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    Maria Kozinska
    @mariha
    This room is a placeholder for discussions related to a new platform for bicycle touring travelers and those who want to host them.
    Axel Duval
    @Axel-Duval
    Hi there
    Chagai (backup account)
    @chagai95:matrix.org
    [m]
    Hi!
    Axel Duval
    @Axel-Duval

    I'm a french engineering CS student in France. I have used Warmshowers on my cycling trips and would like to help you develop a new hosting solution.
    Before you announced your disagreement with the management, I planned to start creating a similar application.
    There are two important facts:

    • Couchsurfing has become paid
    • Covid19 prevents people from traveling

    When the crisis is over, people will be looking to travel again and enjoy their freedom. I think you have your card to play now.

    cgolembiewski
    @cgolembiewski:matrix.org
    [m]
    The misspelling "Comming soonish..." on warmshowers.bike needs to be changed to "Coming soonish..."
    Maybe you would like to tell people that the donations aren't just going to useful private software companies.
    It seems like they are also going to pay executive salaries, even though WS's executive director Tahverlee doesn't seem to be actually doing anything.
    Sabre-Slayer
    @Sabre-Slayer
    Hey
    I'm a Manx cyclist, I would love to help in anyway I can (noting I'm on a multi year tour at the moment), I studied physics and have a basic understanding of html, css, python and c++.
    let me know if I can be of any help.
    bidsinga
    @bidsinga

    Hi all, somehow I stumbled on this subject on Facebook. My name is Bas Idsinga from The Netherlands, and I used to tour in Africa before Corona. I used WS quite a lot, and loved the idea. Because of Corona, I had to quit my journey, and started creating a new platform called Cycle Planet, all on my own. I'm not a developer, but felt the urge to create a platform that works better than WS, with higher response rates. From scratch, I learned myself coding, and now the platform is live and looking for more users and volunteers to make the platform better. Perhaps this would be a solution for you guys to join, as the platform is already there. The website is https://cycleplanet.org/, and there is an Android and iOS app. As I'm just an amateur coder, it would be nice if some pro's could assist me. Slowly, a team of cycle passionist is forming around Cycle Planet already. The platform is all voluntarily and should run on donations. We already found a collaboration with Ortlieb to do a give away, and we're looking for more collaborations. The website is build in a way that it can be updated on all 3 platforms at once, making it smarter and cheaper to run. If you want to know more, please join the Cycle Planet WhatsApp group https://chat.whatsapp.com/FlQ4jUOtVqxKY1vONVcqgv.

    Stay safe,
    Bas Idsinga ;)

    Maria Kozinska
    @mariha:matrix.org
    [m]

    hey guys,

    there is a high level proposal for the next generation of HospEx platform to be built in a federated way. This would allow different groups of people to run their own platform with their own rules, and really addresses the issues with these centralized platforms where the board ends up with too much power. Would love to hear your thoughts/likes on it.

    Trustroots/trustroots#2287

    C Golembiewski
    @cgolembiewski:matrix.org
    [m]
    Paul Harper has now been banned from WS. For many years Paul has (respectfully) challenged the WS leadership on the forums to be open about their decisions and spending of donation. The WS head Tahverlee sent out messages to other participants of the discussion to say they, too, will be banned if they continue the discussion.
    C Golembiewski
    @cgolembiewski:matrix.org
    [m]
    Also, Maria, in the FB group I have seen you speak about WS leadership starting to have problems after Randy Fay stepped down. The problems actually started before: it was Randy Fay who began to emphasize donations because he wanted to pay himself a large salary from donation money, but he didn't want the community to have any oversight. He left WS after the community challenged him about this on the forums.
    C Golembiewski
    @cgolembiewski:matrix.org
    [m]
    :point_up: Edit: Also, Maria, I have seen you speak about WS leadership starting to have problems after Randy Fay stepped down. The problems actually started before: it was Randy Fay who began to emphasize donations because he wanted to pay himself a large salary from donation money, but he didn't want the community to have any oversight. He left WS after the community challenged him about this on the forums.
    Maria Kozinska
    @mariha:matrix.org
    [m]
    C Golembiewski: thanks for sharing this. Didn’t know that it all started with Randy. I guess getting payed for a job is ok, it all goes down to being honest and transparent about it or not. And WS is not because it’s actually a lot of money! Such a dumb story to end a community like this!
    I new that Paul and others were banned from the WS forum, after creating the message in the app my WS account was locked too.
    Paul Harper
    @bathysphere_gitlab
    I don't think that's an entirely accurate account of the departure of Randy, but yes, the introduction of the member subscription model at that time was the beginning of the end of Warmshowers as a community project.
    Paul Harper
    @bathysphere_gitlab
    For anyone interested I have attempted to archive and compile as many relevant threads as possible from the WS forums here:
    https://gitlab.com/-/snippets/2111860
    (I'm also tracking any deleted threads or suspended/deleted user accounts resulting from discussions around funding/transparency/accountability)
    Maria Kozinska
    @mariha
    @bathysphere_gitlab Chapeau bas!
    Maria Kozinska
    @mariha

    hey everyone! we are setting up for the development of this https://fedihospex.github.io, you are very welcome to join or provide us some feedback.

    we chat here: https://matrix.to/#/#hospex:matrix.org

    Maria Kozinska
    @mariha
    The plan is to:
    1. spin up, rebrand and adapt an instance of Trustroots.org for bicycle touring community
    2. implement some federation features, so that both platforms can communicate, show hosts on each other and the users can easily move from one to the other.
    3. WelcomeToMyGarden.org is considering switching backend to Trustroots, so they will likely join too.
    4. if it all works well, we can abstract the protocol so that BeWelcome, CyclePlanet and Couchers could join the network too
    5. in the long run, would be great to make it easy for new communities to have their own platforms, tailored to their specific needs and governed by their own rules
    Mariha Kozinska
    @mariha:matrix.org
    [m]
    A quick update: we have a new name and we can be found here now: https://openhospitality.network/ which is an attempt to create generalized hospitality exchange platform, which could be used by bicycle touring community then, to replace WarmShowers. I hope somehow to incubate the core volunteers team (newsletter, social media, translations, ...) in Trustroots team and do the platform development (mostly) in OHN team.