This is the room update feedback spot

I am supportive of trying all changes made to 7Cups, and honestly, I have witnessed a lot from the member part.

Trying it is important, but also evaluating issues that everyone has is important to me. I think that with the changes being so sudden to the feed and chat rooms it is leaving a lot of individuals that have been part of 7Cups for quite a bit of time reeling. They aren't used to this drastic of a change. And it can be hard to imagine how new changes that are yet to be implemented will be better. Or imagine anything that will compete with the feed. Or where they will feel supported when their specific topic group support room is closed.

I understand why and can't wait to see how these new changes may help.

But everyone should stay aware of why this is happening. And perhaps a bit more organization given to those who are feeling the negatives of these being taken away.

Again this is just an opinion - not mad at anyone - just the situation as I see it as one of the long-time members here.

This would be the time to acknowledge you have pulled the rug under many people.

This room plan has been in the planning stages for most of the year. Many options and ideas were considered, many staff teams were involved. Based on the existing site and on the needs of the community (safety, focus on support, etc) this is the plan that was moved forward.

The support communities that have evolved within the live peer group support are irreplaceable. This website has now essentially become less of a support resource. Even the communities that have a strong supportive culture have been punished. And now that people are dealing with the emotions of their support network has been taken away from them, you ban talking about it at the remaining chats. Looking for support for this loss is banned.

It does not seem to me you have done a sufficient job thinking this through. We are, after all, at a mental healt peer support platform.

Hi, am i correct in thinking that there will be no more room chats ,if so i really think its for the best i would go on and most of the time people were arguing / being insulting / bad language / using it has a dating site, so i never used it . I think the idea of it is good if used respectfully

@Jill7Cups Hello! I don't mind the scaling back of rooms. It's something that will eventually be gotten used to. My issue is the requirements needed for members to access them. Compassion hearts are most commonly given in group chats and the amount of chats needed to access the rooms is very excessive. I've had quite a few members that have told me they've been here for months and can't access the group chat anymore because of the high requirement. I believe I understand the call for the requirements as it takes away new account creation with trolls but I feel the requirement is excessive.

@Jill7Cups my discussions are a lot more active, and guided discussions/support sessions vent very well and even increased participation, but the open chats was more challenging, I had to manage a lot of people who was just complaining about the updates, and while i tried to redirect the chat and gave them the appropriate thread for giving feedback, i had to use my mod tools, which is very rare, then people complaining even harder. continued to delete the comments related to it, and the chatroom got dead, i closed it. im questionning myself the pertinence of open chats and thinking focussing on guided discussions for now, take advantage of the higher participation in them.

@Jill7Cups

Hello,

1) Is all those people's Feed data retreivable? Can you some how fix this by reinstating feeds and rooms and postpone the changes until members have had a chance to make the needed adjustments? And so they can save their feed data they are so upset about thinking its gone forever?

2) Is it also possible to have a message board page for future announcements so 7cups can avoid major upsets like this from ever happening again?

We should all have been notified.

3) Is it possible to find a way to get out an applogoy to all members so they feel like they matter?

These changes affected moods, and emotions, and was intrusive and unexpected. That's why it bothered me and was upsetting and affected so many negatively.

I hope some good eventually happens on the site.

Im upset though because some lives are as fragile as one sentence delivered badly.

Research shows that huge numbers of the mental health community suffers from fears, and change.

I hope we didnt loose anybody for real, but we may never know for sure why so many people closed their accounts.

Thank you

I think the way it was handled could have been done much better, but I have shared specific things on that already.

I have seen many people say the comm mods don't seem to be around much. The little I have hung out in the Support & MCR rooms does match with that. I have told others maybe there are just busy on the teen side. They do come in quickly when called too, so I have encouraged people to do that. With the limited number of rooms though I am surprised I'm not seeing them in on or the other when I have both open.

I'm also confused as to who does what room now. A comm mod told me they do not have access to the Support Key rooms, so does this mean that these are only modded by volunteers now? Or is this just an oversight? Can they enter the popup rooms?

What are the badges needed? For example, is it possible for people to have access to the Support Key rooms without access to the Support & MCR rooms. Or are Support & MCR badges like prerequisits to get the other 24/7 rooms? What about the popup rooms?

Just curious as to how many negative or critical complaints it will take for someone who reads the feed back to understand that it was a giant mistake to change the rooms like they have been. an also kudos to the passive aggresive original notification on the room changes. It is obvious 7cups admin don't really care that much , perhaps when the donations start to dwindle things will go back to normal.

also maybe what would of been a bigger help is changing the moderator rules so they are basically not begging people to behave properly and allow them to use common sense on when to kick people out. The rooms are now a cluster bomb, during peek hours, too many conversations going on at once. People I looked forward to talking to and getting support from are gone.

Want to make a real change, put the rooms back to normal, stop recruiting non trained listeners for volunteers and same for moderators, start reaching out to colleges and universities an recruit their psychological study students to volunteer as listeners or request and advertise to actual licensed mental health professionals to volunteer as a listener / moderator. on top of allowing moderators to use common sense while moderating.

other than that, great job at ticking off a majority of people on here.

@Jill7Cups

I understand that the room changes are "easier to manage", but I feel like having specific chats for specific problems was extremely helpful. Some people feel more comfortable with people who understand what they go through on a daily basis, instead of being shoved in a room with people with no understanding. It's uncomfortable. And if this room change was in planning for most of the year, why weren't we at all warned or told about this? I feel like we should have been given a chance to prepare or say our feedback earlier than this. That would have been a lot better. Though I won't yell and scream at anyone, I am very frustrated about this and I am slowly losing faith in 7Cups. First feeds, now the chats? I haven't spoken to a listener at all because they are never available, and I felt more comfortable talking with members in a specific chat. I just hope 7Cups makes better choices with planning before they throw these extreme changes in our faces. You threw these changes at us harshly, so of course, people are going to come back at you harshly. Disappointed, but I'll see where this leads the site.

@Jill7Cups

I don't understand why you have to apply to enter the rooms. Not only is it preventing new members from getting support, but people can also lie on the forms.