I’ve been curious why some THS Forum users have a link to their THS Member profile right below their THS Forum user name? Most don’t however. Since a THS forum user name isn’t the same as their THS profile Member name (Sitters & HO’s), I have found that I can’t find them to invite them to sit.
Also, if THS Forum users aren’t required to setup the link, it gives these users a certain level of anonymity in the forum (good, bad or indifferent).
Thoughts why this disconnect between the two THS portals exists?
Yup, I’ve had hosts DM on the forum and on the Facebook group, offering to invite me to sits, asking me to send my profile link.
Personally, I used to link my profile in the forum, but received some random messages and decided that anonymity was better. Like someone in the forum asked me to help their grown son find work.
Thanks MaggieUU, I know how things work I was just wondering why you have to manually contact each person individually via DM for a link. How do I know they aren’t on another timezone and keep their phone turned on for other much more important reasons? I like to read a number of THS Member profiles before contact is made.
Most companies who have a public-facing community Forum use 3rd-party software. There are several industry-standard systems in wide use for a nominal price, or even open-source.
From a company’s perspective, why reinvent the wheel by developing something that’s already readily available, & then have to support it as well?
You can do that on THS site. Although you can DM people on the forum, that’s not the primary purpose.
I don’t think “transparency” is something relevant in the forum. People may use it just to read what others have written and never post, others participate in certain threads and not others. I think most people participating in the forum are quite honest. Honesty is good enough for me.
I took mine out as a previous moderator looked into my sitter account and made inappropriate comments that sounded a bit like veiled threats. It was during one of those heated discussion periods (the 5-app pause) and I did not want my sitter account to be impacted. That moderator left long ago, but I’m still reluctant to add it back in. What goes on the forum. Stays on the forum. I have no problem getting sits and dont need invites.
These two statements imply that you would like to add the knowledge you get from participation in the forum to the information people have in their profile before you contact a sitter. Perhaps you might flip the argument and consider that sitters like to choose their sits too and some may prefer not to receive unsolicited offers. That is something they can’t avoid on THS platform but they have a choice on the forum.
@Newpetlover Your points are well taken. I keep a favorites list. It consists of people I hope will pick one of my sits, sitters who have sat for me before and want me to ask them again and those I have chatted with but for some reason the sit didn’t ultimately happen for HO or sitter. They too ask that I ask them again. My husband had 4 surgeries in 2 years away from home and the dates got moved around as an example. Another sit the sitter ultimately had to have surgery. These are not unwelcomed unsolicited sits.
To close on this topic, it’s optional for anyone in the forum to link their THS profile and that’s how it is.
Yes. The kind of thing you keep screenshots of in case you haven’t to ‘lawyer up’ at some point. But as I said, that moderator is long gone. The more recent ones are nothing but pleasant and professional. But I’m still not attaching my profile!
@geekista, like @MaggieUU then we have received infrequent direct messages from pet parents on THS Forum that seek to explore our interest in housesitting for them. At this time, no confirmed sit has resulted.
As @MerryPuppins noted, it appears that THS technology platform and THS Forum technology platform are unconnected. First being proprietary. Second being off-the-shelf (Discord).
Personally, we do not perceive any benefit in connecting our THS Forum profile with our THS housesitting profile. We do not seek to use THS Forum to secure housesits.
