The concept is really interesting but I very much doubt that THS’ intention is to make things better, I honestly think their intention is to make more money. That’s all.
Badges - apps want to give me badges! I’ll be a grouch here!
TH wants to give badges - what does this do for me? Iv’e got 50 badges from the Red Cross for my platelet donations - donations on holidays, for my gallon milestone donations - fine, but they also give me various t-shirts and baseball caps that I can wear to promo donations by others. The NYTimes Games give me badges for various accomplishments - solving Strands w/o hints, getting Wordle on first attempt, getting purple first in Connections. Dunkin Donuts give me badges for visits and trying new offerings.
Please just simplify things! Fix the various glitches we’ve been raising.
@Oztravels, we recently received an email (I think) about THS introducing a new feature to allow THS members to easily post stuff onto Instagram/social media. Wonder if your graphics relate to this?
Probably not on top 10 of THS Forum requests but there we go. Regardless, as we avoid social media (bad) then any related functionality will not used by us.
As aside, our only FB account is under name of our late dog 
,. We used it a lot to divest (lots of) stuff before full-time housesitting. Buyers would talk to me using dog name. Bless 
Bestselling book on related topic … Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It by Cory Doctorow | Goodreads
Gotta laugh. But housesitter posting any photos (even pretty ones) of pet parent property, without pet parent permission, would seem inappropriate.
I completely agree. However, what concerns me is that when THS invites sitters to share their stories or photos from a sit, there doesn’t seem to be any warning or disclaimer about privacy or consent. The prompt simply encourages you to post photos from the sit as a sit story and then share .
Given that these photos may be taken inside someone’s private home, it feels like there should at least be a reminder to ensure the homeowner is comfortable with images being shared publicly. Without that, sitters might not even realise there could be privacy considerations.
It makes me wonder whether THS has fully considered this aspect of the feature
As homeowners, we’re going to start mentioning this in our Welcome Guide and during the pre-confirmation video chat.
“Please do not post photos of our home or our pets on any social media channel, personal blogs, or any other medium.”
and on your THS sitter profile ?
Badges? We don’t need no stinking badges…
Hi all,
Like many companies, we are continuously researching and testing new features to enhance our user experience, with the aim of making TrustedHousesitters easier, safer and smoother to use. Today we released a test feature to a portion of our sitter and combined members called Sit Stickers.
This feature allows our sitter community to visually showcase their completed sits, helping them easily communicate their experience to potential owners, if they choose.
Sit Stickers won’t be visible to every user on the platform while still in the experimental period.
Sitters already showcase completed sits via reviews.
I can see the “Sit Summary” but no the “Sit Story” - Android user.
I always tell my hosts that I post on this forum and that I have a pet / housesitting Instagram that I am very bad at updating. I ask their permission to post photos and assure them that the focus is on the pet, not the home, and that I will only give a very general location - usually the County or a defined area like The Cotswolds. I’ll give the City name if it is a large city.
My last sit was in a small village which is identified on the “Sit Summary” sticker. I would not be comfortable posting this on social media.
What is the purpose of the badges? Seems odd to share something like that on social media.
(If not sold or licensed) it is the photographer (sitter) who owns the photographs. It is also the photographer who may need, under the law, both a property release and, in some cases, a model release to publish their shots. This requirement depends on whether the photographs are used editorially or commercially. Should a property or pet owner file a complaint, the photographer, and not THS, risks being held responsible and eventually fined
@TheEnglishFlaneur I’m using an iPhone and, like you, the Past button is found by sliding past the Open Applications.
@Snowbird I’m in total agreement with you. I’m thinking perhaps Tailblazers hasn’t been the success they thought it would be so this is another way THS thinks the word will get around. With so much effort and money going into marketing, the good old members and their needs are just being ignored.
@Mark_B I feel sorry for you being the messenger from THS. We’re not gullible and can see through what marketing and THS are trying to do. So much for the promises made in the repetitive reply by TeamTrusted to their 1* reviews on TrustPilot. One has to laugh at this being pushed as a way to “enhance our user experience, making THS easier, safer (!!!) and smoother to use.”
Oy….Your THS fees at work !
For what it’s worth : Did anyone consider fixing the long-standing problems before adding more useless minutiae ?
This sticker -thing does not make anything “easier, safer or smoother.”
It is just another hurdle (that nixes “easier”) with no security applictation (there goes “safer”) and adds another check-box (so much for, “ smoother”).
@temba This makes me think of those revolving doors we all see at airports. Instead of passengers it would be the members - the quality members leaving and the newbie novices entering, unaware of how things used to be, where caring and commitment were the standard qualities.
Photo by Derek Lee on Unsplash
Perhaps the original TrustedHousesitters owners didn’t have the same revenues in the early years but I have no doubt they had a great sense of pride in what they had created. Now it’s quantity over quality and the cracks in the framework are getting more and more noticeable.