Comment Re:Great idea, but probably not good for the ladie (Score 1) 145
My wife and I are extremely active on Couchsurfing: http://www.couchsurfing.com/profile.html?id=3Q8M8P is my profile. My wife's profile has username MOKSHA and is linked from mine. Apart from having hosted a huge number of people, many of them women travelling alone or as a pair, my wife has travelled in India, China and a lot of Europe using Couchsurfing. It's been the source of some of our best experiences travelling, and I can't recommend it enough. In fact, we've just finished hosting two friends from Mumbai who we met whilst Couchsurfing there, and we're hosting an Australian woman travelling alone right now.
At a technical level, the reference system works very well. Beyond that, the idea of Couchsurfing is all about trusting people. I won't deny that there are dangerous people out there, but I am very happy for my wife to travel alone using Couchsurfing; and when we travel together I prefer to use Couchsurfing to meet people who invite us into their homes and let us see the place we're visiting in a way that you never see as just a tourist.
Couchsurfing has a vouching system whereby you can vouch for another person only if you yourself have been vouched for three times. This allows for a reasonably high degree of trust in people who have been vouched for. Also, the system displays the shortest possible path from you to the person's profile that you are viewing. If you know people in the system, you can follow this path to reassure yourself about your prospective host.
I understand that you might instantly feel concerned about the idea. You have no idea how many people say: "What if they're an axe-murderer!". (It's always an axe-murderer for some reason.) My response is this: one day I, or Emily, might meet an axe murderer, but the chance is incredibly small and until then we're going to have the most amazing experiences and meet the most amazing people. The alternative is to not have those experiences, and I'm more than willing to take that tiny risk for the amazing rewards. I know that Emily is the same.
Seriously. Look into the idea and think about it. You don't have to offer your couch, and no-one will force you to travel and stay with people you don't trust; but the more that you use the system, the more you will get out of it. On top of that, if you're ever in the North of England then you've got my profile link right there.
At a technical level, the reference system works very well. Beyond that, the idea of Couchsurfing is all about trusting people. I won't deny that there are dangerous people out there, but I am very happy for my wife to travel alone using Couchsurfing; and when we travel together I prefer to use Couchsurfing to meet people who invite us into their homes and let us see the place we're visiting in a way that you never see as just a tourist.
Couchsurfing has a vouching system whereby you can vouch for another person only if you yourself have been vouched for three times. This allows for a reasonably high degree of trust in people who have been vouched for. Also, the system displays the shortest possible path from you to the person's profile that you are viewing. If you know people in the system, you can follow this path to reassure yourself about your prospective host.
I understand that you might instantly feel concerned about the idea. You have no idea how many people say: "What if they're an axe-murderer!". (It's always an axe-murderer for some reason.) My response is this: one day I, or Emily, might meet an axe murderer, but the chance is incredibly small and until then we're going to have the most amazing experiences and meet the most amazing people. The alternative is to not have those experiences, and I'm more than willing to take that tiny risk for the amazing rewards. I know that Emily is the same.
Seriously. Look into the idea and think about it. You don't have to offer your couch, and no-one will force you to travel and stay with people you don't trust; but the more that you use the system, the more you will get out of it. On top of that, if you're ever in the North of England then you've got my profile link right there.
