Do you think being able to sign up to forum without being a paid up member of THS causes confusion as to what THS is all about? Seeing lots more posts recently from pet parents looking for day sitters etc. Should the forum be exclusively for paid up members of THS? Interested to know peoples thoughts. I have a feeling it’s because a google search for pet sitters pops up the forum before the site in search engines?? Should the forum moderators not approve posts like this? What’s everyone thoughts? Just interested to hear.
1 Like
I like the fact that non-members can join, read, ask questions, if they are curious about joining.
6 Likes
That’s a fair point.
I actually loved reading the forum before i paid. It gave me a lot of insite of things to beware of, questions to ask, and what sitters and home owners expect.
2 Likes
Yes, I didn’t realise until recently that non-members were able to access the forum, so I understand the confusion but also realise it’s a good opportunity to explore whether membership is right for the individual and what to expect. Perhaps there should be some indication on the individual’s profile as to whether they are a paid member or not, and a HO/ sitter or both, just for clarity.
1 Like
I can totally understand that. I just wonder if some people get to the forum before they’ve even seen what THS is about and just think its a general chat forum about pet sitting?
That’s a good idea. It might make it easier to answer peoples questions if we understand their situation.
1 Like
I think, for THS, a big part of creating the forum was to tempt new members.
2 Likes
Yes - I hadn’t seen it like that but you’re right.
Members can choose to do that, linking their THS profile to the forum profile.
But most prefer to be anonymous here.
I mean a small symbol on their posts to indicate their status.
There is no coupling.
The only thing is that admins can see whether the same email account was used to register on both sites. But some use Facebook, some gmail, etc.
Some forum software has the facility to allow new members who haven’t been verified / approved by moderators to only have read access to certain categories, until they are fully approved. This could be a neat solution to keep content for prospective members in one area until they become a member of THS and have access to more content. It would allow those members who have mistaken the forum for a general chat about any type of housesitting to read enough to realise this. However I doubt that the software used by this forum is sophisticated enough to be able to do this
1 Like