Safety Protocols & Policies - Information Review!
Hi All,
We know site safety is important to you! Its important to us as well. I wanted to outline all of our existing protocols and reporting systems so it is clear and easy!
Important links:
Information about the Adult teen listener application process
File a report on another listener (L-L reporting): if you encounter a listener who has violated a community guideline, please use conflict resolution to address the situation directly. If you are unable to address the situation with conflict resolution, you may take one of two additional steps:
----> Block the other listener and file a block report.
----> File a L-L report using this form.
Please do not email or PM a community manager the report. We need all reports to be clearly documented so we can manage them in a consistent way. If you send a report on email or PM, we will NOT be able to process it. If you send us this information on email or pms, we will refer you to the proper reporting channels.
What information should your L-L report include?
Helpful context and information
Unedited, uncropped screenshots
When not to use it?
For personal issues that can be resolved independently. Please see our recent posts on conflict resolution, gossip, and triangulation.
How are L-L reports processed?
Admin team will process L-L reports as they come in. The submitter will not be informed of the process or actions taken, but may be asked follow up questions. Those found to have been violating our community guidelines or listener guidelines will receive a feedback email. Those who submit reports that are about personal issues or non-constructive reports may also receive feedback.
Group Support Forms:
Group Support Emergency Form - Purpose: Request on demand mod help! Our 24/7 Paid mod staff will reply in a timely manner.
-----> Adult Emergency Form
-----> Teen Emergency Form
Group Support Review Form
Purpose: Use this form to leave feedback or praise for the group mods or any listener interacting in a chatroom.
Listener Rooms Review Form (currently in trial - read more here)
Purpose: Use this form to report issues that are happening in the listener rooms. Form link
Other information -
Are screen shots helpful?
The honest truth is sometimes yes, sometimes no. Screen shots rarely give the full picture of what happened in a given situation. We know many of you will still submit them, so we arent going to say do not submit them, but just know it can be very hard to understand the context within them.
What if I dont feel safe submitting a report?
We know that sometimes having to attach your name to a report can be scary. We get that. We want you to know all reports are managed in a kind and caring way.
@Laura
This is great, thankyou
@Laura
thanks
Thank you Laura
@Laura its ironic that right before reassuring people who are scared to report that reports are handled in a kind and caring way that listeners are threatened with punishment if they submit any report that is later subjectively determined by someone to be personal in nature and not in violation of one of the many many extremely vague guidelines here (so vague and general all of them that they require subjectivity) how would a person know if someone will determine their report to be in violation of one of the many vague confusing guidelines or considered aa report based on "personal issues" or considered a "non constructive report" that will result in them being punished for reporting .
of course thats going to make people nervous about reporting if they have no idea how the report will be interpreted and they can be punished if someone out there thinks its personal or non constructive having such vague and confusing guidelines were bad enough now we have the same with guidelines that govern reporting noone has any idea exactly what is allowed and what is not allowed and now what can and cannot be reported exactly its all left to someones interpretation the person reporting can only guess as to how someone will interpret it or judge it to be personal or non constructive or if they consider it in violation of one of the guidelines its all subjective interpretation and the person submitting the report is no mind reader and has no idea how anyone will take the report or if they might be punished for making it
also as you admit screenshots dont really give enough context to give a clear picture about what happened much of the time so hopefully there is some effort behind the scenes to get access to a better recording of the incident and until a more reliable record of the incident can be seen or if that isnt possible i hope both sides of the dispute are listened to not just the side of the person reporting but also the side of the person who the report is against there really needs to be an investigation of every single report that comes in listeners will know of course if noone is contacting them to get their side and theyre just recieving coaching emails the only thing that will result in is listeners being afraid to talk to people they dont already know and trust in 1-1 chats or chatrooms or anywhere else
so its really important that people are not afraid to report on 7cups and are not afraid to talk to strangers on 7cups which is the basis of the entire operation here so if you take away the security of talking to strangers and make it dangerous to do so for listeners how is that going to affect the future of 7cups ? people have to both feel safe enough to talk to people and interact and also safe to make reports and that doesnt exist right now i hope it does in the future a fair system takes work but the result of not having a fair system although its faster and easier in the short term itll be devastating in long term especially on a site like this that depends on trust having a fair system and also being transparent about the fair system when it does come i to existence hopefully soon so people know it exists knows what is involves how its fair why they should feel safe is very important to let people know that
and im glad that 7cups is interested in working on things theres really a lot of confusion and inconsistency about a lot of different things here but if we all keep trying to make it better it will get better more successful more reliable policies that work better and are more logical and safer for those reporting and those being reported and all that influences 7cups reputation but the best thing you can do is what your already doing and that is listening to feedback and trying to do better just dont stop working on it <3
@jennysunrise8
To be fair, I don't see anywhere that it says listeners will be punished. It says "Those found to have been violating our community guidelines or listener guidelines will receive a feedback email. Those who submit reports that are about personal issues or non-constructive reports may also receive feedback."
Honestly, to me this is pretty clear cut. If you are violating guidelines, you will be informed. If you are submitting a report that involves personal issues (aka as stated above, you have not tried to resolve on your own but jumped right to LL or is more about you than about a LL problem) or your report is not constructive (aka the information provided is not helpful), you may receive feedback. This means they'll probably follow up with questions or let you know how to write a helpful report in the future.
@EvelyneRose i was thinking that anytime a feedback email is sent the person getting the email is also getting a mark on their record and after they get so many marks/feedback emails their account is suspended that would be great if im wrong about that
@jennysunrise8
Honestly I don't know, I'd ask @7cupsCommunity :)
@EvelyneRose
A listener who submits a "good faith" report will not result in a penalty for the listener. Each report will be investigated individually. Penalties resulting from reports are possible if the listener has submitted a report in "bad faith." We would rather someone come forward to help us remove someone harming the community rather than being too scared to report.
"Good faith" reports include:
• An encounter you personally witnessed or experienced
• Genuine concern that a guideline was violated
• Genuine concern for the community
"Bad faith" reports include:
• Trying to get someone in trouble because you don't like them
• Instigating a conflict or making up information
• Cropping screenshots and / or leaving out pertinent information
cc @jennysunrise8
@7CupsCommunity Can you explain more about cropping screenshots? Does this only apply to listeners? I have never been told there was an issue with a screenshot I have provided before.
I often only share part of a screen because 1) why is anything unrelated to 7cups anyone else's business? If I have work tasks, other internet tabs open, etc. I don't see why those need to be shared.
2) When having a 1-1 chat, the details I share with a listener are meant to be confidental, why should I have to share what I thought was going to be between just the 2 of us because they decided to start sexting?
3) Part of a conversation is likely going to be cut off - I know of no way to actually get a screenshot of an entire conversation, so if I have to select by scroll, what's wrong with cutting out other stuff?
If you really don't want screenshots cropped, 7cups should be able to provide a way to report a conversation box directly.
@jennysunrise8
Not to be argumentative but, nowhere in this post is it stated that listeners will be actually punished for reporting things deemed not fitting for the listener report form. It says there might be coaching; that's simply a conversation about constructive improvement. It doesn't say they'll suspend accounts or block access to parts ot the website or anything particularly related to the existing "punishment" system. It's extremely important to not look at constructive feedback as a punishment... if you do, you will be compelled to reject any potential for growth from those conversations. I can understand how they might feel like an admonishment, but just as it's important to maintain comfort, it's also important to make sure that the time of the support staff is well spent.
The second thing I wanted to say is... This post doesn't actually have any information that was drastically different from the existing L-L set up. I don't see this post as an announcement of a whole new system, but rather a refresher discussion with some updating. If you were to read the first page of the L-L form to date, it has a series of bullet points stating that the reporting party much ensure that the topic/subject matter is an actual violation of community standards as outlined by the expectations, or a violation of listener oath, etc., along with stating that by filing the report, you acknowledge that you have attempted personal constructive resolution prior to reporting. The form even explicitly asks if you tried to reconcile the situation, and there is a reason why they ask. In a way, I think this is actually a change that will make it easier to justify the report, because instead of having to meet all bulletpoints, it's more like an either/or now.
I would suggest that if a listener is particularly nervous about such a thing and needs to "make sure" it's okay, then they should reach out to a mentor to ask for clarity, maybe a peer support person is that's easier. Maybe even @Laura would consider adding a field on the form that has a conditional question, that says "Did a mentor or other peer support person ask you to or suggest that you fill out this form?" and if Yes, have a follow up asking for their name. That way, you have your reassurance but if the report is deemed to not be suited for the report, they can follow up with the mentor rather than the listener.
What changes would you like to see? What kinds of expectations for the reporting do you think would be reasonable? What would be a reasonable threshold to make sure there's a buffer between comfort and making sure the time isn't wasted on petty things?
@Blynng i didnt read anything that said their might be coaching it said " Those who submit reports that are about personal issues or non-constructive reports may also receive feedback " i think they do mean the same as what is given to the listener because of the word also in that sentence so im thinking that means same as but i might be wrong thats a good question what does feedback mean and how many points does a person get oioif the report they make is considered personal if any ?
@Blynng thats a great idea asking a mentor.first to make sure the report isnt going to be considered personal and that they should file.a.report the mentor can also confirm that the person tried conflict resolution and can give the ok to go the next step and file a report that makes a.lot more sense than having every person guess how their report might be interpreted make sure before reporting that makes a lot of sense ;)
@Blynng
Thank for you this post.
there is way too much information.
@sleepyPandaBear I agree.
Charlie
@sleepyPandaBear true theres too much information thats because theres too much going on at once creating the information which is really the cause of every problem here i think just like a listener trying to take on too many chats at once instead of prioritizing and taking one chat at a time and then going to the next the lister tries to do everything at once talk to everyone now imagine that each person that the listener is talking to their story becomes more complicated multiplying the informtion overload that already exists and increasing the distraction away from solving very important site issues like teen safety and site safety fair reporting making personal information on the site more secure preventing people from making multiple accounts (law enforcement) the guidelines explained so that no guideline can be left up to subjective interpretation
a lot of basics are going unfinished that are actually really important to the integrity of 7cups and its future ! those things should be solved first before any attention is given to things that have a lower priority and creative efforts should be on making projects simpler and reducing distraction/information not increasing distraction from the important things that need to be solved first not everything is equally important the things and projects that are less important can and should be put on a backburner until important issues are solved its good to stop what were doing and take a look at what were spening time on thats good for people to do that and also organization to stop and pay attention every once in a while what time is being spent on and if something that should be higher priority is not getting enough or any attention
@jennysunrise8
Can you clarify way too much information?
@EvelyneRose sorry just now seeing this too much information im referring to too many distractions from critical problems on 7cups these distractions expanding projects produce more information that increases the distraction from these unsolved problems also information a lot of conflicting information in forums anything untrue found in the forums should be deleted or corrected so that inaccurate info isnt spread , another important problem cleaning up the forums and getting rid of rumors and anything thats untrue and yes it is a big job going through the forums and editing out anything thats untrue or contracticts something else but it needs done or its just going to cause confusion i definately think there is a problem with information overload its like a messy closet some really valuable and important things are covered up out of sight and forgotten mixed in with some things that should be thrown away so it just needs to be gone through forum threads checked for accuracy and truth some things edited or deleted
@jennysunrise8 Oh no, sorry, but this is a terrible idea because it allows a few people to remove information they don't like. The forums here were like that some time ago, and they became unusable because anything anyone said could get sneakily rewritten or deleted. Imagine trying to have a meaningful discussion when the things you said yesterday might have been "corrected" by someone who happens not to agree with you!
Charlie
@RarelyCharlie no i dont mean removing information that someone disagrees with just information thats wrong based on rumors or confusion for example if someone writes a listener guide or thread on something that contradicts site policy i dont think its enough for 7cupscommunity to clarify anything if threads and listener guides are allowed to exist that teach the opposite same with listener training teaching one thing and in the forum teaching the opposite the result of keeping misleading info and untrue info in the forums is that everyone is doing something different according to what info they happen to come across it makes it inconsistent and confusing its really something that shouldve been done all along from the beginning this editing out of the forums any untrue info an opinion is always true but if someone says something about site policy and its not true it should be corrected or deleted i think just like posts are edited for including info that has personal or confidential info untrue info should also be edited out
@jennysunrise8 Oh, I see. Yes, I agree with that. No one should be able to write guides without clearly marking them unofficial. Ideally, that is.
Since discovering that the official practice chat and the official active listening training contradict each other I've been a lot less clear about what's true and what's not true.
Charlie
@jennysunrise8 @Rarelycharlie
Yes, right now there are lots of different guides, official, and unofficial! And it is very confusing I agree. I dislike the way that anyone can write anything and suddenly it apparently becomes the new way of doing things.
That is not to say that posts that are 'unofficial' do not have a place, they do, they add context and ideas, and opinions and personal experiential views , which can all be very valuable.
There is a team working really hard behind the scenes to update and check the Listener Learning resources and threads and forum guides. I also think there should be more clearly defined 'Official forum guides' clearly marked in a sub-forum, that are updated regularly and we are working on that too.
But, this is really a different discussion from the original post?
@Heather225 @Erato @Fluffyunicorns84
Listening .... One Step At A Time
@MistyMagic its sort of related to the original post in a general way 
the post is admin giving accurate information about policy and clearing up misunderstandings but your right its not exactly what this post is about when it comes to official guides and unofficial guides i dont think there should be any unofficial guides all listener guides should be fact checked before being posted opinions shouldnt be presented in any official / formal way its not only listener guides but just anywhere in the forums and its really a job for admin because they know what the guidelines are it shouldnt be left up to volunteers to figure out if comments and guides is the forum are true or not its a site basic that if its not done just leads to confusion and site dysfunction (and it does) so cleaning up the forums everywhere is important but yea ill stop now lol
@jennysunrise8 Who would be the judge of what information is acceptable and what information should be modified or deleted?
@Blaze. just someone who knows what the site policy is if someone is claiming that something is site policy and its not true it should be edited to make it true admin would know site policy any persons opinion cant be judged as true or untrue a persons opinion is always true so only things that contradict site policy
@Laura
Thanks for clarifying this all so clearly. It is nice to have it all in one post too, very helpful.
@Blaze
Listening .... One Step At A Time
@MistyMagic and done, thanks Misty!
@Laura Thank you for this post. It was incredibly helpful in clarifying things.
Hey Everyone! We're doing some research to collect ideas on improving safety and reporting in the community. Please fill out this form anonymously, or if you're bursting at the seams with more ideas, leave me your username and we can follow up! https://forms.gle/7CNhNpSZyhRDMkm36
@CuriousKate
Just an FYI to anyone reading, CuriousKate is our director of research.
@7CupsCommunity @curiouskate
You can read more about Kate here!
@Jill7cups @7CupsCommunity
Thank you to everyone for their participation in the safety and reporting survey. I have closed collection and am moving into analysis. I'll provide an update soon (here and in Research and Insights Lab in the Kitchen Sink)
@CuriousKate
Thank you Kate!
@CuriousKate Thank you so much, Kate 2.0! 🍕🍕🍕