The forum team would like to share an important function update with you all.
As our wonderful forum community grows there are more and more new topics and members engaging, which is fantastic! It is a growing hub of extremely helpful pet and housesitting information and peer-to-peer support and we are keen to support the community as it grows.
In light of this, we do not want to lose any of that important information and helpful content that can benefit the community and future members.
We also want to make sure that threads do not become nonsensical after an entire discussion has been had, to help achieve this the system will now limit the time that a post or comment can be edited by the poster to 30 minutes after posting and there will be no option to delete the post/comment.
The forum team, @Jenny and I are on hand to help with any posts that you need help with. If you think you have made a mistake when posting please DM us and we will assist you.
The goal is to keep everything on the forum as explained above so it can be a good idea to have a quick double check before you post. There is also a draft option where you can save a post for later and revisit it. If you need help with that just let us know.
Also to reassure everyone that posts will still be edited and removed if they breach any of the community guidelines
The option to flag posts is still very much available and these will still be reviewed as we have always done. It’s a great opportunity to thank everyone for helping to keep the community a place everyone wants to be
Please feel free to comment with any questions, we will collect those and get back to you with any additional information.
Please bring back the ability to delete a post or comment.
Recently I was going through a long thread and made replies to posts as I was reading it only to discover later that there was another response that handled my concern making my previous reply unnecessary so I tried to delete my reply but could not.
A member could also delete a post that was written in haste or which they might regret.
Keeping the ability to delete posts gives members control in the best manner possible - which is what the forum is all about, right?
Yes, agree. I don’t understand this change at all. For some reason an old topic appeared at the top of the list, and I realised I’d replied to a 2 month old comment. Tried to delete: couldn’t. No big deal, but could be highly embarrassing for some.
@Cuttlefish yes I tried today to delete a post but can’t. I knew it was happening from a previous notification but it’s a darn nuisance that’s for sure! Sometimes we post in haste or make a mistake etc etc and wish to withdraw the post. I think it’s important to be able to remove a post as it could actually prevent retribution or negative replies that you don’t wish to have or be a part of as sometimes things are written before we put our brains into gear 🫨 Sorry to go off topic.
– Forum members can only edit their own posts and comments for 30 minutes, but the forum team can edit members’ posts and comments at any time, whether we desire it or not?
– And forum members can never delete their own posts or comments, but the forum team can?
I’m sure this change has been made with good intentions, but it seems… lopsided.
I’ve learned a lot from this forum, but it has been the most heavily moderated forum or community I’ve ever been a part of, in like 25 years.
And now we have even less control over our own comments and posts?
.
I know you guys are trying to make sure this is a helpful and friendly place.
Personally, I think carefully before posting. I’ve never deleted a comment, and I’ve only edited for clarity and typos.
But to have even less control over our own words, when the forum team edits and deletes (and relocates) members’ posts and comments constantly… that feels a bit weird!
.
As a community manager and social media manager myself, I understand how squirrelly forums are. I appreciate the work y’all do.
But I’m wary about this new restriction. (even though it may never affect me personally.)
@ziggy@Wetravel@Sunshine_G Thank you for all of your feedback, we know it is a new behaviour on the forum so it will take a little getting used to. This is an important step for the health of the community as it grows (check out my above post to recap on the reasons) however if any major mistakes are made @Jenny and I are always on hand to help!
Yes. I already had a response that was deleted by the new management (comparing the new colour scheme to deckchairs on the Titanic, asking why we could not have a legend/key at the calendar). It just disappeared.
I saw that comment before it was deleted
Rest assured if your comments are positive they will remain on the forum along with the cute photos and fluff. No doubt I will be in trouble now
we do not want to lose any of that important information and helpful content that can benefit the community and future members.
MY point as I wrote previously that sometimes we write in haste or before our brains are fully engaged. This can, and definitely does, cause issues and definitely does not become helpful OR benefit the community and future members. It just causes short threads to become long, sometimes negative ones. We are all human and this happens.
I often removed posts as replies I received were neither beneficial or kind and so to prevent the discussion going any further, it was easier and far better for the community to remove the post. This to me sounds way better for everyone than leaving unnecessary posts up, causing friction, off topic posts and retaliatory posts. I also sometimes like to change the tone of my post as after a while I re-read what I have written and realise the tone was wrong and could be misinterpreted so it is easier to rephrase what I write. These things don’t automatically happen when we initially write our post and I believe it BECOMES beneficial when I rephrase my wording. We are all adults here and should know what is right and wrong and deal with our own posts accordingly. I don’t feel it’s something we really NEED to get used to, or need to ask the mods to “fix”.
I really believe this is a completely unnecessary change and with all due respect, I think it actually hurts the community rather than benefits the health of the community. I know I’m not alone in feeling this way.
Sorry @luckycat I was writing my reply and the same time as you and missed it!
Members posts will only ever be edited or deleted by the team in line with the community guideline and posting terms that all members agree to. So everything posted within those will remain untouched by the team. If a post is edited or deleted the member will get a DM from the team explaining why along with a copy of the relevant terms.
We have looked at how other forums function, along with other Discourse forums and the reason for this new update is so that we do not lose lots of valuable information or posts, we want to keep the content here on the forum for the benefit of you all. It’s not great when you read a thread and several connecting comments are missing or whole topics are removed. As we grow this is not sustainable for the health of the community, with potentially hundreds of posts and topics being deleted.
@ziggy I understand these concerns and we have a great team on hand to help should any mistakes be made or any heated posts break out that breach any guidelines -nothing has changed in that respect. Our DM’s are always open!
Thank you for all of your feedback it will be passed to the forum team.
@Carla I would have thought that the team has far more important things to do than changing a phrase or a word on a topic e.g. With so many other things going on, I wouldn’t have put this at the forefront.
But the race has been run and I guess it’s too late to pick a winner, looks like we lost the race.
Hello @pietkuip I am sorry that you were unhappy your post was edited and moved, I can see that Jenny popped a note on as to why and it was moved to a new topic so other members can engage while keeping the other topic on track.
I will copy in @Twitcher as well just a quick reminder that the forum team are here to support the community and the forum guidelines of kindness and respect include interacting with the forum team as well as other users. If you are unhappy with anything our DM’s are always open, we are a pretty approachable bunch! No one is ever in trouble we are just a forum team guiding our members to keep to the forum terms that everyone has agreed to
I’ve been wasting too much time here anyway. This will cause me to spend even less time and comment less. I have a tendency to make stupid embarressing typos and don’t always catch them. I’m not going to contact the mods because I left out a word or made a spelling error, but the idea that this will be a permanant error is enough to keep me quiet.
Also wanted to add, that this may have the opposite effect, and make conversations even more repetitive and “nonsensical” as commenters won’t be able to remove repetitive comments and fix errors.
Also, the effect will be to make everything more heavy-handed. If someone says something clumsily or it is offensive and only “moderators” can fix it, they may “fix” things in ways that weren’t the intent of the writer. I don’t want my content changed and still represented with my name. I’d rather a post be deleted by the moderators than that my intent be interpretted. This whole thing makes the forum feel more artificial and less authentic or helpful.
Further, I’d propose that threads simply get CLOSED after a certain amount of time. People looking for solutions should be promoted SEARCH for closed threads that address an issue before starting a new thread. Even continuously active threads should be closed. I have found myself responding to the opening post on threads, only to notice later that the thread was started years before and the issue has been long since resolved.
@Marion Thank you for your feedback, I understand the concerns if you make a small typo etc, the great news is you have 30 mins after each post/comment to edit them, so there should still be time when you read it back after posting it.
I hope to reassure you further that if a post or comment is offensive and the user does not edit it in the 30 mins after posting then it will be dealt with as we always have done, in line with our posting terms. It is also likely to be flagged by other users, which we always appreciate
Thank you for your suggestions about closing threads. We try and keep many of them open as new forum users or members new to housesitting might join and find them very relevant even months later, they might want to add to the conversation or share some new information, that could reopen the discussion around that specific topic. But we can certainly look at very old threads or if the topic is no longer relevant.
Just to let you know when a member posts we do have a pop-up that shows similar threads and asks if they would like to post on one of those topics rather than starting a new one about the same thing. We also have a pop-up when a member comments on an old thread letting them know that it is old and that are they sure that they really want to reopen the thread.
As the forum continues to grow we will reevaluate how best to use these features. Thank you for all of your suggestions so far
Dear Carla, It seems that this change is very unpopular. I would like to delete a post and can’t. While you are the decision makers on this site, it is important that you consider the views, needs and wants of the people that pay to use it. Thank you.
I’m really sorry you feel that way, we understand that some people might not like the change, but we aren’t planning to review the decision and the current policy will remain in place.
While we generally don’t delete posts from the Forum, @Carla and I are always happy to consider what can be done on an ad hoc basis so you’re welcome to reach out to us via DM.
I (as well as many others) would like to know with 100% certainty that when someone raises safety/health concerns about other users due to a user/post within the THS forum, if a member from THS Membership Support staff contacts that respective party?
If THS is policing threads without care for users safety or easily identifiable inaccuracies within a forum posting, I have other qualms that I can take to emailing Membership Support for improving THS Customer Service and the User Experience.
Because the Forum is here to provide peer-to-peer support for non-urgent questions, one of our regular members often will signpost users to Membership Services to get the help they need, if they can’t assist directly. On occasion, they’ll even show someone where emergency contact details are as well.
That being said, every situation is different, so if for example, we see an urgent situation while reading new posts or if a Forum member flags a post, the Forum team will go ahead and ask Membership Services to make contact with the member. We’ll then check in with Membership Services after a day or so to make sure everything’s been sorted out.
If you have any specific concerns over user safety or identifiable inaccuracies, please feel free to drop a line to @Carla and I and we’ll be happy to help.
I see the entire THS is now under the improvement spell. If you’d like to enhance the quality of this forum and make sense of the content flow, I suggest you look at real forums, the ones that thread the posts. No matter how many posts you edit or delete, Discourse will not improve a thing
Hello @anon47943759 Sorry if there was any confusion The forum has always been provided by Discourse since its inception. We were just aligning with how other forums provided by Discourse operate.
This post was to highlight that we don’t want to delete post or edit posts! (unless we really need to).
Thank you for your suggestion about threading posts we will look into it
