Room Announcement
Hello everyone! I have an important update to make on group rooms.
Did you know that the first room opened at 7 Cups was a waiting room for members to wait for an available listener? Things have come a long way since then. Just as we did then we are always looking for ways to improve the support we provide. We have been investigating what parts of the group support model works and what does not through usage, moderation statistics, and general room health. What weve found is that having moderated discussions and open chats are the most supportive and safe opportunities, while unmoderated 24/7 chatting results in increased safety and experience issues.
As we move forward as a company with a free emotional support service we have decided on some big changes to elevate our group support experience for everyone who wants a safe and kind experience. Our intention is to do a few things well and focus on emotional support.
Member rooms:
We will have two adult member rooms and two teen member rooms open 24/7 for moderated support. One general support room and one community room. All other rooms will be pop-up discussion rooms. These rooms will all be badge locked to both listeners and members.
Listener badges: Tick Tock ( For reaching Ten 1-1 chats), Thankful Heart (For receiving 5 positive text reviews)
Member badges: Strong Bond 1 (5 chats with 5 Listeners, i.e. 1 chat per listener, 5 total chats), Helpful heart ( 50 Compassion Hearts)
Listener rooms:
In the adult listener community we will continue to have two rooms, Listener Support Room and Listener Community Room. Teens will have Teen Listener Room. The adult Listener Community Room will require the Verified Listener badge. The Listener Support Rooms will be open to all listeners, but will only be used for active chat support.
Timeline:
This change is anticipated to happen in the next couple of days. However if some rooms become unsafe and volatile we may choose to close them early or remove them all together.
Our goal is to focus on emotional support. We are aligning our community features to help us better achieve this. We realize this is a big change that may not suit your preferences. We know you may have questions, especially if you are on a volunteer support team (group support teams read more here). We understand if you decide our free services no longer fit your needs and we wish you the best. However you are feeling please keep our Community Guidelines in mind as you process and move forward with your day. While we always welcome feedback, we expect discussions to not only be civil but also on-topic.
I know dealing with change can be challenging. I appreciate the flexibility as we move things forward. As a quick aside, Im visiting my grandmother (she has been ill) so Ill respond, but might be a bit delayed. The community team will chime in and answer questions as well.
Thank you!
[MonBon added link]
[Jill replaced badge name for members- it is Strong Bond 1 and not 7 day streak)
[Lorraine added badge requirements]
[Tazzie replaced the second badge name for members. It is Helpful Heart]
[MonBon replaced badge name for Listeners. It is Thankful Heart]
[7CupsCommunity modified description of Strong Bond 1 for clarity]
@GlenM
I don't see how this will help with more support. When everyone is getting support in one room it loses any focus and many aren't understanding. I was there when there were only a few rooms.
We know you may have questions, especially if you are on a volunteer support team (group support teams read more here). 
Read more WHERE?
@AffyAvo Here
https://www.7cups.com/forum/GroupSupport_168/LorrainesLounge_1969/RoomupdateFollowup_211732/
Listening .... One Step At A Time
@AffyAvo i was already room supporter on a popup room, so it will not be change for me. the rooms will open when mods are in the room and then the room supporters will can help in there. just that the rooms that are currently 24/7 will become popups.
@AffyAvo exactly! it gives away from the focus to take away the categorized rooms. it will only create more overwhelm and anxiety if there are one or two larger chats where everyone is discussing random topics. the chats will get flooded and not everybody's concerns will be tended to or given support.
@yasshunnyqueen I've already had something similar happen already, I've been talking about my problem then someone else comes in with a problem then someone else so on so on, then most get drowned out,...
@yasshunnyqueen This is going to take some adjustment time and I understand that is difficult. Our hope is that the focus is not on the general rooms but on the topic rooms as they open and that we will gear a strong volunteer force to make that happen.
@GlenM These are some interesting changes, I particularly like the changes to the Listener Rooms.
Sending my very best wishes to your grandmother for a speedy recovery.
Listening .... One Step At A Time
@MistyMagic Thanks for sharing that.
Unpaid people should not be needing to do that though. This was planned, Thinking Space just disappeared without any announcement and no one would say anything about it for over 24 hours other than "we are investigating".
The least that could be done was a proof read before posting such a major change.
@AffyAvo I understand that this is a difficult change and many of our teams that have been pop up have had this already. 7Cups is a volunteer community. We are here to facilitate the amazing work our volunteers are doing and we will continue to do that. This is not and expectation we are laying on volunteers. We are giving them the opportunity to use the rooms as much as they would like to while ensuring users are safe.
@Lorraine234 Yet a volunteer came in with the link before any of the paid staff did.
Look at all the changes that have happened to the OP in the first few hours. None of the member badges were correct with the initial announcement.
It would also be really useful to see the criteria for the badges. I have been here a long time and do not have hopeful heart.
I looked through the member reputation, and I don't see it there. I see a hopeful heart level - but I'm well past that, I can't go back. There have been numerous issues with badges. I have been asking for years to get everything I have earned and that still hasn't happened. The badge glitches should be fixed before requiring them.
@AffyAvo we will look into the issue with that badge- but agree we should add the criteria. Will add shortly, thank you!
@Jill7Cups Along the lines of what Affy said, I contacted Support & Feedback and emailed community@7cups.com regarding me not receiving my Wise One badge and never heard back from anyone. Please advise.
@Jill7Cups
im a member and I have both required badges.... I'm wondering if there is a glitch or something of that sort. Thank you sm in advance
@versatilePerson1717 thanks we will look- and appreciate your patience.
@AffyAvo Hey Affy! Good question.
Listener badges: Tick Tock ("for reaching reaching ten 1-on-1 chats"), 5 positive chats (this is a new badge)
Member badges: 7 day streak ("for completing a step on the Growth path for 7 consecutive days"), Hopeful heart (I assume it's reaching that cheer level).
All this info has been taken from the FAQ on badges and cheers (member one here and listener one here)
@Mel And the 7 day streak badge has already been decided to be something else!
Confident Voice - for leaving text reviews for 5 Listeners
I still am currently missing the Honest Voice badge, which is before this, so it appears this series is part of the glitch.
@Mel
Can you clarify what a
@Mel
Can you clarify what a
@AffyAvo *helpful heart. Apologies for the typo. 50 compassion hearts so you should def have it.
(Tazzie replaced badge description )
@GlenM
New here so maybe a silly question? What does 5 positive chats mean? Maybe 5 positive reviews? I have 20 chats currently that I felt were very positive, 4 people helped, and 3 positive reviews. Probably doesn't mean a whole lot right now for me anyway as I am not verified as of yet.
@SparkyGizmo
oops, 5 people helped
@SparkyGizmo Well, if you'd ever need a positive review, I am active in leaving reviews when I believe a chat was good :)! So we can have a chat (perhaps next week, this week I am a bit hectic and a bit of a handful I'd admit)
@OpenWindow
That sounds terrific! Thank you so very much for thinking of me!
I surely will do my very best for you. 
I care for all of my members, I only take one chat at time so that my member has 100% of my focus, I choose to work from a lap top as opposed to a phone as to not have a phone near me ergo no distractions at all, I set chat times for 45 minutes, and doing it this way it appears as if from looking at my profile page, that 1 person helped=4 to 5 actual chats as I respond quickly. Just depends on how quickly my member likes to respond. I'm not saying this is the right way to do things, I imagine every listener is different and might be able to handle multi-tasking. If so, I think it is great that they are much more talented that I.
I look forward to spending time with you! Thank you for choosing to spend your time with me! I'm really excited and whenever you are in need of a great chat, I'll be there for you!
@GlenM
Hi. I hope your gran is well.
Will listener chats stay the same? I have a listener. Will i be able to chat with them the same?
@warmheartedTurtle6662
This update does not affect 1-on-1's
@7CupsCommunity
thank you. Do i have the badges to go in the member rooms?
@7CupsCommunity
i have helpful heart not hopeful heart. I have the other badge
@warmheartedTurtle6662
seems to be so at least for now turt. Hugs miss you hun
So, whats the grand vision? Obviously there is a roll out of a new strategy. I very well understand that running a freemium business model is challenging. As a user I have often felt like some of the data shown to back up the decisions has seemed biased towards quite fundamental confirmation bias. That said I wish you the very best. Its not like the global challenges of mental suffering are decreasing. Anything that can help even a portion of the people is alas needed.
On a personal note Im disappointed. Group support has been a fundamental part of me having a handle on my portion of the suffering. Currently however Im sceptical how the change can support me in the future. That nevertheless is my concer, not yours. Im very avare of that.
Sigh...
@lilmango Well said. I am also disappointed and I do not like the way this is being told to the community, I have such admiration for @GlenM. I want to support and trust his decision yet I am torn as a five year supporter of the community. This is a community is it not? I feel unheard and uncared for. I am worried this is a proposition to increase the amount of therapy paid listening which is unfairly priced imho. I will get backlash but I am not a robot. I have a lot to say. I may be leaving the community now and I am sure I will only be missed by regular members and one on ones. There has never been enough protection to listeners and I feel this was the biggest issue. Also since things have been changing over the last few months I was scolded by the new head of safety and I am offended. I have been working diligently on protecting a few of my regulars and this is the thanks I get. Glen I will do whatever to support you because you have done the same when I approached you years ago but the community has given me more strife since 2017 and I am upset.
@UnderTheTableAndDreaming I am with you on there's no support at all for the Listeners. I have (and still am) dealing with a stalker here who has targeted more people than I care to list.....when I complain, I get victim-blamed. I get told to ignore him or stay away from forums he's in, despite he's been following me around - not to mention told I must have encouraged it! All this from the people in charge here - those who cared to even respond to the issue and didn't literally ignore it. So the forums are basically off-limits then.....so my last santuary was the feed, which they took away. So the listeners are definitely not being heard and PTB have chosen to turn this site from a helpful place into a cash-grab.
@Dawn04 and @UnderTheTableAndDreaming
I'm sorry to hear there has been issues with supporting listeners. Im aware that there are issues on 1-on-1 chats going on and dealing with them. Please know listeners are immensely important!
Currently Im mostly worried about the sites ability to support group based peer support that forms tight bond communities. And to be more precise, varying communities. We find home when enough of our kind is around. Im not sure how thats possible with 2 rooms. And we will see how long the mods last to keep the other rooms open. Modding burns out people, thats a real sad truth. And Im sceptical of enforcing same expression requirements for each room (like for example now its encouraged not to trigger censor, I mean whats the censor for then?). People are different, I dont think the update with the number of chat rooms open 24/7 is really endorsing that.
all I can suspect is that chat rooms dont do well in conversion into money. They probably dont even close to break even Id assume. But, if that is the case, I would appreciate honesty. Everyone should understand that every organization needs money to run. Pats on the back wont get the bread on the table.
@lilmango Truth becomes the site wouldn't cost that much to maintain - the domain name, some server space, and some IT people to keep it running. I think the problem is too many people are now being paid too much for their job position and they would rather make more money than keep the site helping people. It's quite a sad day today is to realize this.
@Dawn04 PM me anytime. Im concerned about your stalker as I have had many complaints from my regulars. Feel free to reach out to me via PM, anytime. We little people should stick together. For it is WE who are the building blocks of this Freemium App. They can toss us aside but love always wins! *Under his eye 👁
@lilmango Hey there! Firstly thank you for being open minded about this. While this is tough and will take some adjusting, the plan is to increase safety. The plan is not to get rid of the feature but strengthen it. When a member enters a chat room, they should be confident that it will be safe and supportive. This is what we hope to achieve here. It will take some time to settle in but we are hoping to see an increase in positive experiences when topic based rooms are open. Hope this makes sense.
@Lorraine234
Lorraine, I get what you are going for. And I understand why it may be what is necessary here. I don
@GlenM
"Our goal is to focus on emotional support." Is it the reality or is the focus on sponsors/money only? Its understandable that you need to cut the finances but please dont lie. The truth would be appreciated by the community much more.
@LovingSparkle I have to agree - it seems anything free that people liked is being cut.
@Dawn04
True, however what Im the most disappointed about that 7cups head always lies, that they never tell the real cause
@LovingSparkle Everything they are cutting recently is stuff anyone will any basic knowledge of web design knows cost nothing - like the feed.
@LovingSparkle Hi there! Yes, the focu is on emotional support. Many times as im sure having spent time in the rooms you know, these chats can derail and become messy. We are focusing on the support portion of this experience. When a user enters a room they should know it will be a safe supportive atmosphere for them to share and be able to get support. Thats the aim with the changes.
@Lorraine234
Hun, why are you telling me that? Before the whole thing, I was a Room Supporter. I know what I talk about. On the adult side, the rooms were already over filled. Now the problem is at its worst with the new change.
@LovingSparkle Just reitterating on the reason for the change. We need the rooms to be safe. I'm here if you need to talk.
@Lorraine234 I'm not sure if that aim will work because the most popular room was the Depression support room and you can't get a word in edgewise there, as people are talking about anything other than depression and making lude remarks. If we have 2 chats won't they fill up and become a mess?
@fearlessWriter78 *lewd remarks
@fearlessWriter78 I think you just highlghted a fantastic point above. When members would enter a chatroom they could never be sure what to expect. With this change, we hope to get to a point where if a member sees that a topic based room like depression is open, they can go in and know for sure it will be safe and supportive. With the badge locks, we are hoping to also weed out anyone who is not here for the right reasons. This will lead to more positive experiences in group support as a whole. The idea is not to only ever have two rooms, but for our mod team to open other rooms and allow members a safe space to chat and get the support they came for.
@Lorraine234 Thanks for your response and explanation
@fearlessWriter78 No problem at all. I know this is difficult. My PMs are open if you ever need a chat.
@Lorraine234
And what are the "right reasons"?
I am on the app right now needing support but guess what? There's no support to be found. How is that supportive?! Mental illness doesn't follow a schedule!
*something bad happens to someone, and they need support*
*checks the time* "well I guess I'll just put everything on pause"
@LovingSparkle I think what they meant by focusing on emotional support is that the more number of rooms they have open, the more rooms are unsupervised. They can only get so many people to moderate the rooms 24*7 and some rooms get really messy when it's unsupervised.
I see you've also mentioned how the adult rooms are overflowing, I think it's only a certain few rooms though. A lot of them are mostly empty.
I guess what they're expecting out of this change is that if they can bring everyone into two rooms which are moderated, it'll be easier to filter malicious people and the people who do need support will be able to reach out without entering a room that says "depression support" but once you enter its nothing less than a huge mess. It can be a huge set off and maybe this change will help address the same.
@Hapish
You sound quite reasonable. But they could offer a compomise that more listeners volunteer as mods. Or they could be more clear/honest about their intentions, reasons and goals.
@LovingSparkle I guess so but again they're only "volunteers" and they can't be forced to follow strict schedules to maintain moderation all the time. I know this is a big change and it must not be easy for a lot of people to take it all in at once ❤️
I personally like it since I've been around in the adult rooms and sometimes they're either dead or there's an active room like DS which is filled with trolls and mods just have to leave it alone because they can't spend all their energy and time in trying to get a room to calm down when they'll only start back up as soon as the mod leaves. Previously CC, now DS.
Hoping this change is a good one!
@Hapish
I agree here now that Ive read more about it. 👍 I tend to prefer the forums as opposed to the chatrooms because Im afraid about the chatrooms being a cesspool when theyre not adequately supervised 😱
@Hapish Actually it will be harder as the more people the faster the chat and a lot of msgs will be missed and then the Mod will have to scroll back to see why some members are upset, therefore, missing more upsetting posts.
@caringPanda45 True!
@caringPanda45 These 24/7 rooms will be moderated and we hope that our teams will open other rooms and that they will not be as fast as we might think.
@LovingSparkle I remember when there was only 1-3 rooms open, they were well moderated, a safe place, and possible to get some support.
since there is a lot of rooms, its unmoderaterd, there is a lot of trouble makers switching rooms when mods join, and coming back when the mods leave. lot of cliques.
This change IS needed, so we can make our rooms SAFE and supportive again. with mods who will make sure the focus on rooms are what they are designed for, either light chat for distract our minds, or support focussed on support and not interumpted by people talking about politic only.
the other rooms will still open, but only when moderated, offering a safe environment, I hope this change will encourage listeners room supporter to work toward moderator role, and encourage the mods and support teams to open the rooms more often, offering an environment where the topic of the room is respected, and where we are not being pushed away by cliques who want talk about other thing that the topic of rooms and not giving you space to actually seek support about specific topic.
I really think this update is positive even if i know for sure it will create a lot of frustration in those there "for talking with friends", there are many other sites appropriate for just chat with friends on different topics, including IRC (internet relay chat)
@GlenM
thank you for caring about people glen and paying attention when you didnt have to yes there is a lot of abusive behavior in the chatrooms yes in every chatroom there should be a moderator at all times and one impartial your doing the right thing there is so much peer pressure to accept bullying dont be apart of it dont allow it its ok <3
@jennysunrise8 Thank you for your opinion and support here. I appreciate you.
Oh god, I don't even know what to say about this. There are so many people using member rooms to just talk to eachother and seek support through that. Some people including myself are not really comfortable connecting to Listeners.
I do not understand where the idea of compressing the entire population of 7c room users into 2 rooms came from, I understand change is needed but this is ambitious.
@Gyda Hey there. I agree there are many people who use the room to build connections. Our hope is that we dont loose that and that we can work together with volunteers to make sure the rooms are open enough for that to still happen. I know its a big change and a lot to take in. Here is you need to talk.
@Lorraine234
with just two 24/7 rooms its impossible
@Lorraine234 One thing 7cups needs to fix is it's "calendar" which is never completely up to date. I want to attend chats but either they don't happen, or there's a chat that suddenly pops up and it's not on the calendar, like communities have their own list of chats they're doing but it's not on the calendar. Also depression is a major issue for people, including myself - why is there no longer a depression support chat in the calendar?
@fearlessWriter78 the community runs off volunteer run activities so there can be if people volunteer to run them. We hope that our teams will do that and yes, the calendar was wiped because it was out of date and we are readding our events
@Gyda
Not sure if this is catastrophic thinking, big picture thinking or simply thinking of things in terms of Newtons first law of energy, I think it was. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. I wonder if the member rooms are compressed from 7 to 2, and already this was the only place for members to interact with one another, if members will consider just becoming listeners now even if they never were interested in that before, or rushing to become a listener before they are ready?
If that happens, we will be a community comprised of a lot more listener activity than member activity. People may rush to become a listener if they don't quite feel comfortable in that role. I imagine that is one way to reduce member wait time, as the grs list might not have an opportunity to become flooded. I imagine in my silly thinking 50 dogs fighting over one bone. Just being silly there.
I have to wonder if 7 cups will quickly come on to that activity and remove pms between listener to listener. Either way we have only 2 listener rooms as it is. I wonder if we will see a bottle neck there, way too much activity for one or two rooms to handle. Again, silly thoughts. I envision a restaurant where the fire Marshall always comes in and determines how many people are allowed in at one time, based on the code for safety reasons. I wonder if now the rooms will end up having a waiting list like the grs. If people will become overly focused on that as opposed to staying in a chat with their members?
But maybe none of this will happen or maybe these things have been thought of already and there will be even more plans rolling out soon to mitigate this? Sounds like an adventure to me.
@SparkyGizmo I am worried it is quantity of people coming to the site as they have paid google to appear in search results very easily. It is not about the quality of the users or their experience. It is unfortunate this has left its grassroots origins. I wish nothing but the best for Glen for I believe he is a compassionate man. However I wish he had the leadership he had with others from its beginnings. I do hope and pray for this community but i fear it is losing its vision. I worry it has become to hard for people like Glen to reach us like he and the three original leaders did. It had a personal touch. @glenm I hope you don
@SparkyGizmo
You have to understand not everyone appreciates change over such a short period of time. Please don't call my opinions and thoughts catastrophoc in nature, I haven't attacked you or personally started on you.
@Gyda
Oh, not at all Gyda! I didn't mean your thoughts. I was agreeing with you. I was speaking of MY thoughts that were getting ready to be typed next. It's ok! *hugs*
@Gyda
I really do feel awful knowing that you took it that way. I really do. It's the worst feeling for someone like me to think that I have made someone upset and they have to walk around feeling that way. I hope you get a chance to read again my words.
@GlenM Hahaha here we go again. I have to say Im not shocked this is happening. Anyways I suppose it doesnt matter since ya'll destroyed all the room communities the last time you delted them. Feeling like im gonna need to find an alternative to this website really soon. I had a bunch of my close friends and listeners on here leave because of the last room shutdowns. Eh I got nothing else to say because ya'll are gonna do this anyways.