So I just got an email to join Trusted Tailblazers (yes, that is the spelling). It looks like a loyalty program within THS but I am hesitant to click on any links. Anybody have any insights?
So I found thisâŚ
Itâs for social media savvy sitters, so I am out
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Didnât get anything like that but I would be out too.
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Donât you love how features that experienced sitters and homeowners have been asking for â for years â have yet to be taken seriously and implemented.
But in$tead, TH$ introduce$ thingz like thiz: trailblazerz$.
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âWeâre looking for social-media-savvy members who love documenting their adventures with usâ
When I wanted to link my travel blog on my profile, THS removed the URLâŚ
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Roughly translates as âWe want to raid your social media account for any free marketing content we can get our paws on!â
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I also got the invite. Thanks but no thanks!
I would have more respect for THS if they actually listened to their paying members and implemented some of their excellent suggestions and got the basics right.
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If they were a charity or an NGO I may think differently about it, but in fairness to THS, they are in business to maximize profits for their shareholders.
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âŚwho also have customers to consider. Less customers, less profit.
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Nah. I already paid them money for a membership. Not going to supplement that with my own time/effort to create content for them. Some others might, but itâs not for me.
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Today, I have today received an e-mail to join THS Tailblazers ⌠but since 8th Jan (the spam e-Mail invitations ) - I have not been receiving any of the THS e-mails that are actually useful and important to receive .
Today by chance, I happened to see that I had 3 new invitations to sit in my THS inbox. These had been received 3 days ago - but I had not been sent any notifications.
Also a review for a past sit was submitted by the hosts today - but again we did not receive the usual e-mail notification.
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I can imagine that MANY home/pet owners would NOT WANT their pets nor their homes on social media.
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This is a very good point. One of my favourite sits was one where the listing showed no photos of the house, I never met the home owners, and I think they even said that theyâd prefer I didnât leave a review (which would have been been a 5-star one as it was great in every way). They were obviously just very private/security conscious.
The introduction of Tailblazers would concern me as a homeowner. I wince when I see listings that contain personal details such as surnames and house names, along with the dates that people are away. As a solo sitter, I avoid sits where that level of information has been included in a listing.
But itâs one thing for the home owners to put personal details out there - thatâs their choice - and another thing entirely for sitters to be actively encouraged via a ârewardsâ scheme to post photos of a home ownerâs property and pets. If I were using THS as a home owner, it would put me off.
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Agree. I ask hosts whether it is ok to publish photos of pet online, and ofc always without name/adress/interior photos of home.
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@pietkuip do you include interior photos of hostsâ homes in your blogs? I want to include pet sitting videos in my new YouTube channel but reluctant to include any interior portions which leaves only walks and hikes
The pictures in my blog are of train travel, dog walks, hikes, terrasses, cycling trips. I should update it.
Yes, Youtube videos one would more likely produce at the home. I can imagine that some owners would not like that. But I never had a problem with that when couchsurfing guests made video at my place.
I read that THS requires that the channel has a thousand followers to be included in the tailblazer thing. I just have a blog on github, I donât even know if anybody looks at it 
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I checked this out with the team and theyâve confirmed that thereâs no issues with emails at the moment.
They suggested that (if you havenât already), try adding the following email addresses to your address book.
info@member.email.trustedhousesitters.com
update@service.email.trustedhousesitters.com
I really hope you donât miss any more emails. If you feel like thereâs still a problem moving forwards, let me know and I can see if thereâs more that we can do to look into this for you.
Thatâs what I was thinking. I guess, there is probably some paperwork or a waiver or something where they would have to agree? Or maybe the program just wants pictures of sitters with pets and scenic backgrounds, like taking the dog for a walk in Paris⌠rather than something in the actual house? I guess someone will have to join and report back to us 
Since I do not have âover 1,000 followersâ or âa public profile in order to be accepted into the programâ, I guess it wonât be me 
How weird our society has become. Everything is all about âcontent creationâ and getting attention from strangers online. 
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We state in our profile that we donât do social media.
The thought of having 1000 followers freaks me out
I agree with you @ABGM , itâs all become wierd
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Exactly! Isnât this a privacy issue? From what little I understand of this why would I want a sitter to post pics of my furbabies and my home on social media? 
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