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Post by High Priestess on Dec 23, 2015 3:19:23 GMT
Yes, you are spot on, Jessa. This is exactly what I see happening there too. WHich to me means, that the new Community Center is not a community. Because you don't go to a community of colleagues or acquaintances and ask a very specific question, and insist that no one say anything to you except the specific answer, which once you get, you then turn around and leave.
Airbnb could have created a place for community if they had been more willing to listen to those of us who already created community on the old groups. The new groups in their structure and layout are not at all conducive to creating community, which is not to say that community might not be somehow created there in spite of that, but it is just much more of a challenge than it has to be.
The new community center is as you say, something like a place people go to get a service. A Helpdesk, as Helga put it. Or Yahoo Answers, as I decribed it.
We of the "old guard" are on there at times now, trying to set people straight, but I don't know whether we will stay on there indefinitely doing that. Maybe we'll be so frustrated with nonsense getting posted there that we will stick around to fight off the nonsense? NOt sure how it will all go....So, we'll see what happens.
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Post by apricotnelli on Dec 23, 2015 11:57:45 GMT
There are some inexperienced hosts doing great work on the new community centre but what is missing is the sense of listening to the experienced hosts.
There is always more than one way. You are not always right. I have done a lot of hosting and have consistently good reviews and a 4.5 star rating. I will never make 5 stars in my current falling to bits beautiful old house (I am moving). I find it annoying when someone who has only hosted a few times says you are wrong with what you are doing when all my actual experience shows it works. I made a comment about law in Ireland (which I have rented under myself) and I got someone looking up UK law to tell me that I might be right. Actually UK and Irish law are usually pretty similar. I really don't know if they knew that or just wanted to throw in an answer. You cant be an expert on everything. In the geographic forums the other Irish hosts might have said why are you commenting on the UK legal system for an answer to an Irish host. We are a different country.
I find the most valuable posts are either from very experienced hosts who may be very straight talking or the straight factual ones.
I have answered a few posts lately but mostly only to correct a completely wrong answer someone else gave. I think I will give up on it the structure just doesnt work and its getting swamped with newbie hosts being lazy and not reading the website.
I miss the humour in the old groups and even some of the crazies..
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Post by High Priestess on Dec 23, 2015 13:45:25 GMT
LIke you apricotnelli I find that much of my motivation to participate in the new Airbnb groups, the little there is, is to correct someone else or mediate or defend when an experienced host has gotten attacked. Or when someone asks a question which is of more interest -- there are not that many of the "standard questions" which hold a lot of interest me on their face, largely because they have been asked so many times. HOwever sometimes someone will ask a "standard" question with a new angle and that can be more interesting. But when I am the only one to respond to a post, or when other questions only get one response, this makes the forum seem dull. On the old groups, too, like New Hosts Forum or Anecdotes or Hosting 911, I would not respond to every question or post, but would be more interested in responding, the more that the question or post got expanded into an actual conversation. and perhaps going into some new topics that haven't been discussed much recently. Also, the more the questioner/original poster presented their question as a story, rather than a one sentence technical question, the more interesting it was, because one could comment on the whole story and bring up several topics in response to it. On the new Airbnb groups, I don't see many people posting such stories. And really I wouldn't want to post long stories there myself because it would feel like putting too much energy into a blah, emotionally empty place where there is no value for what I'm offering. We all gave a lot of feedback to Airbnb on the new groups' structure and layout, and they keep saying they are working on it but so far have not incorporated any of our feedback on these things. I really see no reason why any of the groups (such as Host Circle or Responsible Hosting) would develop unique cultures or communities, because there is nothing but the name and a short description to distinguish them, and that is not enough. I brought this up to Airbnb (Jonny ) early on, and suggested at the very least, that they use a different background image for each of these groups. That would be very simple but they haven't done that.
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