For your convenience I put it a copy of the new CouchSurfing NDA on the OpenCS wiki.
It’s so beyond anything that it’s very funny, and merely deserves to be laughed at.
The burning question is just: Who will be asked to sign this monstrous document?
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Can you also please provide the links to the relevant CS announcement of the NDA and to the text as posted there, Kasper? Thanks!
I just knew it through a friend I was chatting with. Here’s the link: http://www.couchsurfing.com/agreements.html
Hey, would you please read the following under the link Kasper provided:
“No worries, friend. This is a standard thing to protect user data and keep CouchSurfing a safe and friendly place.”
There is no reason to worry! Unless you believe the lies “standard thing” / “protect user data” and sign the NDA.
In other words: “Be dumb, be happy!”
This more than ridiculous,
midsch
Hey mates, well, we knew what we were dealing with since this spring, and if anything, the more of the recent attitude “let’s not tell them, and let’s not let anyone else either” among multitude of other past crap I’ve personally encountered does help in letting go of every last shred of the enthusiasm I once had for CS.
Time to move on, nothing to see here. (whoever is involved in BW, I think it’s about time to carry on the torch elsewhere
I would not even sign this for a very well paid position.
I guess from this day on there are no further speculations needed if cs is managed by a crowd of dumb people…
It’s amazing to see a document so filled with fear. It’s particularly ironic that it’s published by an organisation that preports to promote “intercultural understanding”, perhaps the motto should be “intercultural understanding through shared fear”. It’s very sad.
uhuh, should NOT post when in a rush – the following can be read in a way that didn’t cross my mind: “whoever is involved in BW, I think it’s about time to carry on the torch elsewhere
”
Meant: whoever has been formerly involved with CS and is now hanging around in BW, time to move on from CS to BW (so not to ditch BW as well as a yet another company-community foul-up) – for me at least, where I haven’t already. Or to any other beautiful things that life, work, whatever has to offer – life is too short to be wasted any longer on a cult spinning around fear & deception.
well said, anu!
Could some please post the link to the main agreement on the brain storm group as we have dumb ambassadors like Matthew Evans who think this is a conspiracy.
Matthew Evans from Sherrill, United States
“Obviously this is a fake and lame attempt at humor by a group of people who are disaffected by the choices of the LT.”
It’s the link in the second comment here (made by Kasper), you’ve to provide a name before you get access to it. “dumb ass” will work, I guess.
As you already have noticed it’s not possible anymore to become a member of the brainstormgroup, so I don’t even have to think about posting the link there …
This might be interesting for anyone contemplating if CS has done a good and fair job with the NDA – imposing non-competes is not seen as a good move in the business world in this article, wonder how they’d feel about one for a supposed non-profit:
Noncompetes Are The DRM Of Human Capital
Slashdotted (see the comments), Original article
Wondering what would have happened if I’d signed any post-January version of the NDA, any paid work for travel/social sites would have been off limits, there would have been no compensation for the non-compete time (as I wasn’t paid in the first place), AND had I come up with even seeds of any travel-related ideas while having access to CS code (and predating it actually), I couldn’t have done anything with them either – and not just for a year, but forever. Yeah, sounds like a fair exchange for 0$
(disclaimer: I have a job unrelated to travel industry and don’t have ideas in stock that hadn’t been there even before CS)
*grin*
As Kasper (or someone else, I don’t remember) wrote, it may be good if we don’t get too serious about the NDA; I’d REALLY like to see it hold up in court, especially since we’re talking volunteers and not employees. I imagine even most US State Courts will laugh at this, let alone the European judicial system…
it doesn’t really matter that we get it, does it? you beat the dead horse over and over again: “cs management sucks! nothing we can do will change it! time to move on!” …yet you don’t. instead you stay here and spend so much of your time and energy going on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on about how things are awful and that thankfully there are better alternatives to put your energy into. yet you continue to hold on to how evil cs has become instead of focusing your efforts elsewhere. of course if you truly believed your ideas of how to run things were really better you’d actually DO something with those ideas instead of moaning on and on here, but that’s much harder to do than constant bitching, so i understand. work is hard, bitching and moaning is easy.
but i’m not complaining. i’m thrilled that you can’t let go and i hope you never will. your hypocrisy and monotonous bitching over the same topics again and again still manages to provide daily entertainment for me and my friends. thanks for the laughs!
@musical one
Your cynicism scares me. Maybe a word of comfort:
“If you have been rejected many times in your life, then one more rejection isn’t going to make much difference. If you’re rejected, don’t automatically assume it’s your fault. The other person may have several reasons for not doing what you are asking her to do: none of it may have anything to do with you. Perhaps the person is busy or not feeling well or genuinely not interested in spending time with you. Rejections are part of everyday life. Don’t let them bother you. Keep reaching out to others. Keep reaching out to others. When you begin to receive positive responses, then you are on the right track. It’s all a matter of numbers. Count the positive responses and forget about the rejections.” (from the DVD sleeve of “Meeting people is easy”)
Personally, I’m going to make an effort to try to reconnect with some CSers on “the other side” within my local community the coming month and try to find some common ground. I hope everyone does the same.
the musical one: thanks again for switching the topic. Aren’t you glad we don’t mod you or graciously move your comments to under another more fitting topic
Could someone possibly contribute to the thread at Slashdot, while they’re at it? If nothing else can show Jim et al what’s normal and expected of a non-profit, perhaps some outside opinions would.
Oh, and don’t worry, these days I’m just hanging out here for fun and have other places to contribute to
the nu one: “I’m starting to feel tempted to mod your comments.” and Aren’t you glad we don’t mod you or graciously move your comments to under another more fitting topic”
why do you keep threatening to make the threat? does that make you feel like your are scaring me? do you think i really care if you start mod’ing this little website and deleting or moving my comments? really? it’s your site, do whatever you want. or would you rather just keep TALKING about thinking about doing something (true to ocs form) rather than actually doing something? please, do whatever you feel is necessary to silence the people that point out your weaknesses and call you on your bullshit.
and this is particularly funny: “If nothing else can show Jim et al what’s normal and expected…” are you talking about jim stone again? i REALLY hope that he nor anyone else with anything to actually constructively do with their time bothers reading this drivel (i’m just here because i’m bored and enjoy how easy it is to mock what you do with your own words and actions). for the sake of cs i hope they are actually working, not paying attention to a couple of ocs trolls who didn’t get their way.
mod away, as you wish.
tg: good for you for at least appearing to take your “time to face the music” post on the google group to heart. you didn’t get your way so it’s great to hear that you’re trying to get over it and move on.
@the trolling one
My post obviously went way above your head. If you don’t want to learn, nobody can teach you.
@“time to face the troll”: I take exception to you misquoting Anu. You said, and I quote:
Anu did not say she was tempted to moderate your comments. In fact, searching the entire comment archive for the word tempted only returns your post and one other on a different thread, over one month ago. Nobody threatened you.
If you must insist on trolling, don’t misquote my friends.
@Callum: “Anu did not say she was tempted to moderate your comments…don’t misquote my friends.”
i know it doesn’t say much for you researching proficiency (even on an easy one) but you might want to check here: http://www.opencouchsurfing.org/2007/12/04/finally-the-new-nda-beware-its-very-funny/#comment-3384 before you make yet another inaccurate statement.
if you’re going to call me a liar at least have the cunning to do it where you aren’t so easily proven wrong. it might make you look slightly less foolish.
for the information of everyone who isn’t a moderator:
i just submitted a comment that pointed out where callum was yet again wrong in his baseless accusations. in doing so i presented a link which qualifies the comment for moderation. i’m posting this additional non-moderated comment so that those with all the power can’t just delete my comment from being posted without at least a little bit of accountability. look for it soon, and then think twice when you start to believe that everything callum says is properly researched and accurate.
“time to face the music”, there is no conspiracy here, to avoid spam, any comments from unregistered users which contain a link are held for moderation. I personally approved your comment as soon as I returned to my computer and saw that it was pending.
I have previously offered to assist you in establishing an account so these issues can be avoided, you have not yet taken me up on that offer.
The link you posted in support of your statement does not exist. I have just checked the database and there is no comment 3384. So as far as I’m concerned, my previous comment stands. Do not misquote my friends, or anyone else for that matter.
for the sake of REAL transparency, here is the full comment that anu posted on 6 dec:
“The one with funny names: I’m starting to feel tempted to mod your comments. Just so you know, not that I would actually do it.
”
Likewise, the LT actions are providing (well, will be, in the future when this scenario is a bit more past us) amazing entertainment value as well.
And JUST so you know, I do intend to continue making a better world, one line of code at a time (a past CS motto of mine) – where exactly shall remain to be seen but the future does look promising enough
while it has obviously been deleted (not the first time: http://groups.google.com/group/open-couchsurfing/browse_thread/thread/741c2056b3407a23#27b9ceb1212e7e47) but copies still exist (RSS feeds anyone?). in fact, i don’t believe for a second that you missed the RSS comment as you’ve certainly been known to subscribe to them: http://groups.google.com/group/open-couchsurfing/browse_thread/thread/a45591b0105d2d2a#c75783dcd8a71bba
so anu – do you deny writing that comment as well? and i’d ask the person who deleted it to explain themselves but i wouldn’t expect any REAL answer for that anyway. we haven’t had any laughable FUD from ocs in a while so now is as good a time as any to dish some out to avoid the topic of deleting comments writing by the ocs bunch that sound harsh and completely against what you all supposedly stand for.
There is no record of that comment in my RSS archive. However, there is a comment missing at the ID 3384, so perhaps that was the comment and it has been deleted.
Either way, your quote was clearly a misrepresentation of what Anu said. She said “Just so you know, not that I would actually do it.” Omitting that part of the sentence is absolutely misquoting her and using her words out of context.
Just for the record, I did not delete comment no 3384.
I have not deleted any comments without the author’s request, unless I considered them to be spam. By spam, I mean unrelated to the debate and submitted for the purpose of “link love”. While I consider most posts by “time to face the music” to be trolling and irrelevant, I don’t think they are spam.
as part of her quote, she said “I’m starting to feel tempted to mod your comments.” and for the record, YOU are the one that attributed it directly to anu. i merely said “the nu one”. but as long as you’re tagging her name to it we’ll go ahead and put it out there.
just so we all know the Callum Rules, how much of a person’s quote is enough to quote them? if i say she said “I’m starting to feel tempted to mod your comments” without also pasting in the entire rest of what was said, she still said “I’m starting to feel tempted to mod your comments.” i didn’t even break the sentence up or take out any words. that was the whole sentence. maybe she later felt like it wasn’t a good thing to put out in the public domain and deleted it, who will ever know. but whatever, it was said and i just quoted it. YOU, callum, are the one making a big deal about it.
i’d love to point out all of the many, many times ocs has so-called “misquoted” the lt or other people you’ve labeled as “attack dogs” or other FUD names but i’d rather do something more productive, like watch grass grow.
@“time to face the music”: I believe it is clear that you took Anu’s words (if she actually did write them) and quoted them out of context.
Sorry for not stepping in sooner, you know, I don’t follow this site 24/7 (though RSS comment feeds are sweet
. Let’s clarify:
* I did write that comment
* I deleted it a few minutes after posting (have enough rights for that) – apparently people are refreshing this site more than they would like to admit
reason being, I did realize shortly after posting it might just result in a reaction as above. I do admit to saying I did feel tempted to mod certain comments, however that doesn’t mean I would actually have done it. Clear? But I still don’t enjoy attempting-to-be-anonymous bashing exercised here these days.. If you have something to say, if there are no oppressive governments to mutilate you for saying things, it’s only fair to let people know who you are (or an approximation thereof, I wouldn’t be surprised to find Thailand-bound folks behind some comments here for example)
How about we have our own best troll of the week competition, like here
(only slightly kidding!)
Since I feel a rebuttal coming soon, let’s get ahead: whereas OpenCS has probably been blamed for quotes out of context (and “the one” is simply feeding us our own dogfood here): how about the next time I say something about CS organization I include the full context of all I know about the topic and what lead me to the conclusion, as well?
Would that be fair enough? Or too scary to consider, since I’ve obviously seen far more than I should have? (so you see “out of context” has sometimes been necessary to protect people’s privacy and other worthy values)
Guys, don’t fall into popular believe:
Only because you sign terms of agreement (eg because you didn’t read them well) doesn’t mean they are in force. Lots of people think “As soon as I sign it I can’t get out of it”.
That’s bullsh*t. There are Laws for terms of agreement and such. And if the terms violate these Laws, it doesn’t matter at all if you signed or not.
Then it depends on the type of violation and the specific Laws of the country; sometimes only the invalid part of the terms is taken out and the valid one stays (and is in force by the signature), somtimes the whole terms are invalid.
I’m pretty much sure (although it’s my personal guessing and opinion, I didn’t check it) that the part of informing CS about your new working place if similar to CS and adress as an ex-volunteer is completely ridiculous in front of Law and every court would just burn it. Especially considered that the people are volunteers and not employees, as sb already pointed out.
Unfortunately most people don’t know that, so it’s probable that the mentioned part is either in the NDA to scare these people although they know it doesn’t hold up in front of Law (the nasty interpretation) or they simply do not know a lot about Law (the friendly interpretation, which I would go for, not being interested in conspiracy theories and flame wars).
In any way, from a legal point of view there is not a lot to worry about the new NDA…………….