Alerts/ Notifications Guidelines - March 2018
This post brought to you in collaboration with the 7 Cups ambassador team. Special thanks to @MonBon for helping to pull this together!
For context - we have a tool that allows our CMs and our ambassadors to post alert notifications to the site. In recent history, this tool was used a little too freely. So we wrote out some base line guidelines for how and when this tool should / can be used. This can always change or evolve, but we wanted to create some guidelines to get everyone on the same page!
Here are the guidelines for posting alerts -
General Alerting Info / Etiquette
- If youre unsure if you should post an alert or not, ask a Community Manager
- Whenever possible, tailor your alerts to the specific people you are alerting for.
- If you remove an alert, please let a Community Manager or the Ambassador involved (if you can determine) know.
- If you see a typo, feel free to edit! Spelling mistakes happen.
- When selecting multiple badges or roles, the alert system includes everyone with any of the badges or roles you list. Therefore, only one alert is necessary.
For example:
This alert will code for anyone with either social butterfly or social soldier, not only individuals with both
When to not post an alert
- A very specific help wanted ask (ex. help for something in your SC ).
- Specific help wanted posts should go in the help wanted subcommunity.
- A specific thread with a general question, general information about the SC topic or icebreaker.
1. Discussion Alerts
- Set Priority to: Red
- Member support sessions alert should only be made on member side
- Listener support sessions alert on listener side only
- Select Adult or Teen
- Alert to be made no longer than 15 minutes before the discussion and set to expire no longer than 15 minutes after the discussion begins.
2. Meeting Alerts
Set Priority to: Yellow
- Put up no longer than one week before your meeting and set the alert to expire at the end of the scheduled meeting time.
- Create RSVP thread
- Include date, time and agenda
- Utilize the Badge, Leader and Role filters to target your specific meeting group.
Example:
Title: Adult Trauma Team Meeting!
- Usertype: Listener, Member
- Age Group: Adult
- Click here to RSVP (link to RSVP post in SC Leader Bubble)
- Leader in Community: Trauma Support
Example:
Title: Adult Group Mod Meeting!
- Usertype: Listener
- Age Group: Adult
- Click here to RSVP (link to RSVP post in Group Mod Zone)
- Has any of these Badges: Group Mod
- Community Leader Role: Chatroom Moderator, Support Session Leader, Support Team Leader/Teen Star
3. Event Alerts
Promote a special GLOBAL event (ex. Valentines day special event) - meaning something everyone is welcome to celebrate. Not a subcommunity specific event.
- Set Priority to: Yellow
- Submit alert 1 day prior or day of / And expires after 1-2 days (And make sure to take down if the event is no longer happening)
Monthly Event Thread
- Set Priority to: Yellow
- Will be made and alerted by Fluffy
- Add your SC-specific events to the thread for the month
Major Subcommunity Events
- Set Priority to: Blue
- 2 days before the event, 1 week if also calling for help planning
- One alert per community per month
4. Icebreaker Alert
- Set Priority to: Blue
- 1 daily per usertype and per age group (one for listener and one for member OR one for adult members, one for teen members, one for teen listeners, one for adult listeners)
- These are made by Community Management Staff unless otherwise specified
5. Site Change Alerts
- Set Priority to: Yellow or Red
- 2 days to 1 week
- These are made by the Community Management Staff unless otherwise specified
6. Track Specific Changes
- Set Priority to: Yellow
- 2 days to 1 week
- These are made by the Community Management Staff or Ambassadors for your specific tracks
- Major changes to specific tracks (ex: When Chatroom track changed to Community Centered Moderation)
7. Subcommunity Information Alerts
If there is a guideline change within the SC
- Set Priority to: Yellow
For planning any upcoming changes within the SC such as leadership, forum restructuring, etc.
- Set Priority to: Yellow
Forum Discussions or special group support discussions
- Set Priority to: Blue
When possible, use the filters to select only SC team leaders or if your SC has a relevant badge attached (ex: The People of Color SC can alert to all users with the People of Color Guide badge)
8. Project Alerts
Specific category project alert to drive engagement.
- Make a thread in Help wanted - We will alert to the Help wanted SC for two days of each week (will adjust if needed)
- Set Priority to: Yellow
- Ex. Help wanted - Forum Supported for Depression Community (thread in help wanted Subcommunity)
- Ex. Help Wanted - Volunteers Wanted for Bipolar Awareness week
- These are made by MonBon unless otherwise specified
Global project Alerts to drive project engagement
- Set Priority to: Yellow
Example:
Title: Quality Coaching Requests
- Allotted one per month (2 days max)
- Usertype: Listener
Title: Become a Verified Listener
- Allotted one per month (2 days max)
- Usertype: listener
- Does not have any of these badges: Verifed Listener
Title: Interns Honors project
- Allotted one per month (2 days max)
- To highlight completed honors porjects
- These are set by Hope unless otherwise specified
9. Surveys
- Set Priority to: Yellow
- Set to specific population you are targeting.
- Alert for a maximum of one week.
Thank you!
[MonBon updated 19Jun2019 with flag color information]
@Laura thanks for informing us, laura 
take care 
What about when there is an influx of chat requests (I think they
@EefyWillums I've never seen those as alerts, only as push notifications.
@EefyWillums They are done by email I believe <3
@fluffyUnicorns84 There's a push notification now :3 hehe
So happy to have more clarity on this! Thanks to all involved and shoutout to MonBon for her work on this! <3
@Laura
Thank you for the insite
@Reececup1986 .... insite? LOL :) That would be the 'in' on the site, eh? ((hands Reece large box of inside information on 7cups)) :D Take care Reece. Happy Easter! ~ Platy
@cyanPlatypus6370
Thank you very much Cyan, but who else are you going to have so much fun of, youll know you love my Hillbilly texts and find good use for them. But no any way thanks for the input information and for the smeils as well
@twinnyyyyy want make one for my event? @PoliteOcean
Thanks @laura :)
Thanks :)
Thankies for this guidelines, Laura! I'm honestly so glad that we have these now because to be honest, I find too many alerts put up really overwhelming :3
@Laura I think the guidelines are a good idea with the following reservation.
I do not see why we can have Icebreakers 1 per day for members and listener which is 60 per month and for a Global team like Quality Coaching that serves all listener only once per month for two days. This is only used as Global Messages to listeners that want to request coaching.
This seems to hamper the work of the Quality Coaching team to help listeners. I could see that Quality Coaching might have a total of 2 days of posts. Then these could be allocated for shorter posts at multiple times during the month.
The effect of this policy is that 3-4 times per month there may be no Listener Requests unfulfilled in the request sheet and team members may find other projects to work on. (during the month as in March there were 3-4 times when there were no Listener Requests which several Alerts rectified).
Icebreaker activities every day is a way too much, those are the most annoying. I would limit 1 per week
@vivelespatates Great decision!
@vivelespatates - This is something that was hotly debated as we worked on these guidelines! :) The struggle here is that the icebreakers are really helpful for new members and listeners to find the forums and engage with them for the first time and dramatically increase activity there, but are also often annoying for people who have been on the site for a while and are already engaging (or not) in the forums by choice. Our compromise was to limit to one a day as opposed to the 2-3 per day that had been in place before so that we can continue to have the benefit for new members, while experienced ones only have one notification to x out of if they aren't interested, which isn't too much and doesn't block all others the way it can when there are lots of alerts.