Many sitters ( and probably less owners) publish posts on the forum.
If on FB groups, their real identity may be shown, on this forum members use nick names. Very anonymous or more obvious.
Do they share their nickname to owners if these ones ask them in order to know more about their critics, tastes, personality ?
Are they careful not to be recognized? Why?
Some sitters who use nicknames share the link with their profile on THS ( some owners do the same with their listing)
So why these ones still use a nickname?
Do owners and sitters try to know who is who when there is no link?
Do some owners, or sitters, delete the link to their advert on the platform, fearing to be recognized? Do they feel more free to post ?
Then it’s pretty hard to guess if the author of the post is or not a member of THS, and if not of another platform…
One aspect is that this forum is indexed by search engines like Google. You can do a search on “Candide” and this site and lots of messages will show up.
Many people do not like that if it is their real name. For example, some employers are checking google when recruiting. Maybe not always good if one is a digital nomad.
As a retired person, I am beyond caring!
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I suspect that only a tiny percentage of the Owners and Sitters belonging to THS are on the forum. So it’s probably not such an important question. It would be nice if everyone acted as if their real names were disclosed here.
Agreed! I dont use my real name or photo just because I don’t love the idea of it being out there online - I’m pretty careful in that respect.
I would find it intrusive and unnecessary if a HO wanted my social media profile information. In the US we undergo full background checks. A HO wouldn’t find anything useful by trying to look at my Facebook profile for instance. It’s under my real name but I use restrictive settings and the only public posts are for things like lost dog posts. I would probably not accept a sit where a HO wanted this information.
Everyone on THS gets to choose how much or little info they share, whether on their profiles, on the forum, on social media, in their applications, etc. That’s the beauty of THS — all sitting and hosting are voluntary. So whether you’re a sitter or a host or both, if you don’t feel comfortable with what the other party is willing to share, then move on. The key is to find matches, not to expect everyone to behave uniformly or to anyone else’s individual preferences.
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I’m not sure why an HO would want my nickname on the forum? No-one has ever asked for it. It would only be useful if I personally were using the forum to promote us as sitters, which I am not. Most of the HO’s on THS don’t even use the forum from what I have personally found.
The forum is quite a negative place, full of problematic questions when people feel stuck. I mainly come on here (like a lot) to try to help.
The forum is not somewhere where I would want to try to get close to home owners, as the users are in random places around the world, so I don’t see the point in visually displaying my full profile details to such an open forum, when I sometimes mention quite personal things to help others, which could be misused if in the wrong hands.
I also find it amazing that some people (with links) post problems on here about a current sit or sitter, which could potentially escalate a problem into a giant humongous issue if the other party read it, when they came on here to try to resolve their problem not make it worse. I always find that a little strange.
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