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Listener and Member Usernames Confidentiality (Guidelines)
Heather225 July 16th
.

Safety and confidentiality go hand-in-hand on 7 Cups. Confidentiality refers to the state of information being kept secret or private. Examples of this are chat details, your personal information, and—yes!—your Cups identities.

If you have a member and a listener account, you have two identities. This may not even have occurred to you, and when you made your second account you named it similarly to your own. Imagine if you had an account named CarebearListens7 and you named your member account CareBear7. It would not take much to connect the two.

Another concern is the revealing of your names to others.

It may not seem like a big deal to you. Maybe these people are your friends, but you can’t always be sure, so you need to prioritize your safety.

Here's why keeping usernames different and private is crucial:

  • Privacy Power! 7 Cups doesn't show your real name, but if your username and listener's username are too close, someone might guess who you are. This is especially important if you're talking about something personal.
  • Safety First! If you ever need to report someone, it's important to stay anonymous. Similar usernames could make it easier for someone to figure out who you are.
  • Blurred boundaries: People who know you from the other account PMing you. It may seem fine at first but this can create big challenges with holding boundaries later on down the road. Switching between your listener (L) and member (M) accounts can blur the lines of what's expected in each role. When you’re under your listener account, you are to maintain professionalism. This can slip if you’re treating your L account like your M. Personal connections under your M can get mixed up if you’re using the accounts interchangeably.

We have outlined the following guidelines to help you secure your confidentiality:

  1. Usernames must not have any links or references to each other. You will be asked to change your username by an Admin.

  2. Do not disclose your other account under any circumstances. This includes, but is not limited to casual mentions in rooms and PMing someone (yes, even a friend) under your other name.

  3. Profile photos: these too much be separate. We also strongly recommend not using pictures that can be connected to you in any way by image searching.

  4. Bios cannot look the same or point to the other account. (e.g. L referencing M or vice versa)

  5. Do not share through imgbb, imgur, etc. pictures (like drawings or photos) that have also been posted in other places online.

I hope these guidelines give you insight into the importance of safeguarding your online experience, especially here on 7 Cups!


-

If you’d like to learn more about our safety best practices:
The Community Guidelines Series: Masterpost (written by @AnnaSilverberg)

My Experiences with Offsite Contact (Written by Safety Ambassador @Rebekah)

Please also add what you've learned to spread awareness in our interactive post: Safety is an Ongoing Conversation

22
VioletNotes July 16th
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@Heather225 thank you so much for this post

amiablePeace77 July 16th
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@Heather225

Thank you for the information, Heather! 

IcyDragon296 July 16th
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@Heather225

IcyDragon296 July 16th
.

@agentskyy1705
sorry, my site is bugging and sent the message too quickly
My member user only has one letter different to my listener user, should I send support an email to request a change or how does it work?

Heather225 OP July 16th
.

@agentskyy1705

Hi! Yes, I think better safe than sorry. If you have been a member/listener for less than 2 weeks then you can do this from your "My Settings" dropdown. After two weeks you can submit a request for a username change through this form.

Okbass July 16th
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My name is Okbass, I joined 7cups 9 days ago. I must confess that it is a very interesting community. It's a nerves calming community that heals and restore. I love and enjoy 7 cups community. I stick here.

Please, how do I become a listener here as this my area of specialty?

Mahad2804 July 17th
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Heya @Okbass 

Lovely to see your desire to help people 💖

You can use this link to volunteer as a listener. 

kindheartedLily July 17th
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@Heather225

Thank you for posting this, Heather!

calmMango9611 July 17th
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@Heather225 Thank you for posting this. This is very much needed. Thanks for writing this. Thanks to you and your teams, for keeping 7cups a safe place for us and for looking out for us. 

vivelespatates July 17th
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thank you, i always wondered why it was allowed to have so similar usernames on both accounts, sometimes only a number of difference. it's not safe.

healingsoul4892 July 17th
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@Heather225

Thank you for pointing this out, Heather! Confidentiality is important

Gettingbettertoday July 17th
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@Heather225

I think that anyone with the desire could figure out who I am. When I was in rehab we were only identified by first name and the initial of your last name. With that and the information of what I did for a living 1 person figured out who I am. 

Lou73 July 17th
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@Heather225 Thanks for the great reminder post H, it's definitely an important one! 


amusingSummer1769 July 17th
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Thanks

caringBerry61 July 17th
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@Heather225  I never shared personal data nor violated the terms and conditions of the platform even if rarely, when I use a language other than English I receive warnings that block certain messages that contain acronyms that have a totally different meaning in English but this is a technical problem that does not it concerns me because the chats are (or should be) saved and if someone were to check they would immediately notice my good faith. However, it is an important issue that should be resolved.

Fradiga July 17th
.

@Heather225

Excellent points!

I do not have a member account, but as a listener, I have had hunches I had seen this user somewhere before.

Also, while 7cups does its best to prevent anyone from giving personal information and social media handles, the system is not perfect. This means at the very least that if you step out, you will become available at all times (rather than ONLY while you are around on 7cups), before one has any bigger trouble. Anonymity is your friend !!

TU100OT July 17th
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@Heather225

One of the things that is unavoidable (rarely) is the way you talk will be the same on the member and listener profile. The only difference is that one is casual and one is formal, but some of the words or sentences we use may be similar, which may be noticeable. It is not going to happen all the time, but just my observation 😅

Fradiga July 17th
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@TU100OT

Yes - you must be rather perspective ! That's a good sign of a person with experience

Fradiga July 18th
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@Fradiga

I meant "perceptive" rather than "perspective" - Silly confusion


TU100OT July 19th
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@Fradiga

He he 😁 I got what you are trying to say, thank you 😇 for acknowledging.

AffyAvo July 17th
.

Thanks H!

Adding in - sometimes people post by accident from their L/M account when they meant to use the other and this can accidently share the 2 L/M names together. The forum team is happy to remove any of these posts. It's helpful to us if you flag the post from the same account that you posted it from. So if you meant to post from your member account but accidentally used your listener account to post, please flag it from your listener account.

We don't penalize for these types of errors as long as other guidelines are being followed; we know sometimes people don't realize what account is currently logged into and this isn't that uncommon of a mistake.

daydreammemories July 18th
.

@Heather225

Thanks for the post, well written!

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