Honour Charge for CouchSearch Emails

Outline

I've been a member of CS for about 3 months and I'v hosted close to 20 people. I've started asking them recently if they think this would work, and the response has been positive so far.

My proposal is to introduce a 1 US dollar charge for every CouchSearch email sent. That's the core of my proposal.

• It means people only pay when they're surfing (thus saving on accomodation) not hosting.
• Regular correspondence emails not related to actually surfing are still free.
• I think the system should be honour based, so a couple of options would be:
  • People buy credits in advance, but could send a regular email instead of a CouchSearch email.
  • You accumulate a bill but are never forced to pay it. Perhaps a few gentle reminders, but nobodys account would ever be suspended.
• The advantage of the first option is that the host would know if the surfer had paid for the email or not.

Advantages

I think the proposal has a some significant advantages:

• It generates much needed revenue to pay for the operation costs of CS.
• Members who aren't able to pay don't have to, nobody is excluded.
• It makes people think before sending multiple couch request emails at once. As somebody who hosts a lot and has not had a chance to surf yet, I feel it's polite to email one host at a time and wait at least 24 hours for a response before trying the next host.
• People are only asked to pay when they're getting something of real, tangible, financial value from the site.
• If the host can see if the surfer paid for the request it creates a bit more reliability (similar to having a full profile). We could implement a feature that only allows requests from people paying for requests (similar to the "only accept requests from full profiles feature). This would be an optional choice for the host of course. This could help filter out freeloaders and people who are not serious. And if you can afford to get to destination X you can surely afford $1 to send the mail.

Can you see any other great advantages you'd like to add? Don't be shy... :)

Disadvantages

There are some potential disadvantages to the proposal:

• Many poeple do not respond to emails. It is sometimes necessary to send many emails to find a couch in some cities, potentially making this very expensive.
• People may feel excluded. This could be somewhat countered by making it clear it's a system for those who can afford to pay. (A dollar is very much for some people, but nothing to others.)
• It may be technically challenging and costly to implement. More information from the developers is required here.
• The whole Mission of CouchSurfing is about networking people. So communication should be free!
• CS is not an alternative to hostels or hotels. For many people CS is about other values than the financial value.
• CS "trusts" references, friends and communication not money.
• It's possible to donate right now, noone cares if it's because of X successful searches, an annual fee or simple support to CS.
• The difference between "normal" email and couchrequest gets lost, if the decision is not made by content, but by the choice paying or not.

Does this idea have an obviously giant, gaping hole? What is it, pop it on the list... :)

Ideas

Couple of suggestions:

• What about making it much cheaper, like $1 for 10 emails, or minimum of $5 for 50 emails?
• Could people who have donated in the last 12 months have their donations turned into credits?

Supporters

If you'd like to add your name to support this proposal, please add it to the list below along with a link to your CS profile plus any reasons.

• Callum I wrote the proposal, of course I support it! :)
• TheJDMBA I (Ryan) support the proposal subject to my discussion comments below, principally based on the fact that the system needs to be finananced *somehow*, but believe that it should be optional so as to not exclude or make access contingent on financial means.

Opposers

If you'd like to oppose the proposal, please add your name and your reason as above.

• See discussion :) Guaka^TalkCS 13:04, 24 October 2006 (EDT)
• See discussion :) Midsch^TalkCS 19:29, 24 October 2006 (EDT)
• It would not be in the CS - spirit --bontour 06:44, 31 December 2006 (EST)

Discussion

Guaka--The whole Mission of CouchSurfing is about networking people. Communication should be free (and not just on CS, any communication, I'm all for free wireless networks, and hence free VoIP phone calls).
I wouldn't even have signed up if I had to pay for anything. And I'm pretty sure that many other people wouldn't have.
Still, good that you brought this up: we could make it optional. People might choose to pay some amount per CouchSearch sent out. Or rather, maybe, for a successful CouchSurf? Guaka^TalkCS 13:04, 24 October 2006 (EDT)

Midsch--The main point is mentioned by Guaka but I have to repeat it: The whole Mission of CouchSurfing is about networking people. Everyone should give what he/she can and wants to give. But this is NOT a matter of money, CouchSurfing is NOT another clever business idea. In my short time at CouchSurfing I already had a lot of fun/experiences/discussions/drinks/... and in a way I'm convinced that moneyregulated transactions would be the begin of the end to it. (I know CouchSurfing needs money for servers, traffic etc. So feel free to donate - like I did and will do - but don't ask for cash for my emails/requests.) Midsch^TalkCS 19:29, 24 October 2006 (EDT)

chmac--I agree with your point about the mission of CouchSurfing, and I understand your point about it being free. I have a different view. I don't believe you can have a free lunch. The CS Servers cost money, the CS development costs money. Without enough money, or with too many users and not enough money, the system will simply collapse. I think it's clear that things are not working right now. So what about reducing the amount to say $1 for every 10 emails, you pay $5 and you can send 50 CouchSearch emails. With 100'000 members that would stil generate a lot of much needed cash. In short, there's no such thing as a free lunch and if we don't fix the problems that need money, members will start leaving to move to other projects.

chmac^TalkCS 10:58, 25 October 2006 (GMT+7)

Guaka -- Well, I think people will averagely give much more if they are free to give whatever they want! It's more important to get yearly contributions from users, and grant organizations! Did you sign up at Givemeaning already? :) Guaka^TalkCS 04:21, 25 October 2006 (EDT)

TheJDMBA -- I generally agree with chmac. As noble the idea of a completely free system is (on the revenue side) it is not sustainable when there are ongoing expenses. I think we have to be careful not to cause persons lacking financial means to feel marginalized, but I also think that those who contribute financially to the system should be honoured for their contributions that they make to other person's lives. Remember, they are giving up something else or the chance to 'free ride'. I would not even be opposed to a salary being paid to a board of directors in order to attract persons willing to incur the opportunity cost of other endeavours to contriubte to this project. A mistake often made by persons with noble gratuitous intentions is to ignore the costs of delivering something for free - while this can be done in the short term, it is unsustainable in the long term. The cost of not attracting sufficeint financial resources is that the project could die - surely the costs of promoting financial contributions (maybe even requiring them), which includes excluding some persons, is outweighed by the risk of the entire project dying, which excludes everyone. That said, we need to quantify this risk before we can say 'we need to attract more financial resources' - is the risk real? One way to do this would be to make public some sort of budget, even if rudimentary, and a list of the needs of the system (financial and in kind). It would be even better if the table could project at the current rate of donations how many days that system has left to live. I think that bringing the financial concerns more to the forefront would promote donations.

Guaka- why do you think that people will give more if they are free to give what they want -why would we have taxes then? - this seems to defy basic economic efficiency. I agree that a good way to incentivize donations would be to bring the need to the attention of those seeking or obtaining a place to surf, rather than the people who host (who in their own way are already giving much to the community). This is one way that persons who can't host for whatever reason can give back to the community. Remember, money is just a fungible expression of other consumption and investmet choices, just as is having your own place for people to crash (versus flatsharing or going to school for a period of time) or working long hours to have lots of money or living in the centre of a popular city. For some cities, I think that 10 emails per day is not unnreasonable. I know many travellers to London who have emailed over 50 people before successfulyl finding a place. $50 would be very expensive if it were $1 per surf. My preference would be a requested donation per SUCCESSFUL surf. Some recommended donations would even be helpful - there is no reason someone earning $20,000 per year who has the time to go on vacation couldn't donate $5 after surfing for a few days in their travels - EXCEPT the prospect of others in better financial position free riding on their donation (I would happily donate $20 per surfing experience when I actually begin surfing, but only if I knew others were doing likewise!).

A disorganized catalogue of ideas:

1. Some sort of 'surfing tracking' scheme where you could log where you have confirmed a place to stay, and the dates, and then the system can send you a note at the end of the date with a request for donations (if you are able) and point you to evidence of why the community 'needs' these donations. While it shouldn't be too tacky it might be worthwhile to prompt the person to reflect on the ethics of them donating to the service they used on moral and pragmatic (e.g. how much you saved on hotel) terms.
2. A donation wall of fame. I think that ratings giving recognition will incentivize some persons to donate while not having too much a cost of marginalizing those who can't afford it.
3. Links on the home page pointing to why the system needs money and what it is being used for or will be used for. Graphcs / charts would be good. Some sort of even rough budgeting would facilitate transparency.
4. Emphasis on the means-based nature of donations indicating that there is no 'punishment' for people who can't afford to donate
5. Fundraising events? Londoners like to drink and party. A costume party could work. Some liability issues here, re who is in charge, their responsibility for appropriation of funds, tax issues, insurance...
6. Give users the option to voluntarily make their donation activity public - could be listed as aggregate and/or average per surfing. This way you wouldn't be marginalizing those who truly can't afford to pay, but would give others a chance to see one way in which certain users contribute to the community (i naddition to other ways, e.g. hosting experience). TheJDMBA^TalkCS 16:15, 18 December 2006 (GMT)

TheJDMBA: I have no clue what the freggin box above is comingn from :)

I do ... (blanks at the beginning of a new line :) ... Beside the designing tricks: I disagree, more or less completely. Call me an anarchist or dreamer, but I think the whole idea of money is wrong. CS won't change that in general but at least it's a place where not everything is calculated in money. Of course we need money for servers, traffic, collectives and so on. But I still believe this can be done by donations as well. Ok, I wouldn't mind a page where everyone can show off with how much, when, where and why he/she has donated, this may give other people ideas (but as soon as the amb-flag isn't effected by that anymore I will set my donations-flag to "hide"). Fundraising events? Why not, call it as you like, if there is money left from the - just in planning - summer party in Hamburg, I guess the Hamburgmob will be happy to give that away to CS in general. And because we just do it as private event, we won't get a maximum benefit, but otherwise there is not much to think about tax issues. Let's make only a hundered bugs there and besides the fun people may have another hundred successful couchsurfers must not be annoyed with charging suggestions. Ah, talking about tax - do you really think this is a concept worth to be transfered to CS? midsch^CS 13:42, 18 December 2006 (EST)

Grant applications

Nobody has delved into grant applications. This is a much better way to get money. Guaka^TalkCS 18:04, 18 December 2006 (EST)