Ask an Ambassador!

@AffyAvo - Great question!

I am a co-leader of all things forum with @MonBon and I separately lead our suggestion boxes.

Additionally, all ambassadors offer feedback on new mentor/teen star/mentor or teen star leader/ambassador candidates and all are involved periodically in generally talking through site related things if our CMs need to bounce ideas off of someone.

@AffyAvo this is a great question! I know that I haven't really understood what each ambassador does as long as I didn't become one, so I know that it can be a bit unclear on times. Let's hope that we can help to clear it a bit here:

I am working with subcommunities - which means that I am recruiting new Community Mentor Leaders, train them and help them to get plug in, I help for new subcommuntiies to be set up and to be developed and I also help for struggling subcommunities to overcome their struggles. I check with subcommunities leaders time to time to ensure that everything is going well and I am someone to go to if you need help in listing someone to leadership board, if you need to book SC Leaders room for a team meeting or if you just need some advice on how to deal with issues in your subcommunity.

Furthermore, I am overseeing subcommunity leaders bubble, so you can come to me with ideas, with questions to create new team sub-forums or to edit existing ones. I am also leading teens subcommunity leaders meetings.

Oh and I am also someone to go to if you have any questions about our new Community Mentor and Jr. Community Mentor role as we are just plugging it in!

@AffyAvo great question. I am a support team leader for mindfulness subcom and the leader of the Quality Coaching Team. I also try to support others in the forums and other subcoms too.

@AffyAvo, that's a good question! Since you mentioned overseeing rather than participating in so I am going to only mention the thing I oversee as an ambassador, like most ambassadors I focus on a single project here so I can give it my best, for me that project is Internship. 7Cups offer an online internship for those who are looking to do it for school or simply want to challenge themselves a bit here, I coordinate internship tasks like making sure all interns have mentors, anything they need changed in terms of registration or checking their hours/giving badges etc. The internship tasks are many and what I do depends on what needs to be done tbh.

Power helps me with badges/hours, he has been with the internship as an ambassador for as long as I have been an Intern Mentor. TerryTee recently became mentor leader for internship and now he helps me coordinate some aspects of Internship, so to answer your question point of contact for my project depends on what you need info on.

General Internship Info: Any Intern Mentor, you can find them here! (Listener access)

Specific information regarding your registration: me

@AffyAvo

Great question! Soulsing, Polarcat, and I are all Quality Ambassadors. Soulsings does QC, Polarcat VL, and i think @silentobserver, while not an Ambassador, is a project agent on VL. I do a little bit of everything here or there, but mostly quality. I'm a chatroom mentor and forum mentor also.

@AffyAvo

Hey Affy :)

As an Ambassador, my primary responsibilities are the forum team and conflict resolution (the latter of which I've been slacking on recently :<)

i have some questions too

do you have any pets if so what are they , breed age names etc ?

what brought you all to 7cups ?

what have you loved doing most about your roles on here ?

@Anomalia @Bookworm4 @EvelyneRose @FluffyUnicorns84 @Hope @Jenna @Mark5 @MonBon @Pali @PolarCat @PoliteOcean @Power @RaCat @SoulSings @Yendi

@InspiringLee, My first mentor role here was Intern Mentor and I enjoyed it very much so I decided to give this project my best, eventually, I became Mentor Leader for it, at this stage often I needed information like hours of interns or needed for an intern to get a badge etc and I was unable to do any of that resulting in the internship things getting slower because I had to wait for an ambassador to give me the info and ambassadors are often very busy with their own projects so I didn't feel very good about asking them every time, if that makes sense, so after a while it was clear that it would be easier for me and the project if I could have the tools that an ambassador had other than that internship also needed someone to take the lead on its coordination and the situation called for an ambassador, it is not something I planned on being from day 1, it just became something that I could be to be more productive in my role and be able to help the community on deeper level.

to answer your second question, first thing first, observe the listeners who are already ambassadors and look for key traits, something that maybe you see common and if you notice closely you will find these common traits:

High level of activity AND consistency, ambassadors are required to be consistent, just high level of activity is not enough.

Professionalism

Leadership Traits,ambassador is a leadership role, you must polish your leadership skills before applying (1,e conflict resolution, team management, team work)

experienced in their projects, if you notice you will see that ambassadors are not new to the team they lead, in many ways you become an ambassador when you know your project/team inside out

open to feedback and change, no place wants a leader who is not open to change and feedback, willingness to learn and grow is crucial

Active listening skills, no matter where you go in this site or what role you have, active listening skills are important, you may not always be listening to members as an ambassador but you will still communicate with your team and it is important that they feel heard and respected.

we are all equal, it doesn't matter if I am an ambassador and someone is a newbie, we both have the same "status" and one should never forget that it keeps you humble

Shadow an ambassador in your project, if you don't have on in your project, any ambassador who you like the leadership style of works too, start somewhere, work on yourself and be willing to learn but most importantly, have patience, this role takes time

@InspiringLee to be honest, I haven't even thought about becoming an ambassador, I didn't feel like I deserve it enough (that's something to do with me - I never think that I deserve any roles and I need to be encouraged over and over again). But somehow it just happened, it happened that one of the teenies (I am sorry I can't really imagine who now) was complaining to me about the fact that teens don't have SC leaders meetings and that it's not fair and I agreed with them a lot, so when I had my conversation with Laura about LGBTQ+/MOGII Community, I told her about this comment and we decided that I can give it a try and lead them with her overseeing me. So yep, that was my first step to it. And later, I was communicating with other subcommunities and I was giving them ideas about various things, something that I used to do or still do in LGBTQ+/MOGII - as we managed to make the team active from very very inactive, I had some simple but great tips and Laura knew it and kept guiding people my way, while finally she asked me if I ever thought about becoming an ambassador and I was kind of shocked but I decided to give it a try!

As for 2nd question, I think something to keep in mind is that usually, ambassadors are already working on that task before officially becoming an ambassador. So if you see a place that is missing support at the moment, if you see some gap in the site that would benefit from a leader - focus there. Focus there, show your interest and work hard. Ambassador badge is not about privileges, to me it's more like a way to show that this person is doing a lot to some project.

@InspiringLee - great questions!

To the first one - I never had a goal of being an ambassador and in fact didn't actually know what the role entailed when I was invited to the role. All of my roles here have come with me focusing on the work I was doing and support I was giving and effectively becoming a leader in the role without the title, with the title coming afterwards. When I first joined 7 Cups, I saw the forums and noticed that a lot of people weren't getting responses in the eating disorder forums, so I went in and just started answering. I answered every post that had come in the last 3 months and then every post daily that came in - simply because I saw a need and wanted everyone to know they were supported. That led to me being asked to join the forum mentor team (at the time the forum supporter role was less organized, so I sort of skipped a step). As a forum mentor, I continued to do the same things I was and started helping other listeners and mentors as well. I was active on the team and ultimately was asked to become a forum mentor leader, along with MonBon based on the work we were already doing - I asked what the role meant and they basically said "exactly what you're already doing + running trainings!" because I was already playing much of the role. Same thing with ambassador - MonBon and I were asked to take that role on because at that point we were already playing the role of ambassadors for the forum team. When I asked what it meant, they said "same thing you're already doing + joining broader team meetings and having a couple more tools to help with the work". Essentially, to me, titles are given based on work that is already being done. I personally had (and have) no ambition here for specific roles, my goals have always been to serve the community in the best way I can, and if me having a particular title makes me better able to do that, great!

That said, I know that some people do have goals of reaching particular positions. What I would say on that echoes much of what RaCat and Hope have already said. Hope laid out a lot of traits to be thinking about and how you can develop them - I think the biggest ones in there for me are 1 ) a sense of service leadership 2 ) openness to feedback and 3 ) conflict resolution skills for yourself and others. Along with that, I would emphasize professionalism and the ability to compartmentalize and leave 7 Cups here when you step away, but being fully here when you are here. I often see people take things very personally, and that's pretty dangerous in an ambassador role - you face A LOT of criticism and contempt at times and you need to be able to work with anyone, even people who are mad at you, to resolve conflict and move in a productive direction. And that often means being able to let things roll off your back and stay here when you step away from your computer.

RaCat also talked about finding a need and filling it - I definitely agree with that. Ambassadors aren't assigned just for the sake of having people in the role or because someone has done a lot, so let's give them a title. Ambassador positions are created when there is a clear need for one based on something being done. Figure out what you are most passionate about and throw yourself into that. Really focus on that project - not on being involved in as many things as possible, but on what one particular thing really needs (it's fine to have some side projects if you are excited about them, but I think you'll notice that all ambassadors tend to be very deep into one particular project because that's what it takes to really have that degree of impact and leadership). What does the community need in that area? What's not being done today? How can you help it to thrive in a way that it hasn't yet? Is this an area that you really want to devote your time and energy to? How are you making that happen while also creating sustainability so that you're not going to burn out?

Hope that helps!

@InspiringLee

1) What made you want to become an ambassador?

To be honest, I never wanted to become an ambassador. That was never my goal. I just did my work on my little section of the site and that was enough for me.

2) What insight and wisdom do you have for those who want to become Ambassadors in the future?

I think it boils to down to motivation. Why do you want to become an ambassador? If it's for recognition, I don't think it will be a good role for you. If it's to be able to more effectively help the site, then I would recommend just jumping in. Do the best work you can in your area and push the boundaries on what you think is possible with your means. Note: I am not recommending foregoing self-care or breaking site guidelines, just that you should be acting like an ambassador before you become one.

@Raspberrycheesecake I think that I actually answered these questions in @InspiringLee question! But something I can add is that I never really had this wish to be an ambassador, I have never really thought about how to become one. In my eyes, ambassadors were someone very very high, some role that you can't really achieve. I thought that we are not recruiting new ambassadors and I saw them as leaders, as someone who makes a lot for the team and as someone very important, even someone I was scared of.

But now, I know that there is an application process to be an ambassador (I really didn't know there was one until I was suggested to try and apply), I know that new ambassador role can be created if there is a need of it and I know that ambassadors are not something scary, that we are the same people, simple listeners as every of you is.

As for being ready, I think that at some point of your leadership journey, you just look around and understand that you are doing a lot for the community and that people are trusting you, that you are leading some project and you don't even know how did you end up here. It's how it was for me and I know that some ambassadors would tell the same - one day you just realize that you are doing something that ambassador would do - if you ever face this - you are more than ready

@Raspberrycheesecake - I would agree with what RaCat said :)

I never actually thought about wanting the role of ambassador, mostly because I didn't actually know what it meant and because for me, it's all about the value I can add and what I can do for the community, so titles weren't important. But when I found out that it would give me tools to better support the forums and a chance to help raise the voices of the community and make sure a range of pespectives was heard, that appealed to me. It's incredibly important to me that people feel heard here, so if being an ambassador helps me make that happen, then it's something I want to do (even if there are definitely times that I want nothing more than to go back to being a listener with no other roles!)

As for when you're ready, I think it's when you're already doing the role. I believe in becoming a leader (at any level) by fulfilling the role even without the title because leadership isn't given, it's built and titles shouldn't give the leadership opportunity, they should simply recognize what's already being done.

@Raspberrycheesecake, the answer to your first question is given in my answer above to inspiringlee. As far as knowing when I was ready, there came a point where I had the answers to 95% of all site questions, my ratings went all 5 stars so I am guessing I reached peak quality in my listening journey and I remember at times some listeners either asked why I am not an ambassador or if I would ever apply for it and that got me thinking so I lowkey tried my best to improve all the skills that were needed for it and when internship leadership changed and it was left with no one to manage it so the time was right, there was a need and I enjoyed all the tasks they needed done and were doing most of them anyways so thats when I knew I was ready.

It should be noted that ambassador role very much depends on if there is a need so even if you are a 100% good fit but the track doesn't need an ambassador, you will not be selected until there is a need.

@Raspberrycheesecake

Hi there!..

1) I think what made me want to become one was the fact that I had already worked my way up the ladder here a bit at 7cups... From Peer Support, to Group Mod, to Mentor etc... I just felt it was time to take the next step, and applied to be an Ambassador!

2) I think my answer to this question kind of ties in with the first one above..... I just felt that it was time to take the next step and see how much more that I could accomplish here at 7cups! And just felt that Ambassador role was the way to go!

@Raspberrycheesecake I am not sure exactly when I knew I wanted to be an ambassador, but being a mentor was a big part of preparation and being a mentor leader even more important. Being an ambassador is a big responsibility in terms of being a living example of what 7cups represents. I have to think twice before I say what I think to avoid finding myself in an arguement with someone. I need to treat everyone with respect and courtesy even if I strongly disagree with them. Plus I need to set boundaries so I do not burnout. Sometimes I feel like I am walking a tightrope over Niagra Falls. But it can also be a fulfilling and esteem building role.

Thanks for asking.

@Raspberrycheesecake

1) What made you want to be an ambassador?

As with before, I never wanted to be an ambassador. I did strive to become a moderator, but that was about the extent of my ambition. I just wanted to help out.

2) At what point did you think you were ready to become an ambassador?

When Laura asked me to be one, I told her I wasn't ready and couldn't do more work. She said it wouldn't be anymore work (lol) and I would just be able to more easily do the work I was already doing. So I guess I never thought I was ready.

@PhoenixAsh hehe hey hai Karina! these are great questions!

1. What (in your opinion) makes your specific ambassador role important?

I think the best part and the most interesting part of being subcommunities ambassador is that this is a really new role. It's still not very set up and it can change over time. I know that some ambassadors have some strict agenda or simple things they already have set up and they just need to follow it. In my case, I get new things every week and the role and what I focus on change so so often. I love this and I think it's very important. My role changes based on what community needs at the moment and with subcommunities, we face a lot of various issues and new things came up daily. And that's why this role is important, when you are the leader, especially if you are a new leader, you need someone to help you, someone to support you and guide you through all the difficulties. I hope that I am this person for leaders.

2. What's your favourite thing about the teens? :P

*thinks* what to do if I can't choose because I love almost everything about you? As I am still seeing myself as a teen, I still feel like I belong to teen side more than adult side, I think that it's hard for me to answer. But hmm... I think that the most favorite thing is that you can be so so so silly at times and that you have all these little jokes that always makes my day! And also, something more serious is that I love all the dedication you have as leaders. I know that it's not easy to be a leader and teen, I know that there are some stricter rules for you than there are for adults, I know that it's hard to achieve hight roles because you have so little time till you age up, but you are still doing it and you are not giving up - I am so so happy when I see a teen name in the nominations list!

3. If you could borrow another ambassador's role for a day, would you? What role would you want to try out?

I love challenges, so I would totally want to try it out! I have no idea what I would choose to. In some ways, my minds are telling "choose @MonBon or @Anomalia, because it's your area (yep, i am very very forum person)". I would love to see the forum flag queue and how it looks from the inside, this sounds very interesting. But at the same time, the other part of my minds are telling "Rasa, don't be stupid... You can choose anything you want so why not to choose something you have never tried and have no idea about?" In that case, it would be probably be some group support side stuff, maybe @flufflyUnicorns84 or @soulsings but I am not sure how I would manage it! *hides*

@PhoenixAsh - Ooooh....intriguing!

1. What (in your opinion) makes your specific ambassador role important?

I mean, my initial inclination is to say because obviously the forums are the best part of the site... :D But I think it comes down to two things - one is simply the scope of the forums - they are the one place that anyone in the community - listener/member/therapist, regardless of age or timezone, can connect and have lasting support that can help not just the initial person it was written for, but many to come. And that's pretty incredible. But also something that requires a lot of leadership and a strong team (which luckily we have in our forum supporters / mentors / member leaders / teen stars / mentor leaders / teen star leaders), and that team needs someone(s) to help keep it running

The other thing that is really pretty special about the forum team is that we are the only team (I believe) that is fully member inclusive! Our forum supporters are listeners and members and there is no difference in the role based on that. Additionally, we have a mentor level role on the member side - forum member leader - which has the same level of responsibility and privileges in forum moderation and is trained alongside the forum mentor / forum teen star role. Members are the core of our community at 7 Cups, so to me it just makes sense to have members on our leadership teams, and I hope that with time we will see more member-inclusive teams and roles :)

2. What's your favourite thing about the teens? :P

In the context of just hanging out, I love the silliness and energy and nicknames - nothing makes me smile quite like popping into the teen listener room to hang out for a bit (even if I don't do it often).

In the context of work on the site, I love how engaged and passionate the teens are - I notice such a strong energy in any teen training I run where the people who are there are excited, ready to learn, supportive of each other, and fully engaged in what we're doing. That makes it really exciting to lead, but also makes me super confident in the amazing work they will be doing!

3. If you could borrow another ambassador's role for a day, would you? What role would you want to try out?

Hands down quality ambassador. I am super passionate about listener quality and think that it's an area that we need to continue to improve on. If I didn't love the forums so much that I can't leave, that's where I would focus all of my time, and I would love to have that role for a day to better understand everything going on in the quality sphere right now and to really help continue to push us all towards stronger quality protections

@PhoenixAsh

1) I manage the Internship project, it is a way for students to do their internship online and other times listeners to get credit for their time contributed, the internship provides a structured way to pretty much get involved in everything here. Any project needs a leader to help oversee the day to day tasks and be the point of contact, I think my role is important because if anything goes wrong anywhere, mentors know they can come to me and it will get taken care of or if they have any concerns/issues I can help/support them so it provides some mental relaxation and support which I find very useful, I have been an intern mentor and having an ambassador for things that I need was always helpful, other than that internship requires many things like checking listening hours, handling registrations which only an ambassador can do. I mean you are part of the team, you know the answer to this one :p

2) I like how alive and full of energy they are, like most of the times adults are concerned with things like how to make ends meet, its about paying bills, paying for education, stressed out from job etc but on the teen side you see hope and a positive outlook for the future and that's refreshing but more importantly, I have found that teens are more open to feedback than adults.

3) This one is so hard, I thought for like an hour, I got nothing, I love mine, I will stick to it

@PhoenixAsh

1. What (in your opinion) makes your specific ambassador role important?

Quality is very important to the mission and purpose of 7cups. We couldn't have a good site without quality listeners.

2. What's your favourite thing about the teens? :P

They're always fun and always laid back. They love you a lot too

3. If you could borrow another ambassador's role for a day, would you? What role would you want to try out?

Probably Forum ambassadors @anomalia haha I probably would be overwhelmed though. it takes far more skill than i have!

1. What (in your opinion) makes your specific ambassador role important?

The forums are the one place where everyone, regardless of account type, age group, or status can communicate and interact. I think it's very important to use them to continue with our mission of supporting everyone, hence, the forum team!

2. What's your favourite thing about the teens? :P

When I first joined, I still felt very much like a teen having just turned 18. Sadly, 4 years later I can feel my teenness slowly slipping away. What I like the most about teens and what I liked the most about being teen was the endless energy and passion they have. No project is insurmountable. When I think about the things I used to do on the site, I get exhausted just thinking about it. #oldieramblingover

3. If you could borrow another ambassador's role for a day, would you? What role would you want to try out?

Mm... I think I would be interested in @Hope 's role as intern ambassador. I think 7 cups can teach a lot of valuable skills, even if you aren't in a psychology/sociology field. I'd be really interested to see the different ways people learn and grow on the site, and how I could bundle that into a program that gives them lifelong experience and skills in their various school and career paths.

@emsworld I am not even surprised to see you asking questions - thank you for them, by the way!

1) When you found out you got nominated/accepted to be an ambassador how did you react?

Hmm I know that I was pretty calm at first because it's something that I already had time to prepare for because I was suggested to become one. But it was still somewhat exciting to feel like you were noticed and that you deserve it. And everyone was so nice, and congratulations... wow, that was just wow! But I remember the day when I was suggested to become, to apply for an ambassador. Then I was totally shocked and I told my friend that is not from cups, all excited and confused about it and of course she didn't get what's the matter, but i couldn't stop talking about it and what it means and etc etc. I bet she was done with it waaaay before i stopped talking

2) What's the most difficult part about being an ambassador?

I wouldn't say that there are something extremely hard. I would say that it gives you some responsibilities that you can't really deny. As mentioned above, people come to you to solve their issues, people come to complain, people come with basic and more specific questions and people believe that we need to know everything. So sometimes it can be a bit overwhelming, especially if people get a bit overdependent. So being able to maintain boundaries while remaining friendly and nice and just a simple listener can be hard at times for sure.

BUT, What I found even harder or more like upsetting is that once you become ambassador people tend to see you differently, especially those that didn't know you before. They are more professional with you, they are always so so sorry for disturbing you, they are afraid to lurk around and just joke because you seem someone higher for them, which is so so not true and sometimes it makes me upset to see what badge can make. I have even had some friends here who started seeing me a bit different since I become an ambassador and it took awhile for them to realize that I didn't change just because of the title...

Oh and it's also hard to make sure that you are not forgetting anything, but i bet any leader face this - so notes and reminders help a lot!

3) what has been the biggest site update that has happened during your time on 7 Cups? and are there any updates you would love to see happen in the future?

I can't really decide... I think that I have joined just about the time when subcommunities started to become the thing so I would choose this. During that time it was so new and nobody really knew how to deal with it, what forums means and etc etc. it was so new and confusing so as subcommunities ambassador I am so glad to see how much we improved and I am always so glad to see them getting better and better. Every single update is nice for me to see, even little one. For example, now, I would really like to have some update in how subcommunities is arranged in your list. I know it's simple but it really can get annoying at times. Ideal, I would like to see subcommunities you are a leader at in the very beginning, then subcommunities you are subscribed at and then other subcommunities. Because now, if you are let's say LGBTQ+ leader, you need to press "add more" one or more times to reach it and it can get annoying at times. I bet that it stops some people from subscribing some subcommunities.

But, I believe that there are different things that are a priority now and that is already in progress. For example, something that I was waiting for a long time is new listeners training being updated and I know that it's about to happen soon, which is so so nice!

4) Do you like the 🙂 emoji on 7 Cups? What does this emoji mean to you?

Nope nope nope, like it's smiley emoji, you all know what it means in text language! It means that you are angry, mad or frustrated. Or maybe that you are being sarcastic. I am so used to this that even if I get a smiley emoji from my mom, I start to wonder what's wrong... But yeah, I know that some people are using it here so it's very useful to know other people's habits of it so you don't misunderstand them... As we all know, T_T

5) What is your favourite emoji?💜

The emoji that I use verrry often is <-- I might be a very shy person in the real life so this summarizes me a lot - I tend to hide a lot when I tell something I am not so sure about.

@emsworld

(on my browser I can't see what that emoji is, can you describe it to me?)

@emsworld -

1) When you found out you got nominated/accepted to be an ambassador how did you react? (were you shocked? I can imagine its pretty exciting to get that news😝)

- Initially, I was mostly confused because I didn't know what it entailed! But later on I was definitely excited about it, felt very honoured, and was glad that @MonBon would be by my side!

2) What's the most difficult part about being an ambassador?

- This answer probably depends on the day you ask me! Some days it's just the sheer number of things I'm trying to get done and finding balance between the listener, mentor, and ambassador roles - just like how we stress in forum mentor/teenstar/memberleader training that the core role is still forum supporter, equally here the core role is still listener.

The other thing that I think is hardest is taking on a lot of emotions from across the community - it's our job to support the full community and to make sure we listen to everyone. Sometimes, particularly when there's conflict in the community or a big change, this can be pretty emotionally hard to do. It's tough to be in a position where you feel responsible for supporting everyone, but also know that there's probably not a solution where everyone is happy. And even moreso when sometimes a lot of frustration and anger gets directed at you whether you were involved in a decision or not.

But, at the core, that's part of the role, and the good part is that I very much believe that even if I disagree with someone, if I can listen, understand their view, and make sure they are heard and their feelings relayed appropriately to whatever group needs to hear them, that's still helpful. And I always appreciate people being open and honest in how they're feeling with me, even if it's hard to hear sometimes.

3) what has been the biggest site update that has happened during your time on 7 Cups? and are there any updates you would love to see happen in the future?

Oh man, it's hard to say what was biggest! There are some things that felt really big at the time, but ended up not feeling so huge later - like I remember being very opposed to the idea of the feed when it was first rolled out and now I love it and what it can do for the community! Subcommunities are a pretty big change, too, in some ways, but in other ways they are really just formalizing what we already had - teams that cut across all parts of the site on a specific topic.

Two of my favorite forum related changes while I've been here are subscribing to threads which helps us see responses more easily, the Needs Reply queue (which I'm really proud of because I think I was the first one to put it in the suggestion box!) which helps us better respond to everyone, the forum flag queue which helps us better find anything causing harm faster and address it more quickly, and the forum mod queue which lets Mon and I keep an eye on what's going on and address things more quickly / help people learn if there's something that might be confusing. Basically, the forums have evolved A LOT in the last 3.5 years!

As for things I want to see in the future, I have TONS of changes I would like. Selfishly, I always want more dev time devoted to the forums, but probably the biggest changes I would like to see right now are further quality measures - both in initial and future listener training to help well-intentioned listeners grow and be more helpful to their members and in processes to more quickly remove listeners who are here to cause harm from the community

4) Do you like the 🙂 emoji on 7 Cups? What does this emoji mean to you?

I do like it! I hae been scolded by the teens and told that it's scary, so I'm trying not to use it on the teen side (even though I forget a lot), but I think it's a simple way to say "yay" or "I'm glad" or "that makes me smile". The bigger smile to me is more what I use if it's something really above and beyond exciting, or often if I'm feeling more silly while smiling

5) What is your favourite emoji?💜

On 7 Cups, probably the normal heart - I use it a lot and I think it's a really simple way to send some love. On my phone, the purple heart because...I still love hearts, but purple is prettier!

@emsworld

1) It was beyond exciting, the most excited I had ever been here, its different from other roles had here because it was not just one moment, its when I got asked for training then when I got the badge, then the announcement and after that when I got the amb email etc so many times you realise the change of role which makes it really exciting.

2) Since its as far as you can go in 7cups in terms of roles so often times there is this pressure you feel to live up to the expectations because when we are new it feels like we will never be an ambassador because all those who are in the role just seem perfect and then one day you are one and you look around seeing all these wonderful people with the same role and sometimes I find me double checking my replies to stuff or just doing things way cautiously because at the end of the day I am also human and I also have negative voice that at times tells me I am not good enough for it but eventually you see how everyone else is just as human as you and its all good.

3) Before I say anything, this is just my opinion, I don't like it because honestly often times people use it when they are trying to be nice when someone else is being difficult like mods and it looks like a forced smile to me, like "here is this smile so I don't seem rude"

4) This one is easy, I like the heart emoji "<3" to me it shows compassion and warmth, It does lose its meaning if you use it too much but I really like seeing it sparingly.

@emsworld

1) When you found out you got nominated/accepted to be an ambassador how did you react? (were you shocked? I can imagine its pretty exciting to get that news😝)

It was more like "whatttttttttt"

2) What's the most difficult part about being an ambassador?

Whenever I contact people, they think they're in trouble lol and it's kinda sad for me, because all I wanna do is make friends! I'm just saying hi! Ambassadoring can be isolating sometimes in that aspect because people always think they've done something wrong if I PM them.

3) what has been the biggest site update that has happened during your time on 7 Cups? and are there any updates you would love to see happen in the future?

Oh god, like everything. Site redesign, subcomms, mentors, group mods, group support rooms. I don't even count though I've been here too long

4) Do you like the 🙂 emoji on 7 Cups? What does this emoji mean to you?

it looks like a smiley :) it's fine haha it means happy i guess?

5) What is your favourite emoji?💜

hearts!

@emsworld

1) When you found out you got nominated/accepted to be an ambassador how did you react? (were you shocked? I can imagine its pretty exciting to get that news 😝)

Well, I had the advantage of already knowing the nomination was coming, so when laura talked to me about it I tried to refuse xD I didn't feel like the work I was doing warranted it and being an ambassador is such a big responsibility. It was a lot of pressure. I definitely don't regret it though!

2) What's the most difficult part about being an ambassador?

Hmm... Honestly, the most difficult part is when there are site disagreements. I basically don't have an opinion anymore. I can't address people's comments as a colleague anymore. If I disagree with them it's seen as trying to silence them or siding with the site over the people (even though I'm one of the people :( )

3) what has been the biggest site update that has happened during your time on 7 Cups? and are there any updates you would love to see happen in the future?

Biggest? The site has been redesigned a few times. The addition of group support was probably the biggest. Adding the subcommunity feature and redesigning the site for it was pretty big too, but probably group support is the biggest.

I would love love love to see a warning/moderation notification system added in the forums so we can more effectively keep the site safe and inform people on what's happening and why.

4) Do you like the 🙂 emoji on 7 Cups? What does this emoji mean to you?

I like it! it's the most minimal effort way to indicate happiness or agreement in a universal way. I have been trying to use it less since I heard teens hate it though :(

5) What is your favourite emoji?💜

The one you used haha. I like the purple heart. If we are talking about 7 cups though, I prefer ♥ since I can't easily get emojis when I'm on the site.

@professionalPerspective60

Fun Questions!!

1) what was the best EVER toy you received as a child?

Hmm.... I didn't really play with alot of toys, ( I mean a had a cabbage patch doll and a few barbie dolls here and there) But.... I was more into "Music" (collecting records and cassette tapes!) So probably when I would get a NEW "Boom-box" to play them on!

2) which of your childhood memories still makes you laugh today?

I have too many memories from my childhood to count...but probably anything to do with hanging out with a girl who was my best friend growing up from Childhood to Graduation. I haven't seen her in years, but, we were ALWAYS doing silly things, and getting into trouble together and we "got one another" and our "weird-ness/silly-ness"! It didn't take much for us to make the other one laugh at the most dumbest things lol...

3) who was your biggest icon growing up (pop stars allowed😂)?

I grew up in the 80's so that was a VERY AWESOME time and Decade for Music!... So pretty much any British band like Duran/Duran, Depeche Mode, The Cure ( I even tried to dress like them for brief minute lolol)....and Madonna for a good while in my Junior Highschool years lol..... I wore EVERYTHING "Mesh" that I could get my hands on!

@professionalPerspective60 I got the game of Life. What a fun game that was.

@professionalPerspective60 oh boy... It feels I was a child not so long time ago, but I can't really remember anything... *thinks hard* you made some hard questions for us!!

1) what was the best EVER toy you received as a child?

The best toys for me are the ones that have a story. So I have some story for you all to tell about toys! When I was little, like on my 4th or maybe the 5th birthday, my grandma took me out from the pre-school and we went to a funfair you know to celebrate my birthday and spend time till mom is at work. So well, we went to the lottery where you could win some toys and etc and my grandma brought two tickets, I promise you it was really only two tickets (even if my mom doesn't believe it till now, she always tells that my grandma probably brought them all). But yeah, it was only two tickets and I WON. I won two of the biggest prices. I got a fake baby born from there and giant bunny, like bigger than I was! SO yep, probably that bunny is the best gift I ever received as a kid I was a lucky little girl, what can I say?

2) which of your childhood memories still makes you laugh today?

Once when I was like 5-6 my cousin from another country was visiting us and we decided to have some fun. So, what is fun for kids, heh? I don't know what was fun for you, but we decided that we need to root out the little tree, like a bush with flowers from our grandma garden and to throw it away through the fence to our neighbors garden. And then throw all the boots that we had in our home in that garden too... Well, of course, people noticed it and they came to us, they asked us if we did it and of course, we told that it wasn't us, we told that it was our little cousin, he was around 4 then and he was already sleeping. So adults came to him to scold him, woke him up and he was so so confused. He told them "but... but... I am not that strong so I could root out the tree" and that was the time when they knew it was us

Oh another memory is when I and my cousin were jumping on the hay, but the hay wasn't ours, of course, it was our neighbor. And he saw it and we saw him coming to scold us so we totally ran away and we saw him going to the place where he was keeping his tractors... So we thought that he is going to chase us with that tractor and we were terrified, we were running around the whole town and hiding from every tractor we saw. And then we finally came back home, we locked ourselves in the bathroom to hide you know and we were waiting there. The fun part, of course, is that nobody was chasing us!

So yeah, my childhood was spent in the countryside with lots of stupid experiences.

3) who was your biggest icon growing up (pop stars allowed😂)

Hmm ,what do we call growing up? *hides* I didn't really have an icon in my childhood, but around the year of 11 to like 17-18, I was very very into Miley Cyrus... I have no words to even describe this whole obsession of mine, I still have lots of merch of her, I still have lots of stories I wrote about her and I still have some songs of her in my phone. When I was 15, my mom bought us tickets to Uthe K, for her concert....It was my dream to come true, I spend like a week of school just to see her and I have never been happier in my life! I was so crazy that I was even interviewed by youth magazine as biggest Miley Cyrus fan in Lithuania, I hosted fan meetings, I was managing websites and facebook pages for her and etc. Anyway, it was crazy times, but I am glad that it was part of my life. It taught me so much, about the teamwork, about loyalty and also, Miley is a great example - she cares about homeless, she does a lot of donations, she also is advocate for LGBTQ+ rights - which was very important for me as someone who identifies as LGBTQ+ as well and lives in the homophobic country.

@professionalPerspective60

1) I honestly don't remember a particular toy that I got as a gift and really loved it, I liked them all

2) I had a very different childhood compared to where I stand today, memories of my childhood are nostalgic, they make me laugh and cry, its a mix of emotions, I no longer live in the country I spent my childhood in, idk I guess looking back and realizing how simple it was to be happy raises a lot of emotions and some family trip memories make me happy but since I have always been a very careful and cautious person along with being disciplined so I really didn't do a thing that I can look back and laugh about.

3) I never got the hype with icons tbh, I always considered idealising someone you don't know a bit unrealistic, I hope I don't offend anyone. I looked up to my parents and that was about it, people around you can also be your icons, it doesn't have to be some famous basketball player or some team member of a band.

@professionalPerspective60

1) what was the best EVER toy you received as a child?

I got a very nice barbie set from my sister for Christmas once. It had a unicorn/pegasus/alicorn and a carriage and very pretty dresses and acessories. My sister got me presents she had wanted as a child, so i guess she was vicariously living through me... but I enjoyed them so that's okay!

2) which of your childhood memories still makes you laugh today?

I don't personally remember it, but my sister has told me a lot of stories about me as a child. One memorable one is when I was smiling with my mouth closed and my sister poked my cheeks and I spit out a ginormous rock.

3) who was your biggest icon growing up (pop stars allowed😂)

Hilary Duff. Great singer, dancer, beautiful. Wanted to be her.