creep out factor
6 out of 26 guests have left _42 creeped out (23%, or a bit over one out of five). we may have underestimated the importance of a couch description. our couch is significantly better than the two previous ones. we also chose a more artistic description, because we are working actively on design and engineering projects all the time.
the problem, it seems, is the same old problem about people. people describe themselves as what they want to be, not as what they are. close minded people will invariably say they are open minded. racist people will say they “love multiculturalism”. intolerant people will rave about how tolerant they are. to quote bukowski,
and the best at murder are those who preach against it
and the best at hate are those who preach love
and the best at war finally are those who preach peace
those who preach god, need god
those who preach peace do not have peace
those who preach peace do not have love
full quote here, ironically the second post on the e8 blog.
the real honesty comes from acknowledging our own hypocrisy and fragility. to know that we are all fuckups in a way or another. this is an instinctive natural behavior very common in travelers, since they are very dependent on others. but that is disappearing from cs too.
the problem here is that couchsurfing is slowly changing. the average social class of our guests has been going up (again, maybe due to a more “clean” description). with it, the disgust faces, the awkward moments, and the people leaving when we are not there.
so we changed the description again, to something scary, like it was with SPCC and e8. this means we will be biasing our data heavily, but that also means we won’t have to put up with arrogance and narrow-mindedness veiled as fragility or generosity.
we are a bit tired of guests saying they are leaving because they are sick when they are disgusted. that they are leaving because they found a friend when they just don’t want to make friends. that they are leaving to make room for others, when what they need is more space for themselves.
once we get to minds (i know, i’ve been saying this a lot), it should become clear how this happens so much. for now, let’s just hope being scary brings us less awkwardness.