7cups related social media Guidelines
The goal of social media with respect to 7 Cups is to make our presence known in the ever-growing online world and to use our platforms to combat mental health stigma. We go out and find people who need support and let them know that the options of online active listening are available and they are being heard.
Knowing this, we do have a team created for this social media outreach, but every now and then we do allow some 7cups related social media accounts to be created that arent a part of this team. By 7cups related social media, we mean accounts created by listeners, admins and ambassadors that contain 7cups, 7cot, 7c in their handles or their 7cups usernames and contain 7cups within their bios. These are accounts created to represent the site. We have created some guidelines for these accounts.
7cups related social media guidelines
• Any social media accounts created that relate to 7cups need to be approved by the social soldiers' team before being created.
○ If they are created without any approval of the social soldiers' team they will be classed as offsite contact accounts. We take offsite contact very seriously and want to keep any accounts related to 7cups that are created meaningful, safe and professional.
• All 7cups related social media should not be used for personal use.
○ Please have separate personal social media accounts for your own private use.
○ Please do not share your personal social media accounts or link to/like content from your personal accounts to your 7cups related social media accounts.
• When using these accounts and should also adhere to the social 7 Cups Guidelines. It is your duty to represent 7 Cups as listeners and to follow all soldiers Guidelines.
• Please do not put your social media handles in your 7cups bios. This makes it easier for people to find you offsite and try to contact you.
@Kate @Erato @Yendi @Power @Heather225
Thanks for posting the guidelines!
@ArwaS these guidelines only apply to people who are in this social solders group correct its guidelines made by the group for people within the group?
@jennysunrise8
I believe these apply to any accounts created to promote 7 cups. Ex: a twitter account called MonBon7Cups or something of the sort.
Really? If we discover a twitter account called MonBon7Cups, and it promotes 7 Cups, but it is not on the secret list of social soldiers authorized accounts, how will we know who to blame? Will we just assume that someone called @MonBon within 7 Cups is to blame? If so, it is wonderful news for trolls, who will be able to cause endless trouble by creating accounts in the name of anyone they wish to target 
It does not seem to me that this has been thought through very well.
@MonBon
@RarelyCharlie
If we did find such an account, we could report it to the community management team for them to investigate and determine who made the account.
I'll keep an eye out for troll accounts using my name now 
@RarelyCharlie right would there be any kind of investigation (im not sure what that would look like or how the social soldiers would do that would an investigative team be created or would it be automatically assumed that monbon7cups was created by monbon and she is guilty of creating a " offsite contact account " how would they possibly investigate who created the account it would have to be assumed unless this investigative group plans to contact twitter facebook exc and convince them to investigate the person who created the account and that doesnt sound likely
Exactly. They couldn't possibly investigate. It's just a fantasy.
A more practical question is this—if I come across one of these social media accounts promoting 7 Cups, how do I know whether it's on the secret "approved" list or not?
@jennysunrise8
@RarelyCharlie
I imagine you could send it to the community managers or @ArwaS and they would know if it was an approved account or not.
I agree. I can imagine that too. And that's the trouble—it's just a fantasy.
Back in the real world I went to Google and easily found a social media account associated with one of the well-known offsite contact scandals here a while ago. No action has been taken. There's no action that can ever be taken.
@MonBon
@ArwaS
Super important thread!
@ArwaS wouldnt this contradict 7cups guidelines about permitted offsite contact ( originating off 7cups ) and offsite promotion including giving out personal links to your profile to people outside 7cups? so giving out a personal link to others online is ok but its not ok to put it in a profile anywhere off 7cups?
- 7 Cups does not control relationships of people who know each other in real life (i.e., met separately from 7 Cups), but 7 Cups interactions should not hint at or discuss an offsite contact relationship and having offsite contact with someone you met through 7 Cups is not permitted.
- It is permitted to give links to 7 Cups to others (including your 7 Cups referral link, which directs to the main page) and you may discuss 7 cups in your real life (while maintaining confidentiality on member, guest, or listener chats)
@jennysunrise8
I'm sorry I can't really see where it conflicts, especially with the 7Cups guidelines saying you are permitted to give your 7Cups referral link to people. That is not necessarily sharing your 7cups identity with people, as your referral link is a unique link that never links to your profile. When someone clicks it, it sends them to the 7Cups home page. You are allowed to give out that referral link anywhere (although you don't get clicks when sharing it on 7Cups). In fact, we encourage it on the social soldiers' team to be put on your social media bio as it helps gain referral clicks.
I second @Monbon, can we have an example of how it conflicts :O? I want to be able to make sure we get these guidelines right!
@ArwaS it says permitted to give links including the referral link but a referral link is just one link you can give of course you can give your personal link to friends and family anywhere you know outside 7cups if your saying now that we are not allowed to give friends and family links to our page here that conflicts with contacts originating off 7cups its the same as saying offsite relationships originationg outside 7cups are not allowed because how would someone know someone both onsite and offsite and have the relationship off 7cups first if you didnt give them your personal link to your profile how would you know them both onsite and offsite
@jennysunrise8
The referral link does not lead to your personal page.
Ex: My personal referral link is www.7cups.com/####### which leads to the 7 cups home page. However, my personal page is www.7cups.com/@MonBon
I am not permitted to share the second one outside 7 cups in a manner that would link my 7 cups persona to another persona.
[MonBon edited for Anonymity]
No, the referral link is intended to be associated with your real life identity. Don't share it inside 7 Cups, because (theoretically) someone might see that same link outside 7 Cups and they'd be able to associate it with @MonBon because you posted it here.
Your profile is already a public document. You can share that link anywhere. In fact, this forum is public, so you just shared it with the world, and that's OK. But you must not associate that link with your real life identity.
The point of all this is to keep your identities separate.
I'm sorry this is so hard 
@MonBon
@RarelyCharlie
You are correct, Charlie. I apologize for being misleading. You have to admit though, sometimes it feels like you purposely make explaining things more difficult? Not that being thorough isn't a good thing though 
I appreciate the challenge even if my explanations aren't up to snuff
@jennysunrise8
I suppose I should have phrased it more like this:
You shouldn't share your personal profile link in a context that would allow someone to link your offsite persona with your 7 cups persona. As Charlie mentioned, the purpose of the guidelines around this are to separate these persona. Thus, sharing your listener or member profile on a personal social media would be linking these personas. Additionally, Charlie is correct that I shouldn't have shared my actual referral link here since now my personas could be linked.
@summertimeSamness delves into this farther down in the post as well.
@MonBon the main issue for me is just the lack of boundaries that 7cups seems to have for itself which is very ironic because theres a lot of talk here about setting boundaries communicating those boundaries and creating reasonable and healthy limits for oneself but 7cups itself does not do that from the vague guidelines about offensive/unsupportive content to now this it clarifies some things that are not allowed but doesnt clearly communicate the limits of the guidelines and what is allowed exactly i think its important for everything and everyone to have clearly defined limits/boundaries and communicate those limits/boundaries and make those clear so that everyone understands and that isnt happening and not having clearly defined boundaries and confusion is always going to lead to trouble down the road so like @RarelyCharlie now it the time to ask for everything to be clarified to avoid problems down the road
for example - just saying that " giving out a link that leads to your personal profile is not allowed at all " as a few people here have repeated that statement displays a lack of healthy boundaries between 7cups and the users of this site to prohibit people who use this site from sharing their personal profile link privately to friends and family or anyone they know off the site as long as sharing a personal link offsite cannot lead to offsite contact (between people who met on 7cups)
some instances where giving out your personal profile link (not the referral link but a link directing them to your profile here) to people outside 7cups that cannot lead to offsite contact with someone you met on 7cups include : anyone offline and anyone online that you share the link with privately yes you will know them both on 7cups and off 7cups if they decide to become involved with 7cups but offsite contact is ok with anyone who you originally met off 7cups its just not allowed with anyone who you only know on 7cups - so any personal link that isnt shared in a public space that someone from 7cups could see if they went to that public space should be an exception
maybe just simply say that giving your personal link to people offsite directing people to your profile is generally allowed with the exception only of sharing it in a public space that anyone on 7cups who goes there could see (such as posting it in a public forum on the site for anyone to see) because someone could give someone on 7cups the link to the forum and they can read that and make contact but as long as the link cannot be seen by anyone just casually viewing the site that should be the clearly stated limits of 7cups influence on the lives and behavior of people off this website
it would also be a lot more clear to simply say that anyone on 7cups who would like to represent 7cups (having 7cups in their handle or revealing their 7cups identity publicly in any way) needs to join the social soldiers team and follow the strict guidelines since they are acting as a representative of 7cups i think its fine if anyone chooses to act as a 7cups representative if they are ok with the restrictions but make the restrictions just for those people who choose to be in the the social soldiers group " if you want to represent and promote 7cups offsite then you must be apart of social soldiers and behave in a certain way as an official 7cups representative " and leave it at that instead of saying that anyone on 7cups needs to go to this group and get permission and they will consider allowing you to do something off the site it sounds like a very controlling and probabally scary idea for people who have experienced an abusive/controlling relationship
@jennysunrise8
I can see your point.
I usually don't like doing this since I don't like seeing 7 cups as a business (even though it is), but I think what we have to consider with this post is that it's similar to a NDA that is standard with businesses. This particular rule feels weird because it's dictating our behavior offsite, but the purpose is essentially this: 7 Cups does not want you impersonating them or their representatives.
At my job, we are allowed to tell people we work at my company, but we are never allowed to post anything that seems like we are speaking on their behalf. For example if my company were 7 cups (it's not, but for the sake of simplicity), I can't make social media accounts like MonBon7Cups because that makes it seem like I'm a representative of 7 Cups even though I'm just an employee / volunteer / member / etc. Many companies are like this, even volunteer organizations.
What @ArwaS original post is addressing is: Only people on the social soldiers team or those who have been approved to have such an account should have said account. Otherwise, you are essentially impersonating 7 cups and its representatives.
@MonBon now that makes sense :D i dont think thats bad having representatives act in a really professional way i think it wouldve been better just to simply say that say 7cups does not permit outside handles on other sites that say 7cups or any variation 7cups is a brand and only representatives can use that with the exception of a 7cups representative do not create any outside accounts where you can be identified and contacted in any way if anyone links there as no outside contact is allowed " or something along those lines lol ;)
@jennysunrise8
Can you give an example of what is conflicting?
@ArwaS
Any social media accounts created that relate to 7cups need to be approved by the social soldiers' team before being created.
○ If they are created without any approval of the social soldiers' team they will be classed as offsite contact accounts. We take offsite contact very seriously and want to keep any accounts related to 7cups that are created meaningful, safe and professional.
offsite contact is permitted as long as it originates outside of 7cups but here your saying that these accounts will be "classed as offsite contact accounts" it sounds like your saying that simply detecting an offsite contact account is now equal to actually having offsite contact with someone you met on 7cups
@jennysunrise8
Forgive me if I'm misinterpreting you, but I believe you are asking why a 7 cups account on another platform would be considered offsite contact?
If so, the answer is that by linking your 7 cups persona to another platform, you are giving people you've met on here (members, listeners, etc) the ability to contact you outside of 7 cups. Your personal accounts should not be linked to your 7 cups persona.
Does that make sense?
@MonBon the most it should be considered is a connecting account a possible risk that needs to be investigated or 'an account that is unauthorized by social soldiers' (and i cant help thinking thats more than a little weird than anyone on a site would have to ask permission from a group on the site to be allowed to do anything outside of that site all because of the fear that it could lead to offsite contact between people who have met on 7cups) the most that should be assumed by it is that an account has been created that poses a risk it shouldnt be automatically assumed or classified or equated with some kind of attempt at offsite contact with anyone on 7cups and automatically be accused of attempting to meet someone offsite which of course would lead to being banned from 7cups if its considered the same as offsite contact but its just my initial thoughts on this i just seen this last night but i dont have any such accounts but if this applies to everyone who uses 7cups its worth asking questions about and it definately shouldnt be assumed that any outside account is an attempt at contacting someone youve met on 7cups everyone on 7cups should be against any type of automatic removal of accounts without proff of wrongdoing because that could be us someday so its important to stay away from assumptively classifying anything and thats what this looks like when it says that its going to be considered and "classed as an outside contact account" and goes on to talk about outside contact not being permitted
@jennysunrise8
I see what you are saying! I believe though that this is consistent with our current rules. Posting a link to a page where people can contact you is also considered offsite contact, even without confirming if you are actually talking to people offsite.
Some examples of how we enforce this today are:
- Deleting messages in group chat that link to someone's social media or personal contact information
- Editing forum posts that link to someone's social media or personal contact information
- Editing bios that link to someone's social media or personal contact information.
Very similarly, having a social media account linked to your 7 cups persona that is not monitored by the social soldiers team would fall under this criteria. I believe this is consistent with how we approach offsite contact today.
To my understanding, all of these would calssify as incidents, but not necessarily cause a ban unless it was multiple offenses. Can you show me where @ArwaS post implies anyone would be banned immediately?
I hope that helps!
@MonBon it didnt say they would be classified as incidents it just said ' classed as " outside contact accounts " and then went on to talk about how serious 7cups is about offsite contact and as everyone knows offsite contact (as in meeting with someone off 7cups that you met on 7cups originally) will lead to an account ban but to auto label any such account an outside contact account is a presmption of guilt just in the wording there cant possibly be an investigation into the identity of who created the account personal information is not available from social media sites just because someones asking for it to see if its connected you the id of the person here 7cups i doubt can do that kind of identification and get that kind of personal info from social media sites for one account i think most sites wont give out that personal info of account creators unless theres a court order
@jennysunrise8
Having an offsite account counts as an incident. You can read more about our warning point system here.
@MonBon thanks for posting that! ive heard about the point system but didnt see that thread or know where to find more info on it i just hope before any points are given for this the person is notified and asked if they created the offsite account and not just automatically assign it if an account is discovered i think trolls would definately use this to harass people and try to get people in trouble but if people are being asked for their side of the story/if they created the account instead of just assuming they did with limited time and volunteers it would be a lot easier to just assume they created it and give them the point and not go through the trouble of asking questions or asking for the persons side and if its disputed is there evidence that they did create the account and not a troll but if thats being done thats great if there is not enough time or volunteers to do it properly and fairly 7cups needs to either step back and look at the rules and do away with ones that are unnecessary (which they should do anyways regularly) or hire or recruit volunteers to do the job of enforcing guidelines if they cant keep up or if any group here wants to recruit volunteers they can go to volunteermatch and post a volunteer job 7cups or any group here or subcommunity www.volunteermatch.com
@jennysunrise8
Well, in my experience the community management staff investigate all reports to determine if they are legitimate or not before assigning points. I hope that addresses your concern there!
I think a good way to explain it is that on my personal Instagram, Tumblr, Twitter, or Facebook I can promote 7cups still but I wouldn't ever share my 7cups username to keep my privacy. On my personal accounts (not social soldier) i could still link it to the 7cups site and promote mental health without revealing my 7cups identity
If I make a 7cups social soldier account and sign up for the team, then that social media account is related to my 7cups username but I still shouldn't speak to people off-site on the platform. My role is to just promote 7cups and for people to check out this awesome mental health platform using my anonymous link. This is just outreach to possible new members but it's not on going off-site contact
@summertimeSamness well the guidelines say that we can give out links either personal links directly to your profile or to the main page this is just talking about profiles on social media sites not links given out online
@jennysunrise8
You should not be giving out your personal profile link. You can give out your personal referral link which redirects to the main page.
@MonBon the guidelines indicate that giving out any kind of link to 7cups , including but not limited to the referral link , is ok this very issue about giving people links to their personal page was discussed in expanded guidelines anonymomity and as a result of those discussions it was added into the guidelines along with the addition that 7cups doesnt attempt to control your outside relationships and that its ok to have a relationship with the same person both on 7cups anfd off 7cups as long as it originated off 7cups
- It is permitted to give links to 7 Cups to others (including your 7 Cups referral link, which directs to the main page) and you may discuss 7 cups in your real life (while maintaining confidentiality on member, guest, or listener chats)
@jennysunrise8
I think you are confusing "knowing someone in real life who happens to join 7 cups" and "carrying an offline relationship to 7 cups."
As @RarelyCharlie mentioned above, the purpose is to keep your personas separate. However, since now we are getting beyond just forum guidelines (which you are quoting), I think we should notify the community management team.
@Laura @Kate @Jill7Cups @Power @Heather225
@MonBon i dont know what you mean by carrying an offline relationship to 7cups if im told that someone is having a hard time i say oh have them message me on 7cups and pass on my link so they can message me here ive done that a few times and none of them actually did end up messaging me if i had a relationship with the person having a hard time i suspect i would not have them go to 7cups to message me id just talk to them i dont think most people who have a relationship with someone would refer them to talk on 7cups youd just talk to them thats more of a formal thing to do i think
@jennysunrise8
I must have misunderstood then. My apologies
@MonBon thats ok mon 
i do think it could be reworded though instead of presenting a group that people need to go to that allows or disallows offsite activities just keep this group what it was intended to be a group that promotes and officially represents 7cups not give the group the new function of being social media regulators for everyone on 7cups deciding what people can do off 7cups and how they should behave just keep it simple having clear limits on everything i think is important i think a lot of things on 7cups tend to become more complicated and confusing than they need to be when it would be much better to keep it simple and limit it so it stays simple and makes sense if that makes sense lol ;)
It's to protect your real life identity from your 7cups identity and to always keep them separate like the superhero identity of Superman, Batman, or Spiderman
What happened to free choice? It should be up to any listener, member, guest, mod etc to decide whetther they want to share their social media account..at their own responsibility of course. it's not more risky than someone following you down the street and finding out where you live..
@StrivingSoul
The guidelines prohibit users from sharing social media and personal contact information. You agreed to this when you made an account on 7 cups.
@MonBon I've spoken to many listeners and members who say they've shared their social media accounts. This just proves that it really doesn't make a difference what the guidelines say.
@StrivingSoul
I would encourage you to report anyone who is sharing their social media or personal contact information to community@7cups.com
@MonBon that would be over half of the people I talk to. I'm not the 7 cups police though. People like connecting in various ways. It's more important to actually report when people are abusive and not when they've good intentions.
@StrivingSoul - People breaking rules doesn't mean that the rules cease to exist or that you are not subject to them in making an account here. There will always be people who try to get around rules, but if that is discovered, there will be consequences accordingly (depending on the rule and frequency this could include a warning, a short term suspension, or a ban and is determined by our community managers).
@Anomalia Yes I'm aware of that and rules are necessary. But it's overreacting. If somebody approaches another person in the street and they start talking and you overhear them sharing their personal and social media info, do you go to them to snoop and say -hey that's not allowed' or do you let people do what they think is best according to their own reason?
@StrivingSoul - Well, if I overhear someone in the street talking about their social media account, I have no idea if they are on 7 Cups at all, so it's not a relevant rule in that context. But if I'm in a chatroom or forum on the site and see it happening or see a 7 Cups account sharing contact info elsewhere, yes, I would address it.
@Anomalia If anything should change that would be that rule to let people decide for themselves. We're mature adults, most of us at least. It sucks because you sometimes really bond with someone and want to talk elsewhere but there's the rule preventing you.
@StrivingSoul - I disagree that the rule should change, personally, and also disagree that most people here are mature adults - we have an enormous teen population who are by definition not adults and many users who are vulnerable and could be easily pressured into making decisions they are not ultimately comfortable with or being put into positions where they are not safe. And even for many who are able to set those boundaries for themselves, it often makes a relationship easier to have a rule in place. For instance, I am not comfortable with the idea of having any of my members contact me offsite, but it's far easier to set a boundary off of a site rule than it would be to say "Sure, I could give you my social contact info, but I just don't want to" and risk hurting them or dealing with ongoing pressure that gets in the way of actually being able to support.
Yes it sucks that sometimes you want to connect with a friend elsewhere and it's not allowed - I have friends here that I would enjoy knowing offsite, too. But the risks and problems introduced far outweigh the benefits of allowing it, in my mind. And frankly, this debate has been going for several years with no changes, so I doubt it will change now regardless! Happy to answer any clarifying questions, but I've expressed my thoughts on the matter now and will not continue to debate past that. :)
@Anomalia ''but it's far easier to set a boundary off of a site rule than it would be to say "Sure, I could give you my social contact info, but I just don't want to" and risk hurting them or dealing with ongoing pressure '' a pressure for what? And you can't wrap people in cotton, sometimes you don't want to share..and it's okay. Teens may be vulnerable but they aren't stupid. Most people can decide based on what they think is best for them. or the rule could include just adults. It's the same with the censoring of cursing. What's so bad about it.. If it helps someone tell their story while cursing a bit why not let them. But of course it won't change.
@StrivingSoul
I see what you are saying. However, @ArwaS, @Anomalia, myself, and other users here cannot change the guideline. This thread was created to further clarify guidelines around 7 cups social media accounts. As @Anomalia has mentioned, it is a guideline that has been in place for years and applies across all areas of the site (I provided some of the locations below in response to @TreasureSeekers3 ). If you are interested in the full context of the reasoning and how to approach any modifications, I would recommend reaching out to the community staff: @Heather225, @Jill7Cups, @Kate, @Laura, and @Power. I hope that helps!
@MonBon Okay. It's just frustrating sometimes especially when so many think that some of the guidelines are too strict.
@StrivingSoul
It is okay to be frustrated. I am glad that you feel comfortable to voice your concerns, and even if nothing changes, it is so important that you spoke up! Thanks for participating in this discussion with all of us
You shouldn't really be giving people your personal details here . If 7 cups have a strict policy on personal info and links to social media via your page then this needs to be put aware to people who arnt as aware and takes someone's word and ending up regretting it cuz of safety .Would should make sure this gets put out clear . Especially In the chatrooms
@TreaureSeekers3
Guideline 5 on the member community guidelines states: "Refrain from sharing personal contact information
including, but not limited to, social media accounts, home addresses, phone numbers, messaging apps/sites, or any other medium of contact off-site.<"
Guideline 4 of the forum guidelines states: "Personal Contact Information, such as Social Media Handles, Email Accounts, Phone Numbers, or other 7 Cups accounts (e.g. posting your listener account name from your member account or vice versa) is not allowed. This includes links to surveys or pages that contain either personal contact information or a private messaging system."
Guideline 5 in the chatrooms states: "Please refrain from sharing personal contact details or social media on 7 Cups."
The feed guidelines state: "Do not post content or images that include your personal contact information or social media handles"
We do have a strict policy and have listed it in multiple places ^^
7 Cups doesn't have a strict policy. It has a very loose and confusing policy.
For example, in your 7 Cups profile it's OK to use a real photo of yourself and your real name, or a name you are known by outside 7 Cups. Obviously, anyone who knows you in real life or on social media can see who you are by looking at your profile if you do this.
And 7 Cups gives you a referral link that means anyone who sees it on social media knows you have a 7 Cups account.
For some reason there has always been resistance to cleaning up the rules and making them easier to understand. Instead, they just seem to get more and more complicated.
@TreaureSeekers3
Obeying to the 7Cups guidelines will violate the social media guidelines... They ask for real names, and for only one account per person.
While I know that probably few will care, and I think those guidelines for the social media are really silly and unhelpful, I think 7Cups should know that they are hereby asking people to violate Facebook's, Twitter's etc. policies.
@cloudySummer True.
At Facebook the Terms of Service say:
1. Who can use Facebook
When people stand behind their opinions and actions, our community is safer and more accountable. For this reason, you must:
-
Use the same name that you use in everyday life.
-
Provide accurate information about yourself.
-
Create only one account (your own) and use your timeline for personal purposes.
Twitter's rules are less easy to understand, but its Platform manipulation and spam policy says:
Platform manipulation can take many forms and our rules are intended to address a wide range of prohibited behavior, including:
- commercially-motivated spam, that typically aims to drive traffic or attention from a conversation on Twitter to accounts, websites, products, services, or initiatives;
- inauthentic engagements, that attempt to make accounts or content appear more popular or active than they are; and
- coordinated activity, that attempts to artificially influence conversations through the use of multiple accounts, fake accounts, automation and/or scripting.
It could be argued that we try to drive traffic from conversations on Twitter to 7 Cups' website, and that this activity of ours is coordinated through the use of multiple accounts.
I agree with you that few will care. Also, it's possible that 7 Cups has business partnerships with Facebook and Twitter making this activity permissible.
Charlie
