I’ve noticed that quite a lot of forum members haven’t linked their profile to their forum profile. I read comments and click to see where the people are from etc only to see they haven’t linked their profile.
Would anyone else like to read more profiles?
If you haven’t linked your profile, what’s the reason?
In case you haven’t seen this instruction a thousand times 
here’s how to do it:
@Smiley Great reminder, plus if you need any help then just DM one of the admin team and we can add it for you. 
@Smiley I realize that some forum members are not TrustedHousesitters members and therefore don’t have a listing or profile to link. I also realize that some members have concerns over privacy. I have to accept that. However, I get a sense that there are others who get bolder when they are anonymous. That, I think, is the most likely reason why people don’t link their profiles.
Often when I read a post where the person seems judgmental, or somewhat unreasonable, it lacks merit for me if they’re not willing to attach their profile to their statement. I am a sitter and have no concerns about a host reading my posts, but some forum members might if they are less than courteous or are unhelpful.
As for those who complain about not getting sitter applications, but yet don’t or won’t add their listing link, well I won’t spend my time on those posts. Same goes for sitters who wonder why they don’t get chosen and yet will not add their profile when encouraged to do so. Why waste our time trying to be helpful?
What @Snowbird said!!!
Well, it is a bit complicated to add a link.
Often people who ask give a link to their profile in the post. But that is forbidden here (for reasons that I do not understand), so the moderators or the algorithm remove that.
@pietkuip moderators are always happy to help add a link to a listing if asked. Plus other members regularly post the instructions for those who need them. With that combination anyone can add their link if they truly want to add it.
Of course, @Snowbird, I forgot that people don’t have to be THS members to join the Forum. I completely agree with what you say here, I usually do agree with what you say here 
I disagree, it’s not at all complicated. It can’t be as I managed 
I expect most regulars know my ID by now but I decided to remove mine during a long “full and frank discussion” on a contentious topic here on the Forum. I felt a little exposed TBH.
I’ll probably get over it in a while and put it back.
This is such an interesting point.
When I first joined the forum, (love it), I was just about to add a link upon invitation to do so (was loving the idea of getting feedback on my new profile etc) and then I paused…
I have only really begun to post regularly a few weeks ago. Until then I enjoyed mostly just reading a few posts here and there and was hugely grateful for everything I learned, as I was pretty naive. This forum has been invaluable in enhancing my THS journey. And am still always learning from it.
I paused as I noticed that some posts included very specific info about sits. Which is fine. So if someone (I was thinking) went into the author’s profile, they could conceivably identify which sit and therefore which owner/sitter was being spoken about. I felt that this could potentially, though not intentionally, be both prejudicial to them and a breach of confidentiality.
I would want to safeguard the confidentiality for all. Regardless of anything else. If a HS is in the home of an HO and privy to knowledge of their way of life or being, then I feel strongly the need to preserve that confidentiality. The alternative is potentially intrusive. So I did not link up then.
After starting to post a few weeks ago, I found that I too wanted to give specific examples to illustrate a point. Or that sometimes it felt good to have a little moan about, say, how dirty a place had been. But I did not want to compromise the other party in any way, if they could be identified via my profile from looking up my past sits.
And most of the time things are just not that black or white. Like for e.g someone who sat and ate their evening meal and enjoyed a drink, without offering anything to me. Super awkward. In every other way though, they had been decent and helpful and things thereafter went swimmingly anyway. Perhaps they were just distracted about their ski trip the next day? So why paint them in a bad light that could follow them without their even knowing, just because I want to chime in when someone posts that their host had done the same thing?
Also everything is relative. What I might feel is unclean, may be fine to someone else. Why potentially give them a bad rap, especially as it is one sided and they cannot have a right of reply, whilst still potentially being identifiable? That just feels, unfair and wrong.
Personally, I’d be uncomfortable in linking up for that reason. I enjoy and value speaking freely about my experiences, (mostly wonderful) and back them up with detail, or chime in if someone else has had a similar experience to what I have, which may be a potentially negative one. But not at the cost of breach of confidentiality or prejudicing any other party. So I will stay unlinked for now…
It’s great, as always, to hear all the different views. 
Hi @pietkuip as @Snowbird mentioned, moderators are always happy to add a link to a profile on here if asked. Sometimes the link is added by a member and it doesn’t always appear as it should but this can soon be corrected.
Good argument against linking your profile
@Purdie thank you for your response. As I read through it I was struck by how our values relating to privacy are so similar. I am retired but my career history is in medical, legal, and governmental; all areas requiring a high degree of privacy.
I know I take respect for privacy to a higher degree than many people. For instance, I will not use photos of pets from sits on my profile, again to respect the owner’s privacy. I realize that legally I can, and that owners add their photos, but again that’s their choice. I do not agree with or use the recent option to add photos of pets from previous sits to my profile, for similar reasons. I do add photos to my blog, but only with prior owner approval.
In my sitter profile I include my forum username, as I stand by anything I say here. Owners are welcome to view my posts as they are respectful and overall positive.
When creating a post or a reply, I go through the same process as the considerations you have addressed. I make sure to never make the content so that any sit of mine can be identified. However, I also don’t have anything negative to say about my sits. Unlike some people, I don’t believe that luck can be the reason for 50+ successful sits, but rather due to good practices. I try to share those practices on the forum.
If you search my name here (Francine) you’ll see both original posts and replies to other posts. You will also see that for about a year during the pandemic I was the volunteer moderator. During that time I saw my role as a supportive one, guiding and assisting others so that they could learn and improve, or share their ideas. I continue to do the same now. Thinking back on posts I’ve started, my focus has been on positive suggestions, such as the many reasons why someone might do a local sit. My primary focus in any of my posts is a positive one. The only exception is when I criticize TrustedHousesitters, as I am vocal in that regard.
When I chose to stand down from being a volunteer forum moderator, I also took a break from the forum. In part I did so as I try to avoid negative environments and I was seeing much of what you refer to, where members were discussing things I felt were inappropriate. I have recently returned but continue to only post what I think are constructive comments, and stay away from posts of the kind you mention.
I do still feel, however, that many members who choose to stay anonymous on this platform do so as it allows them to post negative comments, or air their comments about owners or sitters that they would not dare do if they could be identified. These posters unfortunately often bring the negativity to this community.
It’s an option to link your profile, or not, and I don’t think it makes any sense to criticize people who don’t want to share their profile with the whole world.
Just to make the point, I haven’t criticised anyone
@Snowbird and you certainly were a WONDERFUL moderator, I thoroughly enjoyed your always kind and thoughtfully written responses and helpful insight. It must have been very difficult at times and I fully understand why you stepped away from the Forum temporarily. 
Think the new hugging emoji could get used a lot….
I am new on the forum, though I’ve been doing sits since June. I would like to get a link to my sitter profile, both for adding to my forum profile AND for sharing with someone interested in possibly using me for a local sit, but the instructions I have found so far (from 2021) only result in a generic link. How do I find the actual URL for my sitter profile?
It is difficult to find… go to your dashboard page and scroll down.
Then it is the “Preview” link on your photo.
Wow! Thank you so much! I never would have found that! I kept going into the Profile section and clicking preview from there. Thank you!
