Within Ben’s announcement he states:
We have been testing this over the last month and have received positive feedback from members to say that this has helped prompt owners to confirm a sitter, and amend or remove the dates. We are now implementing these changes and this should go live in July.
We still don’t now who has given this positive feedback. We don’t know who was involved with the test which only lasted a month.
It’s a pity that THS are unwilling to, at the very least, trial a change to the 5 rule by increasing it to 10.
For me, this would show that THS had listened to the overwhelming negative feedback from its members and were willing to investigate further.
A positive opportunity missed.
Also, since Ben wrote that, sitters have adjusted their behaviour to the new regime. Now they often send short, hurried applications, that may not have been that well-considered.
And so have owners. I read here on the forum that some owners systematically decline the first five applicants (and send them a message to tell them they’re not really declined - yet) so they can get five more. And I can see for myself the number of sits in sought-after locations that pop-up again and again for the same dates as the owner fishes for ‘better’ sitters. Surely this shows that the limit of five is not working for people.
@LauraT - I’ve seen that happening as well: a sit fills up to 5, the same sit opens up again, fills up, opens up. So that’s an HO doing a lot of ‘fishing’ (and I can’t blame them) to see if they can get better candidates than the first 5 who rush in.
They might consider some of the rejected candidates if they can’t find a better one, but for time being they’re rejecting them as a workaround to get more applications in. But as an HO or sitter in principle you shouldn’t need workarounds that override the default THS setup just to make the exchange work
Hi everyone
Thank you for all of your feedback on my recent update. I just wanted to make sure that I reply to those who tagged me: @temba @Jtdunn @pietkuip
The Forum team is here to listen to and support our Forum members, with many of us being sitters or owners on the THS platform, but there is a limit to what we can do and what information we can share when it comes to topics like the pausing update.
We have passed on all of your feedback to the relevant teams and communicated their replies here as we want you to feel heard, and to provide as much information as we can.
Our Forum was created to be a place to discuss housesitting and provide peer-to-peer support and was never intended to be an extension of Membership Services, though we do our best to help out when a member reports that they’re not getting the help they need.
@temba thank you for the great idea to add a product section to the newsletter, I have fed that back to the Marketing team and as mentioned previously we’re aiming to make product updates more transparent and available to all of our members.
Thanks,
Carla
@Itchyfeet
Yep!! Same here. We have found ourselves rushing to send an application with barely a few words and not reading carefully the details of the sit and profile bc of this absurd issue. EVEN THEN, we have been too late as it goes from 0 - 5 in less than a minute!! I HATE not reading absolutely everything and sending a lame brief note with my application but the 5 max rule is driving us to, has you have said, abhorrent behavior.
Great question!!
Have to agree with you @Pawtastic. We made our listing live today and it went to 5 and auto paused in just over 30 minutes. We got an automated email message saying:
We’ve now paused your applications to give you a chance to review your first 5 sitters.
Here’s what you need to do… 
Review your sitters.
There are 5 keen sitters waiting in your inbox right now - don’t leave them hanging. Head to your inbox now to review your applications and get the conversations started.
Think you’ve found ‘the one’? 
Once you’ve found the perfect sitter (one your furry pal’s sure to love), confirm them via your inbox by clicking the ‘confirm sitter’ button.
No one ticking your boxes?
No bother. If these sitters aren’t quite right, simply pop them a quick message to say ‘thanks’, and decline them via your inbox. Then, unpause your dates to receive more new applications.
We got the above email message 5 times, each time we declined some applications and it reached 5 again and paused.
Home owners might not have known about the 5 and pause when it first came out but there is no way they can claim ignorance now if they are listing a sit.
I thought that that language had changed?
It is not clear for all non-English speakers. We had discussed that in a thread.
Edit: no, they only removed the “keen beans”. Unread sit applications - #42 by Therese
Language sounds like it belongs on a dating site 
No-one suitable, would be a better choice than “ticking your boxes”. I don’t understand some American abbreviations either, but then a London sit put
“Near the Lizzie line”, I’m English, and didn’t get that, eventually worked out it meant Elizabeth tube line.
Best not to use abbreviations and slang on an international site.
Yesterday, I caught myself about to use a phrase that might confuse non-native English speakers, so wrote more plainly. It can be hard to catch yourself, though.
Many years ago, I edited technical manuals that were to be translated into various languages and we tried to be conscious of it and still missed sometimes, with translators checking back. There’s a specialty called “localization” where people often make good money, because it can be tricky.
Or “no-one meeting your requirements”. They might still be suitable for other sits.
Many thanks for your suggestions on that specific wording @Chrissie & @pietkuip .
I have now passed this on to our product team.
Do you get the feeling THS employees are mainly young @Twitcher??
Thanks @Therese . My impression of the writing is much the same. My suggestion would be “more professionalism, less cuteness”.
I would say not young, but trying to sound like one!
Totally agree with you @weirdholyman but I think THS is trying to pitch itself to the younger Instagram influencer demographic so professionalism is out, cute vibes are in. Hence the holiday for free in exotic places advertising. The result that’s getting is lots of unsuitable sitters and cranky home owners.
Don’t even get me started on “pet parents”. I don’t know a single person who’s ever given birth to a cat or dog! 