CouchSurfing, the brainchild of Casey Fenton, has apparently departed from this world. And to send the site on its way, Fenton wrote a laughably sentimental goodbye letter. Please, if your website should happen to expire, don’t handle it like this.
“CouchSurfing,” Fenton wrote, “was born out of a dream.” The site, in the words of Wikipedia, was a “free international internet-based hospitality service.” It “blossomed in beautiful ways,” according to Fenton, and he saw what “beautiful, heartfelt good this community can offer the world.” CouchSurfers had “the power to change not only they way we travel, but change the world itself.”
If you haven’t fallen out of your chair already in a fit of giggles, hold on tight. “Life is continuously changing, evolving, dying and being reborn. After a fire, the earth is replenished; after a storm, the air is cleared. It feels to me like this loss of CouchSurfing is how it’s meant to be. This crash is like a sign from the universe.”
Grab your tissues. “What we’ve built together is not dead, it lives on in each of us. It lives in the connections we’ve fostered and the culture we’ve created. I want us all to take this CouchSurfing spirit and continue the mission out in the world.”
The flame imagery is revived for a final hurrah. “We all own a piece of the CouchSurfing flame, it’s up to us to keep the fire going and light the world. So let’s do it, let’s light the world!” The letter is signed, “I love you, Casey.” Oh, and you can also “send your thoughts, encouragement, or positive messages” to Fenton.
I don’t mean to insult the CouchSurfing spirit (or whatever), but Fenton’s letter sacrifices any pretence of dignity. You can read the rest of it here. Let this be an example of how not to respond to a website’s demise.
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Doug is a staff writer for murdok. Visit murdok for the latest eBusiness news.
