Is anybody active in here? I still haven't received any hosting requests through BW :(
Anyone from Genova or surroundings?
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Group: Italy
posted 2012/02/17 12:08 Visibility: World
posted 2012/02/17 13:27 Visibility: World
Hi Fredek,
I'm from Florence and I'm not receiving requests throught his website too.
It happens even though I put a link to BW from my CS profile. Here I'm available to host, but there I don't.
Paolo
posted 2012/02/17 18:10 Visibility: World
<body><p>The same here.<p>I'm an active member in CS community but I haven'r received any request yet.<p>I was thinking the same of you.
posted 2012/02/18 11:04 Visibility: World
Yeah, little sister CS is to large :)
Most people just don't wanna apply for another network.
posted 2012/07/26 21:30 Visibility: World
same here: 2 shitty and one good request on cs (but with no reference to the fact that i'm not using cs), 0 since a year here. I use the spare time to write my thesis and keep hope for the future :D don't give up!
posted 2012/07/27 04:01 Visibility: World
I think there are a few reasons. Firstly, the community isn't that large yet... it's around 1/100th the size of CS according to the stats page. But that is no reason for it to be an inactive community - 20,000 people is still a lot of people. Another reason is that only a small percentage are logging in and contributing regularly (as the stats page suggests).
Why are people not logging in regularly? I think one reason might be that the website doesn't actively encourage participation. I've started another discussion recently where I hope members can brainstorm ways in which we can use the website design to encourage active participation.
Perhaps you have some ideas to contribute?
x
posted 2012/07/27 09:26 Visibility: World
I don't know, but I think the main reason is more the vicious circle between not finding any host/not getting any answer/not getting any requests, thus not logging in(why should you log in if you didn't get any sort of message in the past 8 months? still it might be possible that they can be reactivated by a request!), and maybe not even trying. Some friends of mine were trying to use bw the past six months and didn't manage to do it even once- no answers, changes of mind and so on. This happens, on cs too, and it's normal in a small community.
I don't think the difference with cs lies in encouraging participation, but merely in numbers. People interested in writing on forums, exchanging emails with others they have not yet met, even going to meetings, are (in my opinion, not supported by any data :D) a small minority. Most people I know in cs have never or rarely gone to a meeting, and almost none participated in forums, unless there was some specific question or so. I mean, for most of this you need to be consistently on the net, and not everyone does want that- or even can do that (bw is still really eurocentric- I was the only member in Rwanda, and 1 out of 19 in tanzania-, but in 2/3rd world countries nobody spends more than 2 hours a week on the internet- no way you can follow the discussions!).
At least for me, i participate because i want to host and be hosted, active participation is only annexe. I don't care how the site looks, unless it makes it difficult to use the tools I need- and I find BW way clearer than cs at the moment.
So- nothing personal- but i think changing BW in a more participative way might make it more appealing to a very small percentage of the community, because the reason we came here was not to be a community but to travel/"be traveled"! Once that starts working, we'll get also a more active community :)
posted 2012/07/27 12:25 Visibility: World
just be patient guys... u'll start getting requests sooner or later :)
posted 2012/11/29 10:18 Visibility: World
guys....i'm still waiting......what? a request!!!
that's incredibile for me...i live in venice...normaly 10-12 request by day...and now in BW
two request in 4 months....sob sob....and well...the first BW guest was a disaster....but i don't care about this
but well....how we can increase popularity/availabling hosting in Italy?....WTF i'm in Venice how can happens that
nobody wants to come???
posted 2012/11/29 11:26 Visibility: World
Be patient men.
I've been a member since 2006 - 6.5 years now and still waiting for a request.
posted 2012/11/29 14:44 Visibility: World
Don't loose hope, I got 2 since the last big mistake by cs (and i'm living in middle of nowhere).....it starts to grow maybe! Just keep logging in and make sure your profile is nicely filled, someone is bound to walk through!
Anna
posted 2012/11/29 16:10 Visibility: World
Belìn! I have also recieved only one request on BW ever (and the person never showed up). With changing from CS to BW I have noticed that for keeping the network alive it's more important to travel than to host. Once I used to think the exact opposite, but at that time I was more travelling than hosting :) Participating by waiting for someone to find you is ok when there is already a lot of movement, but when we are still only few I guess we have to lift our butts and go to meet each other. And clearly also that is a lot more difficult with BW than with CS, but I guess we all have our reasons to give BW a try.
Antti
posted 2012/11/29 17:57 Visibility: World
Same here.... Only a couple of requests so far... but i´m also the one to blame... i do not log in as often as I should and probably that doesn´t seem reliable for potential surfers...
Many people, myself included, still have both accounts open (CS and BW) and obviously CS is much bigger and popular! I guess it´ll take some time, patience ;)))
btw, are there any meet up international events happening soon? maybe it´d be a good way of encouraging networking ;))
much love and peace***
ana**
posted 2012/11/29 18:44 Visibility: World
Hi,
I'm living in Catania, for me one request in two months with BW and nothing with CS. But I was living in Maastricht this year and I received I think something like 7 requests with BW and two with CS.
I think that in some countries, BW is much more developed than in Italy. For exemple :
- Catania around 300 000 people, 9 members in BW and 1595 in CS
- Maastricht around 120 000 people, 27 members in BW and 2895 in CS
In my opinion, most of the people don't care about the changes in CS. In some countries people care more than others (for what I know, people in Germany or France for exemple are more sensible to this kind of change). I spoke with Cser in my city and nobody knows nothing about the changes and most of them don't care.
Another thing that I find fucked up with CS, when you look "surfers looking for a host in ..." ; no problem for girls (especially if you are from east Europe, blond with big tits) to find a host (always "3+ invites received"), BUT for mens or couples nothing... I don't know if it's like that just in Italy and hope not. Would like to have you feedback about that.
have a nice end of week,
jean-loup
posted 2012/11/29 22:44 Visibility: World by karo
last edited on 2012/11/29 22:52 by karo
Hey, I'm not Italian but maybe I can answer some questions:)
@ana: for the international events to happen soon for meet ups you may follow the discussion in this thread: http://www.bewelcome.org/forums/s1785-On_groups_and_forums
BW volunteers are already discussing about how to restructure the Forum and make it more appealing to everyone. In the future I hope you'll find all the international happenings you are looking for!;]
@cowboy85: I don't know if my kind of feedback will help to change your personal situation (probably not) but it should be possible to change the perception of the BW community: I recently stumbled over the wiki page that gives advices to female travellers. Every member of BW is allowed to edit in the wiki and even encouraged to add something...From my point of view, I would rewrite the whole page! http://www.bewelcome.org/wiki/Female_travellers
I'm a female myself but when I read all the advices and safety informations, one could think that all males are criminals with a hidden agenda. It might be that this is the case in India (since a volunteer from India gave numerous advices for females...), for sure this is not the case for most of the african, european and north american countries (since I travelled there myself). I'm afraid it will not be of great help for the overall perception of the BW community when this "These are general tips, take them or ignore them as you please. For some they might seem rather conservative, while for others they will increase your feeling of safety." is added. If I had found this page at the time when I joined BW, I'd have my doubts about the whole male member basis.... I think it's clear for everyone who joins a hospex, that members who surf and host each other are always strangers at the beginning. Otherwise if you feel totally uncomfortable with it, you probably opt for a hostel/hotel or b'n'b. So my suggestion: create a wiki page for male travellers only, where you can point out the "hidden agenda" of eastern european blonde girls and the challenges for male travellers to find a host! Collect some ideas from ppl who made similiar experiences and I'm sure there will be a more balanced awareness about the members of this hospex :]
posted 2012/11/29 23:43 Visibility: World
@Cowboy: to find a host being a male is more challenging than for a female, that's more or less a fact, and was a big problem on CS. Every time i traveled with my boyfriend we would get an estimated 100% of answer, 75% positive, if I wrote it, 40% answer and 5% positive if he wrote it. And emergency couch worked awesomly for females, at least until the last time i used it. Till now, I have seen happening less of this in Bewelcome, but i think it will get more as it grows bigger. But talking with friends and travelers, I got the impression that the problem was more widespread in Italy than in northern countries- maybe just because of the wrong people with the wrong conception spreading the word.. As always, i guess it's useless- because obvious?- to remember that there are still a lot of awesome people, also on cs, who love to host anyone and are just great!? And that my boyfriend, traveling alone, always managed to find nice people in the end, and that the guys who hosted me in an emergency have been perfect gentlemans and great hosts?
@karo: Wow, this page is gruesome!!! There is quite some thing to change...I have been traveling a lot and yes, it happens you end up talking with strangers....or even being hosted by them :D And if I can't accept food anymore, I just will end up starving, and can drop the traveling-idea altogether. Wow.
Female-traveling-alone is an issue, but even in the middle east (where it is definitely an issue, if you get 15 welcome messages from males every time you log in), I always felt safe and nobody ever did anything wrong in reach of my ears or eyes to any tourist- more of the opposite, actually, like "oh we'll help you, you are girl and it might be dangerous". Nor did I hear terrible stories from my friends going to india, but who am I to judge. I would be more inclined to change the wiki than to make an equal paranoic one for males :/
posted 2012/11/30 07:02 Visibility: World
Conversation was interesting till Kannemarie and others were spot on about not getting guests through beWelcome before the topic drifted to some other place, I guess.
I'll like to tell that those who are not active on forums, have better chances of staying on any hospex community longer than those who are active on open forums.
There are many reasons for it. Sometimes others can unlike what you wrote and/or unlike your ideas/posts or might even unlike you, and hence can try to get you in a fix and report you and be sarcastic against you, and what not, and ultimately get you kicked out of the community.
Believe me, this has happened to me several times now, and I've seen this happening with some others too. And no one comes to your defense at such point in time, even your supporters leave you.
So, better will be to write request or email to each other, and take it from there, rather than going open about it and in the process get bombarded by hateful people who doesn't like you for whatever reason.
For female travelers, the things Karo mentioned has been written for India mainly, and it has been written under heading India, if it has been written at general places also as general tips then it can be modified. You cannot assume things about some other country when you don't know about it, so it can't be said that whatever has been written for females in India would be wrong.
posted 2012/11/30 10:55 Visibility: World
@unique_indian: this is what I wrote, supposing you know much better about indian males than me;)
I'm a female myself but when I read all the advices and safety informations, one could think that all males are criminals with a hidden agenda. It might be that this is the case in India (since a volunteer from India gave numerous advices for females...), for sure this is not the case for most of the african, european and north american countries (since I travelled there myself)
We could delete all the "problematic" general phrases and only give advices to females for certain regions and countries (like unique did) and get rid of any general assumption about males/females behaviour. Would you agree on that?
posted 2012/12/01 23:28 Visibility: World
Well. Back on topic.
1) If everybody still use CS when they travel because it's considered more reliable (whatever that means), it's normal that nobody gets hosting requests on BW.
We should get used, when we travel, to request on BW to the people who have recent last login. As far as i know it's a lot easier to find a positive answer on BW than CS.
2) To increase BW activity, when i get requests on CS i anwer something like "You can stay at my place but i refuse to give my personal contact on CS, clic here to get it" with a link to my BW profile.
posted 2012/12/02 01:53 Visibility: World
The % of accepted requests is way higher on BW than on CS, so you can spare yourself hours of copy/past requests on CS. Just ask a couple of people personally, and you're off for a ride ;)
posted 2012/12/02 11:31 Visibility: World
Fredek, when we needed a place in Geneva we stayed with a host who was our BeWelcome guest when she was in Brussels. Otherwise I would have probably sent you a BW request :)
posted 2012/12/04 08:35 Visibility: World
Thank you very much, Claudia, for opening a new thread.
If you visit India by any chance next time, and i'm there in India then, I can host you at my family home alongwith your entire family, I love kids and have nephews and niece so they will love to meet your children too.
Even if I am in any other country or place at that point in time, I'll love to host you all.
Cheers!