Meet the Forum team
Jenny - Community Manager
Jenny serves as a bridge between the Forum and the Trusted Housesitters platform. She’s here to help members communicate, solve problems, and feel like they belong. She talks to members, answers questions, handles concerns, and makes sure everyone follows these guidelines.
Therese, Maeve, and Sam - Moderators
Therese, Maeve, and Sam help keep online discussions friendly and helpful by watching what users do, making sure everyone follows the rules, and stepping in if there’s a problem.
Keep it kind
Let’s make TrustedHousesitters a friendly place for everyone! Respect is key. We love discussions, but let’s keep it kind and respectful. No rude language or personal attacks, please. If someone comments, please acknowledge them.
Let’s keep our space welcoming and safe for everyone here. Prejudice isn’t allowed. Please refrain from negative comments about age, race, religion, culture, or personal identity. We’re not big fans of discussing religion and politics, as they can sometimes lead to disharmony. The Forum team may close topics or remove posts that stir up unnecessary tension.
Membership Services issues
You’re more than welcome to ask our members for help or moral support with an issue relating to housesitting, but the Forum isn’t a formal branch of Membership Services, and the Forum team can’t directly assist you with Membership Services issues or emergencies.
In any instance where you need the direct support of Trusted Housesitters, you should contact Membership Services directly.
support@trustedhousesitters.com
Written communications
We’ve got members from 130+ countries worldwide, cool right?
During your time on the Forum you might see a phrase or term you don’t understand. If you do, reach out and be curious, but please also be kind.
Currently, our website is in English only, but we’re thinking about expanding that in the future. For the forum, it’s awesome if you post in English for more engagement. Or if you prefer, you can post in your language with an English translation below. Google can help with free translations. Thanks for being part of our global community!
No promotions, solicitation or spam
Let’s keep our community thriving by giving more than we take! Please avoid self-promotion, such as sharing blogs, websites, surveys, or social channels for personal gain. We’re all about genuine connections here, so spam and irrelevant links will be removed. This includes Refer A Friend (RAF) codes, affiliate links, and social media posts that aren’t related to TrustedHousesitters.
Sharing images
We love seeing your photos, but let’s keep them high-quality and appropriate, okay? Please avoid sharing explicit or sexual images. If you’re sharing images from someone else, make sure you have their permission. Also, when you post pictures on the forum, make sure you have permission from anyone in the photos, including homeowners and pets.
What we say on the forum stays on the forum
Being part of our community is all about trust and respect! We love having genuine, lively discussions that make our forum awesome. Remember, what’s shared here stays here. Let’s keep our space friendly and confidential!
No swearing!
We keep things clean and respectful here. Please avoid using bad language or profanities. If you wouldn’t say it in front of a child, let’s skip it here too. The Community platform follows a standard list of words that we don’t use in our forum, so if it comes across one, it might remove it.
Only post your own stuff
Please don’t share anything online that belongs to someone else without their permission. That includes screenshots of other people’s listings, screenshots of other people’s profiles, software, videos, music, images, and anything else protected by law. Let’s keep things respectful and legal. Also, it’s important to remember not to quote from personal messages or emails.
Owners - posting links to listings or details of a housesit
For everyone’s safety and privacy, please avoid posting house sit listings in forum topics or comments. We’re all about chatting and sharing advice, and experiences here, not promoting house sits or finding sitters. If you want to share your availability, feel free to add a link to your forum profile instead. Keeping listings on our website ensures fairness for all members and clarity in the process. However, if you have a last-minute sit starting within 7 days, you can post it in the Last Minute Sit category, following the guidelines there.
Sitters - requesting sitting opportunities
Please don’t post requests asking for sitting opportunities on the Forum. Use the THS platform to find sits instead! Keeping everything on the THS platform ensures fairness for all members and clarity in the process.
Moderation
Topic/Post Content: Sometimes, for the benefit of our community, we might need to tweak a post or close it. This could be due to privacy concerns, offensive language, or if it’s flagged as inappropriate. If we do, we’ll let you know why and what changes we’ve made.
Merges: We love all the discussions happening, but sometimes topics overlap. If your post fits better somewhere else, we might merge it with a related discussion to keep things organised and easy to find.
Titles: To ensure your posts get the attention they deserve, we might tweak titles and categories to make them more relevant and engaging.
A note about DMs… while the team don’t actively monitor member DMs, we do have access to them, and if another member flags conduct that breaks these guidelines then Jenny may access them as part of her investigation. Our advice is: if you wouldn’t say it in public, don’t say it in a DM!
See something that doesn’t look right?
Our fantastic Forum team is here to keep things running smoothly, but you play a crucial role too!
If you spot any behaviour that doesn’t sit right with you, please don’t engage with it directly. Replying might just keep the negativity going, drain your energy, and waste everyone’s time. Instead, hit that flag button! When we receive a specific number of flags on a post, we’ll step in either automatically or with a Forum team member’s helping hand.
To keep our community awesome, the Forum team reserves the right to remove any content or user accounts whenever necessary.
Banning and Members conduct
If you break any of our Forum rules, it might result in an instant and permanent ban.
That being said, banning is a last resort, and if there’s a breach of conduct you might just get a friendly heads-up with a formal warning via DM and a decrease in your Discourse trust levels.
When it comes to making these big decisions, Jenny is the final decision-maker.
The Forum team always have the best interests of the Forum at heart.
Keep it respectful with the Forum team
We’re all in this together!
The Forum team consists of sitters and owners just like yourself, here to lend a helping hand and make our community thrive!
At TrustedHousesitters, we’re big believers in spreading kindness and respect. That’s why we have a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to any form of abuse, personal attacks, trolling, or harassment directed towards our team members (or other Forum members).
Please interact with our team on the Forum with the same kindness and respect you’d like to receive yourself.
Our Terms of Service
We’re all about keeping things safe and secure, not just for us, but for you and your data too! We’ve got a Terms of Service (TOS) that lays out all the ins and outs of how we handle content, privacy, and laws, protecting both your rights and ours.
To use our service, you need to abide by our TOS.
New? Here’s how to use the forum
If you’re new to the Forum and curious about getting the most out of the basic options available in the Forum, we’ve got you covered! Check out our handy guide called “How to use our community forum” for all the details you need.