BeWelcome suffers from quite toxic and counterproductive internal politics and petty power struggles. And the fact that the few founders maintaining control refuse to invest anything of substance in the code just _barely_ holding the site together.
Their constant boasts of "purely democratic!" and "proudly spending zilch on technical talent!" are in reality, massive liabilities and impediments. The site has barely seen any growth in about eight years, and without "enough" users, it provides little value to anyone except the small, core group. Which they're perfectly fine with.
Several extremely talented coders who invested tons of time and skill into CS and BW over the years, finally started this last December:
BeWelcome is frequently on the verge of collapse, and IMO is simply too small and unreliable to be of genuine value. It serves mainly the French folks who set it up nearly a decade ago, as a form of protest against the founder of HC. Some sort-of funny criticism is here: openbw.blogspot.com
If you want to see a _really_ ambitious CS-replacement project, sign-up at trustroots.org! These guys are experienced travelers and hosts, and very skilled and up-to-date, professional coders. They invested years of unpaid tech talent into CS and BW, before finally starting their own site last winter.
I cannot disagree with the reasoning behind wanting to avoid an empty return trip. However, as a customer with a legit need, this isn't really my problem. Either the city, or the cab co, or the cabbie needs to resolve this problem, not me. The law exists for a very good reason, like many other "consumer protection" laws.
I don't see it as a moral issue, in the least. The law was created, for a very good reason. Prior to the law, I've no doubt the public got screwed over, often, and on a regular basis. Let alone "less desirable" fares.
I disagree. Being required to take you almost anywhere you ask, most likely arose because of racial discrimination. That's perfectly well thought out.
The cabbies or cab companies are allowed by the city to operate, and that's a nearly steady stream of money, based on a limited number of medallions. The least the public can expect, is that any authorized cab will take them to where they want to go.
And yeah, I avoid the black car "limos" whenever possible. They're like vermin way-uptown (way, way too many of 'em), and they charge whatever they feel like charging. Always negotiate that fee before you get in.
I don't feel sorry for cabbies. It's not much more of a job than a shoe-shine boy with a driver's license, and some of these guys still shouldn't be behind the wheel.
It's also better, as a customer, once you learn the map yourself. I've had these guys deliberately take congested or longer, round-about routes, to jack up the price. Once you know the map yourself, you can sometimes insist on a certain route, within reason.
Tons of NYC cabbies were also recently busted leaving some kind of "outer borough surcharge" feature engaged on the meter, within Manhattan where it doesn't apply. Tell me how all the money they raked in over the years doing this, could ever be returned to the customers?
It's an adversarial relationship, IMO. I don't trust a single one of 'em, as far as I could throw his non-English-speaking, sweat-stinking a. To generalize.
"New Yorkers know this. Transplants from CT, NJ or whatever cul-de-sac in Wisconsin you people are coming from lately, frankly you deserve whatever crap treatment you get from cabbies."
Really? Guess what? Everyone in NYC is a transplant, at some point. And everyone has to learn just how things work, in detail, over time. It's a process, not a badge to brag about. Natives are the worst...
Yup, has happened to me. They wouldn't go too far out of Manhattan, midtown exactly, because they're getting ready to clock out and leave midtown. Was supremely annoying, in the rain. And I was only going uptown about 20 blocks. After three refusals, I wasn't so open about my destination when I just got into the next one. I was thinking to myself, "what a crock of sh*t, I can't get a cab between 4:00 and 4:30?! In Manhattan?!"
Heroku is killing it in RoR today, but I also noticed their rates jump up real fast.
The reason is, they're on the forefront in this area, and really don't have any legit competition yet. They make it so, so easy to get going, and people rave about this constantly.
I'm a WebFaction guy, they hit just the right point for me, with regard to price vs. features vs. a technically competitive/modern configuration.
I haven't started moving into cloud services yet, because I just have a natural aversion to "leasing" as opposed to owning, though I realize a hired host isn't much different.
I just see all the cloud services nickle-and-diming you to death - the meter is always running, all the time, in small ways and large. A flat monthly fee is plenty enough for me to worry about.
With Heroku, they've obscured so many of the sub-components behind cute, fabricated names... I don't want to have to worry about contracting enough cycles, or workers, or R2D2's, or time, or speed.
Though I realize this does work well for some users, I'm not that kind of user.
Their constant boasts of "purely democratic!" and "proudly spending zilch on technical talent!" are in reality, massive liabilities and impediments. The site has barely seen any growth in about eight years, and without "enough" users, it provides little value to anyone except the small, core group. Which they're perfectly fine with.
Several extremely talented coders who invested tons of time and skill into CS and BW over the years, finally started this last December:
trustroots.org
github.com/Trustroots/trustroots/
Who's into MEAN? Drop them a line!