Australian CS Newsletter February 2008
The CouchSurfing Wiki, an informal workspace which anyone can edit.
Australian CS Newletter Archive
February 2008
The idea of this newsletter is to provide, hopefully, a one-stop-shop of anything that you might be interested in that is happening within CouchSurfing in general and within Australia in particular.
It is understandable that some folks are traveling and MOST folks don't have time to subscribe to the CS Groups or to read of new developments so we attempt to keep you informed on a monthly basis and, as always, please feel free to contribute yourselves by contacting leimondo
Australian News
In the last month 652 new Aussie CSers have joined up -
This now brings the number of Aussie CouchSurfers to 13,124
- Melbourne 2,981 22.7%
- Sydney 2,623 20.0%
- Brisbane 1,351 10.3%
- Perth 1,073 8.2%
- Adelaide 628 4.8%
- Canberra 333 2.5%
- Gold Coast 241 1.8%
- Newcastle 192 1.5%
- Hobart 179 1.4%
and other members from 987 towns across the country.
Australian Couchsurfing Org News.
Behind the scenes of Couchsurfing Org is a strong team of dedicated volunteers who do their best to ensure that the software works, the web page works and the whole structure of CouchSurfing runs smoothly.
Some of you will already be familiar with the Couch Surfing greeters. Most of the Australian greeters are also City Ambassadors.
The Australian CouchSurfing Org works closely together to promote CouchSurfing in Australia and ensure that you, as Surfers or Hosts are as best informed and have the best CS representation possible.
Please feel free to approach any Australian Ambassador if you have a question regarding CouchSurfing and we will do what we can to either answer it ourselves or find the relevent CS Team Leader to do so.
Aussie CS Safety
The Australian CS Ambassadors have developed the Australian CS Safety page. Please make some time to read it.
There have been recent reports of an CouchSurfing host acting in a manner that is a little disturbing. Some of the young men who surfed with him have left negative references inferring sexual inappropriateness whilst others have not left a reference for possible fear of a retaliatory reference being given. It is vital for the ongoing security of CouchSurfers that any untoward actions (sexual or otherwise) be reported to the Contact Us Team however they can only be reported firsthand - an Ambassador can't do it for you - so if you, or any of your CS friends find themselves in an awkward or compromised position we encourage you to please report it to the CUQ Team so that they can act swiftly to ensure it doesn't happen to anyone else. One thing to remember here, though, is that it is possible through vindictiveness to leave a negative reference for any CS Member and from time to time this happens so ... once again the Contact Team is there to make all the necessary enquiries in order to determine the facts of the matter... at all times apply due caution when CouchSurfing and approach those with negative references more carefully!
Get-togethers and Meetups
From time to time you will see notices in your City/Region Groups of planned Get-togethers that are being organised by either your local Ambassador or another enthusiastic member. Please keep in mind that if you can't make one of these events there is usually another one being planned in the pipeline. Just keep and eye out in your City/Region Groups or you can always follow them using the Meetings Tool (use this tool also when you are travelling to see events planned for where you might be heading)
As most Australian CSers live in the city and most are in their 20's the general idea of Get-togethers is to be the most accessable to the most members.
This usually means a BBQ somewhere picturesque where members can arrive without having to RSVP and are able to bring their own to suit their specific needs. Outside of these get togethers please feel free to use the CouchSerch tool to find other members in your own areas and invite them to a spontaneous get-together. It is all about giving each other the opportunity to meet and to exchange experiences of hosting or travelling. The Groups and the Meeting Tool are there to provide a central place for meetup details - go ahead and use them.
In the meantime the Ambassador led meetups within each City/Region will be there providing you with an opportunity to ask your local Ambassadors any specific Australian CS questions you have and to possibly discuss any improvements to CS Australia you would like to see.
At this point a BIG Thankyou to all those members out there who organised or attended a CS event, whether they be big or small. There were graffiti tours, BBQ's, Jazz occasions, dinners, movies, new years parties, birthday parties and farewells. Just by the effort of getting together with other Aussie CSers CouchSurfing in Australia grows stronger and the opportunities for new friendships increase with the exchange of ideas and experiences bringing us all closer to enjoying this incredible life we have.
Aussie Wiki pages
Other CS Wiki page developments in the last month have been to the Australia page and to the Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane pages. Over the coming months there will be further developments of the other City pages. Keep an eye out in your own city groups for Wiki workshops!
Australian Groups
When you first join Couchsurfing you are encouraged to join your local Group. The primary reason for this is so that you come to know that there are other Surfers and Hosts like yourself in you own City or Region. By being able to meet them casually at get-togethers you then have the opportunity to learn from each other and, if you choose, to get to know each other to a point where you might develop a CS Friendship and give each other a CS Reference.
Have a look at your own group list and if you aren't a member of your local City group consider joining it, so that you can be invited to any CS events or meetings being held. Keep in mind that you can always Search for other groups and Edit your Group Communications as well.
Australian CouchSurfing Zone news
Did you know that Australia now leads the world in CouchSurfing Zones. Presently there are six around the world (two in Australia !!) with another six proposed in the next month and three more Aussie ones in the pipework.
News in January was the opening of the Perth CouchSurfing Zone.
There are positive discussions happening around the country on setting up more Zones. As they are set up we will keep you posted. It is hoped that very shortly you will be able to search for CouchSurfing Zones in the countries you are visiting using the CouchSearch tool.
The other CouchSurfing Zone is on the South Coast of NSW at Tuross Head
What is the current Status of your Couch?
As you know you can edit the status of your couch from Available to Coffee to Travelling and to Not Available.
Did you know that if you have your Couch unavailable the "request to Couchsurf with" button is removed?
So as not to be pestered with CouchSurfing request whilst you are Travelling or presently unable to Host make sure the Status of your Couch is what you want it to be. It will solve a lot of unwanted emails. Just on that did you know that for every "CouchSurf Request" you don't answer it decreases you Replied to % percentage.. so easy peasy, if your couch isn't available change the icon !!
Adios to Aussie CS members who didn't log in in the last six months
Over the last month Australia has lost 38 or so CS members who have not logged in to CS in the last 180 days. The process is that these members receive an email from CS and should they fail to log in as advised their profiles are frozen and can't be seen by other members. The profile will however be unfrozen when they next log in so fear not for the profile info.
Remember to log into CouchSurfing periodically (there are always new things being developed so at the least read the main menus after you log in)
If you are concerned check your current setting of Edit My Profile>>Privacy>> Disable All Emails?
Think clearly about your answer to the question as it is a double negative:
"Should we send you any emails at all? If you say Yes, CS will not send you any emails, including messages from other members. You will then have to read all emails via your CS inbox rather than your indicated outside email address (such as Gmail, Yahoo etc.)
If you select No, you will receive email messages at your private external email address that you provided in Edit My Profile>>General>>Email Address?
News from around the Australian States
The following news is bought to you by your State/City Ambassadores giving you an idea of upcoming projects or major events.
- - Australia Wide
- Rural CouchSurfing is currently being proposed
- The Australia CS Wiki was masterfully reworked in January by Rah_Rah
- California Mark has been temporarily appointed our Global CS Ambassador
- - Qld
- Brisbane is about to hold its fourth CS meeting - Cairns has just held its first CS meeting - and Townsville is just organising its first. - There is a CS Meeting and Camping Extravanganza to be held at Marburg on the weekend of 23/24th Feb. - The Townsville Bulletin is looking to do a story on CS.
- - NSW
- Sydney CS news.
It's been a busy month on the social scene in Sydney with locals and visitors alike meeting regularly to enjoy the Sydney Festival. From opening night dancing in Martin Place, to chilling out to the sounds of Jazz in the Domain. A group got together to relive the good old days, watching Grease at Moonlight Cinema while we also gathered to celebrate Australia Day while farewelling Adam at the same time before he heads to Sweden. Meanwhile, Lynette is going strong with her 30+ Group and there are still ongoing discussions regarding a Sydney Couchzone as well as the creation of a Sydney Foodies group following the success of similar initiatives in other Aussie and International cities.
- Regional NSW News.
Right across NSW this last month there has been a determination to ensure all NSW CSers outside of Sydney are included in their own regional Groups. By being a memebr of the Regional groups there is a readily available crew of local CSers that you can contact to discuss hosting or Surfing, either one to one or maybe as a local get together.
- Wollongong members now have their own Group - Wollongong CS Wiki is about to be revamped (if you are interested in contributing please contact Leimondo
- Newcastle members now have their own Group - Newcastle CS Wiki is about to be revamped (if you are interested in contributing please contact Leimondo
- North Coast NSW members now have their own Group and and will have their own wiki in the coming months.
- Inland NSW members now have their own Group and will have their own wiki in the coming months.
- The South Coast NSW Group is going strong and there has been great feedback on the South Coast Wiki page used by CSers as well as general travellers.
- - ACT
- The Canberra Wiki page is scheduled to be revamped in Feb - Canberra is presently lobbying for a new City Ambassador to accompany Alice. - Discussions for a Couch Zone are underway - Two very sucessful social CS get-togethers were held by the Canberra Groupin January
- - Vic
- - Tas
- The Tasmanian Ambassador has bought together the Tasmanian members into a Tassie Social group and is looking forward to seeing the enthusiastic members of the State come together at the various get-togethers she and some other keen Tassie CSers have planned.
- - SA
- SA is to press for at least three Ambassadors, hopefully to bring together the SA Groups and develop a SA Wiki (if you are interested contact Peel or Leimondo) - the 352 current Adelaide CSers have been joined to the Adelaide Group and it is hoped that this will bring new opportunities fro Adelaide CSers to meet each other and organise CS Meetups, events and maybe even a CouchSurfing Zone.
- - WA
- Discussions are underway regarding the Archiving the Perth Couchsurfers Social Club
- the Perth CS Zone is now happily having its fortnightly get-togethers - go down to the Brass Monkey and meet some of the CS crew
- The BIg OZ day was a great sucess - watch the Perth Group for the next Event...
- fancy a Farm party and Rodeo?
- - NT
- The Northern Territory is moving ahead with two active groups coming on line. The first is Alice Springs and the second is Darwin - plans to promote CS In the Territory should see a good groundswell, especially with the development of The Alice Springs CS wiki and the Darwin Wiki pages currently under construction. Anyone who would like to help out on the Darwin pages is asked to contact the NT Ambassador Steven Pearce.
International CouchSurfing News
The CS Leadership Team are happily working away in Thailand Read more here and here and if you missed it read The latest newsletter
The Couch Surfing song was released to Youtube (by the way... the images in ths video are of CS Ambassadors and they all gave their consent to have their images shown under Terms Of Use section5)
Recently an Item on CouchSurfing went to world famous (and highly regarded) Deutsche Welle Television. It is an interesting piece and can be seen at this link. It requires Flash to play and a little patience as it loads.
Tips and hints for better CouchSurfing
This Months DID YOU KNOW?
When i am looking for a Couch what order are the results shown in?
When you search for a couch the order of profiles that come up are based on the following algorithm... If you find that you aren't getting many Couch Requests you might like to have a closer look at what the system is looking for...
Here is the current version of the algorithm:
The sort order priority value is the sum of 9 contributions:
- picture: (yes => 1, no => 0) * 2
- vouches: ( > 9 => 3, > 2 => 2, > 0 => 1) * 2
- references: ( > 15 => 3, > 7 => 2, > 2 => 1) * 2
- verification level: ( > 2 => 3, == 2 => 2) * 2
- couch available: ('D' => 3, 'Y' or 'M' => 2, 'C' or 'CM' => 1) * 3
- surf requests: ( < 3 => 3, < 8 => 2, < 16 => 1) * 3
- % email replies to requests: ( == -1 (no requests) => 3, >= 90% => 3, >= 75% => 2, >= 50% => 1) * 3
- last login: ( <= 3 days => 3, <= 7 => 2, <= 14 => 1, <= 30 => 0, <= 60 => -1, <= 120 => -2, > 120 => -3) * 3
- If 'couch available' = 0 * 3, '% email replies' and 'surf requests' are set to minimum(1, initial value) * 3
- If 'couch available' = 1 * 3, '% email replies' and 'surf requests' are set to minimum(2, initial value) * 3
Maximum sort order priority total = 62
For more tips and hints to improve your profile or your experience of Couchsurfing go to: Australian Tips Hints and links to better CouchSurfing
Other Helpful Links at a Glance
Other CS areas that might interest:
- A new overview of Couchsurfing has been provided called the Cheat Sheet
- Meetings Notice Board
- Find a group to Join
- Find your closest CS Ambassador
- Frequently Asked Questions
