Cast your vote ! Saving messages in chats & rooms!
Hello Community,
I am here to ask for your feedback on an important topic: messages saved in every 1-1 chat. Many of you have long asked for more saved messages in your conversations and up till now, we have saved only the previous 10 messages in every conversation. This was for anonymity and storage reasons.
However, we are moving over to a new tool that will allow us to store and retrieve messages much more efficiently. As it can be frustrating to lose messages, this tool will allow us to do that. Hooray! Instead of saving messages by count, we will be able to save them by time.
Note: You would still be able to clear the chat log at any time.
This would also allow us the ability to increase the amount of time group support messages are saved.
So here is what we need to know from you! How long would you like to see your messages in a chat or group support to save for before they are automatically deleted?
Please vote on this idea here!
PLEASE CAST YOUR VOTE BY MONDAY, DECEMBER 18th
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.
@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 handsđź’ž
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).