There seems to be some confusion around what exactly this thing called OpenCouchSurfing is. I thought now would be a good time to remind people of what OpenCS is and what it is not.
Let’s start with what it is:
- It is a label, a title, a word, a term
- It is a web site, a blog, a mailing list, a wiki
- It is a loosely (dis)organised campaign
- It is related to CouchSurfing and hospitality networks
- It is a movement, a meme, an idea of loosely shared values
Now what it is not:
- It is not an organisation, it has no offices, no officers, no constitution
- It has no members, there is no list of “OpenCSers”
- It is not “official”, nobody can speak on behalf of it, nobody can say they represent it
OpenCouchSurfing cannot agree or disagree with statements. It’s simply a means to communicate. As one can’t say “I am not E=MC2“, so one cannot really say “I am or am not OpenCS”. OpenCS is an idea, a campaign, at the very most, a petition.
Of course, all of this is simply my own opinion, because OpenCS cannot express an opinion or describe itself. So I speak on my own behalf, not in any official capacity on behalf of OpenCS. 
@Michel
exactly – you summed up my points much better than me.
i guess it’s not so much the idea of looking for transperency, but the way this open couch surfing movement is going about just comes off as really petty – it doesn’t sound like a group of people who want answers, it sounds like a group of bitter people who get kicked out and want to get revenge.
it doesn’t matter who’s right or wrong, these aggressive posts like “casey fenton needs to go” aren’t the right way.
All i’m doing is defending what is working now- asking people to step back and say, is the site broken now?
if you have concerns about the future, list them in an objective way, not a “oh my god, all the women must have sex with the men at CS Thailand” post that frankly, 90% of the CS community could care less about.
if you really want to start some change, let’s see some hard evidence or some objective arguments about problems with the site as it stands.
@callum
and facebook is a privately owned website, which has been put on the block as early as 2006 – a bid by viacom of $2 billion. I’m pretty sure it’s worth over 750 million as of last December.
we can either critique CS as a non-profit, against other start-up internet non-profits, or we can critique it as a private business.
you can’t have it both ways.
@adrian: You made the first comparison between CouchSurfing and Facebook. Then Michel83 made a further comparison. I was responding to those comments.
@adrian: I understand your comments about the tone of this web site. That is the nature of the disjointed, unconstituted group of people that post here.
If you feel it’s not appropriate, I warmly invite you to take the lead and create posts which you feel are appropriate. Anyone can register and can post here.
@adrian “All i’m doing is defending what is working now- asking people to step back and say, is the site broken now?”
yes. Do you post on couchsurfing?