Dipping Your Toes Into The Forums
Edit: This post was originally posted in a listeners only forums and some links may be listener specific, a member version will be coming out soon :) ~MonBon
The forums can be something of a jungle at first, and sometimes amazing resources can be lost or overlooked. I've had this floating around as a doc for a while, which I share in the chatrooms whenever anyone tells me they're afraid of the forums, so hopefully it can be of some use as an actual forum post.
What can I do to get started in the forums?
✰ Welcome 3 new listeners in this forum, providing a little comment about their skills or profile and thank them for joining us
✰ Pick 5 listener reviews at random from the dashboard, and honour them here, perhaps providing a little note of analysis for each one
✰ Respond to a listener question – every day, listeners make use of the forums to ask about things that theyre unsure of, and if you know the answer and have the links at hand, help them out.
✰ Respond to 3 AMAs that no one has asked any questions in (members and listeners)
✰ Respond to one long member post – give an in-depth answer, reflecting on their story and sharing your own insight. This is easier to do if you have personal experience of what theyre talking about, so dont feel the need to write pages upon pages about everything you see. So many members pour their whole life story out for us to see, and it's heartbreaking to see it going to waste.
✰ Welcome 3 new members, and respond kindly to their reasons for joining (if given). New project about it here.
✰ Adopt a sub support forum you're passionate about (e.g. Anxiety) and welcome 5 new members who introduce themselves here
✰ Respond to 5 posts in ‘Im proud of myself because…
✰ Respond to 5 posts in ‘Milestones and Steps completed
✰ Respond to a ‘How I found 7 Cups post to welcome the new member or listener
✰ Spend a while upvoting – as @Roadie notes here, upvotes are the work of seconds to give, and help people to feel validated and appreciated. If you doubt this, just read the post, and youll see why its important
Points to remember while posting in the forums
✰ Always tag people in, with an @ then their listener or member name – putting anything other than a comma, full stop or a space after a name means that they wont get the tag
@Username - ✔
@Username, ✔
@Username. ✔
@Username! ✘
@ Username ✘
@Username- ✘
(@Username) ✘
@Username (in Heading 2 font) ✘ No idea why, it just doesnt tend to tag properly, Heading 3 is your best bet if you want to use a large font
✰ A bit of formatting doesnt hurt – theres no shame in a bit of colour in the welcome threads, it jazzes them up a bit (Hint, copypastesymbol.com, hint)
✰ If you see anything concerning (triggering language, sharing personal details, giving details of chats, advertising, trolling, spamming or a forum post in the wrong place), PM a Forum Mentor with the link, or tag them into the post so they can sort it out. Find the list of forum mentors here (plus theres these seven as well, if youre really desperate).
✰ When working through a page of unresponded-to posts, start with the oldest and work your way down until youve done as many as you can, and then someone else can take over from you. Dont skip entries, as it can make vulnerable people feel ignored – even if the entry is the most mundane or irrelevant thing, its still an entry.
✰ Make use of the ‘New function to see which posts havent been responded to yet
✰ Just be supportive – use your active listening skills to show that you care deeply for members who have the courage to pour out their soul for all to see.
✰ Get on top of your bookmarks game – if you come across a resource and think ‘Wow, this is amazing!, bookmark it and put it in a relevant sub folder in your 7 Cups bookmarks. This will make answering listener questions and sharing resources with members a calm and easy experience (as opposed to a frantic search through the forums trying to remember what that one thread you saw once was called).
✰ If you'd like to know how to put links into your forum posts, check this doc
✰ Ever since the forum switched from a plain text editor to a rich text editor, formatting gets copied across when you copy-paste something in. This can be useful sometimes (for example, links now copy across), but if you want to clear the formatting, copy what you want to paste into editpad, then copy it again and paste it into the forums, where it will be nice, normal, clean text.
Helpful Links:
Forum FAQ (for listeners)
Support Forum FAQ (for members)
How to act in various areas (courtesy of the amazing @MonBon )
Join the Forum Team here
The whole subforum that this thread is in
Guide to how the forum is organized
Last Updated: 24th January
✰ @Lyra ✰ I love, love, love, love, love (love x6574839), LOVE this thread! This is a brilliant resource to be added to my bookmarks (you have a special feature in the "Lyra's awesomeness" section -- yes, totally valid name for a folder) to offer to newbies! The forums are a beautiful place, and you just add so much more sunshine to it! Thank yooouuuuu for all the fantastical-ness you put into this post, it's so appreciated! You rock, twinny!
Thank you Lyra this is really helpful for someone like me who's still quite new to the forum. I'm going to try to do some of them! :)
Thank you so much for making this post! Since starting the internship, I've been really intimidated and self-conscious of jumping in on forums, but this post makes it a lot more manageable and less scary for me :)
Bookmarked!
I so needed this a while back when I was travelling (read; stumbling) through the forums.
I know a lot of people are going to find this useful, including myself.
Thank you @Lyra, (see I used a comma without worrying if it'll tag you or not because now I know for sure) this is a great post!
Dear @Lyra,
You have a way with words like few others,its a gift -the way you weave a tale around any post of yours,its a pleasure to read what you write we, I think I speak for anyone who has read your posts, look forward for seeing your name and must I say to such an extent that it may border on stalking :p.
I love the forums but I dare say they are a mess ,maybe it is one of the reasons I love them ,I can write/type what I want without worrying that too many people may read it(though they may)but theres always this chance of it fading away into oblivion waiting to be found.People complain and rightly so that I romanticize the forums but in all honesty I can do that because I am no longer intimated by them and I know how long it took me to overcome my fear of posting or even searching for something here.
This post of yours I feel will go a long way in helping listeners (newbies and oldies alike) in befriending the forums and hopefully leading to a more active participation here.
On behalf of all new and scared poeticguys I thank you for helping make the forums approachable and that also so eloquently ,also on behalf of the entire forumteam or anyone who uses the forum for that matter or anyone who will use the forums days,months and years down the line thank you for everything you do here,thank you for being an integral part of the team forums,if only we could have 100 more Lyra's we would be so much more efficient.
Thank you once again for being here, for as they say the Forums need you.
Sorry for this long and winding post.
Well, now I've something to do while I'm procrastinating xP Lyra, honestly you make the forums a friendlier place for me everyday and this post is a gem, Thank you ❤️
@Lyra
Awesome.. you taught me something new as well! :)
Thank you so much for posting this. @Anomalia linked this to me, and I believe this will help me get to know the community in 7cups even better now! So far I'm really enjoying my time spent here :)
*Bump*