Speak your mind, but watch your mouth: Complaints in CouchSurfing References

This paper examines the objectification strategies used by members of the hospitality network CouchSurfing to perform complaints in peer references. Complaints on CouchSurfing pose a threat to the face of the complainant as well as the complainee, since unfounded complaints may deduct from the complainant’s trust capital on the network. In order to balance the need for honest references and the desire to protect their positive face, reference writers heavily invest in objectivity. This sets CouchSurfing apart from offline complaining contexts, which involve redress to the addressee’s face, and other CMC environments which exhibit little modification of complaint. In addition to traditional objectification strategies such as empiricist discourse, witness corroboration, graphic description and script formulations, our subjects draw on mitigation as a supportive move.