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Tag Archive for 'Nelson'

CouchSurfing Disappointments

Today I’m reminded of my time in Nelson, New Zealand. I went there, at my own expense, to volunteer for CouchSurfing. When I arrived, I found a job that was urgent. The servers badly needed upgraded, they were very out of date. I researched the situation, investigated a solution, figured out how to do what was required. Then I needed some information from Casey Fenton. I met with Joe and Casey and Casey agreed to pass the information to Joe the following day.

My work was dependent on this information. The information never came. To the best of my knowledge, this information was never given to Joe. My time was wasted.

Unfortunately, I feel this summarises the CouchSurfing “Visionary Leader”. Casey is a great talker, a very friendly guy. When speaking with him you feel like you’re genuinely connecting. However, beyond that connection, in my view, there is no substance. I think Casey is a politician, he tells you what he thinks you want to hear, then he does whatever he was going to do anyway.

It saddens me that CouchSurfing has so many great users and yet such a poor organisational structure. I hope networks like BeWelcome and CrashAtMine will lead to better things.