A lot of the sitters (maybe even the majority) I get applications from are couples, but the Inbox view shows only the first word in their profile’s name. This makes it harder to tell when I’m reviewing applications who’s actually going to be coming, and I have to navigate back and forth between the message thread and their profile. It would be much better for me to see their full name.
As a sitter I don’t see what difference it makes. You can read their profile and decide whether she/he/they are likely a good fit for you. I often don’t know owners’ surnames until I see them on their post.
T.H. opening up more than a first name introduces a LOT of considerations that I fear T.H.’s product team isn’t mature enough to manage and think through the repercussions from all angles (from the cack-handed decisions I’ve seen come from them so far, such removing sitter’s ability to cancel a sit, no matter how far in advance of the actual sit).
For single sitters the 2nd word would most likely be their surname, which opens up safety issues for sitters such as stalking, both online and off, particularly for women sitters, but also in general. . Whilst sitters have to provide a legal national id to the site, it is unknown if the same precaution of taking national ID from owners has occurred (and again, I doubt T.H. has).
This also opens up issues of personal identification and rights to privacy that as individuals, everyone has the right to enjoy; it should be up to an individual how much of their personal data is shared and whether they wish to have their full name exposed to a ‘potential’ sit, versus once the sit is confirmed.
This requester (apexskier) doesn’t acknowledge that when interviewing a sitter, it is easy enough to ask the person whether or not that have a partner who would be in attendance with them. If they don’t believe the answer, they don’t have to engage them to sit. If this user (apexskier) just generally doesn’t accept that the sitter would be honest with them as to who will be in attendance, well, that’s this person’s own trust issues and frankly, goes against the tenant of this site: “TRUSTED housesitters”.
And perhaps I should point out? Sitters have a LOT less information about owners during the interview process, we can’t even enlarge their photos to see them clearly and for all we know the house and pet pics could be taken from anywhere.
As for apexskier’s applications, if you don’t want couples sitting for you, you can make that request or perhaps you have so many pets that single sitters think it would be overwhelming to sit for you?
Sorry, I might not have been clear - I’m not asking for surname, just for the name in messages to match the name I can see on the profile. E.g if the profile says “Sue & Joe” I want to see “Sue & Joe” in messages instead of the current “Sue”. I don’t have a problem with couples sitting at all, it’s just an expectations thing.
