1 host = 1 credit looks like a problem, similar to how it can be hard to build up ratio on well established private torrent trackers. The distribution of credits will not be even with many hosts building up credits for some nebulous future trip. How do those actually travelling around earn credits past the first 3 complimentary?<p>Bonus point systems or just ignoring ratio solved this from my pov for trackers, the 1 to 1 ratio stood out as something that would need a solution long term.
A big part of the fun for me is being completely alone, practicing map reading, and faffing around as I find my own way. So I Google the name of the forest and the phrase "district map" to identify the ranger district(s) I'm interested in, Google the district name with the phrase "dispersed camping" to read the rules, and then stare at a topo map with an MVUM overlay to decide spots to look. I find this process often identifies better sites (by my preferences at least) than I see online and online listings are not infrequently wrong about the rules. The process from turning on to the first dirt road to camping takes maybe 20 minutes if I'm in a hurry or an hour if I'm optimizing for the perfect spot. If I forgot to refill my water container and need to find a stream that's an extra .1-2hours depending on season and region.<p>If I wanted the actual right answer I'd call a ranger.<p>(The reason I Google is because the USFS and to a lesser extent BLM have awful intra-site navigation. I don't bother asking Google to restrict to the domain because the right usfs page will be at the top anyway. MVUM stands for Motor Vehicle Use Map and indicates where I can drive and, if applicable, which roads I can pull off to camp. Remember that following the MVUM is necessary but not sufficient, you also need to check the dispersed camping section of the appropriate website. You can get MVUM pdfs by googling place + "MVUM" but I prefer the MVUM layer in the app CalTopo)
I love paying $100 annually to get something "for free".<p>Jokes aside, I think this concept is cool and I'm not even upset that there is a membership fee to keep people engaged and to support the software component that coordinates this. But $100 per year? This feels like $50 per year TOPS! Really I feel like this should be closer to $20 per year.<p>I think it is going to be tough to get people to pay $100 subscription and then ask them to play host, just to earn the opportunity to get what is essentially free overnight parking at a 1:1 ratio of you providing it to others.
> All members are vetted<p>By who? There's literally zero information that would make me trust this: who's running this, how's it backed up, what proof you have that this works.<p>But, cool idea. Love the reciprocity focus. Kind of like couchsurfing, but shinier?
Looks really interesting! I guess the big disappointment for me was that it's actually a $100 annual subscription. I thought from your title that it would be free.
$100/yr to join a club of fellow California homeowners / home renters who love to camp and are willing to reciprocally allow stays at their home is not bad. Especially if that $100 is used to pre vet users who will behave in a way that will garner 4-5 star reviews consistently.
For anyone looking for actually free, no strings attached (and no subscription) camping, check <a href="https://freecampsites.net/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://freecampsites.net/</a> instead. It's a community wiki of free camp sites, usually on federal lands of various sorts (National Forests and BLM lands often have primitive campsites with fire rings and not much else). It's great for travel around national parks, especially. But please do leave no trace, pack out what you bring in.<p>Edit: I should add that much of federally protected lands are free to camp on, within certain limits that I can't remember offhand. Things like no more than X days within a month, must be further than Y from a street or river, may or may not need a fire permit, etc. Even if undocumented and unlabeled on a map, you can typically just pull off the road and camp alongside, perfectly legally. It's part of their intended use, though that's never really made clear to the public.<p>What this website provides isn't the land itself (which is paid for by taxpayers) but <i>curation</i>, so you can easily find places with a good view, cell reception, fire rings, minimal traffic and whatnot. A lot of national lands aren't exactly desirable to camp on even if you're totally within your rights to do so.
So it's kinda like Couchsurfing.com and Warmshowers, but expensive ($100/yr) and only for vanlifers? Interesting.<p>I like the community peer to peer model, but it kinda feels exploitative to put an expensive business layer on top of it. What does the $100/yr provide that Couchsurfing's $30/yr doesn't, aside from a feeling of exclusivity? Or is that the point, to weed out poor vanlifers and allow only rich vacationers to swap hosting with each other?
This has the feel of a site someone set up to gauge interest based on signups, rather than something that actually exists. I've never been quite sure how I feel about those: smart product testing or disingenuous bait-and-switch?
> Van, truck or tent camp in California's top outdoor destinations for $0 a night.<p>... plus $100/year. Why is the annual fee mentioned near the bottom of the page?
I've been doing this for the last couple years down here in Australia. Wrote some words over at <a href="https://ghuntley.com/freecamping/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://ghuntley.com/freecamping/</a> about where to find spots etc.
I'm interested but $100/yr kind of sounds like a lot. Is it free to host? I wouldn't mind building up credits for a road trip later if I didn't have to pay. Also maybe a monthly price would make more sense as I tend to be on the road only for periods at a time. (or maybe even a per-booking fee?)<p>Anyways, yearly sub is kind of a non-starter for me though I like the concept.
It reminds me of a mooring exchange website I built 20 years ago, where boaters could freely exchange and/or temporarily use each other's moorings. I eventually pulled the plug because harbormasters were complaining about it and it was just consuming time (no monetization). Maybe I should try again with an annual fee ;)
$100? what is this paying for. surely $100 from one user can pay for the RDS instance and hosting for the entire year.<p>boondockers welcome was free for a long time before they introduced a fee. then they were $30 per year, and now $79.<p>What makes you better - a newer website, a shorter domain name? more chic graphics?
> All you need to provide is a parking spot and restroom access during designated hours<p>Why would restroom access be required for camping? That's not something normally associated with camping, is it? Is my idea of camping that far off?
There should be a Show HN rule that the OP needs to participate in their thread. Lots of good questions being asked about the legitimacy of this product but the OP is nowhere in sight.
Vanagon owners already have a network app (VanAlert) that's free (donation encouraged). We use one another's driveways and tools, and watch out for stolen vans. That feels like "community." This venture feels entirely like something else, like someone trying to make cash off a different type of van/RV dweller. <i>Cringe</i> Not sure I'd partipate, even if I do have property near two national parks!
Put the credits on a blockchain. Allow hosts to accumulate and sell them. When you're in the VC meeting for this keep using the phrase "blockchain meets the road". Once the VCs run out of money to give you, make sure you give your company a big genesis block and buy some tokens with your personal money. PUMP! Profit. Selling the company before the house of cards comes down is a bonus if you can time it right.
$100 / year. Since the idea is that you need to host as many times as you camp, that means that you'd be limited to camping only half the year: gotta stay home to host for the other half. So you could only hope to use 180 days, so the honest advertisement would be "at least $0.55 per night, but probably quite a bit more".<p>I guess if you can host several people at once then maybe you could do better?
I tried to build a community once with just a landing page and a contact form, it'll be hard - borderline impossible - to bootstrap like that.<p>Nice design though.
Nice design. One big thing though, when making an MVP, make sure the Product is actually Minimally Viable, because if it's not, it's just deceiving, which starts you off in a position of negative trust with the prospect. Trust is difficult, sometimes impossible to earn earn back.
We've gone from SNL making a skit about "LIVING IN A VAN, DOWN BY THE RIVER" to people on instagram doing #vanlife influencer stuff about how trendy it is to live in a converted van.
call me cynical but there are two possibilities . one option is it turns into a business and the other into something exploitative like a hookup app (see Couchsurfing )
I've noticed a trend on HN where people seem to complain about the price of things, even when they are not the target market.<p>Dominant case in point is the long discussion here over the $100 price point.<p>Is this a spill-over of the Open Source ideals many hold? That software, and by extension services should be gratis as well as libre?<p>People point out alternative (free) sites, and so on, as if the price matters. Or more accurately as if its the only thing that matters.
The website says "It's like having a friend-of-a-friend to crash with wherever you go, even on a powder day."<p>I don't know about you, but I have no idea what a "powder day" is. I assumed it meant skiing/snowboarding (ie, powder snow), but the first google result is urbandictionary about snorting drugs.<p>Just my 2c but I would maybe change that.