Ramon Stoppelenburg

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Ramon Stoppelenburg

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Born
in Leiden, Netherlands
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September 2014

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Ramon left a mark on the internet before it all got very big and social, has published several books in The Netherlands and moved to Cambodia in 2011, Georgia in 2021, ended up in Morocco in 2022 and now lives in Portugal. He does not settle easily.

He was the first ever digital nomad as he had his own social network already running in 2001. Others even called him the Godfather of Couchsurfing.

In 2018, the Dutch Royal Library designated the Letmestyaforaday.com website as UNESCO Digital Heritage, internationally recognized in the 2003 UNESCO Charter on the Preservation of the Digital Heritage.

In 2020, he was among the final 50 candidates out of a total of 2,400 applications for NASA’s astronaut candidate program. He didn’t make it to the fi
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Ramon Stoppelenburg Living alone in Phnom Penh, I always heard my neighbor lady crying through the thin walls every night. Yesterday I learned the apartment next door has…moreLiving alone in Phnom Penh, I always heard my neighbor lady crying through the thin walls every night. Yesterday I learned the apartment next door has been empty for three years.(less)
Ramon Stoppelenburg In 2001, I created one of the first social networks on the internet — Letmestayforaday.com — which connected me with over thousands of strangers who o…moreIn 2001, I created one of the first social networks on the internet — Letmestayforaday.com — which connected me with over thousands of strangers who opened their homes to me across five continents. For almost three years, I lived this radical experiment in trust, a journey that UNESCO later recognized as digital heritage.

But here’s the mystery: what happened to all those people?

These weren’t just hosts — they were early digital pioneers who believed in a stranger’s story before Facebook, Twitter and even Instagram even existed, before algorithms decided who we should trust.

Then the internet changed. From 2007 social media took over. Most of them vanished, their change of ISP changed their email addresses forever. Some moved country. Some died. Many just disappeared into the digital ether.

The book would follow a protagonist trying to track down those lost connections 30+ years later — only to realize that some of them never existed quite the way he remembered. Were the connections as real as they felt? Did the digital personas match the people behind them? And what happens when you start to question whether your most meaningful relationships might have been performances all along?

It’s part detective story, part meditation on digital identity, part reckoning with the mythology we create around our own past. Because maybe the real mystery isn’t where those people went — but whether the version of myself who lived that adventure was ever real to begin with.

That’s actually what my Dutch novel-in-progress, Het Laatste Hostel, explores — the gap between who we are online, and who we are when nobody’s watching.(less)
Average rating: 3.08 · 25 ratings · 2 reviews · 1 distinct work
Letmestayforaday: zonder ee...

3.08 avg rating — 25 ratings — published 2004 — 2 editions
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Fragments

Between the stone faces of Bayon and the silent fields where bones still whisper, a country emerges from morning mist, carrying its ghosts with quiet dignity. Ancient temples breathe in jungle air, while motorbikes weave through Phnom Penh streets, vendors call out with rhythmic precision, and children play along the Tonlé Sap’s edge History sits heavy on tired shoulders, not a burden but a testam

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Published on June 06, 2025 03:42
Orbital
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Audrey Niffenegger
“Don't you think it's better to be extremely happy for a short while, even if you lose it, than to be just okay for your whole life?”
Audrey Niffenegger, The Time Traveler's Wife

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