Cast your vote ! Saving messages in chats & rooms!

@vivelespatates I had this problem with the form too vivels and had to vote for one month when I did not wish to vote for any of the 1-6mths

@vivelespatates

good point - updating now

@Laura Can I recast my vote when the form is fixed as I filled in an option I did not wish to choose?

@vivelespatates

should be updated now!! sorry - google being hard to manage

@Laura I think there is a flaw in the vote. I can not progress since, after electing to keep the 10 messages only option, I am required to select that messages are retained for at least one month - and I do not support this.

@dawnA Likewise, I opted for 1 month when I did not want to choose this

@dawnA

Updated the form!

Sorry about that!

@Laura thank you

@Laura no, the question is still needed

@vivelespatates

google form being inflexible. just made the quesiton not required~ you should be good now.

sorry about that

@Laura The form still does not give us an option of choosing anything other than 1-6mths as it says its a required question

@Laura can you set this question so we can put a suggested duration (any number of days, weeks, months) ourselves if it's our option OR a number of messages that we think would be fair (by example if we just want increase from 10 to 30 messages without time restriction)?

@Laura Tried again - no change to the form?

@vivelespatates

I'm not speaking from an Ambassador role, this is just me talking here. I know you mean well, but you're being a little harsh vive. I think they're trying to get our input and Laura has stated she just made a mistake setting up the form and is trying to correct it. I'm sure they're trying to hear everyone out.

@Laura

Hi Laura so good that you are all thinking on changing this. As yes sometimes reconnecting or remembering a chat with a member is lost and ....well to repeat things sometimes gets the member a bit mad. Idk nothing on storage space for 7cups and all. But I do like the idea of saving them longer but maybe no longer then 30 days. As we still want the members/guests to feel what they have shared remains confidentail. Other then that you have my vote

This is an interesteing idea and there have been times where I have wanted the option to save and other times where I would have rather not. I am open to trying this idea, however I think that it could be a problem in terms of anonymity and confidentiality...but just to confirm, does the chat get cleared for both people when one person clears it?

As for group rooms, wouldn't it create a lot of lagging issues to save the messages? If not, it might be more helpful to save a bit more or actually have the option to read more about what was happening in the room before you entered..I think that would really be helpful especially in terms of modding!

Thanks for listening to our feedback! @Laura

@Laura The form is not giving us the ability to opt out of voting for 1-6mths when we wish to keep the current system and as a result I put one month when I did not wish to choose any option between 1-6mths

I have a terrible memory, despite my name. I remember stories, but I forget names. It takes away from how much I seem to care. I remember when we could take notes in a chat. That helped too. This has my vote.

@Myosotis17

fixed in the future

@Laura

As a newer listener I find it not saving messages irritating as I want to help the person as much as possible but if I speak to them about an issue on Monday, and they contact me again on Sunday after talking to another significant amount of people I cannot be certain on exactly who had an issue on what, which upsets me because I try to give them all my attention and investment. I think more messages being saved is a good idea.

@KittyMinded Under your profile there is the mynotes section where you can keep notes, brief ones on your member chats.

I prefer a count-based system. Because while how much information is saved on a count based system depends on people's chat styles (long messages, short messages, etc), and I frequently find that yes having the last 10 messages show usually doesn't give me any indication about what we were talking about, I dislike a time-based system for two main reasons. One, obviously, the aspect of confidentiality. I would absolutely not be comfortable with all my problems being saved for months, which is what would happen to people if this were to be entirely time based. Even if nobody can get to them, I would not be comfortable. Because realistically, nothing on the Internet is ever 100% safe no matter how hard people try. And yes, I could manually delete the message, but who is going to inform new members about this option?

Two, it wouldn't remove the problem of people connecting after some time and finding all their messages gone. This would be most of an issue if the time saved is 1-2 months, because it's very common for people to not message for several months in between.

I would prefer an option where the last 20-30 messages were saved, providing a bit more context without saving too much. At any rate no solution here is going to be perfect for everybody, but these are my concerns/preferences

@Liz1000

I like this!

It sounds like there is a lot of confusion about the option to delete chat logs - whatever solution we end up with, can we look for a way to ensure everyone understands that they always have an option to clear the chat history so that no messages are saved and that this applies to both sides?

Additionally, is there a way to program it so that it's an either or situation (e.g., last X time frame of messages OR most recent 10 messages) so that if reconnecting with someone from ages ago, there's a bit of history there, but if reconnecting with someone from more recent past, there's the larger log?

I feel like some of this is backwards.

For the time-based (assuming the member has choosen to not delete it):

Someone would have the information available to them if it was recent, but when reconnecting to someone from a long time ago, there's no refresher.

For the confidentiality aspect when it comes to notes:

When messages are stored, a member can see what information is stored about their conversation and they have a choice to delete it or not. WIth a listener's notes we have no idea what information they have decided to store on us, and we have no capability to delete it. We may have even blocked a listener and they are still storing information on us in their notes.

@AffyAvo - These are excellent points! I think in general whenever we are thinking about creating new features or making updates, the most important thing to consider is the member perspective / what is most beneficial to members, since this is a community centered on member support.

In this case, the primary concerns seem to be 1. member confidentiality (which the option of deleting your chat log protects and the notes arguably do not) and 2. member usability (which being able to see messages as a refresher helps, assuming the option for confidentiality still exists of being able to delete a chat log).

So what solutions will best serve those two purposes? Is there something that's a midpoint (e.g., time based to save all within X timeframe, but when outside of that timeframe, still show Y number of messages as a refresher, assuming they haven't been deleted by the member)

@Anomalia

I could propose some suggestions that would be personalized, but would require much more work to get them enabled.

- It would be cool if we could somehow tie in chats to the notes. Either participate could select particular posts to save into the note section and make their own comments as well. This would allow a member to save something they found particularly useful or uplifting to pull up quickly in the future. Listeners would have the ability to store the stuff they deem the most useful with reconnecting in the future.

I actually find the last 10 messages (or at least the last few of this batch) of many conversations to be fairly generic - get some sleep, take care, glad to have helped, etc. The useful ones really only come in if agreeing to connect again at a specific time. I would rather have a log of the important stuff.

- Along with this chats being connected to notes, if a member choose to delete the converation, the would also have the option to delete the notes the listener stored on them. (It wouldn't prevent a listener from going around this system, but there's really no way to fully prevent this as listeners may choose to write things down, save them elsewhere, etc even if told not to).

-Give the members the option to automatically delete conversations after x amount of time, so if they feel uncomfortable with their conversations being stored for a while, they don't need to go through and manually do this for each conversation.

@AffyAvo

For the simplier, I think I prefer the older method of # of messages, but it should go back further than 10, so that more of the 'meat' of the conversation is there. I would also really love if the entire conversation could be available for a short period of time ie. 24 hours, so that the entire conversation can be reviewed at least once and any resources or helpful messages copied.

In terms of confidentiality - I noticed the delete option during my first conversation, but I do think it would be beneficial to have it pointed out when the first conversation ends with a pop up the same way other things are explained the first time using the site. Not during the conversation, as it can easily be dismissed when the focus is elsewhere. Also have a better explanation on the site, I wasn't totally certain for a while if it meant the listener could still see some of the prior messages or if it deleted them on their side. Currently, I'm not certain if a listener has the same option to delete the entire conversation for both of us.

@AffyAvo - I really appreciate your thoughts on this. I love the ideas you had in your previous post, but definitely get that they might be too complicated technically to be possible. But I think you're right that a full log for 24 hours + a longer number of messages saved indefinitely (until deleted) would help. And I am definitely in favor of more clarity for people about the fact that the delete option exists, what it does and how it impacts what you and the listener each see, etc. No point in having resources or tools here if people don't know they can use them!

@Laura - I believe it is most important for our members to keep their confidetiality. We have done this for a long time now and it works pretty well, there is no reason in my opinon to change now!

One really big concern of mine is we do not always have listeners who join for the right reasons and this could prove to be extremely hurtful, harmful for left in the wrong hands💞

I'm in favor of this change. I've never really understood why messages vanished into thin air. If you're having an extensive conversation in a group support chat, wouldn't you like to be able to scroll through and refresh on the information someone else shared? To have a better understanding of how to help them? Or, if you've just entered the room and want to join in on the conversation, you should be able to scroll back and read what they've already said. There's less miscommunications, pointless questions, and a chance for arguments that way, and you get one less chat room lurker. People may feel more inclined to participate if they actually know the context of that conversation.

In addition to group chats, I noticed several months ago that messages to members disappeared as well. Full conversation were gone, just like that. If you want to reconnect with someone or ask them how they're doing, you can't, for you don't remember what was spoken about or how to address them. There's absolutely no context visible. Or, if you're wanting to talk to someone again who was having a hard time with something, you may not remember who they were, since the conversations were all deleted! There are some people I'd love to check in on, but I never will be able to again.

Those are my thoughts on this and the downsides of added anonymity that I've noticed. There are some benefits (such as anonymity, of course), but I've never liked the auto-purge feature at all. I think messages in group support chats should linger for 12 hours, and 1-on-1 conversations should be permanent (they're private, of course!).I just don't see the need to wipe everything out. That's all.

I agree with some of the points already made regarding privacy in the group chats.
If you're talking about something you don't wish to share with anyone else, except the person(s) in the room at that moment, people who come in new during your conversation shouldn't be able to read back and see what you are have been sharing. When you see new people joining the room you can decide wether you continue your dialogue or not.

As for the 1-on-1, at the moment I don't mind those conversations being stored longer if that is what ends up being the more popular vote.
(I haven't actually used the 1-on-1 chat yet, but at the moment I don't have a reason to believe I'd have a different view if I had used the 1-on-1 chat).

As a relatively new member here I would say that member privacy/confidentiality should be the highest concern. I believe the responsibilty of keeping important/relative notes on members should be on the listeners just as it is IRL for counselors and doctors. I am sure that many members, myself included, share the fear of exposure or possible exposure and that it is one of the hardest things to overcome in the first place. So anything adding to that possibility would be a deterrent in my eyes. I see no reason to add to the vulnerability. Although I would agree that retaining messages in the support rooms for a slightly longer period would be of benefit to those coming in to give them a better idea of what is being discussed at the time and would also benefit listeners and mods as well in cases of conflict/aggression. Anyhow, that's just my couple o pennies.

@7Echos

well put echos.

I would argue that in some cases that fear of exposure (plus multitude of other issues) is even greater in support rooms since we have no way of knowing who is lurking. I wouldnt extend this vulnerability to even support rooms.

I didnt read through all the comments yet, but even further to the point, I am not convinced this suggestion arises from the UIX issues of the chat function.

I hope we can have an honest and open conversation about the privacy concerns this suggestion raises.

@7Echos I agree with Echos. Sometimes depending on what is said. A person may not want to save their conversation for the entire world to see.

Can there be a feature for changing usernames as well. Because the usernames automatically provided are similar and gets confusing. (Now, I know members have the option to change it, but all of them do not)

So, can there be like a pop up message given to them during chats to change their username and could listeners have the option to change their name in our side of the chat.

Because, for me I usually remember the story,but get all confused because of the username.

(Not sure if this could be managed,but.....)could we create like two different chat options in which we ask the members if they want their messages to be stored or not. So, like in the starting of the chat they would be asked if their messages can be stored, and if they say yes,we would store them, and if no, then the same 10 message rule will apply to them.

@Laura I think this is a great idea.

A lot of people are giving a lot of different opinions; mine is simple:

Let's give a try.

@ZizyTheTurtle

love this response haha simple

I would really like to have the messages be saved because it gives you something to reference back to. I also like the idea of changing usernames, because although I love my username, sometimes it just doesn't feel like "me", if you get what I'm saying. I really do like saving messages though. I vote yes.