Great idea. We can as a group help each other out. I am open to help others.
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Hi @Bluehorse and @pietkuip
I hope you’re both well. I wanted to reassure you that I understand that your advice was given with the best intention of helping other members of the Forum who are affected by the update.
As part of the official THS platform, we aim to maintain the integrity of our community by adhering to certain standards. I understand your concerns about the recent update, and the Forum team is committed to providing feedback and updates wherever possible.
I recently moderated some posts, and I wanted to clarify that it’s in line with our Terms of Service and Community Guidelines, as follows:
Acceptable Use:
You may not solicit any member to behave in a way which may disrupt or potentially disrupt the continuity or integrity of the forum community or the company’s services.
You may not encourage or help anyone in violation of these terms.
@Bluehorse, I’ve reached out to Membership Services regarding any official advice on messaging owners, as per @Cuttlefish’s request. I’ll share any feedback I receive. As you know, the Forum isn’t a branch of Membership Services so you’re also welcome to contact them directly for specialised assistance about messaging. Also, feel free to share the link you mentioned to me via DM, and I’ll be happy to review it. We’re all human, and if there’s been a misunderstanding, we’re eager to make things right.
@pietkuip, our only request is that we all stick to the Community Guidelines and ToS. Your suggestion touched upon using owner profile information on a search engine to locate and contact them off-platform, which is advice that we would very strongly recommend members do not follow.
We’re striving to provide a space for open discussions on the update’s impact, and we want to avoid closing any discussions due to guideline violations.
If there are any updates from Membership Services, I’ll make sure to keep everyone in the loop.
Let’s keep our interactions within the boundaries outlined in our Community Guidelines and Terms of Service.
Thank you for your understanding.
Jenny
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@Jenny yet owners can contact sitters. It always seems very one sided.
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If you want to share more of your thoughts around messaging, you could pop over to the Messaging and App thread. Product Manager Ben is always kept up to date about it, and is working on improvements in different areas.
As always we can’t promise any changes will come as a result of participation in feedback threads, but we always do our best to make sure our members are heard.
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@Jenny by far the majority of comments on this thread are from sitters would would like to communicate through the platform but the system is not set up to enable them to do so .
Although the THS T&Cs says it’s part of the service that we are paying for:
The only work around for sitters until now was to apply to a sit to initiate a conversation with a homeowner. That avenue of communication has now been blocked ( if you have a sit that overlaps even by 1 day ). As a result ( until THS make it possible through the platform ) sitters have to think of other ways to communicate with the homeowners .
Once contact is established with a homeowner, they can directly contact the sitter through the THS platform so all sits and further communication would still be through the THS platform . So suggestions of ways to contact a homeowner are not trying to circumnavigate THS but rather to make it possible to use THS and book sits that are otherwise going unfilled .
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Question for @Jenny. My husband and I have two overlapping sits coming up that were booked long before the latest change. Am I going to have any trouble giving/receiving my reviews for these sits? If it matters, the first sit overlaps by 3 days and the second sit overlaps by 1 day. Will anything be blocked to your knowledge? I’m sure I’m not the only one that has future overlapping sits.
I’ve passed the feedback about this to the team, to see if there’s anything they can tell me, and if they are able to provide any information that would be helpful, then I’ll be happy to share. 
@Knowmad It’d be best to drop Membership Services a line, as they’ve got all the specialist knowledge about things like this.
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That’s all well and good, but any suggestions or complaints always fall on deaf ears. Not once has THS ever given way or compromised on an unpopular “improvement” regardless of how many complaints there are. I appreciate that this isn’t the fault of the moderators, but policy at a more senior level.
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Nicely done @Silversitters - thank you!
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‘Both still showing low applications…’
How do you know this? When i receive the ‘busy with another sit’ notification, I’m unable to view the number of applicants for a sit (something which i found interesting, before the change).
They have the “low applications” tag on the listing.
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Is this a new way someone has found as a workaround to allowing people to manage/flex days before and after a sit maybe? This issue doesn’t apply to me so I’m not going to try and figure it out. Why the system still isn’t set to block sits that start and end on the same date baffles me. Now to see that the same date can be added to two listings for the same owner … what gives? 
It’s strange that I can also see the number of applicants as I’m booked on a TrustedHousesitters sit for that period. Normally it would just show as You’re busy with another sit.
@Snowbird how very odd - did you try applying to either as a test to see if it would accept your application?
I also though I read that THS was going to prevent sits that start and end same day from being listed or did I dream that ?
@Silversitters I hadn’t taken it that far but I now did, based on your idea. It popped up with the message about overlapping sits but still allowed me to override that. I’m a solo sitter, my confirmed sit is more than a week either side of those dates, and in a different state. I’m good but I’m not that good. 
As for your other question, 
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I made single-day dates for my last listing so people can contact me if they have issues. It’s more work on my end but we’re all adults and I’d rather make those choices for myself.
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Not to mention that a sit without overnight accommodations is prohibited on THS. The HO lists December 26-December 26.
Can you forward that listing to members services so they can talk to the HO and have it removed if it is without an overnight?
@KenandMary1998 I will not be sending it to membership services. It is easy for staff to find with a search plus a member has already explained why it has intentionally been done. It’s not for me to be involved.
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@pitcherplant What a great get-around you have discovered! Thank you - from a sitter!!
Here’s a new unforeseen wrinkle with the update. I’m a combined member. I have an upcoming sit which I’ll have to cancel if I can’t get a sitter on my end. That’s an almost unthinkable happening as I can always find a sitter. But the sitter I chose had an issue, and another great sitter might be taking a different sit. So I tried to unpause my listing to get more sitters. I’m not getting an bites and here’s the thing – I am not 100% sure if this is a tech glitch because I still have the offer out to one of the sitters or if it’s just bad luck because if I try to see what my listing is doing I can’t! I see that “You’re busy with another sit.” So no idea what is happening. I literally can’t see how my own listing is doing. Thanks so much!
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