References and trust

Plans

A plan is a stay, a meeting or an event that both members confirmed — proposed by one, confirmed by the other. It is the only thing references and points are built on: a trip announcement is one person’s word, a plan is two. When it is over, both of you say whether it happened. Yes and yes: it happened. No and no: it was called off. One of each: a moderator looks.

Blind references

After a plan happened, each of you may write one reference within 14 days: positive, neutral or negative, with 30 to 1500 characters of text. References are sealed until both are written — then they open together, and neither can be changed. If only one is written, it opens when the window closes. Nobody, including the staff, reads a sealed reference.

References are shown on your profile to signed-in members. A reference can be reported; a moderator can remove one that breaks the rules, and tells its author which rule.

Trust points

Points come only from opened references. A positive reference is worth 3 for a stay, 2 for an event and 1.5 for a meeting, multiplied by how far the writer travelled — the same city counts once, another country counts more, another continent more still. A neutral reference is counted but worth nothing; a negative one takes the same amount away.

• Last-minute cancellation — less than 3 days before a confirmed plan — costs 3 points and pauses new plans for 7 days (30 days from the third time in 180 days). A no-show decided by a moderator costs 5.
• Vouching has a price. If a member gets a negative outcome, everyone who wrote them a positive reference in the past year loses a quarter of what that reference earned.
• Events add small points when an organiser confirms you came and you confirm it happened — how events work.

Levels: Getting known (0+) · Known (5+) · Trusted (15+) · Pillar of the community (40+). Your own ledger is in your account; members see only the total and the references.