Trustroots Wiki - User contributions [en]

BeWelcome censorship

2013-06-23T10:02:22Z

Ppec: /* Removal of posts */ sourceable figure

'''BeWelcome''' is quite an open and transparent organization compared to [[CouchSurfing censorship|CouchSurfing]] and [[Hospitality Club censorship|Hospitality Club]] but there have been some alleged cases of censorship in BeWelcome, in ocasions where the moderation team aplied the [http://www.bewelcome.org/forums/rules forum rules] and this decision was disputed by the ofenders.

== Moderation team ==

BW's forum is moderated by the moderation team, which coordinates itself in a private group.
This team was created in 2006 [http://www.bewelcome.org/wiki/Annual_report_2006-2007], and was then named "Forum team". In 2007-2008, it intervened a first time (by a warning), but this team started to be busy in 2011 [http://downloads.bewelcome.org/BeVolunteer%20Annual%20Report%202011_2012.pdf], when the forum activity increased.

== Removal of posts ==

* In March 2013, invitations to Seek the duck (a toulousan event promoting BW) were [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossposting cross posted] 39 times. Groups and forum were then displayed on the same page, and some members have perceived an irritating disruption of all other on-going threads of the forum. After several days of crossposting, 39 copy-pastes of the same message were eventually deleted by a member of the moderation team because there was a clear infraction of Forum & Groups rules. This opened a debate [http://www.bewelcome.org/forums/s5417] about many topics including moderation. Local members later reposted [http://www.bewelcome.org/forums/s5378 the message] in their groups, and it was made sticky, which made it very visible for a while, but the moderation team has not changed the ruling about the infraction to the rules. It can easily be claimed that this incident itself is not censorship as only 39 repeatition of the very same message were deleted, and the original post was kept, which some consider as less of a restriction of your freedom of speech.

* In June 2013, [http://www.bewelcome.org/forums/s7625 Concerns on censorship/moderation] a forum post by Puneet, about his deleted forum post that contained an offtopic unsolicited offer of his professional services for money in a local group forum.

== Banning of members ==

In December 2012, Tim Loal, notorious (some would say ''infamous'') for being vocal about the management of BW, was banned ''from the forums'' for one year. This ban was the first of its kind and happened after repeated violations against the site's official [http://www.bewelcome.org/terms terms], 3 official warnings and 2 short-term bans which had separate warnings and were lifted to allow for better behaviour. A [http://www.bewelcome.org/groups/917 protest group] was created.

Member profiles that are created solely for sending spam to other members are banned ''from the site'' on a daily basis, usually after abuse is reported.

CouchSurfing censorship

2013-06-23T08:22:16Z

Ppec: D.S was invited back by the CEO - possible increasement of censorship soon - but most of all censorship=/=moderation

{{couchsurfing}}
For a long time [[CouchSurfing]] was known for its absence of censorship. This is now changing. In recent months there has been an very noticeable drive to censor the community. A big chunk of its growth in 2006 and 2007 on couchsurfing was due to people creating a CS profile because of [[Hospitality Club censorship]]. In 2013 it seems that CouchSurfing is going along the same path.

On this page we're trying to collect some useful resources about this matter. Feel free to jump in and [http://couchwiki.org/w/index.php?title=CouchSurfing_censorship&action=edit edit].

== The CouchSurfing CEO about linking to BeWelcome ==

=== [http://www.couchsurfing.org/group_read.html?gid=2125&post=14262863#post14277207 March 16th] ===
:"I want to respond to Sergio's comment on BeWelcome because I don't want anyone to be surprised in the future. The fact that we have allowed profiles to point to BeWelcome should not be taken as an indication that it's okay. It's simply not okay. Will we eventually take action on this as a form of commercial interest? Yes, I think it's likely we will. When that time comes, I will make an announcement here first. Ambs need to decide if they are here to work together and make CS better or if they want to create a new community. We simply can't have CS Ambassadors conducting BeWelcome's business on the CS web site."
See also [http://www.couchsurfing.org/group_read.html?gid=7621&post=14276591 the post on the Brainstorm group]. For clarity, BeWelcome is a non profit organization with a yearly "business" budget of 1260 euro (for 2013).

One member's response:
:Saying that talking about BeWelcome will not be tolerated is saying there will be censorship.
:Removing people's posts is censorship.
:Removing the ability for people to post on the CS Facebook page is censorship.
:Removing critical, outspoken members looks like censorship. Not talking about won't make it go away, it just builds resentment and mistrust.
[http://www.couchsurfing.org/group_read.html?gid=2125&post=14288458#post14291699 quote from a post in "Tony Espinoza (CEO) Discussion - Week 2"]

=== [http://www.couchsurfing.org/group_read.html?gid=2125&post=14288458#post14301872 March 23rd] ===

:"I want to continue to be clear. I don't think it's okay for CS Ambs profiles to link to BW."

=== [https://www.couchsurfing.org/group_read.html?gid=2125&post=14310719 Tony Espinoza (CEO) Discussion - Week 3] ===
"I am not afraid to stand up and say clearly:
CS Ambs should not be promoting BW on the site or at events."

== Group deletions ==
Late December 2012 group 59753 was deleted, which was titled "Leaving CS for bewelcome". Until then similar groups were not deleted.

== Deletions of posts on places ==
Posting some type of information on place pages is considered spam. It's removed. ''please edit this''

== Membership revoked ==
There have been minor cases throughout the years but since the for profit "conversion" in 2011 these have increased, going as far as deletion without notice of 2 ambassadors in early 2013. Two very active members of communities in [[Berlin]] and [[Chicago]] were removed from the site. Both members had been quite vocal about the migration from city groups to "places" in which all threads had been deleted (which could be classified as censorship, especially given that there's no way to easy way retrieve old posts) and the consequences for [[safety]]. Also some normal members (not ambassadors) have been removed, there's another case in Berlin, and one in the South of France.

CSHQ has claimed these members have all been deleted for valid reasons but refuses to make any statements about what specifically these people have done.

Here's an incomplete list.
* D.S. from Berlin
* JVH from Chicago
* El. from Berlin
* ''please add more if you know of someone being deleted - don't put full names unless you were deleted yourself and you don't mind your full name showing up here''

* A few months after his profile removal, D.S. was "''invited back by the CEO''" [https://www.couchsurfing.org/n/threads/berlin-berlin-germany--25]

== Other ==
Posting on the FB wall of CS was disabled on March 12th 2013.

== Moderation ==

On 2013 June 21st, Tony Espinoza announced that among CSHQ's priorities for "''the second half of 2013''", there is "''stronger moderation''"[https://www.couchsurfing.org/group_read.html?gid=2125&post=14558764#post14616834]
Up to now, it is unknown if this announced purpose refers to an increasement of censorship (understood as gaging critical thinking and/or information about alternatives), or if this refers to what was usually refered as moderation (removal of racist/insulting/commercial/privacy-breaching contents).

== Links ==

=== Blogs and blog posts ===
* [http://couchsurfingcontroversies.wordpress.com/ Couchsurfing Controversies] by Pauline
* [http://kingsofcouchsurfing.blogspot.be/2013/03/zero-tolerance.html Zero Tolerance], Mar 14, 2013
* [http://quirkytravelguy.com/couchsurfing-censorship-community-backlash-tony-espinoza/ Couchsurfing faces backlash from some members after censorship charges], March 9th 2013
* [http://mechanicalbrain.wordpress.com/2013/03/04/couchsurfing-a-sad-end-to-a-great-idea/ Couchsurfing: A Sad End to a Great Idea] March 4, 2013
* [http://kingsofcouchsurfing.blogspot.be/2013/02/a-couchsurfer-no-more.html A CouchSurfer No More (aka Membership Revoked)], February 26th 2013.
* [http://peteralthaus.com/couchsurfing-or-the-guide-to-destroying-a-working-community/ Couchsurfing or The guide to destroying a working community], February 13th 2013
* [http://www.opencouchsurfing.org/tag/censorship/ OpenCouchSurfing posts related to censorship], going back to way before "conversion"

==== CouchSurfing HQ response ====
* [http://www.couchsurfing.org/news/cs-organization/member-removal-is-couchsurfing-censoring-the-community-by-removing-outspoken-members/ Official CouchSurfing response about censorship] - read and compare this to other blog posts

=== Posts on CS ===
==== Brainstorm ====
* [http://www.couchsurfing.org/group_read.html?gid=7621&post=14215130 the next step of censorship: profile deletion]
* [http://www.couchsurfing.org/group_read.html?gid=7621&post=13920012 I had doubts about my state of mental health- but it's just censorship]

==== Ambassador group ====
* [http://www.couchsurfing.org/group_read.html?gid=2125&post=14284681 Communication strategy: let me help you], March 18th 2013

==== Places ====
* [https://www.couchsurfing.org/n/threads/berlin-berlin-germany-first-of-all-i-don-t-know-how-long-this-message-will-stay-on-this-page-i-think-cs-will-try-to-censor-any-kind-of-these Farewell Berlin, CS threatening to delete my account], March 12th 2013

==== Europe ====
* [https://www.couchsurfing.org/group_read.html?gid=162&post=13924660 CENSORSHIP now active on CS]

==== Against for profit CS ====
* [http://www.couchsurfing.org/group_read.html?gid=45507&post=14051088 Censorship in 3 threads]

=== Posts on BeWelcome ===
* [http://www.bewelcome.org/groups/77/forum/s5425-Is_that__Don_Shine____who_just_has_was_cancelled_his_C__profile___around_here_on_BW_ Is that "Don Shine" - who just has/was cancelled his C$-profile - around here on BW?] March 2nd, 2013
* [http://www.bewelcome.org/groups/77/forum/s5428-My_Couchsurfing_profile_was_canceled_too_ My Couchsurfing profile was canceled too!], March 2nd, 2013
* About [[:bw:groups/77/forum/s5686-CS_threatening CS threatening]] profile deletion for posting a link to [[BeWelcome]] in the [[:bw:Berlin group]], March 12th, 2013

=== Reddit ===
* [http://www.reddit.com/r/couchsurfing r/couchsurfing]
* [http://www.reddit.com/r/couchsurfing/comments/19uqa6/tony_ceo_of_couchsurfing_tries_to_explain_the/ Tony, CEO of CouchSurfing, tries to explain the removal of members without allowing comments. Speak up here! (couchsurfing.org)]

=== Facebook ===
* [https://www.facebook.com/events/147008412126669/ Censorship on Couchsurfing] event

=== Other ===
* [http://www.experts123.com/q/does-couchsurfing-censor-the-members-emails-or-group-posts.html Q: Does CouchSurfing censor the members' emails or group posts?], undated, but definitely from before 2013.
* [[BeWelcome censorship]]

=== Satire ===
[[File:Censoredsurfing.png|right|200px]]

<videoflash>TkyRDUKChtg</videoflash>

[[Category:CouchSurfing]]
[[Category:Censorship]]

BeWelcome censorship

2013-06-22T20:40:32Z

Ppec: /* Removal of posts */ minor precisions

'''BeWelcome''' is quite an open and transparent organization compared to [[CouchSurfing censorship|CouchSurfing]] and [[Hospitality Club censorship|Hospitality Club]] but one could say even here there are cases of censorship in BeWelcome.

== Moderation team ==

BW's forum is moderated by the moderation team, which coordinates itself in a private group.
This team was created in 2006[http://www.bewelcome.org/wiki/Annual_report_2006-2007], and was then named "Forum team". In 2007-2008, it intervened a first time (by a warning), but this team started to be busy in 2011[http://downloads.bewelcome.org/BeVolunteer%20Annual%20Report%202011_2012.pdf], when the forum activity increased.

== Removal of posts ==

* In March 2013, invitations to Seek the duck (a toulousan event promoting BW) were cross posted 79 times. Groups and forum were then displayed on the same page, and some members have perceived an irritating disruption of all other on-going threads of the forum. After several days of crossposting, 79 copy-pastes of the same message were eventually deleted by a member of the moderation team.
This opened a [http://www.bewelcome.org/forums/s5417-unlocal_information_in_local_group discussion] intitled "unlocal information in local groups", in which many topics including moderation were eventually debated.

Local members later reposted [http://www.bewelcome.org/forums/s5378-SeekTheDuck_2013__a_BeWelcome_event_in_Toulouse__France__June_1__2013_ the message] in their groups, and it was made sticky, which made it very visible for a while. Moderation team refused to admit a mistake (source?).

It can easily be claimed that this incident itself is not censorship as only 79 repeatition of the very same message were deleted, and the original post was kept, which some consider as less of a restriction of your freedom of speech.

* June 2013: a forum post offering services vs. money was deleted by the moderation team, after which a thread about "censorship/moderation" was initiated by the member who offered his services, intitled [http://www.bewelcome.org/forums/s7625 Concerns on censorship/moderation].

== Banning of members ==

In December 2012, Tim Loal, notorious (some would say ''infamous'') for being vocal about the management of BW, was banned ''from the forums'' for 1 year. This ban was the first of its kind and happened after repeated violations against the site's official [http://www.bewelcome.org/terms terms], 3 official warnings and 2 short-term bans which had separate warnings and were lifted to allow for better behaviour. A [http://www.bewelcome.org/groups/917 protest group FREE TIM NOW !] was created.

Member profiles that are created solely for sending spam to other members are banned ''from the site'' on a daily basis, usually after abuse is reported.

BeWelcome censorship

2013-06-22T20:29:54Z

Ppec: /* Removal of posts -hopefully more informative and less biased than before */

'''BeWelcome''' is quite an open and transparent organization compared to [[CouchSurfing censorship|CouchSurfing]] and [[Hospitality Club censorship|Hospitality Club]] but one could say even here there are cases of censorship in BeWelcome.

== Moderation team ==

BW's forum is moderated by the moderation team, which coordinates itself in a private group.
This team was created in 2006[http://www.bewelcome.org/wiki/Annual_report_2006-2007], and was then named "Forum team". In 2007-2008, it intervened a first time (by a warning), but this team started to be busy in 2011[http://downloads.bewelcome.org/BeVolunteer%20Annual%20Report%202011_2012.pdf], when the forum activity increased.

== Removal of posts ==

* In March 2013, invitations to Seek the duck (a toulousan event promoting BW) were cross posted 79 times. Groups and forum were then displayed on the same page, and some members have perceived an irritating disruption of all other on-going threads of the forum. After several days of crossposting, 79 copy-pastes of the same message were eventually deleted by a member of the moderation team.
This opened a debate [http://www.bewelcome.org/forums/s5417-unlocal_information_in_local_group discussion] about many topics including moderation.

Local members later reposted [http://www.bewelcome.org/forums/s5378-SeekTheDuck_2013__a_BeWelcome_event_in_Toulouse__France__June_1__2013_ the message] in their groups, and it was made sticky, which made it very visible for a while. Moderation team refused to admit a mistake (source?).

It can easily be claimed that this incident itself is not censorship as only 79 repeatition of the very same message were deleted, and the original post was kept, which some consider as less of a restriction of your freedom of speech.

* June 2013: [http://www.bewelcome.org/forums/s7625 Concerns on censorship/moderation] a forum post offering services vs. money was deleted by the moderation team.

== Banning of members ==

In December 2012, Tim Loal, notorious (some would say ''infamous'') for being vocal about the management of BW, was banned ''from the forums'' for 1 year. This ban was the first of its kind and happened after repeated violations against the site's official [http://www.bewelcome.org/terms terms], 3 official warnings and 2 short-term bans which had separate warnings and were lifted to allow for better behaviour. A [http://www.bewelcome.org/groups/917 protest group FREE TIM NOW !] was created.

Member profiles that are created solely for sending spam to other members are banned ''from the site'' on a daily basis, usually after abuse is reported.

BeWelcome censorship

2013-06-22T20:11:10Z

Ppec: /* Moderation team -history (not created in 2011...) */

'''BeWelcome''' is quite an open and transparent organization compared to [[CouchSurfing censorship|CouchSurfing]] and [[Hospitality Club censorship|Hospitality Club]] but one could say even here there are cases of censorship in BeWelcome.

== Moderation team ==

BW's forum is moderated by the moderation team, which coordinates itself in a private group.
This team was created in 2006[http://www.bewelcome.org/wiki/Annual_report_2006-2007], and was then named "Forum team". In 2007-2008, it intervened a first time (by a warning), but this team started to be busy in 2011[http://downloads.bewelcome.org/BeVolunteer%20Annual%20Report%202011_2012.pdf], when the forum activity increased.

== Removal of posts ==

* In March 2013, cross posted invitations to seek the duck (a toulousan event promoting BW) were deleted by a member of the moderation team.
This opened a [http://www.bewelcome.org/forums/s5417-unlocal_information_in_local_group discussion] about moderation.

Local members later reposted [http://www.bewelcome.org/forums/s5378-SeekTheDuck_2013__a_BeWelcome_event_in_Toulouse__France__June_1__2013_ the message] in their groups, and it was made sticky, which made it very visible for a while, but the moderation team refused to admit a mistake (source?).

It can easily be claimed that this incident itself is not censorship as only cross posts were deleted, and at least one of the post was kept which is less of a restriction of your freedom of speech.

* June 2013: [http://www.bewelcome.org/forums/s7625 Concerns on censorship/moderation] forum post by Puneet, about his deleted forum post

== Banning of members ==

In December 2012, Tim Loal, notorious (some would say ''infamous'') for being vocal about the management of BW, was banned ''from the forums'' for 1 year. This ban was the first of its kind and happened after repeated violations against the site's official [http://www.bewelcome.org/terms terms], 3 official warnings and 2 short-term bans which had separate warnings and were lifted to allow for better behaviour. A [http://www.bewelcome.org/groups/917 protest group FREE TIM NOW !] was created.

Member profiles that are created solely for sending spam to other members are banned ''from the site'' on a daily basis, usually after abuse is reported.