6 ms·

Show HN: HackerCouch

162 points by captn3m0 11y ago

s3nnyy 11y ago
I love the implicit filtering mechanism through allowing people to post couches only via pull-request.
- captn3m0 11y ago
  The other option was to have something like a wiki, but that brings its own problems. Plus, I really love using Jekyll. Made perfect sense to just have people fork it and file a PR instead.
  - toyg 11y ago
    What about filtering couch requests? I can see how people might abuse well-intentioned hosts...
    - captn3m0 11y ago
      Its completely upto you to use what identity you want. Just specify a different contact detail/email address if you want it to be that way.
hunvreus 11y ago
I like that, but it could use some CSS love. Will you accept a PR if I clean things up a tad?
- captn3m0 11y ago
  Sure. A friend of mine is working on a redesign (#7), but a bit of CSS love would go a long way. This is just the basic Jekyll theme with a few changes.
dheera 11y ago
This website should really use CouchDB ...
- captn3m0 11y ago
  Any specific reason? Its a simple static website that doesn't really need a database. If it grows to a point where I need filtering, I might think about it. But plain-old HTML is really powerful.
  - Fomite 11y ago
    All back-end infrastructure should reduce to a good pun. This is a known design pattern.
    - captn3m0 11y ago
      Its 6am in the morning here, and that went straight over my sleepyhead.
hitekker 11y ago
Interesting. I've hosted over 40 couchsurfers in Manhattan so I have a few concerns. My largest one is that HackerCouch lacks a reference system so that people "know" who is a good or bad host or guest. Googling every one who messages me, the host, may not yield as much info as I would like, since most folks aren't 1000-twitter-followers, ten-thousand-github-commits, Forbes-interviewed, rockstars (Like Me![1]). Accordingly, HackerCouch needs some faculty to indicate and ensure the trustworthiness of its listings: perhaps like the kinds founds in Couchsurfing.org, BeWelcome or AirBnb. Otherwise, all hosts ought to have and to link their listings to at least one other platforms so guests can see their pictures, reviews, and other metadata, to make an informed decision to stay with someone who is, essentially, a stranger. On this note of having to use another platform: I know I would also have to create a staging email address for managing requests. Having received 400+ requests in 4 months, I can safely say that 1% of people will go to... creepy lengths if they feel like they aren't getting the attention they deserve. Clearly showing off all my contact info is fine on my marketing site, but not fine when I'm offering something up for free that people can take free advantage of. AirBnB and Couchsurfing offer a comforting layer of messaging for the host: allowing me to interact cordially with most potential guests without fear of the crazies. Please note I'm not saying this to discourage you; I would just like this promising idea to avoid the many painful lessons Couchsurfing.org has learned. (... and then ignored.) [1] This is sarcasm. But if we meet in real life, I'll be sure to scream about it with conviction[2]. [2] This is not sarcasm.
- captn3m0 11y ago
  I'm still figuring this out, so thanks for the concerns and suggestions. Reference System: I think I saw a website on reddit recently that let you rate your experience on multiple platforms (Can't seem to find it now). But that doesn't work for everyone. For eg, I don't even have a listing on any other platform. Couchsurfing isn't very big here. I'm sure having the entire revision history in git would be of some help if I build a reference system. I'm open to ideas on how to exactly go about this. Request Management: I could setup some form of email forwarding (How to get your real email over a side-channel might be an issue). Somebody asked me about setting up chat.hackercouch.com for a similar purpose, and I'm open to doing that as well. On a different note, do you have any suggestions on the trademark issues surrounding Couchsurfing? We have an open PR to replace CouchSurfing with Hospitality Exchange and I'd love to hear your thoughts. [0] [0]: https://github.com/captn3m0/hackercouch/pull/4 https://github.com/captn3m0/hackercouch/pull/4
HillaryBriss 11y ago
I know that I am not worthy to surf on anybody's couch. Even my own. Call me an idiot but I don't understand this site. At all. Whom do I contact to get a spot on one of these WiFi enabled couches? Are they available over the New Year's Eve time frame? Can I bring a bag of Doritos? What the hell is this?!
- captn3m0 11y ago
  The idea is this: Hackers like meeting hackers. People have couches they are willing to share. If you are are in both the groups, you add yourself and people send you a request to ask you if you are free.
drewmeyers24 11y ago
I'm one of the co-founders of http:/ww.horizonapp.co - which is hospitality exchange (aka couchsurfing) for groups. Think Peace Corps, Teach for America, Stanford alum, Kiva Fellows...but it could be any existing group/community -- such as members of HackerCouch, or Hacker News even. Unlock code for the "Hacker News" group on Horizon: hn2015#$ I'm happy to create a private unlock code for Hacker Couch if there is any interest. *Note most of our effort thus far has been on iOS version -- the web version is still basic (we're currently working on adding a few pieces of functionality). Recently started development on a native android version.
jacquesm 11y ago
Github as a federated database engine. That's super clever.
- captn3m0 11y ago
  To be fair, I stole the idea from http://remy.mit-license.org/ http://remy.mit-license.org/
  - jacquesm 11y ago
    I love these repurposing hacks. No matter where you stole it, realizing that you could use this mechanism for your problem is imo just as neat as the project itself.
orthoganol 11y ago
I've been waiting for a solution like this specifically for digital nomads. (It's also on my own to-build list so I might punch it out one of these days.) My unsolicited advice: Market it to digital nomads exclusively. I get that it's open sourced, but I don't like that and don't think it makes sense for the nature of the project... I'd prefer someone treating it like a startup and maintaining the product, making a nicer design, growing it, etc.
- captn3m0 11y ago
  One of the main reasons behind the death of Couchsurfing was that they pivoted to a company and became a startup[0]. I, on the other hand, don't want to make money on this. There is also the issue of privacy. Would you be fine giving your travel information to a central third-party? I would like to keep HC to a minimum listing site and let people take conversations to a side-channel instead. [0]: http://kernelmag.dailydot.com/issue-sections/features-issue-sections/13124/life-and-death-couchsurfing/ http://kernelmag.dailydot.com/issue-sections/features-issue-...
  - orthoganol 11y ago
    It's mostly a problem that resolves itself. The digital nomad community is on average made up of professionals who are savvy and financially OK, who are all pretty similar and generally on the same page about things. It doesn't have all the variables of couch surfing, so I don't think you can meaningfully compare the two platforms. If someone manages to find the site, they're probably there for the right reasons. It might be as little as getting it sidebar'd on r/digitalnomad to get the right crowd on it. 100% agree with having conversations off the platform, I don't think it needs to be dramatically different than what you have now.
  - drewmeyers24 11y ago
    The big issue was they essentially changed from non profit to for profit 5+ years into the community. It would have been completely different scenario if the whole community was built with the understanding that there was a commercial aspect to it.
- 11y ago
Danilka 11y ago
Really great idea. There is a long way to go here, but please keep doing this!
jancborchardt 11y ago
Original Hackercouch dude here https://github.com/jancborchardt/hackercouch https://github.com/jancborchardt/hackercouch – thanks for taking my concept and driving it forward! :)
- captn3m0 11y ago
  Hola! Thanks for making it. Did you register hackercouch.com, btw? I just saw your project and checked whois and it was free.

162 points by captn3m0 11y ago

s3nnyy 11y ago

I love the implicit filtering mechanism through allowing people to post couches only via pull-request.

captn3m0 11y ago
The other option was to have something like a wiki, but that brings its own problems. Plus, I really love using Jekyll. Made perfect sense to just have people fork it and file a PR instead.
- toyg 11y ago
  What about filtering couch requests? I can see how people might abuse well-intentioned hosts...
  - captn3m0 11y ago
    Its completely upto you to use what identity you want. Just specify a different contact detail/email address if you want it to be that way.

hunvreus 11y ago

I like that, but it could use some CSS love. Will you accept a PR if I clean things up a tad?

captn3m0 11y ago
Sure. A friend of mine is working on a redesign (#7), but a bit of CSS love would go a long way. This is just the basic Jekyll theme with a few changes.

dheera 11y ago

This website should really use CouchDB ...

captn3m0 11y ago
Any specific reason? Its a simple static website that doesn't really need a database. If it grows to a point where I need filtering, I might think about it. But plain-old HTML is really powerful.
- Fomite 11y ago
  All back-end infrastructure should reduce to a good pun. This is a known design pattern.
  - captn3m0 11y ago
    Its 6am in the morning here, and that went straight over my sleepyhead.

hitekker 11y ago

Interesting. I've hosted over 40 couchsurfers in Manhattan so I have a few concerns. My largest one is that HackerCouch lacks a reference system so that people "know" who is a good or bad host or guest. Googling every one who messages me, the host, may not yield as much info as I would like, since most folks aren't 1000-twitter-followers, ten-thousand-github-commits, Forbes-interviewed, rockstars (Like Me![1]). Accordingly, HackerCouch needs some faculty to indicate and ensure the trustworthiness of its listings: perhaps like the kinds founds in Couchsurfing.org, BeWelcome or AirBnb. Otherwise, all hosts ought to have and to link their listings to at least one other platforms so guests can see their pictures, reviews, and other metadata, to make an informed decision to stay with someone who is, essentially, a stranger. On this note of having to use another platform: I know I would also have to create a staging email address for managing requests. Having received 400+ requests in 4 months, I can safely say that 1% of people will go to... creepy lengths if they feel like they aren't getting the attention they deserve. Clearly showing off all my contact info is fine on my marketing site, but not fine when I'm offering something up for free that people can take free advantage of. AirBnB and Couchsurfing offer a comforting layer of messaging for the host: allowing me to interact cordially with most potential guests without fear of the crazies. Please note I'm not saying this to discourage you; I would just like this promising idea to avoid the many painful lessons Couchsurfing.org has learned. (... and then ignored.) [1] This is sarcasm. But if we meet in real life, I'll be sure to scream about it with conviction[2]. [2] This is not sarcasm.

captn3m0 11y ago
I'm still figuring this out, so thanks for the concerns and suggestions. Reference System: I think I saw a website on reddit recently that let you rate your experience on multiple platforms (Can't seem to find it now). But that doesn't work for everyone. For eg, I don't even have a listing on any other platform. Couchsurfing isn't very big here. I'm sure having the entire revision history in git would be of some help if I build a reference system. I'm open to ideas on how to exactly go about this. Request Management: I could setup some form of email forwarding (How to get your real email over a side-channel might be an issue). Somebody asked me about setting up chat.hackercouch.com for a similar purpose, and I'm open to doing that as well. On a different note, do you have any suggestions on the trademark issues surrounding Couchsurfing? We have an open PR to replace CouchSurfing with Hospitality Exchange and I'd love to hear your thoughts. [0] [0]: https://github.com/captn3m0/hackercouch/pull/4 https://github.com/captn3m0/hackercouch/pull/4

HillaryBriss 11y ago

I know that I am not worthy to surf on anybody's couch. Even my own. Call me an idiot but I don't understand this site. At all. Whom do I contact to get a spot on one of these WiFi enabled couches? Are they available over the New Year's Eve time frame? Can I bring a bag of Doritos? What the hell is this?!

captn3m0 11y ago
The idea is this: Hackers like meeting hackers. People have couches they are willing to share. If you are are in both the groups, you add yourself and people send you a request to ask you if you are free.

drewmeyers24 11y ago

I'm one of the co-founders of http:/ww.horizonapp.co - which is hospitality exchange (aka couchsurfing) for groups. Think Peace Corps, Teach for America, Stanford alum, Kiva Fellows...but it could be any existing group/community -- such as members of HackerCouch, or Hacker News even. Unlock code for the "Hacker News" group on Horizon: hn2015#$ I'm happy to create a private unlock code for Hacker Couch if there is any interest. *Note most of our effort thus far has been on iOS version -- the web version is still basic (we're currently working on adding a few pieces of functionality). Recently started development on a native android version.

jacquesm 11y ago

Github as a federated database engine. That's super clever.

captn3m0 11y ago
To be fair, I stole the idea from http://remy.mit-license.org/ http://remy.mit-license.org/
- jacquesm 11y ago
  I love these repurposing hacks. No matter where you stole it, realizing that you could use this mechanism for your problem is imo just as neat as the project itself.

orthoganol 11y ago

I've been waiting for a solution like this specifically for digital nomads. (It's also on my own to-build list so I might punch it out one of these days.) My unsolicited advice: Market it to digital nomads exclusively. I get that it's open sourced, but I don't like that and don't think it makes sense for the nature of the project... I'd prefer someone treating it like a startup and maintaining the product, making a nicer design, growing it, etc.

captn3m0 11y ago
One of the main reasons behind the death of Couchsurfing was that they pivoted to a company and became a startup[0]. I, on the other hand, don't want to make money on this. There is also the issue of privacy. Would you be fine giving your travel information to a central third-party? I would like to keep HC to a minimum listing site and let people take conversations to a side-channel instead. [0]: http://kernelmag.dailydot.com/issue-sections/features-issue-sections/13124/life-and-death-couchsurfing/ http://kernelmag.dailydot.com/issue-sections/features-issue-...
- orthoganol 11y ago
  It's mostly a problem that resolves itself. The digital nomad community is on average made up of professionals who are savvy and financially OK, who are all pretty similar and generally on the same page about things. It doesn't have all the variables of couch surfing, so I don't think you can meaningfully compare the two platforms. If someone manages to find the site, they're probably there for the right reasons. It might be as little as getting it sidebar'd on r/digitalnomad to get the right crowd on it. 100% agree with having conversations off the platform, I don't think it needs to be dramatically different than what you have now.
- drewmeyers24 11y ago
  The big issue was they essentially changed from non profit to for profit 5+ years into the community. It would have been completely different scenario if the whole community was built with the understanding that there was a commercial aspect to it.
11y ago

Danilka 11y ago

Really great idea. There is a long way to go here, but please keep doing this!

jancborchardt 11y ago

Original Hackercouch dude here https://github.com/jancborchardt/hackercouch https://github.com/jancborchardt/hackercouch – thanks for taking my concept and driving it forward! :)

captn3m0 11y ago
Hola! Thanks for making it. Did you register hackercouch.com, btw? I just saw your project and checked whois and it was free.