That's neat.
It's not all gypsies though. I got a good sample of Couchsurfers through my friends and you get an assorted bunch of weirdos... they've all got amazing (good and bad) stories to tell. The last guy was a scamming Euro engineer who was trying to sell his idea for some kind of foamy brick that's supposed to be used in Russia. He had all sorts of materials and samples with him that he would show to anyone and everyone he met, trying to lure in small-time VC's. No one knows where he is now but the did leave all his foamy brick materials at my friends' place. No takers.
The profiles and the user reference system are the basis for the sites success. It's very easy to get a pretty good handle on people in a few short minutes.
There are a few legends that have bunches of negative references that are must stay destinations. There's a guy in Venice named Massimo that's one. Back in the day, he was the only option in Venice. He makes all of his guest wrestle him, or one of his friends, and expects his women guests to do all of the dishes, even if they haven't dirtied any. He has wrestling outfits and requests your size before you get there. If you piss him off, he will ban your gender and whole country, i.e. "Since David of American choose to be such a bad and menacing guest. He make it very bad for all male Americans that will no longer be welcome at the house of Massimo.
We hosted a guy from Australia that stayed with Massimo right after he stayed with us. He had the honor of getting all male Australians banned from Mossimo's house. The feud started because of a Savior Dog type platypus that Robert took pictures with on his travels. He thought he had left it at Mossimo's, asked him about it and it just devolved. Basically Mossimo denied having it, and then admitted having it and wouldn't send it. To Robert's credit he stayed calm and civilized throughout the whole tirade.
Oh awesome! I found his profile:
http://www.couchsurfing.org/people/mxmxmx/
He's very Shantyesque:
"Yeah,I confirm my pleasure to have kicked-off this weird personage out of my car,becouse among so many guests,he really pissed me off in incredible way.
At the base of everything there's a sad frunstration and sence of inutility of this already fat guy (for his just 19 years of age) to have been won and to his mind humiliated in basic wrestling,not only by another guest from Canada,but even by his compatriot,11 kilograms lighter than him
)
Nothing bad and no real reason to be upset for any normal guy. Wrestling is a sport where I teach how winning and where even the most handicapped guests have won,finally.
I have enough experience now,to pass over people like him,simply becouse has nomore sence to spend words more than necessary with similar ungrateful people.
There were others 3 guests with him and I don't think that Ryan from Canada,who also filmed his wrestling for himself would agree with the weird assumptions of this guy who really passed all the possible limits."
