismy, fun and wouldn’t be part of a regular profile?
Else it might be better to think of how to make it
I didnt even know you, so in no way this was about you! I just wanted to show, this topic is complicated. I refered in mind to a friend of mine who would be called “Sexhost” for only hosting woman (and sometimes having sex with them- but thats what he told me- not obvious in references, there it just shows all woman).
So if i see gay man only hosting man- i could think so. I or others “might” think that! But honestly i just use this harsh words to make something obvious…
It should be allowed only hosting one gender! Even if its cis- straight - male only hosting woman.
Thanks friendly friend, but i will stay the way i am. I cant talk about problems without using generalization… But if you feel attacked, you can always ask me to be more clear, bc mostly i just try to talk about complicated things in a easy language way.
I am ok with it. I just thought about more things that could show you are being different than cs and aware of some problems with discrimination as well.
While I think it might be amusing for some, this idea would put someone like me off joining. I want to be able to express myself in an un-controlled and un-directed way and inserting a set of compulsory questions in the hope they’d yield some kind of accurate psychological profile or personality type, the results of which would then be shared with the community feels pretty uncomfortable to me. What if you changed your mind? What if your answers were different one day to the next?
An easy alternative would be a profile section titled “tag yourself”, or similar. Users could write descriptive words in this space, which could autofill with words other users have already used. These tags could be searchable and provide ample and possibly superior filtration than that provided by a personality test.
Also: I don’t really like tests and I want to meet other people who also don’t like tests. I also don’t like pigeon holes and don’t necessarily want to meet people who are just like me.
