Festival of important messages

[Inna22]

Party pooper over here. It would have been wonderful if our moderators pinned important site updates with the same enthusiasm as they work on the Festival. Like when all of homes appeared as shared. Or pay outs were frozen in Australia. Or major site changes took place without a notice. 

[Sarah977]

@Inna22  I agree it would indeed be respectful if hosts were notified of such things, to give some credence to the Airbnb lines about how important all us hosts are to them and how much they appreciate our hard work, but I'm not sure that the forum moderators are even aware of site changes such as the "shared spaces" debacle, or payouts being frozen in Australia, or any of the seemingly weekly site changes, unless people post about them here.  I always assumed their jobs consisted of moderating the forums, dealing with glitches here, and doing whatever they feel they should be doing to keep the forum lively and attractive. I've never assumed they were made aware of everything the powers that be over in corporate were doing at any given moment, but maybe I'm wrong.

And even if my assumption is correct, that doesn't mean they couldn't make it clear to Airbnb that that's one very important thing hosts would like to able to rely on the forums to alert them to.

[Clara116]

@Inna22  I hear you loud and clear. We have a facebook for our pensacola airbnb hosts club. Are you part of a Chicago group?  I spend much (too much) time reading and getting everything I can find to assist our local hosts............including info about glitches, info about Australia not getting payouts and they wanna make sure and check,  that stuff  about our Shared spaces - even me, it said shared - that was on all our listings suddenly, and anything that they might or should know. Guess what, either they are just so ungrateful or just lazy, they see the info- the alerts, I write to make sure and check this on your site. They don't bother to even acknowledge that they see it.....well, maybe 2 do, my buddies. But the rest of the group Nothing, then when suddenly something happens to them or they see the impact of what they missed.....they freak and become entitled. And heaven forbid if I write incorrectly - like trying to make a point with all caps (one word only) suddenly, I'm abrasive. So as a volunteer moderator/leader, for Airbnb and my community - not paid, sometimes I think - I'm about done with this group - on CC its different - I only speak for myself and I wish you were in my community cause I know I'd get feedback, suggestions and help from you and @Sarah977  , blessings you two, clara

[Suzanne302]

OMG @Clara116  I feel the same way about some of the Facebook groups I'm in. The CC is definitely a different caliber of hosts with a rogue one every now and then, haha. In the Facebook groups people are quick to argue, or dismiss your suggestion, or they show a complete lack of knowledge of the most basic of Airbnb skills. And then want to argue with you when you correct them.

Here on the CC, hosts are so helpful and supportive and there is a wealth of knowledge here.

@Inna22  I think @Sarah977  covered it best. But yes, the moderators here are simply moderators. And from what I've seen, they DO notify "the powers that be" when they see certain things that other folks at Airbnb need to know.

[Inna22]

@Suzanne302 @Clara116 @Suzanne302 I totally agree that they do not know themselves, but they could at least temporarily pin the really important threads on top. 

[Lizzie]

Hey @Inna22, @Suzanne302, @Sarah977, @Clara116 

Thanks for your post here, it's great to hear your feedback and ideas on how to improve the CC for you all, so thank you for this.

We presently thinking about possible ways to make it easier to highlight this kind of information such as around key updates or issues like glitches, here in the CC–as you can imagine it is easier to manage as part of an event like the festival, but for updates like what you are speaking about it slightly different (generally we respond directly in the threads with updates).

If there is a particular format you have in mind, that you think would be a useful way to digest this information here in the CC, please do share, I would love to hear more of your thoughts. 

Thanks to you all. 

Lizzie

[Inna22]

@Lizzie  I think  it would be best to pin any known updates and glitches up on top. That way anyone arriving to the community boards will see it right away. Can you imagine them all phone calls it will save CS? It should have an option to comment as sometimes people come up with a really clever work arounds

[Inna22]

@Lizzie  and by the way, thank you for acknowledging this post 

[Sarah977]

@Lizzie  Maybe it could be a pinned post at the top of the Hosting Forum "Format change and glitch notifications", something like that. Since you have the power to delete posts, when a glitch gets fixed, you could simply delete that notification.

The format change issue is really problematic for hosts- hosts, as you're well aware, are busy people- when we go into our hosting account, it's to take care of business. When we are then met with a total format change (which are NEVER announced anywhere) on one page or another, and then have to spend sometimes hours trying to figure where what used to there has been moved to, sometimes not finding it at all, it's so frustrating and infuriating.

So if there is a format change, we not only need to be notified before it is implemented, there needs to be an explanation of where to now find the things that used to be there.

I also would like to say, while I have your ear here, that I can fully understand Airbnb wanting to change up their main listings site, keeping it fresh and graphically interesting, as well as you and the other moderators changing up things on the forums. But please try to convey to the powers that be that change for change sake on our hosting pages is not at all appreciated. We don't need fancy graphics, simplistic kindergarten-like icons, or changes- we just need our hosting pages to be functional and don't have time to be constantly dealing with a new learning curve. Let the graphic designers and programmers use their imaginations and skills elsewhere, because it's not welcomed on our hosting pages. Most of the format changes they do there are beneficial to no one, so what is the point? If it's not broke, don't "fix" it just for fun.

[Sandra126]

I rather liked the idea of a hosting festival as being festive! Glitches belong elsewhere. Festival was great, thank you. And I didn't have to go anywhere. Plus being written by hosts, no spin. Do it again some time.

[Inna22]

@Sandra126  I did not mean for it to be literally during the festival or to discount what the hosts put together for it. One day I logged on the community boards to find the first couple of pages filled the festival messages  I have already read and trying to see if I didn’t miss anything important otherwise. That’s what gave me the idea. I simply made a pun out of the title. 

[Helen427]

Oh @Inna22   just as well you were only making a pun out of the title as we all must be mindful there's often over 7,000 people online here at any given time reading all manner of information & who don't come in here most days like some 😉 !!!

Personally I found it a great idea to have and be part of the Festival of Hosting and was surprised at how many languages and forums for other countries/ languages we have in the CC.

It's a great way to network & involve others who are from countries who may be interested in traveling abroad to unite.

Maybe next time there can be more languages and nationalities involved.

Great idea to have some of those topics pinned alas the one that would appear the most would be IT Glitches/ Log In -it might have to be pinned permanently....