Back 7 Cups: Part I of Making 7 Cups Sustainable

@GlenM--I like what I'm seeing as it doesn't feel like we're making services "better" for those who pay...just adding little perks. I sent you a PM with some ideas I had that I wasn't comfortable mentioning here until after you look at them. Thanks!

There's no information to the other thread that you keep referring to.

Wow! I look forward to learning more about this! Keep up the great work :)

@GlenM

Hello, here's an other idea:

If we could prove with a study that 7cups is effective in improvement of the members' mental health, then we could involve committed major corporate and nonprofit donors.

Not sure i understand correctly. Maybe as discussions and question over this new development arises i might get a better view on what it actually entails:-)

I don't like how you all are trying to start charging people...that was the great thing about this site...not getting charged and not being harassed by ads. As a member who has now turned into a listener, I'm pretty disappointed.

@GlenM - Before I start, I'd just like to say thank you for all you and your team have done. This site has made a difference in many people's lives and has, I'm sure, saved a lot of lives, too.

I completely understand that as a site/company continues to grow, the funds needed to sustain such a site/company will also grow in size. I can't imagine the funds needed to keep everything working smoothly as well as the funds needed to ensure we keep moving forward. And it sounds like this has been discussed behind the scenes quite thoroughly, so please do not think that I am under the assumption that all the "what ifs" and possible outcomes haven't been explored by your team, already.

However, having said this, as a member and as someone who was unfortunately not a fly on the wall during the discussions leading up to this, I am left with my own personal concerns about the "what ifs" and the possible outcomes and I hope it's okay if I voice them.

1) A portion of the user base feels as though their concerns/suggestions fall on deaf ears. They feel as though suggestions and concerns have been raised many times before; only to be left unanswered, ignored, or simply dismissed. Now, having said this, I am fully aware that just because we have suggestions/concerns, this does not mean that you and your team are then required to respond publicly. Perhaps your team goes over each issue/concern that pops up behind the scenes, and, amongst yourselves, discuss the different suggestions without publicly acknowledging you've done so. And we're definitely not privy to your plan of action. Perhaps suggestions we've had that we feel have gone unanswered are simply in the works and/or still being discussed and therefore you are unable to discuss it further at that time. There are two sides to everything, I know. But regardless of the truth behind each action or nonaction, the feeling of being unheard is still real and it's a concern many of us have. Regardless how truthful or baseless it may be, it still resonates in a lot of us, your users. My concern is, would this feeling increase even more so now that there are some of us who can't "back" 7 cups? Would a certain group feel more listened to than the other? Would one group feel less important than the other? Less noticed? Or would this cause others to believe that because they are unable to put forth the funds to upgrade their account, that their recovery is not as important as the recovery of those who are able to? Would one group have more say than the other in what happens going forward? Regardless if one group would actually have more say than the other, or if one group is more privileged than the other, that negative feeling alone could be crippling. It could cause even more unease amongst some of your users and cause many to break off and find other sources of help or may even cause some to spiral.

2) In my experience with working for companies that had a free membership and a paid membership, often times I was (privately) instructed to dole out punishment differently depending on what type of user I was issuing the punishment to. If someone was causing trouble, but had put forth a significant amount of money, we were instructed to go easier on them than we would with a member who hadn't put forth any money. Now, if I were to confront these companies publicly, they'd deny it until the end of time. But, behind the scenes, they saw where the money was coming from and did their best to keep it flowing. Please know that I am not implying that's how it would be done here, but could even the prospect of it happening add quite a bit more stress and strain to your moderator team? Being a moderator is a thankless job, I know. They are already faced with criticism regarding activity, behavior, and how punishment is doled out. With this new feature, the moderators would now be faced with accusations of favoritism based on the premium/free membership. It would add a whole other sleuth of complaints/reports and, I would imagine, place your moderators into even tighter places than they find themselves currently. Regardless of whether or not the moderators' judgment would be affected by the account type or not, the fact that it could be perceived as such, I feel, may open a whole other can of worms that your moderator team, and inevitably, your admin team, will have to sort through.

3) I appreciate the time and effort you've put into coming up with the perks that will be available if one upgrades their account and/or "backs" 7 Cups. It's quite apparent how much thought went into each one and I can see how beneficial it could be in helping others receive a more personalized care. It also seems like it would require a lot of work and time in order to implement all of this. Should we be concerned about other things on the site being left unmanaged and/or certain bug fixes/tweaks being halted while this is going on? With tweaks and fixes still being actively made to the rest of the site, would there be any concern on deadlines being pushed back because of this new implementation? Not implying that you would purposely neglect one side vs the other, but it would seem to me that this new addition could take quite a bit of manpower and hours into the implementation and the upkeep/management of it all, thus possibly taking attention away from other aspects of the site. Is there any cause for concern?

4) And finally, there comes the concern on what this means for the future of 7 Cups. I know you have assured several people already that 7 Cups will always have a free option and I know a lot of this is being done in order to keep it free. But I guess I can't help but be concerned. Not because I doubt you as a founder, or that I doubt the capabilities of the 7 Cups team, but because this has quickly become my home and I don't want to feel slighted if I am unable to contribute. I don't want my progress to be neglected because I'm not a "Premium Member". I don't want friends who are quickly becoming my family to feel unwelcome and end up leaving because they no longer feel like they are a priority here. I know good things can't last forever, and that's just a part of life, but I wanted to voice my concerns nonetheless.

Please know that I am almost positive you've most likely considered all of the aforementioned - but, like I said, I wasn't a fly on the wall during those discussions and I had hoped there wouldn't be any harm in voicing my concerns as a member and active user.

Thanks in advance for reading this lengthy response. :)

I'd like to see a study done before anyone (including Listeners and Members) begin putting money into this. In my experience, it feels like some people here are not volunteering with the same goal in mind. It runs the gamut from flirting to genuine help sometimes even in the same day and from chat to chat.

Now I'm not saying that we should shut the whole site down because I realize the importance of 7 Cups and the mission that it has set out to fulfill. When I started here with another account last year, I felt welcomed and wanting to be able to at least try to be focused on starting my recovery; however, after meeting a guy who was obviously high during a chat, I lost faith in the services here. Why am I still here? I'm trying. What people must realize is that there are some people (like me) who have an extremely difficult time opening up even after such a long time. It's not just cut and dry or cut and paste. It's real life. It's why I advocate for paid training.

Being able to be here is very important as mental health is always on my radar. Don't get me wrong. I've met a lot of great people here who still put up with me when I have a hard time trusting everyone else; however, a lot of them don't stay long. From what I've been told, listening is not all its cracked up to be at some points. Would be great if there was some sort of listener system so that people could be checked in on or even checked up on. I know this probably doesn't belong in this conversation; however, I'm saying it.

@ValentineLove -- Great points! I read every word. Sometimes I feel like if I wasn't able to pay and someone else was that I wouldn't get the same treatment.

From the previous thread: We can look further to these organizational models for guidance. The Samaritans are sustainable because they raise $11,000,000 in donations each and every year. That sounds like a lot, but I actually believe it is pretty minimal considering all the good that they accomplish. We can learn from them here and create our own ways for people to donate to 7 Cups.

I've always seen similarities between Samaritans' and 7 Cups' aim and values myself (as a volunteer and trustee of a branch). The major difference is there's intentionally no sense of a community given the confidentiality guidelines. The 50-something-year-old caller with extreme emotional problems would never know that he or she was talking to an 18-year-old about deeply profound and intense feelings, and nor does it matter in that setting.

Each of Samaritans' 199 physical branch/centres are independently registered charities, each with its own director and board of trustees. Essentially branches are franchisees - the rent, phone bills (reverse call charges are expensive), publicity, volunteer recruitment etc are all funded through donations and fundraising events run entirely by volunteers. I believe the money Head Office makes is spent on developing the overall brand, research, policy, partnerships - important stuff to keep the mechanisms in place. So in one way or another, I can empathise(!) with you on trying to keep an organisation afloat without damaging its core values and overall brand.

I know you said that you aren't interested in advertising, but given the sheer volume of traffic the site draws in, it could be quite a lucrative consideration. Not necessarily in an insidious and visually distracting way, either.

Premium accounts/benefits sounds like a good idea. For instance, Habbo Hotel offered (offers, I'm going back 10 years) a completely free online social environment for all. It also offered 'Habbo Club' membership at 2.50 a month, the perks included a special badge beside your character and a selection of outfits non-'HC' members could enjoy. Also, as mentioned before, a 'Donate' button/function would be a practical and unobtrusive way of obtaining revenue.

@GlenM I'm gonna be real with you on this, because I don't like sugar coating things when I say them

In it's current state, I cannot see myself supporting 7 Cups monetarily.

It's not because I don't want to become I definitely would, but honestly I have not been satisfied with the direction that the site has been going.

Now earlier this year when I joined, would I? Probably yes I'd consider it, but recently there have been multiple decisions that don't sit very well with me along with the general state of the site (like quality of listeners) that make it very difficult for me to make the decision to give the site any of my hard-earned money.