I’m not that new on this forum. I’ve been a member on here for a year and have posted and commented before.
3 Likes
I only know because I’ve read others experience. These things should be much more visible on the website along with the other imbalances that have been highlighted by contributors to this post.
2 Likes
Thanks for sharing that info! The improvements made earlier this year when they added ‘Accessible by public transport’ filter were very welcome and I hope they take more feedback on board on this topic, too.
3 Likes
Hi @TomorrowTamara. Hmm, I think I was misunderstood, so I’ll try to clarify. I’m not the biggest fan of merging posts. At the least, the subject line gets lost for the new post. And sometimes a subject has more nuance, because every sit/pet is unique.
On the other hand, if they did merge your post to another, I do think it would still be seen. I always check posts by what’s newest. And if a post is merged in, that bumps it back to new. To be fair, I’ve had time to get used to Discourse and how to navigate it (e.g., jumping to the most recent post in a topic, or the oldest one I haven’t read), and I recall an unintuitive learning curve in the beginning.
In the end, I think it’s good/better that we have your topic as a separate one. And again, I’m glad you fought for that.
That said, one of the reasons I replied was your use of the word “manipulation,” twice. It could be construed as calling someone else manipulative. If you meant it that way, well, that’s not very kind. And if you didn’t, it’s still easy for someone else to infer that. And I was just trying to point out that I truly don’t believe the merging of posts is done for manipulative reasons (e.g., to bury a post). At least, I fully believe in the intentions of the current moderation team. Merging is simply merging, or moving; streamlining; condensing.
This did make me think: Discourse does have features to help with moderation, like you can put a topic into “slow” mode or maybe require further posts to be approved. The intended use there is to avoid a mob mentality, toxic replies, things said in the heat of the moment, etc. Again, those features are not meant to hurt anyone; rather, they are meant to support the community.
3 Likes
I agree with the general sentiment, but I very very strongly disagree with this point:
- If one party doesn’t leave a review for another, it will automatically give the other party a 5 star/positive review on their profile
(it’s not one party’s fault the other didn’t care or forgot, and we all know how much reviews mean to sitters, as often owners won’t give newbies a chance)
I don’t think there should be any review/feedback on anyone’s profile that was not explicitly written and approved by the other involved party, be it five stars, zero stars, or anything in between.
I can appreciate that a lack of reviews makes it difficult for newer sitters, but this solution would do nothing but break trust in the platform. At worst it would mislead uninformed sitters/HOs by indicating a terrible HO/sitter is a great one. At best, informed members would simply learn to ignore the empty 5-star reviews, so this wouldn’t even address the issue you’re hoping to fix.
This is to say nothing of the fact that right now many people actively choose not to leave a review instead of explicitly writing a bad review. To make the default 5-star review a viable option at all, THS would firstly need to communicate the change to everyone (which they are demonstrably terrible at doing), and secondly would need to change the default human behavior (which is hard to do, as evidenced by the billions of dollars the advertisement industry dumps into this every year).
14 Likes
I agree with Adelia. 5 star reviews should be earned, not scattered around like confetti, that’s when they become meaningless.
11 Likes
This is a terrible idea. That’s essentially a fake-positive review.
11 Likes
THS needs to get more involved in the review system. They should be mediating complaints with a better solution than both parties agreeing not to leave a review. Sometimes the disputes aren’t serious but are people being inconsiderate.
With growing membership also comes a responsibility to keep everyone safe especially for pets that don’t have a voice.
We are going into stranger’s home and letting strangers into our home to care for our furry family members. As to date it’s been reasonable to assume the people who would join this type of pet loving travel exchange will be people you can trust.
As has been the case with Uber and Airbnb things can go wrong if ill intent or irresponsible people participate. Both of these platforms have much larger membership numbers but THS is actively trying to grow numbers.
ANN MARIE
10 Likes
Thank you for bringing up the discrepancies between the reviews! This is something that we have requested several times over the past few years, and to date THS has ignored our requests. We also have sat in properties that, while the HO were nice and the animals quite well behaved, the house was so dirty that we had to clean everything before we felt comfortable eating. There was no way to tactfully say this within the current review system.
7 Likes
Well I did have to cancel a sit earlier this year, because I’d been diagnosed with breast cancer and was about to have radiotherapy. I explained to the HO, and they were very nice and understanding about it.
4 Likes
So well said, Tamara! I’m a HO and I agree with every single thing you said. Regarding someone’s comment that they guessed TH couldn’t change the code. They can change the code any time they want. They just aren’t doing so.
8 Likes
@janestheone , I hope your treatment has gone well and that your health is much improved. Sending you good wishes.
6 Likes
I’m so curious about this because I work in software myself, and have done both front-end and back-end development. The kinds of changes us members want aren’t terribly complicated, unless they did a very shoddy job at the beginning and their whole infrastructure needs to be refactored. Of course, I know it’s never as simple as writing the code itself, and there’s overhead around project planning, capacity, testing, and such. But even so, from a technical standpoint this website/app is quite simple and shouldn’t be so laborious to maintain! Sometimes when THS introduces a change I disagree with or lets a known bug sit for months I think about starting up my own website… but then I think about all the business administration involved and quickly give it up, hah!
11 Likes
Excellent points @TomorrowTamara … I’ve also experienced some unpleasant beds, aggressive pets etc.
I’d love the option to pass on advice to the next cat sitter on how to handle the violent cat! Cos clearly the pet owner has a very different experience and their advise hasn’t worked.
5 Likes
I find it difficult to understand why the maximum of saved searches in the web interface is 3 and 10 in the mobile apps. This discrepancy has existed for several years. It does not make sense.
Likewise to add a little legend or key to the calendar. This has been confusing since forever. It is just so simple to do in the user interface.
And missing references only being visible in the mobile apps. It does not make sense.
That is why I believe there is shoddy code that they do not dare touch.
3 Likes
Right?! Humans have walked on the moon so I’m pretty sure they can make these desired changes. Perhaps they’re just not making enough money from our annual subscriptions to do it. Or perhaps they don’t want to cut into their profit margin. Who knows? But it can be done!
5 Likes
Well thought out and expressed. There is clearly a very unsatisfactory imbalance between HO and sitters at the present time and you’ve put forward plenty of good suggestions about how things can be improved. Like others, I don’t agree that no review is an automatic five stars - but I think that data still needs to be shown, perhaps as “% of reviews completed” in the same style as your other suggestions.
In the meantime we all watch and wait as THS do their mystical, behind-the-scenes shuffling and not much happens. It would be great if they were more upfront with us about how they’re making improvements and what they’re trialling as well as some time framework for implementation.
8 Likes
I wish that the arrangement between TH management and subscribers was more like democracy instead of the current oligarchy.
Because really, why couldn’t we vote for which of the improvements have priority? Those that have recently been implemented are NOT what most people, whether HO or HS, are asking (begging?) for.
For example:
Each subscription gets one vote… If someone is a dual member, they would get 2 votes. I would hope that they don’t vote in a way that cancels their votes out haha! …but as the number of sitters is greater than the homeowners, it would probably work out fairly.
6 Likes
This is so thorough, thank you for this post. I have sit for lovely folks, but there are certain things that often go overlooked by the HO. I do think the new review system will encourage everyone to be more honest with their feedback, which will benefit everyone. Additionally,
I think providing a Welcome Guide or some written instruction should be mandatory- i.e. the HO can’t go live with their listing until they’ve posted an updated Welcome Guide, that is hidden from sitters until their sit is confirmed, and HOs should not be able to post new dates without first reviewing their last sitter. Sometimes mandates are the only way to hold folks accountable.
10 Likes
Tbh I think part of the Welcome Guide that pertains to pet and home care should be available BEFORE agreeing to a sit.
I’ve had relaxed video and message communication with the HOs, who then shared a Welcome Guide a week before the sit started. Once I read the pages and pages of duties that weren’t previously mentioned being as extensive, I wished I could’ve cancelled. But I already booked my flights and they were travelling to another continent so I didn’t want to ruin anyone’s experience.
Another HO only said their dog loves being around people but didn’t mention the dog absolutely cannot be left alone and I have to take it everywhere with me. (this HO didn’t have a Welcome Guide but did fill out my self-made form but even in it, they didn’t mention it.
10 Likes