Druid Couch Surfing

[Brianna]

Hi, I have a suggestion. A sub-forum for Druid Couch surfing.

Do you know couch surfing? => http://www.couchsurfing.com

As we have OBODies from all over the world, we could offer each other our couches for travelling OBODies. That would be really cool.

I know a couch in Bavaria in Germany which will be first on the list

[scopulus]

Im in for this!
Belgium, ostend, albeit: need to bring everything along for I got space at the floor and one couch.

[Donata]

Edited because I thought it over and I'm not sure how well it would work, especially if open to everyone on the Board.

Donata

[Lily]

I'm not trusting enough for couch surfers. sorry.

[Brianna]

Hi Lily,

that's the beauty of it. I wasn't either so far with the general www.couchsurfing.com. But with only members from this forum?

that's different. Just imagine the chances you open up for yourself to meet really interesting people and likeminded as well. And also, it's not like they just come by unannounced.

Couchsurfing has rules, and if the admins of this board decide to start a subforum for it, those rules will have to be announced

1. You only give out the city where you live, not your precise address and your contact details (mail). And if somebody is intersted they have to make contact and give you all their details and you decide whether you want them or not. It's always up to you. I'm sure you know some folks in the forum you wouldn't mind meeting

2. You participate by offering a couch. It's a give and take, if you want to make use of it you have to offer your couch as well.

3. In your post you have to write important things for people to know:
- How many spaces are available (for example, one couch for two, space for two more sleeping bags, max. number of people you want to have, including or excluding kids/pets etc)
- Times where it is generally impossible for you to have somebody (for example during the week or in August)
- Rules or restrictions that your guest has to accept (for example non-smoking household, pets in the household, and so on)

4. Couch surfing is always free of charge. As I wrote, it's a give and take.

@Donata: *sigh* you just strongly weakened my resolve not to go to the USA! I would love to meet you! But I really dislike the treatment one gets who wants to enter the country (fingerprints and questionaires... I don't like this total surveillance thing)

[Brianna]

Hi Lily,

that's the beauty of it. I wasn't either so far with the general www.couchsurfing.com. But with only members from this forum?

that's different. Just imagine the chances you open up for yourself to meet really interesting people and likeminded as well. And also, it's not like they just come by unannounced.

Couchsurfing has rules, and if the admins of this board decide to start a subforum for it, those rules will have to be announced

1. You only give out the city where you live, not your precise address and your contact details (mail). And if somebody is intersted they have to make contact and give you all their details and you decide whether you want them or not. It's always up to you. I'm sure you know some folks in the forum you wouldn't mind meeting

2. You participate by offering a couch. It's a give and take, if you want to make use of it you have to offer your couch as well.

3. In your post you have to write important things for people to know:
- How many spaces are available (for example, one couch for two, space for two more sleeping bags, max. number of people you want to have, including or excluding kids/pets etc)
- Times where it is generally impossible for you to have somebody (for example during the week or in August)
- Rules or restrictions that your guest has to accept (for example non-smoking household, pets in the household, and so on)

4. Couch surfing is always free of charge. As I wrote, it's a give and take.

@Donata: *sigh* you just strongly weakened my resolve not to go to the USA! I would love to meet you! But I really dislike the treatment one gets who wants to enter the country (fingerprints and questionaires... I don't like this total surveillance thing)

[Lily]

I dunno, there are 3000 users on this forum. There are proven whackos, and there's nothing that keeps them from registering on this board and pretending to be nice and druidly. No thank you.

[Brianna]

never mind, nobody says everybody has to. It's just for those who want to of course.

I'm looking forward to Selene's and Art's reply whether they want to make a subforum for it

[scopulus]

How about making it for bard/ovate/druid grades only?
After all , it is a nice idea.
I went to the states, fingerprints and so on, is not so badly. Keep smiling and if you pass trough belgium and want to bring chocolate, make sure half your stash is for controlling people. I had a nice guy who told me he didnt see it... gave him half the stash, and he was happy. That was NY... plus my mother loved his looks, said he looked like Richard Gere. Fine by me, as long my uncle who lived 40 years in Canada got the chocolate all was fine to me!


Blessings!

[Brianna]

Great idea scopulus!

[Selene]

Brianna,

I checked with the Office about this and am told there's already a mechanism in place in the Order for potential travelers to make contact with potential hosts...any member can send a note to Penny, the editor of Touchstone, with their travel plans, a request for sofas to sleep on, and contact information, and she will print it in the next monthly issue. Then other members can contact the traveler directly if they can help. They tell me that this has proven to be a very successful means of helping folks have pleasant and affordable trips and meet a lot of wonderful OBOD friends.

The admins have discussed your suggestion and we agree we can't condone the use of the Board for this purpose. Having a Druid Couch Surfing "broker" is a lovely idea but in practice it would be impossible for us to administer or be responsible for. There are too many pitfalls, for the reasons Lily mentions, and several more. And we can't guarantee the kind of electronic privacy that would be required, which is why we always strongly discourage people from posting any kind of private information in any forum, even the members'-only areas. I think you're much better off going through the established channels for making contact like that.

Blessings,
Selene

[Brianna]

Hi Selene,

oh I didn't know. Anyway, now we all know

That's great. So all we have to do is a mail to office@druidry.org, right email?

Thanks for the news

[Selene]

Hi, Brianna,

You can write Penny at touchstone@druidry.org.

Happy travels!

[Alasdair]

Hey - I'm definitely open to trying couchsurfing with any OBODies I just did it for the first time several weeks ago, and had a blast.

Find me on couchsurfing here: I don't have a place currently open, but hopefully will sometime soon.

http://www.couchsurfing.com/profile.html?id=3UDMKOP

BTW I'm generally not one to trust things like this either, Lily. I went with two girls, all 3 times I have couchsurfed so far - and it has turned out great. I'm sure that sometimes there could be weird experiences.. but from what i've heard (from people who have hosted hundreds/thousands of people) almost all of them turn out to be great. I've had people leave their house, and give us their home key for the entire day - very trusting.

[Adryanna]

I don't really know about the whole couchsurfing thing, I hadn't really heard about it. But before there was such a thing as that, I met a lot of really cool people from the net, and I guess I "couchsurfed." When I was travelling a bit, I had quite a few pagan friends who offered me their homes to spend the night in. I was always nervous at first, but most of them turned out to be quite normal. As long as you're smart about it, you're fine. You know, always telling someone (or a few people) the address of where you will be, and any info you have on the person, making sure you are comfortable with the people and arrangements, and most importantly, having the guts to speak up if you feel uncomfortable at any moment. It's better to say something and possibly offend the person than to say nothing and risk your safety. Anywho, that's my rant. Just thought I'd throw in my 2 cents since I've had some experience with this.