I’ve been a couchsurfing volunteer for about 9 months, in which I started the couchsurfing wiki, did tons of work on the code, and much more. I was trying to open the organization in a radical way, pushing for a free software license of the code and creating a bit of chaos here and there.
The day I quit 3 other coders who had contributed considerable work to the CS code base quit as well. It was a sad day. However, we thought that opencouchsurfing.org would be able to put pressure on the organization to open up. We thought wrong, obviously.
Now and then I’ve seen people quit volunteering for CS, for reasons uncommon to most organization. Still, I thought couchsurfing would continue, and people would be reasonably happy to volunteer within the framework provided.
Currently, with so many long-term volunteers quitting in such a short time span I’m wondering: what can we do to really open up couchsurfing – even if just a tiny wee bit? (And I prefer to wonder openly.) And is it possible to do this all together? Apparently the people who were against opencouchsurfing in the past seem to be sharing several goals. Is there another way to peacefully make a positive difference?
All the long-term volunteers are or have been friends with members of the leadership team, can we do something with that?
Or can a consensus be found to start something new or revive BeWelcome?
(Feel free to contact me by email if you prefer, firstname dot lastname at gmail dot com – I’ll keep things private if you prefer so.)
Hi,
I’d love to get in touch, but am not sure of your email address since I don’t see your first or last name on the posting. What’s the best way to reach you?
Thanks!
My name is Kasper Souren.
Kasper,
I applaud your effort to put out a new call for positive action. Seeing that a new round of dedicated volunteers have resigned, it could be good timing. The list appears to include Kon, Aldo, Marco, Brie, Anick-Marie, Amanda, Birgit, Flapic, and Donna; several of whom I worked closely with as a volunteer, along with yourself. It’s been more than two years since we resigned, so for the benefit of newcomers, I want to validate your brief history and also add that from my perspective, you were probably the strongest voice for openness and transparency in the Couchsurfing 2.0 era.
My perspective is the same as it was when I resigned. I don’t see the current management of CS moving in the direction we promote. Thomas Goorden (former CS volunteer and now a Director of BW) once predicted that eventually the wheels would fall off of CS the way it was being run. I would say that one wheel fell off when we resigned, and another has just fallen off. My guess is that all the wheels will have to fall off before CS changes course. I hope that the ensuing wreckage (such as the harm caused by putting PR and central control ahead of safety, for the sake of continued income to support the payed employees, none of whom are necessary) is minimal.
Rather than trying to salvage CS at this time, I would see energy invested into alternatives such as Bewelcome.org. I’ve always promoted decentralization (this was one of the themes of CS 2.0) and applaud the efforts of Robino (of CasaRobino.org) to continue his SHE (Sustainable Hospitality Exchange) and new Nomadbase.org initiatives (which you are involved with). I understand there is a Nomad Base meeting planned for late November.
As you know, I have been busy working on a decentralized trust network (brainstorming with Midsch and Mahouni) that may be useful to a decentralized hospitality community. It could be used by members of the Nomad Bases, the big sites like BW, CS, HC, BeLodged.com, and hopefully many future local or special interest groups based on Drupal or Noserub.
Be that as it may, the idea is to encourage a cooperative but diverse hospitality community, with a few sound principles in common. Besides helping to provide something for everyone, and enriching the whole movement, decentralization and diversity will help prevent such a noble movement from domination by a self-interested few, something all too prevalent in today’s world.
I think that the most reasonable option for people interested in transparency and community development is to revitalize BeWelcome. BeWelcome already has all of what HC has technically, it simply lacks an active member base.
It is first of all vital to reactivate the members who have already signed up. I tried to use BW for my travels all over Eastern Europe this summer and autumn, but got almost no responses. In some cases I was able to contact people through other fora like CS or Facebook, and they responded that they simply haven’t logged into BW in years, but they would log in if they knew the network was being actively used.
I would not suggest continuing to push the Couchsurfing LT to open up, because I suspect that if LT felt that the organization would no longer provide them with great perks and benefits, they might just take the entire site down. A lot of people have too much of their lives invested in Couchsurfing to do anything which would result in their individual banning or some kind of site-wide failure.
Finally, I must express my bafflement that often same people who hitchhike and engage in nomad travel, where safety depends on simply having your wits about you, often criticize the CS LT for “not doing enough about safety”. What exactly do you want them to do? Improve the reference system? Well, I don’t have a reference from every driver whose car I stop when I hitchhike, but I do fine. Hospex ought to encourage more people to think for themselves instead of depend on special “safety features”.
why is kasper talking about couchsurfing? because bewelcome did not work?
programmers do not make a community nor does a wiki make a community
who are the ocs guys who are part of bewelcome ?
matrixpoint, programmer search function
Kasper wiki ? do you seen the wiki working on bewelcome? i say the bewelcome wiki is run by a few ,looking at the recent activity will confrim this trend.
callum bewelcome admin ?
thomas BOD board of directors .
Christopher Culver’s (free loader /troll )comment
“I tried to use BW for my travels all over Eastern Europe this summer and autumn, but got almost no responses. ”
shows that bewelcome has failed or has just not working under the current ocs guys who talk about transparency as bewelcome is not a transparent organisation (they will not admit what has not worked ,no ownership)
taking a look at the bewelcome forum shows non of these poster ever post there. There are some ex-hc guys maybe 5 who post on the bewelcome forum confirming there is no community thriving on bewelcome and without a community there is no hosting which Christopher Culver was expecting.
The ocs guys are as non communicative or inaccessible as the couchsurfing LT so let us not fool ourselves about openess and transparency (bewelcome has its cliques and this is very very obvious as soons as a member gets involved in volunteering)
I haven’t read most of the comments on this thread. I did notice this statement though:
For the record, my name is Callum Macdonald, my url is callum-macdonald.com and you’ll find my current cell phone and email address here. Soon you’ll be able to see my current location posted via my Spot satellite pager / tracker. If you want to ask me anything or you feel I’m not taking responsibility for something, please contact me directly, I rarely read the comments on here.
Ha! Who’s the troll?
dear wonderful friends,
as couchsurfing.com or is it .org? is just another out of date website, permanently down anyway, bewelcome is, well whatever…, i´d like to invite you to the new rising star of hospitality networks, feel welcome to join in on BELODGED!
happy days
Mikky
No wonder so many volunteers are quitting knowing who they work for. Here’s his view of his Turkish and Indian volunteers for example:
>>From: J. L.
Date: Fri, Jun 19, 2009
Subject: [CouchSurfing.Org] Turkey and India
Project: Ambassador Management Team
J. L. said:
I am considering the merits of removing the Ambassador Team
members from Turkey and India. All of them. The logic is this:
If they want to make meetings, go ahead as organizers. If they
want to be a resource to others, sure. If they want to be open,
positive and friendly, we welcome them as members and peers.
BUT, if they want to constantly complain, pick at each other
constantly, occupy WAY more attention than they deserve, and
create unnecessary trouble, complications and trauma to the
Ambassador Team and systems, then I say we don’t want them on
our team.
They cannot adjust, IMHO, to the western, open values of CS, nor
should we ask them to. They have differing values. I want to
remove the caste that we have given them to beat each other
with. They are not responsible enough to handle it. This is
obvious. So, instead of just `taking away’ the AMBs flags of
these countries, we will `discontinue’ the Ambs Team all
together in those areas that have not adjusted well. It’s a
privilege to be an Ambassador and they certainly treat is as a
right and use their flags as weapons. I say let’s disarm them.
In the future, after long debate, review, collaboration and with
systems in place, we can consider restoring Ambassador Team
Availability to these areas. We need to have the 80/20 rule
restored ASAP. Meaning that 80% of our time should be spent
educating, empowering, supporting and coaching. 20% for
`disciplining’ the community and admin. They wreck our ratio. I
say these two areas, because after 6 months, we have been
unsuccessful in our attempts to manage them and they refuse to
moderate themselves.
OK, here we go, so let me know what you think. If we agree, then
I will take it to TTT and see what he says.
gadget<<
And here is his consideration of his very own team:
From: Jonathan Lewis
Date: 2009/9/25
To: AMT
Hello all,
You are 8 amazing people. That is for certain. I respect that totally. Here is the where the tire meets the road for me: Casey is the CEO of the company and TTT the GM (you know this). As such, they handle issues that are far larger than this team. They handle issues that are global in nature and they empower me to get a result with my team(s). They delegate all that to me and hold me accountable for it as a single point of responsibility. Sharing concerns with C and T is fine, but this is not the CS of 2006. They get countless requests for their time, and although your request is important, they do have heavy agendas. They count on me to make things happen according to plans that I have mentioned along the way.
There are some serious issues in the AMT. One of the biggest is the team form and administration that I unwisely inherited from Kon. So, I ask, what did I actually do? Changed the name. Offered you less job and more satisfaction so that you can find joy in your service. Improved the chance to communicate with you as single points of contact versus calls that not all people can attend and some never do. I have allowed the team to manage the process and that is not correct. You are trusted advisers and I would love to give you more. From the training, to the original plan for special teams, all of it has led to a poor result. I have not held anyone to task for this, as human conditions arise and you are also volunteers, which means that I need to be as empathetic as possible and help you to find a joy in this that is greater than the value of the work that you do. CS certainly offers that. This cannot continue. No one wins.
Additionally, as an example, voting. This has always bothered me, yet I kept it. (Don’t ask me why.) The AMT should not vote for the removal of am Ambassador and it will not in the future.
I gave you all the opportunity to vote for Carlos’ removal, and I did that in order to unify you and make you feel heard (as always). However, from now on, this position (me for now) and this position alone will consider the option of removing an Ambassador. As a matter of policy, from now until forever, AMT members no longer vote on whether or not to remove an Ambassador, not even a non-binding symbolic vote.
I have many reasons for holding this position:
1. Ripping a flag is the nuclear option: it causes long-term fall-out that is a cancer to the organization.
2. This same rule applies to all teams. We don’t “vote people off the island” at CS because that game doesn’t stop until there’s only one person left. The very idea is anathema and antithetical to our vision. It creates politics, drama, witch-hunts, justified paranoia, secret alliances, and everything else that’s fun for TV but sucks for real life.
3. Getting rid of people most often just sweeps the problem under the rug and doesn’t solve the root issue. It also robs the AMT of the challenge of practicing mentorship and conflict resolution. You have too much incentive to take the easy way out to be given that option. That is specifically why I built it into progressive coaching.
4. The AMT has to give every misbehaving Ambassador a sincere opportunity to learn and improve, and only this office (as an impartial arbiter) can judge if they were truly given that opportunity. Giving you all the power to destroy encourages you to show no mercy. The evidence for that is that you are now harassing the mercy I have shown Carlos.
5. As you know, I am opposed to giving you any voting power whatsoever. It undermines their trust in the authority of this office. CS is not government, and it’s not a democracy. I can be responsive to your opinions without voting. Voting = politics = continuous time-suck = No more.
So, what is the result?
You have built an amazing foundation to build upon from here. I respect that. I personally do not think that you can adapt to changing conditions of business because you have been led to believe that you are the controlling body for the Ambassadors. This is far from true. You are supposed to be of service to them. Thus, Ambassador Support Team. Management smacks of the same corporate crap that you all harp about keeping out of this. Yet, you always try to bind up the team with documentation flows that are repetitive and other well meant procedures that forget to include simplicity, and vision/mission. Does what you/we do lead to inspiring experiences? No. Now, it will.
Thank you for listening.
With deep respect,
Jonathan
Nice piece of non-violant communication;).
The mail simply says: the leader knows better and you suck anyway. Don’t complain, be thankful. But – being a postive thinker myself – at least it’s honest: CS is a top-to-down-company not a democracy.
“CS is a top-to-down-company not a democracy.”
Yes, and there is a growing annoyance with the problems associated with social networks controlled by a few at the top.
I think it is mostly inertia which keeps the big social sites going. If the service is free and adequate, why move once you’ve built up a reputation and a network of friends?
The technical barriers to decentralized social networks are steadily decreasing, while the drawbacks of central control are becoming more apparent, as this article suggests:
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/is_a_perfect_storm_forming_for_distributed_social_networking.php
Gadget’s desire to nullify ambassadorships in those areas is understandable because of the amount of drama that has flowed over the groups, distracting everyone from other, more interesting things on CS. But CS shouldn’t stop there, but rather get rid of ambassadors completely.
The ambassador system seems to be great for organizing pub crawls and other lame local activities, but it doesn’t do much to further what most people signed up for CS for originally: hosting and surfing. Nearly everyone I’ve met who is an active traveler and/or who hosts heavily is not an ambassador, and in fact doesn’t see their local ambassadors doing anything important. All over the world you’ll encounter ambassadors who constantly organize events, gossip on the groups, and talks about how CS is such a great site, but they don’t actually go anywhere abroad or welcome travelers to their homes.
Sadly, however, there must be some benefits to the LT by having ambassadors–perhaps their activities, even if they have departed from the original atmosphere of hospex sites, leads to increased verification revenue. But on HC, active members are much more likely to be dedicated travelers, as opposed to just wanting to meet up with other locals in bars.
“However, from now on, this position (me for now) and this position alone will consider the option of removing an Ambassador.”
Hitler has arrived :0
Gadget says “Getting rid of people most often just sweeps the problem under the rug and doesn’t solve the root issue.”
what is the root issue of the two negative testimonials and the sexual harassment issues against him?
Gadget says “The evidence for that is that you are now harassing the mercy I have shown Carlos.”
sounds like christ!
why would some one even waste thier time hoping for positive action after reading
Hi everyone,
I have been a volunteer for more than five years. I have met a lot CS members hosting, surfing, and at meetings; and over the years have created deep, lasting, and meaningful freindships with many of them. I joined CS when there where just a bit more than 2000 profiles – that was back in 2004. Said that – I have seen a lot of ups and downs. Not even the big crash where all profiles have been lost and CS nearly was at the end stopped the core volunteers and everyone put a lot of effort in to get this website back up. Casey himself made me an Ambassador in Summer 2004 and I do love this community and way of travel but the leadership team and decision making people did not learn from things that have been done wrong in the past. It was promised that CS will become a international organization but it turned and still is in the process of becoming a corporate with users. The community feeling that this Website belongs to the members and everyone of us is a part of Couchsurfing as a part of a organization is lost and if this change is finished the website will not be much more than FACEBOOK, MYSPACE or XING. The past has shown that CS has enough people wanting to help that it is not a problem if volunteers that put their heart in the project get badly hurt by the organization and leave. IMHO the least you can pay volunteers is respect and attention to their needs. Both did not develop but degrade over the years. Cause of that CS has lost long term volunteers. I hope LT will understand their mistakes in the near future and build something that really can change the world – making a international organization. I have to agree to Shai http://www.couchsurfing.org/people/shai with seeing the following lessons the leadership team (CS Organization) failed to deal with accordingly.
•Being transparent in communication and respecting volunteer’s time and effort
•Being open and transparent with accounts funded by finances/member donations ESPECIALLY as CS asks for donations and are STILL NOT a non profit organization under 501c3 and the donation is NOT tax exempt
•Being capable of informing members about changes BEFORE they are implemented
•Have a site which is STABLE (we are adding members, but the site is down a lot), its our primary goal to make our service available.
It did hurt a lot when I was made feel unwelcome when I tried to help and came to Costa Rica Collective in 2009. I initiated also a Collective in Eisenstadt – a Collective where everyone was welcome to contribute. I think a core of community building is that you create a place where everyone is welcome to contribute where you give people the support they need to bring this community forward. I was offered to step down or become Country Ambassador for Austria (we have one by the way) and leaving with my critical voice the global team. I will not take this offer and prefer to stay until higher powers remove me from the list of Global Ambassadors.
After the day at the collective I have to say that I cried for a long time as I had to feel something I believe in was lost.
Read here how I experienced it: http://docs.google.com/View?id=dd7657jh_26hgf53kcm
What a lot of pompous, supremacist horseshit!!
I am the first one to stand up and say that I am sick and tired of the crap that goes around on the India groups but how on earth do you imagine that doing away with all India ambs will improve things?!?!
Do you actually imagine that this is the only part of the world with issues?! What about the Syria group which has been a drama centre for a long time? What about the Latin American groups which have been the source of countless man-hours of volunteer time thanks to all the orgy threads?! What about the American groups with all the rubbish about Middle-Eastern foreign policy and the use of CS for campaigning during the last election?! And how about the N number of complaints and all the time spent trying to address all the gazillion conspiracy theories and the attendant allegations of corruption, money-laundering (in some form or other), etc. all under the use of ‘non-profit’ status. It mostly stems from Europe!!!
Each and every one of these issues in various places has consumed hideous amounts of time in firefighting by volunteers.
I should know! I am one of them!!
And yet is there a proposal that has been tabled to strip all Ambs in all these areas thanks to their inability to deal with members in their part of the world?!
I’m the last person to carry a chip on my shoulder but this simply reinforces all that we’ve been saying about CS being a West-looking-condescendingly-down-on-East organisation.
I’m sorry but the age of colonialism is over and we will no longer be apologetic about who we are and how we approach things.
I write in my own name because I refuse to hide behind some stupid screen name. Fallout be damned.
Rahul do go over the crap you posted . This is exactly the reason why India ambassadors need to be scrapped . Because they talk carp and do not really understand the seriousness of the situation.
lets see instead of proving that the Indian ambassadors are worthy of their flags you try to deflect the charge by
a barrage of unrelated questions.
Syria group
Latin American groups
Middle-Eastern foreign policy
American groups
corruption,
money-laundering
this is really funny . I suggest your harness your anger before posting .
And your recent post about the MSDT on the brainstorm redefined show why gadget has a valid point about Indian ambassadors .
http://www.couchsurfing.org/group_read.html?gid=2125&post=3969980#post3970085
Gadget from San Francisco, United States
a team (couchsrifng ambassadors) with 1500 members from every area of the Earth. The U.N. can’t do it, but we can. (At least we can try.)
@Pikachoo
I’m afraid you missed the point entirely.
My point is not that the Indian ambassadors who are there necessarily deserve their flags. I don’t necessarily think they’ve covered themselves with glory.
My point is, that if they do not pass muster, then fire them, and look for other ambassadors! Doing away with the ambassador system in exactly two parts of the world is just ridiculous and hideously biased. There are badly behaved ambassadors all over the world. That doesn’t mean you do away with a system in their respective countries.
As for my post on Brainstorm Redefined, in case you hadn’t noticed, I am not an Amb, so I’m not sure what bizarre point you’re trying to make. Try a date with LOGIC sometime!
If you have the cajones to actually contradict what I’ve written on that thread (or can even relate it to the Gadget’s Indian ambassador take to which it has absolutely no relation) on an actual post there (thereby actually revealing your identity), then feel free to do so.
I suspect ‘Pikachoo’ that you do not.
And in that context, ‘harness’ does NOT mean ‘control’.
Look up proper usage of the word.
Just a little tip for the next time you try some cute repartee.
Rahul your last reply shows your level of pettiness , go back to the sad cs boards where you can dissect all the words you want and run around in circles .
This is exactly why you and so many other Indian posters suck because you cannot have a respectful and productive conversation instead of bringing in crap like Syria group/Latin American groups/Middle-Eastern foreign policy. And fail to admit you were wrong .
well you were an ambassador and your posts here and on the brainstorm show you are just do not get the big picture.
read the post
www. opencouchsurfing.org/2009/08/12/alleged-rape-through-couchsurfing/ you want answers from the MSDT but you fail to understand the motives of the poster who started the thread . This is extremely naive of you .
Pikachoo.
“go back to the sad cs boards”
“This is exactly why you and so many other Indian posters suck ”
“you fail to understand”
“This is extremely naive of you”
You patronising pompous ass Pikachoo. Try communicating like a human being.
yo all
so nice to see you, Matrixpoint…I hope all is well for you:) I miss your voice and integrity.
…and hello to Mikky, also who has always been so kind.
I agree with Chris: do away with all ambassadors and the parties and pub crawls…and get back to travel/host. This is the original and essential point of hospex networks: to connect itinerant travelers with rooted hosts (who were, in their day, also itinerant travelers…and who want to talk to the new generation).
there is real history here…and spiritual connection, that has nothing to do with dressing up in bunny ears or zombie outfits and drinking multiple pints at a bar…or one-upping each other on group posts. I’m sick by CS and the immaturity associated with the easy-money grab.
art, love, culture, life, connections…let’s get there:)
Margaret, I have to disagree with you about getting rid of the festive element entirely. Even before Couchsurfing was big, when everyone was on Hospitality Club, there were big meetings that were little more than an excuse to get liquored up and cavort. However, the emphasis there was on going to a foreign country to meet up and making the acquaintance of people from all over the world, and since they were rarely twice in the same place there were fewer local cliques. Hospex has never been for me merely about individual contact between a guest and a host, and the group ambiance is important. My real complaint about CS nowadays is the lack of emphasis on mobility.
I agree with you Chris: hospex involves both the large international gatherings (and no…I really really don’t want to see them become extinct:) and the host/guest interchanges. It’s nice because people like me can still participate as a host mostly, even while not being able anymore to hitchhike around to the global camps and parties. I was in s.e. Asia in the 80′s when the full moon parties were getting their start in the coconut groves by the beaches (no hotels existed then) and the atmosphere was something new to me: international and based on travel.
I agree that the element that’s missing now is the mixing of cultures into a kind of globally aware travel culture. Right now, CS is heavily Californian and the polyglot global participation, or bybridized travel culture, is fading.
While we talk about the CS LT (and their true motives), it is the utimately the large block of members who have joined in the last year who will ultimately decide its direction. Will only a small minority internalise the values, mission and ideals of the CouchSurfing Project through travel, hosting, surfing and inercultural interaction or will the majority use the site to become part of a more localised social scene, metting people exactly like themselves. It may be that those who surf/host and travel will end up as a minority, and could actually be seen as a deviating from the norm! While people are happy to meet ‘familair strangers’ in a neutral zone like a full moon party or pub, allowing them into your home might be a step too far for them. Is the site or these gatherings helping them take that step? I don’t know
M
/\
I would really like to see the technical efforts and offers that always seem to leave CS, be reinvested in BW.
BW has so, so much more potential, both in the underlying code structure and user interface, and also in the stated, documented goals of governance, openness, and constructive cooperation.
Long ago, when I saw how CS was run and how it was legally structured, I also knew there was no hope, and that it would eventually collapse. The only thing keeping it going now, is critical mass, or, the number of users. Just like an Amazon.com or eBay, etc.
All those users, millions globally (potentially), will use whatever tool works best, but also whatever tool provides the most usefulness, and/or pool size, or the greatest number of users and hence, the greatest opp’ to find or offer a couch.
I’d say it’s safe to say that most folks interested in HospEx, of any age, have accts on more than one service – I certainly do. And so far, I’ve only offered shelter, not received, enjoyed every minute of it, and done it exclusively through BW. But BW seems mostly “French,” not that there’s anything wrong with that, it just represents that it still has a long way to grow, to match the user list spread/size of CS or HC.
I’m a pro tech and amateur coder myself – I dig tech geeks, and know what’s involved. Please, please, please, will every coder or tech who defects from CS in disgust, please redirect your effort into correcting the maddening bugs that still plague BW? Please!
For instance, to this day, I still don’t get email notifications of new messages submitted. This is unforgivable! Also, why does the “users online” number never change from 1 or 2? Prioritize the bugs, and get cracking!
What you should do, is charge micropayments, say $1-10 US, for a successful couch used, or per trip, or per month, etc. If the BW site worked reliably, and again, it still has some major bugs if not downright failures, when I use the tool to find available couches, I’d gladly pay a reasonable amount to support the tool’s maintenance, itself.
As it stands, it’s obvious to me, that BW was formed as a response to the inherent negative politics and dishonesty that is Casey/CS, but then the effort just kind of fizzled, and BW has remained half-finished for a long time now.
There really isn’t anything else like it, I understand ongoing coding and maintenance costs real money. Please everyone, invest the effort to create the best tool out there, and the users will come, I assure you. Build it, perfect it, maintain it, find a reasonable way to keep the lights on (bills paid), and the users will be your happy, unpaid advertisers themselves.
I’m so tired of waiting to see some new sign of life at BW, but with every wave of disgust and desertion at CS, that same wave of feeling and motivation creates new hope for BW.
And for the record, I have no personal connection or affiliation with any of the HospEx sites, I’m just a thoughtful and often outspoken outside observer. I was excited about CS about 3 years ago, but realized in 3 months that it was full of cancer, destined to continue on the same path, and could not be reformed.
It’s HospEx that needs a great tool. HospEx has existed for decades, even before any kind of web site, or the Internet. HospEx is the spirit, the love, the motivation, the community. Casey/CS thought they could benefit personally from “crowd sourcing” the construction of the tool, and the pool of users. By personally profiting from volunteer labor (of love), and by exploiting the users, in several ways. I could see those issues, and knew they were… for lack of any other word, “evil,” and would absolutely be revealed in time.
In my opinion, BW is the best tool to choose from, still. It just needs some/more effort invested. If the tool was reliable, if it would at least email me notices of couch requests, users would start to drift in, and the list of daily logins would follow an upward curve.
Come on people now
smile on your brother
everybody get together
and try to love one another right now