Reaction to the Blocking Feature

Hey team! I have a quick point I wish to express, and would appreciate some feedback on it

It has been the case, on occasion, that members connect (having been accepted from the general requests) only to use the blocking function so quickly that there is not time to send a single message to them. An opening welcome message only takes less than half a minute to compose, so this blocking is done in quite a swift fashion. Perhaps there is a reason for this. Maybe the member viewed the Listener profile and felt their issue was not mentioned under "Categories", so decided to depart. It may be true that some members do not wish to speak with a certain gendered Listener, and could have seen a Listener's gender on their profile. Whatever the reason, perhaps the member feels the block function can be utilised in a way that prevents any messages being received from a particular Listener, and they can't be accepted by that Listener again.

However, should this feature be enabled before a single message has been sent? I believe it is very unfortunate that a report can be submitted without a single message being exchanged. There are, admittedly, difficult individuals who may even go so far as to submit fictitious reports on Listeners, which is extremely disheartening. I feel it is important that Listeners receive the upmost of care from 7cups. This situation, however, allows the member exploit a tool that has the aim of flagging those who request personal information, conduct a conversation in threatening fashion, or engage in a sexually orientated manner (etc.).

I believe in the mission of 7cups, to actively support members through listening. I personally feel Listeners add value through volunteering their time, and it is my opinion that many people are positively impacted through coming here. In return, I feel it would be kind of 7cups to offer protection to Listeners. It is not a nice feeling that Listeners could be immediatly blocked, reported, and assessed, off the back of an unnecessary or immediatly fictitious report.

I would love to hear back from some of you guys on whether you have experienced similar actions, and perhaps somebody higher up the ladder could get back to me! If there are similar reactions, I wouldn't mind hearing them. If there are already preventive measures to deal with this issue, I would really love to hear how they are implemented. I'd really appreciate it. I'm available here, through PM, or if I'm spotted in the LSR! Thank you all so much for your hard work, it makes me so proud.

MUW