Inbox update - June 2024 Release

Hi @Carla - one of the reasons that people have NOT been converting back to the old inbox, is because it hasn’t been possible!

Already a month ago I searched and searched to try and find HOW to revert to the old inbox. I couldn’t find any way to do it…so I had no choice but to stick with the new much-less-functional inbox.

I would not be surprised if more members have experienced this issue: no way to convert back pre July 16, even if they wanted to! So numbers of members converting back may not be representative

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I am seriously unimpressed with the new in box.

I have received 6 unsolicited invitations this week and I have replied to them all. I prefer to send at least a couple of paragraphs thanking them for the invitation and explaining why I am unavailable. I know that is my choice but it is how I like to do things.

If they have a poor listing I sometimes offer advice on how to attract more applications.

With a text box the size of a postage stamp it is proving very difficult.

Give us something we can work with or many will just decline without any message at all.

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It’s the worst change they’ve made to the site since preventing sitters from contacting hosts (due to ‘crossover’). Horrendous.

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Carla, it’s really distressing not being able to ‘search’ my inbox. Why did the developers think this is a good idea?

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I just had this happen. I applied for a sit I had favorited and the next day looked in my inbox to see if it had been read only to find out I had been in contact with the host previously. I had applied before and shortly after, she realized she need to change her dates and I was not available for the new dates. Now I applied as if we had never had previous communication thanks the the new dysfunctional messaging system. So, I look like an idiot since the HO can see the whole thread that I was unable to see until after applying. I’m just sending an apology to the HO for the odd communication and withdrawing my application.

Why are the many problems with the new inbox not being fixed? There are serious issues that impede members’ ability to use the site.

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@systaran @Bluehorse @Shella_in_the_Forum @luckycat
you can also report the issue to member services yourselves - since they don’t read the forum .

Maybe if enough individuals raise the same issue, the product team will be asked reverse this particular change which is of no benefit and instead impedes effective communication

E-mail :
Support@trustedhousesitters.com.

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It was already reported to the forum moderators (@Carla), who were going to pass it on to the team.

I haven’t been on THS much (if at all) in the past 1.5-2 months, and I’m really surprised to see that such a simple but crucial issue re inbox design & functionality still hasn’t been addressed!

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Folks, especially mods, given the length of this one thread alone, I am not sure anybody in the dev team has involved a QA team to shoot the app to crap, so they could find all the bugs. I am also pretty sure there was no usability study, given even the web version of the inbox is a really bad implementation that doesn’t allow you to resize columns, or search properly, or resize the input field, etc… (it hard resizes upon your input and is limited to six lines.) This is not how one does web programming these days. Even five years ago this would have been considered abysmal (and they were on reactive layout back then). If you are doing this inhouse - please outsource at least QA, but more importantly UX.

Also, given the obvious lack of UX knowledge in the dev team, please make things available for testing to everybody, and listen to the feedback. Some things don’t need changing. And a web app does NOT need to look like a phone app. Actually, it just shouldn’t, it’s really bad design.

And I am only looking at the web version, not the apps (not using them), but what I read is horrifying. First and foremost things must be working, and given technical rules must be adhered to by the software. An error in that regard is not a glitch. If somebody can be double-booked or not apply, or not read things, this is a serious error that should have been eliminated in QA. You are dealing with paying customers.

I personally also consider the whole of the website very outdated, much too fragmented to be nicely usable, contents split up with no discernible semantic linking, like it was done randomly or at a whim, and I don’t even see the sitter side of the coin. That could and must (after so many years it’s been so bad) be improved.

But having faulty functionality is definitely a no-go. People here are paying for the platform to work.

Elmar.

PS: Btw, in the forums, resizing is not a problem (well, vertically at least), so I wonder who’s making the decisions and why.

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Oh, just to followup on my own message (in German we called it “doing the Ingrid”):

I know that the mods can’t speak for the dev team or make changes. Please don’t feel offended, you are just the bearer of messages.

If you see a way, then please make it heard that almost everybody is extremely unsatisfied with the THS webinterface and the apps.

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That is because the forum was programmed by the developers behind discourse.org which is open source.

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Yes, I’m a complete layman in this regard but I’ve not seen such poor inbox & application box/field design in quite a long time… the previous ones could certainly use an update, but the new version is more like going back to the early days of the internet…

As mentioned 2 days ago, I’m very surprised no urgent fixes have been applied since it’s June launch. We’re still stuck with year 2000 design of the application field etc…

Oh, and to add: when applying for a sit & not being totally sure as to whether I communicated with the HO before, I feel I should probably now start to include a standard ‘just in case’ apology since I don’t remember every HO I’ve communicated with in the past 10 years, the application field no longer will show me prior comms with them, and the inbox no longer can be searched.

It makes me look silly if I don’t acknowledge prior conversations, hence a standard apology might be required pointing out the possibility to the HO that we were in touch in the past but that I don’t remember every interaction and have no possibility to know till after having sent the message…

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Hello everyone!

I just wanted to let you know that I’ve spoken to the Product team and let them know about this more recent feedback.

I know they’re looking at it, and if there’s any info from them that I can pass back along here, then I will do :slight_smile:

Jenny

Question (maybe I missed this): I just realized that I can no longer see in the Inbox whether an HO has read my message! Is this true?? Or am I missing something?

If they have read it, it says read, well, it shows a picture of an eye, so I have assumed if it says nothing they haven’t.
Understanding this is not intuitive @Carla unless you have a read message to compare it to.

My view via the website:

IMG_9240

My view via the app:

Don’t know what your views are or why you’re missing the read indicators.

No, I don’t have that. Was communicating with an HO yesterday, and there’s no ‘read’ notifications on the messages she read from me (e.g. she responded to them)

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Once the other side responds the ‘read’ message sign disappears (at least as I see it on the app)
You will see read/unread only until the other side responds.

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The website inbox might be a better bet.

On that view, the read/unread sticks even after the other party replies, at least in my view. (Late-model phone, with most recent iOS installed. There might be variability with older phones and/or older versions of the app or operating system.)

But of course, if they replied, that by default means they saw your msg.

Once again, I just sent a note to an HO only to find out AFTER sending the application, that I’ve already been in touch with them before in the past.

It’s mind boggling that we need MONTHS before certain simple but pretty crucial flaws in the new application and inbox system (e.g. the miniature size of the application window; no ability to see previous communication when applying; no ability to search the inbox for prior conversations) may potentially be addressed. If THS even intends to do so…

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I agree whole heartedly with everything you have said.
@Jenny - are you aware of any review of these negative changes?
Thanks

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