The Death of Couchsurfing?
So I imagine there&#x27;s a lot of people here that don&#x27;t know Couchsurfing or what the big deal is. Couchsurfing has been one of the most important things in my life, so I&#x27;ll do my best to explain why it&#x27;s so special.<p>The basic idea is you stay at a stranger&#x27;s place, or you host a stranger at yours - completely for free, no money involved. Everyone does it differently. Some people plan their trip meticulously months in advance and give arrival times to the minute, while others send a message at 9pm the same night asking if you&#x27;re free. Some people ask to stay one night, some three, some far more; some bring bags of delicious food and artwork of their culture and some bring nothing.<p>I mostly host, and I&#x27;ve had all of the above - and then some. You have an incredibly diverse group of people. I&#x27;ve met artists, musicians, dancers - everyone from a Syrian man who lived under ISIS for years to an evangelical Christian woman who wanted to try shrooms.<p>The beautiful thing is that it&#x27;s anything you want it to be. People have profiles that are often filled out with a good amount of detail (I usually skip the skimpy profiles) so you can pick out whoever or whatever you want. You want a pastry chef? You want a violinist? You want an architect? You want someone tidy and on-time or a hitchhiking hippie? Simply search for one to host or stay with.<p>The friendships and relationships I&#x27;ve made through Couchsurfing have been some of the best and most interesting I could have asked for. And the best part - you can do it all from home, traveling the world from the comfort of your couch.<p>Anyway, that&#x27;s the beauty of it. I really hope that the network of people can be saved. Long term, I think it can, with something like BeWelcome, but of course it&#x27;s a network effect problem - no hosts=no guests.<p>If anyone is curious about Couchsurfing (or wants to couchsurf my boat in the Netherlands - seriously, anyone is welcome, please come!) then feel free to send me an email (it&#x27;s in my profile.)