In general, it's up to each group to define its own policy.
Unfortunately though, as you say we have some people that believe that
CouchSearch is the One True Way, and try to enforce it everywhere. I
could give you arguments both for and against asking for a couch in a
group; but as I said, my opinion is that each group should really set
its own policy, according to the wishes of its members.

  Arguments against couch requests in groups:

  - They are impersonal; they are similar to sending copy-paste
requests to a lot of people (which is generally frowned upon). No
attempt is made to seek out compatible hosts and/or try to make a
connection with them.

  - They are often posted by people who are new to CS, and aren't
familiar with CouchSearch at all, so it might benefit them if they are
shown that approach.

  - In busy cities and during busy periods, they can easily drown the
group.

  Arguments for them:

  - They make it easier for people that are way down the list (and
therefore don't get requests) to host.

  - They make it possible to find hosts that don't actually advertise
having a couch available (because they can host very very rarely, for
example).

  Personally, I don't mind it when people say "we've contacted people
directly and had no luck, so now we're trying the group". I'm a bit
less sympathetic of people that go to the group directly, I would
politely point them to CouchSearch with a short explanation of what it
is and why it would benefit them. Also for groups that get *lots* of
these requests, it's usually better to create a devote subgroup I
reckon.

My £0.02,
Vasilis

--
Vasilis Vasaitis
"A man is well or woe as he thinks himself so."