Day 1 - A year of inspiration, connection and feedback

[Stephanie]

Hi everyone,

Many of you know me from around the Community Center; I’ve been here for nearly 4 years, would you believe it!

This has been an important year. Together we’ve weathered more global turmoil than I’d ever wish for in a lifetime, let alone a year. We’ve achieved so much - side splitting laughs, heated debates, and connections that inspire me every day.

• We had nearly 6 million people visit the Community Center this year, who read over 20 million posts!
• We launched our Airbnb.org board as suggested by our amazing member, @Helen3, as a dedicated space for our incredibly generous Hosts to discuss how they can support those facing crises the world over.
• We had our first ever Festival of Sustainability with fantastic contributions from @Clara116, @Daniel1651 (HAB) and @Felicity11 (HAB) (to name a few!)
• We launched our Community Center redesign in November and are continuing to update from the amazing feedback we receive from you all (@Mike-And-Jane0 & @Gillian166 especially!)

And here we are, on the cusp of the winter holiday season (or Summer for our friends on the other side of the hemisphere!) thinking of where we came from and what we have next for 2023. You may be wondering what the picture is that I have used - it is an exceptionally old tree in Nottingham forest (Sherwood forest where Robin Hood is said to have laid his hat).

Fingers crossed the start of next year, my family and I are set to move to the area for our next big adventure. But the tree also reminds me of our Community - it is strong, it has many branches, it goes through moments of growth, moments of decline but! It is kept going by its environmental factors - if it is nurtured, it will always thrive in the end.

That is what each of us does for each other when we support one another in this space. I’m so proud of what we have built together and can’t wait to see what we can achieve next year and beyond.

Thanks,

Steph

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@StephanieI don't want to be picky but shouldn't it be 'our friends on the other side of the sphere' or 'our friends in the other hemisphere'. I am not sure who ' our friends on the other side of the hemisphere' are unless it is Japan but it's not Summer there.

[Gillian166]

wrote a response, it failed. is it tagging people that's causing the glitch?

[Emiel1]

It comes with "invalid html":

Press the "reply" button again and again and it will proceed with publishing.

@Gillian166

[Gillian166]

no, it removes all the text when I do that. been glitching for 2 days.

[Robin4]

I have been dealing with internet sites since 1992 and over that 30 years I cannot recall any other site that is subject to as many programming glitches as the Airbnb umbrella.....and each year it does seem to be getting worse.

The problem as I see it is, there is no such protocol as 'cause and effect'! Programmers are given the task of turning A into B but nobody....and I mean nobody is checking what that alteration does to C.

I haven't been spending much time here lately but from my observations I am having to cope with 3 anomalies simultaneously.

* Last responses/comments are no longer attached to the thread authors post. They seem to appear randomly or directly after the last tagged response. The downside of this is for older threads, comments are going to pop up which have no relevance to the thread and relevant comments will be buried pages into the thread. It used to be that attached to the initial post was the last comment by, whoever. That's gone!

*Seeing which users have given a comment a 'like' is not possible without opening a new window. The only way I can see who has given a comment a like is to right click the 'handshake' box and from the option box click the option "Open Link in new Window"!

*It is no longer possible to add attachments to a text comment. As soon as you try to post a comment with an attachment a red field will appear which includes the words .............................................................................................................................................

The frequency of these 'glitches is somewhat frustrating! Can you for one second imagine MI5, the FBI, ASIO, Amazon, Walmart, Apple, Boeing, Toyota, Shell and hundreds of other companies turning over billions a year putting up with the untested programming alteration glitches that the Airbnb umbrella suffers from? They would close that part of their operation in an instant, not send out some memo...."Yeah we are aware of it we have got the programmers working on it"!!!

As I said it is continually getting worse, the myriad of alterations that are being made to the platform are not being tested prior to release. Fortunately a lot of them don't cost us money.....but equally many of them do!

Cheers........Rob

ok, no attachment, lets see if this posts!!!

Edit:......Yeah didn't go through, I had to remove any words that related to the type of image file I was dealing with.

I am afraid this site has become completely unworkable!

I have removed any reference to file types so, lets try again!

@Gillian166

[Emiel1]

The software is so unreliable, even the error message you wanted to add is gone in your post !

Some glitches have a work around (as you found yourself).

I will try to add an image, let's see if it is displayed below this tekst (or not)

Picture "Community Cafe" :

@Robin4 

[Robin4]

@Emiel1 

Oh how one wishes we could have back the CC we had 2 months ago!

Anyway this is a test to see if some of the issues have been ironed out, a repeat of my initial response to @Stephanie's lovely day 1 post......

Hi Steph, a lovely intro to the month, I am looking forward to others contributions.

I like your analogy with the tree.

That tree has significant memories for me!

If I remember correctly it is called 'The Major Oak'

If you have been there you would have walked down this path.

I sat 100 yards from that tree and titled this photo....'Robin in his Forest'.....never got to rob any rich tourist though!

That was in July 1999. It's great to see from that photo of yours Steph, The Major Oak still looks exactly like it did those 30 years ago!

Wishing you all a happy Christmas and a wonderful 2023.

Cheers........Rob

@Bhumika  @Gillian166 @Ruth413 

Phew......most of these particular issues have gone, can't enlarge a picture but, lets be thankful for small mercies!

[Bhumika]

Haha @Robin4 , chuckled at your ''Robin in his Forest.....never got to rob any rich tourist though!'' 😆. It is sweet to hear that you have so many memories attached to Major Oak. Your picture reminds me of Robert Frost's popular poem :

''I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.''

Lovely picture 🌳

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[Ruth413]

@Robin4   Lovely to hear your input again.  I am going to up your photos and try and add 3.  I think we have a mutual appreciation and love of hounds.  So I will introduce my new member of my family - 4 month old Harley - 3/4 Irish Wolfhound, 1/4 Newfoundland !  Trying to grow his whiskers.  Adorable and a soft giant !

[Ruth413]

Woohoo.  Took me 3 attempts to add the photos (one might have been too larger a file) but it worked eventually !

[Robin4]

@Ruth413 

Lovely Ruth what a great looking hound. Yes you have struck me on one of my strong topics. An animal, and for me particularly a dog brings so much joy into our lives. They are non judgmental and accept every situation for what it is.

When we lost our last hound Jetti-boy in 2013 I said....'that's it, never having another dog, it just breaks your heart when they leave you'. I was so cut up about it I had to compile my own memorial to him.......

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJGPQp9pF8o&ab_channel=RobinShannon

God, I wonder if that file is going to get through the 'Invalid HTML' road block!!!

If you asked me for my favourite photo in that lot it would be Jetti sitting on the seat looking out over the ocean with Tracey, a friend of ours who was out here from Basingstoke for a holiday. 

Nine months later our little girl Betty-Joy popped up on my phone as a 1 year old and my reaction was....here we go again!

She has matured into the most wonderful dog, almost all the guests make mention of her in their review, she is a star attraction amongst guests here

She is amazing in a number of ways but, perhaps the one that tugs away at us most is her ability to physically cry!

Most times when we go out she will come with us...even when we drive interstate she sits patiently there in the back seat.

Sometimes however we are going where a dog can't go, she sees us getting ready to go out and she is up to the car door all good to go. I say to her..."Sorry Betts, not tonight", she gets shut behind the gate and watches us as we drive out into the street.

If we are gone for 15 minutes or more when we return she is there jumping at the gate pleased to see us. 

But, sometimes we will get out into the street and Ade will say...."I forgot my phone, or my glasses" and we turn around at the end of the street and return home. As we come up into the carport, Betts is there at the gate and tears are streaming down her fur, her face is all wet, she is crying because she got left behind.

I have told the vet about this and he says....."Nah, dogs don't cry, she slobbered in her drink bowl"....but I swear it's true, it has happened on at least a dozen occasions. She gets over it quickly, after 2 minutes the reaction is 'well their gone, what to do now' and she moves on. But if you catch her in that first two minutes, she is suffering from separation anxiety and she is crying!

Enjoy your hound Ruth, they are wonderful companions and I am sure once you get him through that puppy chewing stage Harley is going to bring you so much joy!

Cheers.........Rob

[Stephanie]

@Robin4 @Ruth413 I raise you: one 9 week puppy

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Gillian166all is fine in my hemisphere

[Ruth413]

It happens to me when I try and tag someone. It has done this for a couple of days now and the more I hit reply the more of the message disappears. I posted in the community cafe about it, so the mods are aware and are trying to fix it. Not going to add the link as that might mess things up too.