Australian CS Newsletter March 2008
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Australian CS Newletter Archive
March 2008
Welcome to the Australian CS Newsletter (often monthly but sometimes bi-monthly).
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.
As always, please feel free to contribute yourselves by contacting leimondo
Breaking News
A message from the Leadership Team regarding the present site developments and interuptions.
"The site is still under heavy load. I am going to turn off a couple things temporarily to lower this load. The things I will turn off now are:
1. How do you know this person list on each person's profile.
2. List of my groups on the home.html page
3. Nearby travelers has been turned off until the geo database is stable and also the couchsearch radius has been disabled for the same reason. Both of these were causing undo strain on the system and as soon as the bugs are all worked out in the data base we will have these two features back at our disposal.
There could be other things we have to disable too temporarily and I will let you know if/when we have to do this. We are currently putting a lot of time and attention into scaling and databases in general to ensure that as CS grows, we will be able to handle the load.
Also, the Sysadmin team deployed five new web servers with a combined total of around40 processors and 90 Ghz! We're all set in that department for some time.
Thanks! (Casey and Donna)"
It has been a difficult last month and we hope you weren't too inconvienienced by the shutdown, by the periodic interuptions and by the slowness at times. Things are very much improving.
News on Group Posts
Our Member Safety & Disputes Team now have the ability to delete group posts if required.
They can delete a post in response to: - User request (for example, someone putting their phone number in a post and then realizing they didn't want their number being published for everyone to see) - Duplicate posts (if someone posted twice and wants one removed) - Safety reasons - Spam
Now the team can see a list of all deleted posts, who deleted them, and why - all in one spot to make it easy for them to keep track of what actions have been taken and evaluate those actions.
If you have a post you want deleted then contact the CUQ Team
Australian News
In the last month 724 new Aussie CSers have joined up -
This now brings the number of Aussie CouchSurfers to 13,762 from 1002 towns across the country.
- Melbourne 3,159 23.0%
- Sydney 2,757 20.0%
- Brisbane 1,409 10.2%
- Perth 1,126 8.2%
- Adelaide 657 4.8%
- Canberra 346 2.5%
- Gold Coast 253 1.8%
- Newcastle 200 1.5%
- Hobart 199 1.4%
- Cairns 107 0.8%
etc..
Australian Couchsurfing Org News.
This month has been a busy month for Ambassadors in the background. With periodic shutdowns it has been a little more difficult to send out Greetings to the new members and to communicate event and meetup happenings ... but it has been achieved and, in the end, a fun month was had by all. Thanks to everyone for their patience.
For any new members to CS there is an Australian CS Organisation wiki page that will keep you more informed of who your Ambassadors are and what they are doing for you.
Aussie CS Safety
No news this month on Safety. For any new members there is an Australian CS Safety Wiki with lots of good tips, links and advice.
Australian Groups
The latest news on Australian Groups is that we have been doing some housekeeping. To make life a little easier for travelling CSers new to Australia we have now established State groups that then have the City groups underneath as sub groups.
While this is happening please don't create any subgroups without emailing the group moderator first.
How does this affect you? Not in the slightest. Your groups in you Group Lists remain exactly as they are. The benefit though is that if you are travelling interstate and want to see all the groups for that state/region or city you will be able to find them with a lot more ease.
As part of the housekeeping we have decided to archive some of the groups which were duplicates of others. An example is two different Melbourne groups along with the Aussie Aussie Oi Oi group which duplicated the Australia group. Though archived these groups and their content will always remain for future reference.
Australian CouchSurfing Zone news
No CouchZone news this month. Things are happening in the CouchZone development area and we will keep you posted as soon as they come on line !!! All very exciting. In the meantime, if you live somewhere where there is the opportunity for a CS crew to get together regularly for a coffee or a chat why not think about it as a CouchZone. For more info read this
Your Australian CZs are Perth CouchSurfing Zone and at Tuross Head
Australian Rural CouchSurfing news
In the last newsletter we told you about the intitive to promote Couch Surfing into the Rural areas of Australia. A proposal has been sent up the line to the leadership team for them to consider. It is still early days. If you would like to participate in discussion of how to best attract travellers to see the uniqueness of our stunning countryside a Rural CouchSurfing discuusion Group has been set up if you would like to join.
In case you missed it last time the proposal can be found here.
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 19 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)
News from around the Australian States
The following news is brought to you by your State/City Ambassadors giving you an idea of upcoming projects or major events.
- - Australia Wide
The Townsville Bulletin has run a story on CouchSurfing. read the article here
An important note to anyone wishing to promote CouchSurfing in their own communities. Media engagement requires sensitive tactfulness and shouldn't be attempted single handed without any experience or information. This information can be gained by reading the media faq and press wiki. For further help on this please contact the Australian Country Ambassador
- The Australia CS Wiki was masterfully reworked in January by Rah_Rah and continues to be tweaked. Go an have a look at it to see how your city/region has been described.
- California Mark has been temporarily appointed our Global CS Ambassador and is now working hard in the background to make Australia an even more wonderful country to CouchSurf in.
- - Qld
An enormously successful weekend of CS camping was had at Dan McHughs property in Marburg just outside of Brisbane. Gayle and Jonathan took some great photos of the weekend including this one
There is so much happening in Brisbane the only way you can keep tabs on it is by checking out the Brisbane group
- - NSW
- Sydney CS news. After a busy January in Sydney, things quietened down in February around town, but it looks like things are picking up again for March with Mardi Gras hitting town amongst other things!
After an absence of a couple of months (thanks to other things replacing it), it's time for the return of the monthly Picnic/BBQ on Sunday 9 March. Come along and meet up with locals and travellers alike, see familiar faces you may already know and get to know new faces around town too. As always the easiest way to keep up to date with the events planned in Sydney is via the Sydney Group
The Couchsurfing Friends 30-80 Sydney Grouphas had a few get-togethers this month. Drop in and read the postings in the group if you are interested.
- Regional NSW News.
There has been a steady increase in the numbers of new members joining from Inland NSW. Most often travellers only manage to see the cities missing out on the "real" Australia. By being more active in the regional areas we can turn this around. There are several groups now for Regional NSW of which you are members. Go out and meet each other, have a BBQ, a beer and a chat about travel and travellers and the hospitality of the Australian bush ..... 'cause that's exactly what we share.
- - ACT
- The Canberra Wiki page has been wonderfully bought up to date by Alice - Canberra is still lobbying for a new City Ambassador to accompany Alice. - Discussions for a Couch Zone are underway - A string of social CS get-togethers were held by the Canberra Groupin February and the next official get together is scheduled for March the 6th at 7:00pmmore info here
- - Vic
The Melbourne Group have been incredibly active this last month - from Moonlight Cinemas to Great Ocean Road expeditions, from the St Kilda Festival to the Melbourne Foodies extravaganza and to top it all of the Weekend at the Beach over the 23/24 February. A special thankyou to Strossel for hosting the event .... some photos here and here of the Melbourne fun.
Upcoming events:
- Melbourne regular breakfast meeting will be established, watch this space.
and "What is a pillow fight?" we hear you ask - see this video
... Melbourne has new sub-groups
- Outer South Eastern Suburbs
- Dandenong Ranges, Yarra Valley, Yarra Ranges and its surrounds
- Board Surfers Victoria
Please join them if you live in these areas or are interested in them.
- - Tas
Tasmania continues to go ahead in leaps and bounds. All of its CSers are now members of the Tasmanian CS Socials and Gatherings Group and it is only a matter of time before larger get togethers are planned. In the meantime Humdrum and a band of enthusiastic CSers have been organising a few socials so keep an eye out on the group for any upcomings in March. The Hobart group will soon be relocated under the Tasmania Group for ease of quickly finding it.
- - SA
This month has seen an Impromptu gathering at Adelaide Fringe, Ice Block riding down a grassy hill and Flickerfest.
The South Australia group has been formed with all the South Australian CS members presently joined into the Adelaide Group so that they can be kept up to date on events, newsletters and upcoming CS functions. It is hoped that there will be smaller subgroups formed as time goes that reflect the regional areas of SA.
South Australia is still without its own Ambassador :( In the meantime FaeryClaire is doing a wondeful job of organising get-togethers. Please support her by attending these fun get togethers so that you can meet each other.
Don't forget WomAdelaide !! March 7-9th in Botanic Park.
- - WA
And what are they doing in Perth? Breaking new ground as ever. This time Daniel has set up a CS Perth Map where, over a period of time the Perth crew will add eating spots, points of interest and most likely Pubs that they recommend. The idea for the addition of photo gallery, map and calendar were actually developed by other CS cities around the globe so look forward to having access to similar travel tools when you next venture out.
Did you know that Perth has a Spanish Speaking group?
If you didn't know already the Perth Couchsurfers Social Club is to be archived and all its members are warmly invited to join the boisterous, enthusiastic, hedonistic and welcomingPerth Group where, once again they have broken new territory by adding a Perth Group Photo album and an Upcoming CS Events Calendar
- - NT
The Northern Territory CS Crew have arrived !!! Your hardworking NT Ambassador Steven Pearce has set up the Northern Territory Group, the Alice Springs Group and the Darwin Group with meetups already happening in Alice !!
Steve has also been working on the Alice Springs Wiki page. Let him know if anyone is interested in helping out on the NT and Darwin wikis - it is great fun and very addictive.
International CouchSurfing News
If media relations interest you, stay tuned. The Public Relations and Media Team will soon be looking for experienced volunteers to join them. In the meantime, we'll be flashing our pearly whites for the paparazzi, with pleasure!
One of the more active members in Minneapolis, Michael Barnes came up with the idea of "Couch snowsurfing." He got a lot of people out along with two local tv stations.
Here is the videoand here are some photos: Set1 and Set2
Tips and hints for better CouchSurfing
This Months DID YOU KNOW?
Did you know that when you update a friend's reference, they will now receive an email to let them know you've updated it?
This is just one of the many small changes occurring all the time in the CS website as our tireless team of tech volunteers focus on improving the site. Some of the changes fix problems that have been identified by members. Other changes are refinements to features that make things easier for you as a member.
LOCATON MARKERS IN MAP SEARCH Next month we will bring you the low down on how to improve the amount of CouchSurf requests you recieve and how to find CS buddies in your own sprawled out cities (for those of you not from the bush).
For more tips and hints to improve your profile or your experience of Couchsurfing go to:
Australian Tips Hints and links to better CouchSurfing
This Months CouchSurfing stories from the road
A few CouchSurfing stories to stir your travelling spirits. (feel free to drop me a line if you have a CS Story of your own)
1) "Just a few weeks ago, I hosted a lovely married couple. They had been on a year long trip through South America, Central America, and Mexico, and I picked them up when their bus arrived in the United States.
They told me a story about how, when they were in Guyana, they contacted a CS member in French Guiana to see if they could stay with her when they reached that country. Then, they headed off thru Suriname, the country that is in between Guyana and French Guiana.
While in Suriname, they took a tour thru the jungle, with a guide and someone else that had paid for the tour as well.
One night, in the middle of the jungles of Suriname, speaking with this other guy, they found out he is a Couchsurfing too!
Not only this, but he had *JUST* come from the SAME member's house in French Guiana they asked to stay with! (He was traveling the opposite direction than them, and so they were passing in between).
What are the chances of that? "
2) "In late June of last year, I picked up two surfers from the bus station. Later that night, I explained, we would pick up one more surfer.
While at dinner, they asked about the third surfer that would be joining us. I explained he was a French Folk Singer that was traveling. He had gone thru Canada, then down thru California, and finally would arrive in Phoenix that evening.
The girl of the pair said "How funny - when we left Canada over a month ago, there was a French Folk Singer on our bus". I asked how she knew he was a french folk singer, and she said he had his guitar with him, and said he was a singer, and since he was wearing a Bob Dylan tee shirt, she figured he was a folk singer.
We looked at each other for a moment and then said, "Nah! Can't be the same guy!"
We then went to the bus station to pick him out - and here he came, wearing the same Bob Dylan tee shirt!
These three CS'ers had been on the SAME bus, over a month before, not knowing that over a month later they would end up surfing the same house on the same night!"
3) "So i manage to find a cool free wifi bar in Antigua Guatemala (cafe2000). i order a drink, set up my laptop and begin catching up with the first series of Heroes downloading from a free streaming site..
anyone thats traveled through Guatemala will probably agree that its not uncommon to suddenly feel the need to rush to the toilet. As i was alone my only option was to pack up my laptop and take it with me, to then reconnect and stressfully have to restart the streaming.
After several trips to the bathroom my only option to allow the download to complete was to ask a stranger sat beside me if he would look after my laptop whilst i dealt with my embarrassing situation. Not something i would normally consider doing.
after a slight introduction, i discovered the guy was a couchsurfer, not only that just a few moments before we had met i had randomly clicked on his profile via the nearby couchsurfer's feature on the homepage. Even more bizarre was i hadn't closed his profile down, so when he asked if he could use my laptop to check his mail, when he opened the cs tab at the bottom his profile was already on my screen. Whats the chances of that happening..
i then bumped into the same guy at a cs party in Quito, we had both traveled the same path over the same time and ended up in the same place yet again."
Other Helpful Links at a Glance
Other CS areas that might interest:
- A new overview of Couchsurfing has been provided called the Cheat Sheet
