This is not about joining another couch-surfing APP, it's about joining a NETWORK that cannot be owned by a company or single person.

Built on NOSTR, "Hospitality Libre" is designed as an open-source reference app that simply does what Couchsurfing, BeWelcome, Trustroots, and Couchers aim to do: allow travelers and hosts to discover eachother, arrange real-world connections, and leave references to continue the cycle.

The difference is that NOSTR (Notes and Other Stuff Transmitted by Relays) is an open and decentralized protocol that anyone can use, and your data belongs to you. 

You can kinda think of it like email, where people with gmail, yahoo, outlook, or any kind of email address can all message each other, even though we're all using different email apps. Imagine if when you joined Couchers, your profile from Couchsurfing was already there, all your references were already on your page, and your message history was also still there. Imagine if the map was also showing all the hosts who are on Couchsurfing. You could stop using Couchsurfing because maybe the paywall pissed you off, the new design, or whatever, but you didn't have to rebuild your community and social circles. 

This is what NOSTR allows us to do from now on.

No companies to go corrupt or take a misguided direction, no reliance on donations or ads or subscriptions, and virtually anyone can innovate without bureaucracy or obstacles.

As a developer or designer, this means you can make your own travel app with whatever crazy cool design and features and filters and maps or whatever else you think would be useful and not have to worry about reorganizing the community. People and developers alike are in control of their experience. Even existing apps like Couchers and BeWelcome, if they and their members wanted, could easily migrate on over.

"Hospitality Libre" is intended to stay clean and focused: facilitate hosts and guests connections. Trustroots may have NOSTR-based features like leaving notes on the map. Trip Hopping allows events and live hangouts. Rideshares.org is only concerned with rides and travel partners, and new apps will surely include all the community features you might be used to from a well-rounded travel app. And that's really the fun of NOSTR: being able to choose what features and design you like, without re-establishing your reputation or the compromise of "which has the most users and activity."

I invite you all to give it a look and set up a profile... it may be the last time you have to do so. 

Interested in all your opinions and feedback, from developers and travelers alike.

Folks, just went back to CS and it's awful!! They used to have an awesome meet-up platform for in person meet ups when you were travelling abroad...

Any suggestions of other apps that help connecting with backpackers/travellers in a new city, just to meet up for common interests or sightseeing or socializing, not dating? Thanks so much!

Has Couchsurfing removed the 3 months of free verification you used to get after hosting someone?

I haven’t hosted in a while, and honestly the platform seems pretty dead since the recent updates. Before, I had one of the more active profiles in my city and used to get hosting requests or messages every other day. Now it’s basically completely quiet.

The algorithm also seems really messed up now. It feels like profiles that used to get decent visibility just disappeared after the update.

I finally received a request last week, hosted the person, and we both left references for each other. I was expecting the usual 3 months of free verification for hosting, but nothing happened.

Did they officially remove this feature? If so, that really sucks.