Airbnb Criticized For Asking Its Customers To Donate to Their Past Hosts (msn.com) 110
"Airbnb has been in hot water with hosts since the coronavirus crisis began, since the company told hosts to refund guests who needed to cancel their trips due to the pandemic," reports Travel + Leisure magazine. "According to USA Today, the company spent $250 million in March to try to reimburse hosts for their cancellations plus a $17 million fund for Airbnb Superhosts, though the site reported $1 billion in cancellations, CEO Brian Chesky told USA Today."
But some people strongly criticized Airbnb's next move, the magazine reports: According to USA Today, Airbnb recently sent out emails to guests asking them to send "kindness cards" to their past hosts. The cards are basically a digital comment card that guests can write an encouraging message on, with the option to add a monetary contribution to their host. The email campaign is in response to hardships that hosts have had to endure while people are staying at home to combat the spread of coronavirus...
According to USA Today, some people on Twitter have taken issue with the idea of donating money to hosts, some of whom may be more well-off financially, despite the crisis. "Why would I donate to my host? I can't even afford one house," one user wrote. Some have also argued that it isn't past guests' responsibility to support hosts long after their stays, citing the fact that they paid to stay in their host's rooms and houses should be enough in terms of monetary compensation. Others liken the idea to paying extra rent to landlords just to be nice, according to Business Insider....
A handful of users have expressed that they thought the idea was a good way to connect and form interpersonal relationships. Airbnb defended the initiative by saying it is "in the spirit of rekindling connections..."
On Twitter programmer/game developer Brianna Wu shared a different perspective. "I'm not sure I will be contributing to the mortgage for anyone's second house at this time."
But some people strongly criticized Airbnb's next move, the magazine reports: According to USA Today, Airbnb recently sent out emails to guests asking them to send "kindness cards" to their past hosts. The cards are basically a digital comment card that guests can write an encouraging message on, with the option to add a monetary contribution to their host. The email campaign is in response to hardships that hosts have had to endure while people are staying at home to combat the spread of coronavirus...
According to USA Today, some people on Twitter have taken issue with the idea of donating money to hosts, some of whom may be more well-off financially, despite the crisis. "Why would I donate to my host? I can't even afford one house," one user wrote. Some have also argued that it isn't past guests' responsibility to support hosts long after their stays, citing the fact that they paid to stay in their host's rooms and houses should be enough in terms of monetary compensation. Others liken the idea to paying extra rent to landlords just to be nice, according to Business Insider....
A handful of users have expressed that they thought the idea was a good way to connect and form interpersonal relationships. Airbnb defended the initiative by saying it is "in the spirit of rekindling connections..."
On Twitter programmer/game developer Brianna Wu shared a different perspective. "I'm not sure I will be contributing to the mortgage for anyone's second house at this time."
The backers can fucking do it. (Score:4, Insightful)
If your business model cannot handle COVID or any other disaster, then it shouldn't exist by Capitalism's rules.
Now, if Airbnb wants to keep their business going, THEY can use THEIR capital. Otherwise to quote the late Steve Jobs, "Fuck'em!"
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If they want to support the hosts, they can reach into their fucking pockets and pay for it themselves.
Airbnb's pockets are not so deep. They were never very profitable, revenues were slammed by Covid, and now they are facing billions in lawsuits.
If your business model cannot handle COVID or any other disaster, then it shouldn't exist by Capitalism's rules.
Millions of businesses don't have enough cash reserves to survive Covid. They collectively employ tens of millions of people.
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What did people to? They ran bed and breakfast businesses. Which are also failing because of the pandemic.
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Before AirBNB there was no AirBNB. What did travelers do? They used other services. (hate to state the obvious, but you've forced my hand)
AirBNB is WAAAY cheaper than a bed and breakfast, and like you say you can get to places you normally would need a friend with a condo or rooms at a costly hotel. But perhaps you forgot the original sales pitch for AirBNB, maybe the acronym itself will tip you off. Airbnb is a shortened version of its original name, AirBedandBreakfast.com. [wikipedia.org]
Why not compare AirBNB hosts to other irrelevant categories of worthy people being fucked by the lockdown, like chefs, waiters, tutors, actors, etc.?
See above. And think harder next
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Whatever did people do before airbnb existed zed oh my gawd.
Travelers mostly stayed at overpriced hotels.
B&B hosts tried to find guests with ads in the Yellowpages.
They are both much better off with Airbnb. The losers are the hotel chains.
The problem is that Airbnb forgot that they are an intermediary. When Covid appears, they offered the guests full refunds. The problem is that it WASN'T THEIR MONEY. The money belonged to the hosts, who had the right to set their own refund policies.
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Huh? I traveled extensively before Airbnb and never stayed in overpriced hotels. I also had no problem finding rental properties before the internet for longer term stays. Sure, Airbnb opened up a new type of lodging (anyone being able to rent out their place) but it’s not any cheaper than hotels and often is more of a hassle.
As for traditional BnBs? Those have always been a niche business and still are.
Re: before covid (Score:2)
You probably don't travel with children... Getting a 2-3 bedroom AirBNB is significantly cheaper than the equivalent space in a hotel.
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The problem is that Airbnb forgot that they are an intermediary. When Covid appears, they offered the guests full refunds. The problem is that it WASN'T THEIR MONEY. The money belonged to the hosts, who had the right to set their own refund policies.
That's a great point. Was it in the hosts' contract that ABnB had the right to do this? If so, it really undermines their claim to not be a hotel chain.
Re:The backers can fucking do it. (Score:5, Insightful)
Airbnb's pockets are not so deep. They were never very profitable, revenues were slammed by Covid, and now they are facing billions in lawsuits.
That is their problem. They made the deals and their backers are gonna have to cough it up.
Millions of businesses don't have enough cash reserves to survive Covid. They collectively employ tens of millions of people.
We're talking about Airbnb - an over-hyped company that has had money thrown at them by morons who wanted to get rich quick. This isn't some local hardware store that went under - like many have around me. Airbnb is nothing but some booking site and if they went under, I would not miss them and it would cause ZERO problems with our economy. Their valuation was typical Silicon Valley retard level.
So, spare me the nonsensical arguments. There are real people with real businesses who are going under.
THE cure? Have the Treasury send us little people $1,200 / month for the next year. THAT will start the economy because we need to eat, pay rent, get health care, pay utilities, etc .... How to pay for i? Eisenhower era tax rates - inflation adjusted OBVIOUSLY. Earn over $2million? 90% over $2 million. I'd even say the first $100,000 is tax free - that's right, a standard deduction of a $100,000.
Contrary to the Neo-liberal economic fairy-tales, the economy works from bottom to top.
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THE cure? Have the Treasury send us little people $1,200 / month for the next year. THAT will start the economy because we need to eat, pay rent, get health care, pay utilities, etc
That would just make things worse. People are opting for furloughs (technically illegal to do this and claim unemployment, but that isn't stopping anybody) and/or declining to return to work because unemployment is so generous right now. Decreasing the labor pool in an already down economy won't help, and it will just induce the fed into diluting what savings you do have just so that the government can afford all of this.
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2) IF it is still better than what you are making while working, then it shows how fucked up things are.
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The economy is just as fucked by mass deaths and panic. The only reason people are still forced to scavenge for a pittance is because the fat cats at the top have decided they just can't do with a smaller yacht. Here, have a song about it, my own. [bandcamp.com]
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Decreasing the labor pool in an already down economy won't help ...
Why not? Do you think the problem in the economy is lack of demand or lack of supply? Please explain how more customers is bad for the economy.
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I'm pretty certain that problem would be solved easily if a person could work and still receive the money. That is the whole point of UBI.
You are completely correct that modern welfare has perverse incentives to *not* do anything productive, and people staying out of work because they collect better unemployment is a perfect example.
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A problem with this is that the people who most easily afford to pay i.e. have already accumulated a vast wealth can end up paying nothing, like Zuck who (I've read) pays himself a $1/year salary.
What I think would be better is an asset or "wealth" tax of some kind. This isn't a new idea; middle-class homeowners already pay a "wealth tax" i.e. a percentage of their
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There are real people with real businesses who are going under.
THE cure? Have the Treasury send us little people $1,200 / month for the next year. THAT will start the economy because we need to eat, pay rent, get health care, pay utilities, etc .... How to pay for i? Eisenhower era tax rates - inflation adjusted OBVIOUSLY. Earn over $2million? 90% over $2 million. I'd even say the first $100,000 is tax free - that's right, a standard deduction of a $100,000.
Contrary to the Neo-liberal economic fairy-tales, the economy works from bottom to top.
I completely agreed with you, right up to your last statement. I sincerely hope you are being sarcastic about liberals blocking higher taxes and direct payments to consumers. It's quite the opposite, and it's clearly in the record
The current majority is the one that passed the latest tax cuts. [taxfoundation.org] Ask yourself, is this the party of 'neo-liberal economic fairy-tales'? The fairy tales exist (called 'trickle down ecomonics'), but it's been a conservative position for 40 years, not a liberal one.
The current minor
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Contrary to the Neo-liberal economic fairy-tales, the economy works from bottom to top.
I completely agreed with you, right up to your last statement. I sincerely hope you are being sarcastic about liberals blocking higher taxes and direct payments to consumers.
...
Both of these examples should show that, if you actually believe in your solution (direct payments and higher taxes), then it's clearly a liberal ticket you should support.
"Neoliberal [wikipedia.org]" is not the same thing as "liberal". Most people would see it as nearly opposite. Yeah, the naming sucks.
They're not trying to restart the economy (Score:2)
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THE cure? Have the Treasury send us little people $1,200 / month for the next year. THAT will start the economy because we need to eat, pay rent, get health care, pay utilities, etc .... How to pay for i? Eisenhower era tax rates - inflation adjusted OBVIOUSLY. Earn over $2million? 90% over $2 million. I'd even say the first $100,000 is tax free - that's right, a standard deduction of a $100,000.
Contrary to the Neo-liberal economic fairy-tales, the economy works from bottom to top.
I completely agree with you, and agree with policies like this from a humanitarian/moral position. And from an economic perspective, this would put a floor on the recession... avoid potentially millions of evictions, a further consolidation of housing by the wealthy, etc.
However, it is worth noting that the best research on the current recession shows quite the opposite (in large part thanks to expanded unemployment benefits and protections). Most of the current recession has been caused by spending declin
And I have to ask... (Score:3)
But when a business is totally retarded and acts maliciously to make more money and pad the wallets of their executives it's all "We need to help with taxpayer money!!" i.e. SOCIALISM for the rich: Capitalism for the rest of us.
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Why is it when poor people make a bad decision it's all "Fuck them! They made poor choices!!"
But when a business is totally retarded and acts maliciously to make more money and pad the wallets of their executives it's all "We need to help with taxpayer money!!"
The only people I ever hear of promoting the latter are democrats. Don't forget, it was the Obama admin that felt that poor decisions on the part of the major automakers deserved a taxpayer funded bailout. You know who else likes corporate bailouts? Labor unions.
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You must have somehow missed the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 [wikipedia.org], put forward by the Bush administration on their way out the door and widely blamed on Obama because people forget that a new president doesn't take office until the next January, not the year they got elected.
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Chrysler took $10.7B and still owes $1.2B - so yes the automakers are still running at a loss.
The overall TARP scheme however is running about 19% profit total, over the last decade - not a great ROI on just the numbers, however keeping these large employers viable meant your recovery from the GFC was much faster than otherwise.
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Airbnb's pockets are not so deep
Cry me a river. "In March 2017 the company was valued $31 billion. As of that date, the company had $5 billion at the bank, and it rejected an investment offer by SoftBank. Airbnb might be the biggest tech unicorn IPO in 2018" ( https://fourweekmba.com/airbnb... [fourweekmba.com] ).
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Mod parent up.
One additional note: Capitalism is supposed to deal with risks through insurance. However, I defy you to describe a viable business model for an insurance company that could have covered Covid-19. Even if the company had issued the policies, the company would have gone bust.
The governments that (think they) have the money had no choice but to step up as desperation insurers with the fire hoses of money.
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Well, according to capitalism's rules, the government shouldn't have the power to mandate shutdowns. The government should also not be penalizing companies for building large reserves with tax penalties.
So ya; if we had less meddling from the government, we'd have more capitalism.
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Furthermore, there's nothing wrong with asking prior patrons to help keep the business(s) alive. They liked having those goods and services, and without donations, some will likely founder. AirBnB did not mandate payments, did not apply fees, did nothing but ask. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that.
Are you expecting to get donation request cards from every store and service provider you have patronized in the past few years? Are you offering your landlord a premium on your rent, or your lenders a nice interest boost? Are you offering your federal, state, and local governments some extra tax to tide them over during these tough times?
Of course not.
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This sounds good according to my personal rules - I would do the same - but only to return the favour to those allowed the car charging, because I consider that to be going above and beyond. For hosts that didn't go above and beyond what's on the agreement, tough luck.
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The government shut down the economy, travel, and access for people to use the AirBnB service. They would have abso-fucking-lutely survived without government mandated quarantine of the entire economy
Funny that, much of the economy and travel is open again in many places of the world, guess what, tourism is still down. Incidentally no one is holidaying in Sweden right now where the government shut down nothing either.
Don't go blaming the government for people exercising common sense.
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to quote the late Steve Jobs, "Fuck'em!"
I didn't realize that zombies wanted to have sex. (He's dead, right? So he must be a zombie.) But with Airbnb suits!?? Euwww, his brain MUST be rotten..
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The shutdown was coming one way or another. As several state governors are now finding out after trying to re-open too soon, leading to a spike in COVID leading to people choosing to stay home. If enough people end up in the hospital or dead, a lot more people will be staying home.
This is the gift that keeps on giving, even when it's over, people saddled with crazy medical bills and unable to go to work don't tend to spend a lot on entertainment or vacations.
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The "spikes" in TX, FL, and AZ are already flattening and falling. And the spikes are in cases - not deaths (which are much, much lower than the original spikes in NJ. NY, CT, and MA). Being positive - a new "case" - is not the death sentence so many are trying to make it out to be.
What IS a death sentence for many was the elimination of elective surgeries. The elimination of income. The increase in drug abuse and domestic violence. That was preventable - by letting the economy keep running.
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The lack of elective surgeries isn't likely killing anyone (they're elective) and in any event have nothing to do with shutting the economy down and everything to do with the hospitals needing the capacity to handle COVID patients (not to mention not wanting anyone in a weakened condition from surgery hanging around with all those COVID patients).
What is killing some is people afraid to do to the ER due to COVID concerns rationalizing that it's probably just a really bad headache or it's just heartburn.
Cita
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Also, many people are avoiding the ER for non-COVID ailments because they don't want to catch it. Strokes, heart attacks, some proportion of those people are thinking "a hospital is the last place I want to be right now" and choose to tough it out.
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In other words, delaying them isn't likely killing people. Those delays still have nothing to do with the lockdown other than they would probably have been shorter had states not re-opened prematurely.
Nothing in your reply significantly refutes anything I said.
Re: The backers can fucking do it. (Score:1)
I used your service, you got paid for your services, we're done.
If you sink, that's your problem. End of story.
That's not the point (Score:2)
they're not "hosts" anyways. (Score:2)
The people who bought apartments took a risk to get a reward. and to skirt local hotel laws. they're not hosting anyone, they're renting them an apartment on daily fees.
Look, the idea that you just rent a spare room in your apartment, whatever okay maybe you can throw in some money for someone who was a cool "Host". Sure, whatever, but your typical airbnb "host" is no host at all. you will maybe see the host once, maybe. and they just bought apartments on debt to make extra money because they read in a news
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How about - If you don't want to donate to the hosts, then don't donate to the hosts.
Does this really need to generate outrage? AirBNB asked - you can say no. (or yes if you want to)
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If your business model cannot handle COVID or any other disaster, then it shouldn't exist by Capitalism's rules.
This is true, but there are other rules of Capitalism that state you should try to keep your business afloat by spending other people's money.
Re: The backers can fucking do it. (Score:2)
Nobody held a gun to their head. Send a thank-you. If so inclined, send $5. Whats the big deal. Do you know how many fucking morons tip the Starbucks flunky for simply pouring you a fucking cup of coffee?? Its 1 minute of work, of which they are not being paid the $2.13/hr tipping wage. They even stick a tip jar in the drive thru window. Do you tip mcdonalds? No. So why the fuck do you self-proclaimed elitists, sipping your $5 coffee, tip a coffee pourer?
If you can tip starbucks for simply doing the job the
Yeah thatâ(TM)s BS... (Score:2)
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I see it as a possibility, (Score:3, Interesting)
Re: I see it as a possibility, (Score:3, Insightful)
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I asked my barber if I could pay twice, to support them, since I like that place, and since I skipped once and looked like a guru so they had to train their garden tools on me, sort of. but they wouldn't let me.
You could just leave a big tip - that's what I did when I got sheared recently.
It was in part as a gesture of support, but also - seriously, they could've done topiary with my hair. I have curly hair, and I was already due for (and planning to get) a haircut the week our state got shut down. Cutting my hair after 5-6 months was likely a lot more work than usual. The lady was making jokes about the "poodle" I was leaving behind.
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to keep up and support the continuation of what was a good experience
If you're a repeat customer to the same host then go for it. The overwhelming majority of AirBnB visits are one-off visits never to be repeated. TFS is on point though. Your local barber running a business, paying rent could do with support. That random dude who owns two houses and rents out one as a short stay likely in breach of his local council rules on hotels not so much.
In fact, quite the frigging opposite. As someone who owns two houses myself I was fully prepared to waive rent for a while had my ten
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It's great that you don't need income on your second property to support it. However, many (most?) people do. Banks are not waiving mortgages because of COVID (at best you can defer a few payments, which you then have to catch up on in one lump sum). Municipalities are not waving property taxes. Insurance companies are not waving home insurance fees. Utilities are not waving water, electric, or gas bills.
And you know what happens when you don't pay the mortgage or the property taxes? You lose the house.
This
Re: I see it as a possibility, (Score:2)
> And you know what happens when you dont pay the mortgage or the property taxes? You lose the house.
This is how it works. This is a risk you take when you buy a house. Its like 2008 all over again. Those who cared about risk were left behind those who were in debt to their teeth.
One day this house of chairs^Wcards is all going to come down and those left holding the bag will be fucked.
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If they cannot afford the second house, they'll just have to sell it. That's how investments work.
Frankly, I think that there's far too much ability to leverage in the real-estate-investment market already.
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It's great that you don't need income on your second property to support it. However, many (most?) people do.
You missed my point. Multiple house owners have multiple incomes and are likely able to support the loss of their *secondary* income. I stay at AirBnBs a lot, I have never met a host who didn't fit into the following category:
a) Retired and renting out a spare house for extra pocket money
b) Had a job that provided primary income
c) (not a multiple house issue) was simply renting a room in their existing house for pocket money.
Though I conceded people who abuse the principle on which AirBnB was founded do exi
Lame Story (Score:1)
This has to be in the running as one of the lamest stories to appear on Slashdot.
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Including Wu as Bait (Score:5, Insightful)
So, did you throw in the Brianna Wu comment just to make sure the comments would be filled with WHARGARBLE? Seriously, out of all of the millions of social media commentators you could have quoted, why did you pick her? Does this have anything to do with gamer gate? No. Does this have anything to do with women or trans rights? No. This is just bait.
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It's not even a her. Wu is a dude in drag.
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Wu is as irrelevant to this story as a comment about Linus hair length is in a story about coding. https://linux.slashdot.org/story/20/07/03/2133201/linus-torvalds-i-do-no-coding-any-more [slashdot.org]
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Take a chill pill, buddy. Sure, I agree her name is gonna make the trolls froth at the mouth (above their standard level of constant frothing), and she's not a particularly likeable person to begin with; but her comment is cogent to the discussion.
The trolls are gonna troll, regardless of who's quoted in TFS.
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"Airbnb has lost its fucking head. Why would I donate to my host? I can't even afford one house."
"What kind of distopian hell is this Airbnb ask renters to donate to struggling landlord's."
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Someone has to keep giving Wu attention or she might make another crowdfunded mess
Never Shame Someone For Asking Help (Score:2)
Now, go do some rejection therapy. [ted.com]
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I find this article despicable. It takes a lot of courage for someone to ask for help. If you don't think they need help, don't help them! However, don't shame them. It sends the message to others that asking for help is wrong, and it's not.
So you were fine when Amazon suggested its customers pay for the sick days of Amazon employees [snopes.com]?
If this company needs help it should have better management, one which prepares for the unexpected instead of siphoning money off the top for their own use. This is just as bad as those multi-billion dollar companies endlessly coming back to the government and saying they need to suck at the taxpayer's teet for a few more billion or trillion dollars.
It is not the responsibility of the taxpayer, or customers, to k
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Agreed. It takes a lot of courage for someone to ask for help....but that's a COMPANY, not a SOMEONE.
I think the failed experiment called corporate personhood has been going for far too long. Company != Person.
Person asking for help, great? Companies asking for help? LOL.
you've read the news in past 3 years? (Score:2)
these people were flexing on the media how they were smart biz people to buy multiple apartments on debt to rent them out on daily contracts.
"This housewife started with 20k and now has investment 6 apartments!" - you haven't seen any stories like this in the past year? flexing about how smart it is to buy multiple apartments on debt for airbnb? it wasn't smart and the media didn't want to run any stories about how it is smart and the people doing the buying didn't want to listen to anyone telling that it
As an Airbnb host, I think the idea is silly. (Score:2)
I have been an Airbnb host for almost four years now. It brings in a few nickles and pays the expenses. This year started off pretty bad, but it is getting better lately, maybe even normal. I figured it was just one of those random and unpredictable setbacks. I never expected a "bailout", especially not from previous guests.
Maybe some of my guests prefer having their own space rather than rubbing elbows with strangers at a motel. If so, I am glad to give them what they want and take their money so I can pay
What's the big deal? (Score:3)
I guess I'm not seeing the problem. It's a gesture of kindness, and no one is obligated to do so.
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Agreed. Really don't see what the big issue is here.
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The reason people are upset is because many AirBNB mega hosts are not terribly dissimilar from the people who recently bought up all the hand sanitizer and sold it at a ridiculous high price. Imagine if, now that companies are starting to catch up with sanitizer demand (resulting in sanitizer being available at normal prices) these sanitizer gougers starting complaining "Poor me! My sanitizer business is suffering. Please donate money to my cause." If your day-to-day involved actively harming people wit
No risk? (Score:2)
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Umm... having a general problem, sure. Having a pandemic, not so much. That said, general business downturn should be something that is covered. Either a recession, war or even a pandemic was going to happen.
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I feel the same way about universities. (Score:2)
Some have also argued that it isn't past guests' responsibility to support hosts long after their stays, citing the fact that they paid to stay in their host's rooms and houses should be enough in terms of monetary compensation.
Almost like universities asking graduates / alumni to fund things at the school / their alma mater. Ya, no. I paid you for a service and you provided it; we're done. If you're having problems, perhaps it's your business model.
Or maybe (Score:2)
Naw, that's silly. Now if you'll excuse me I've got an anti-mask rally to attend once with COVID-19 party wraps up.
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its really not, somehow the world has come to the conclusion you need 100k in student loans and a sliver of walpaper to be a paperwork cog, and the universities have gotten fat from it.
I mean I am glad people are getting masters in underwater basket weaving and becoming salesmen but is it really neccacary?
Special treatment (Score:2)
As a frequent business traveller, three hotels I have stayed at in the past 12 months have closed permanently, causing a loss of hundreds of jobs mostly of low wage people who live paycheck to paycheck. Why would I donate money to an AirBNB host who had a spare house to rent out when all this shit is going on around me?
Not past hosts (Score:2)
"To be nice" (Score:1)
"Others liken the idea to paying extra rent to landlords just to be nice,"
Yeah, and these kinds of people are ripe targets for being bilked, to have endless gimmies showing up at the door, and just generally get fucked over.
You don't get respect for being "nice" in this world, because that's the blood in the water that attracts sharks.
I say all of this from bitter personal experience, and most of these "nice" folks are suffering from some serious self respect and esteem issues.
The "nice" ones get used, and
Why not the other way around? (Score:2)
I've stayed at an AirBnB before. Why don't the AirBnB hosts just go ahead and refund some of my money with a "kindness card" in recognition of hardships that I've have had to endure while staying at home to combat the spread of coronavirus? Why is this a one-way street? How about AirBnB hosts provide free housing to anyone who gets evicted for not paying their rent during the pandemic? Does that sound super fair?
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How about AirBnB hosts provide free housing to anyone who gets evicted for not paying their rent during the pandemic? Does that sound super fair?
It does, actually.
If you have more housing that you need for your own use, as evidenced by the fact that you're not using but rather renting it out, then in times of a national emergency it makes at least as much sense that that be put to public use as it makes for police to commandeer private vehicles in emergencies and the like.
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The last two Airbnbâ(TM)s I stayed in (Score:2)
Had jaguar convertibles in the garage. Why in the world would I want to give them more money just to be nice.
Why the fuss? (Score:1)
Dear person who labeled this communism: (Score:1)
Hugs and kisses,
LeeLynx
Brianna Wu and houses (Score:2)
I actually had Brianna in my Minecraft "family" on one server -- five of us, one massive estate. She made her house out of unbaked clay and then complained when Endermen kept stealing bits of it. Rather than changing the building material, she just kept tapping the clay stockpile, which I eventually had to move. It was a nice house though, and she built a minecart line going all the way to the actual family house (me and two cousins).
So yeah, not paying someone else's mortgage sounds about right to me.
Test of the /. bury brigade (Score:2)