Bewelcome won't get any better

With the recent implosion of Couchsurfing, people are flocking over to bewelcome and trusted roots in great numbers.

Trusted Roots is pretty bare-bones in terms of user-to-user communication. They have a private messaging system, and they have a meat system that leaves much to be desired. But TR could possibly be focusing more on hosts and guests rather than Meats, but everything about it is pretty basic. Except for the map. Their map is actually very exceptional.

Bewelcome has a lot of obvious potential to replace couch surfing in terms of popularity and usage, but unfortunately it won't. The main reason I've observed is that it's run by an older generation that isn't willing to shake on its Traditional Values for a younger Generations concerns. And my personal experience, I've made a suggestion and a group that were both rejected. I suggested a blocking feature, because with the growth of a user use usage, it's important for people to have agency over who can and cannot contact them or see their content. I also went out of my way to explain that I was having an issue with an active user, who was passive-aggressively harassing me which isn't really a cause to report them to the safety team, but certainly a blockable offense.

It was effectively shouted down by three people who all had something in common: they were all above 50, they were all varying degrees of white given they were all from a different location, they were all men, and they all had some sort of say on the volunteer Team be it development and programming, safety or otherwise. No users my age, or in the similar cultural structure had any say on the decision.

The group that got rejected was an online meetups group, to make online me that's easier to find and promote online events, due to a lot of people not moving around much to covid-19. The group has rejected, and even though the news was delivered by a woman who is closer to my age, and arguably a person of color although I'm not sure where Croatia is considered on that scale, the decision was made mostly by the same group of old white men. 

Obviously, bewelcome will not fail, but the harsh refusal to adapt definitely keep it where it is. People will definitely come in, look around, give it a try, and then go back to Couchsurfing. With Couchsurfing's long history of outright ignoring user input, they definitely deserve to be replaced on the hospitality exchange hierarchy, but bewelcome isn't going to be able to be that replacement for outright rejecting user input.

It would be helpful to be welcome to release official statement on how much they're willing to expand, and how much they're willing to grow, so people will know what to expect and where they stand in the community. Anyone can say they're open to ideas, but I have yet to see it in practice. Anyone can say they're open to the community expanding, but when you shut down the community's ideas, you're not open it in practice.

And I totally done with be welcome? No, I can criticize something without being totally done with it. I'm also not totally done with Couchsurfing, unless they're totally done with me. Even though they definitely deserve to be totally done as far as everyone is concerned. But the internet is a big place, and there's always a different platform around the corner, so we'll see what the future holds.