Room Announcement

@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.

Well since you got rid of Thinking Space, Im assuming no religion and political chat in the rooms right?? BUT what I want to know is.. Is bashing religion ( all of then and in my case Catholic) still going to be allowed? Because the mods NEVER told religion bashers to go to Thinking Space. Non religious people called us "idiot" and "delusuional".

As for politics.. Is bashing one political side (right) still allowed? Im independant but I see alot of bias.

@Figgy50

I want to add I respect anyone who is non believer but being called names is the support rooms is/was uncalled for. (Also, they could bash away in TS. as appropriate.) :)

@Figgy50

I want to add I respect anyone who is non believer but being called names in the support rooms is/was uncalled for. (Also, they could bash away in TS. as appropriate.) :)

@Figgy50

Its pathetic when those who go to the chatrooms for support find anything but! 🤬 I find it ironic that the TS stands for Thinking Space, but those trolls that make a 💩 mess out of it post mindless comments that bring down the quality of 7 Cups 👎. Same goes for those trolls posing as listeners who treat 7 Cups like a dating site ... thats laughably pathetic. 🤣

@Figgy50

should I become a mod just for you ?=)

@Figgy50 ''Non religious people called us "idiot" and "delusuional".'' There was a tendency in depression support where some trolls were ranting lots of religious stuff. I don't think it's unfair to say it was delusional. Depression suport and any other support room was not made for that. There are plenty of places to talk about religion, however a mental health site isn't for that. Go figure.

@GlenM

Sending lots of love to your family at this time. (It should feel like a soul hug if it got to you!)

These are some major changes but I trust this 7Cups community to do right by us with any decision that is made. I

@zaatarHoney
Thank you so much for your positive and supportive words! It's very nice of you to be thoughtful and considerate.

@Tazzie

Of course! This community has contributed in saving my life and giving us all a space to channel our compassion. ♡ The least I can do is continue to trust yall 💕🤗 lol!

@zaatarHoney
We are honored to have you with us!

@GlenM

https://www.7cups.com/forum/GroupSupport_168/InformationUpdates_822/GetAccesstoThinkingSpaceChatRoom_39579/

I have no issue with the changing.

@strawberry8815

Thank you for your kindness and support!

Cups is taking a better step I think.

@GlenM

I'm upset. I feel like I have just been made homeless. Put a lot of time and work into nothing.

@WeedyGarden I understand and appreciate you

@WeedyGarden

I am very sorry to hear that. We value everything you have done in our rooms to keep them welcoming, safe and supportive. Your time is valued by all of us leaders and especially, by the staff and we are beyond grateful. This is a big change and can be overwhelming. My PM's are open to you for peer support. Please send me a message. Thank you!

@WeedyGarden Thank you for all your support. You work has not gone unnoticed. I hope that with volunteers like you on our team we can have these rooms open and supporting people as much as possible.

@WeedyGarden As a chatroom moderator and support session leader your work has been valuable in supporting our members and it will be even more so now. Together we can ensure that the room opens as much as possible, and it be even more supportive community.

Everytime i see you in the room it makes me smile, you have grown so much from a room supporter. Thank you for devoting your time to disability and caring about our members that use this space.

@GlenM im bi and proud.... i think?

I realise that this has come as a huge shock to us all, and the thought of loosing spaces we have used to gain support is scary. While this may feel extreme, I feel positive about members getting support and being safe with these changes. Right now that isnt the case, this is a great chance for the group support team to come together and provide the support our members deserve. Our time can be dedicated to giving support in the room when we open it rather than having to battle the room before we start supporting. Please use my pms I am here for you all to support and listen to constructive feedback.

@GlenM Will only the pop-up discussion rooms be badge locked, or will the two main rooms be too?

Hi Safari,

With this change, all the rooms will be badge locked.

@GoingSafari

finding this decision a bit hard to bare with worry for disability community who rely on theirs being open 24/7 as other rooms dont suit them if too fast etc however i do also understand the reasons behind it hope you know what your doing glen putting my trust in you this site i really love being a listener here

@CaringBrit Exactly Brit...

@CaringBrit I hear you on this, but we have a strong disability team and I believe in you all to provide them with the room as much as possible. Thus improving their support as their room will always be safe with the teams guidance, not having to worry about when a mod responds to the emergency form.

@fluffyUnicorns84 will try our best but even the size we are cant keep it open 24/7 we dont have that many mods as far as im aware

@CaringBrit Very true <3 but we can only do our best

@CaringBrit its sure frustrating, but if disability would be the only room open left, people would go there for trolling, pushing the regulars away, pushing people seeking supportt related to disability, and people being off topic when no mod around.

@vivelespatates true

@GlenM it would be cool if .. instead of shutting down rooms & if it ever comes to shutting down permenantly... that they would offer a monthly subscription $!!

@Samerina There is no plan to shut down the rooms or the community. We are here to stay! We are only requiring a moderator for them to be open. Which means any moderator can open any room at any time.

@GlenM

Thanks for the site update.

While I'm for adding/creating additional chat rooms here, I was never for (in favor of) making the chat rooms so easily accessible upon signing up here (as I had noticed when I first came here for help/support), and then eventually, with
it-was-a-long-time-coming change made, having only to verify the email address used in the sign-up process. That had led to some NEW users going straight into chat rooms directly and causing trouble, eventually being banned, only to come right back in on another NEW account and do the very same thing over and over and over again. An endless frustrating cycle.

I always loved the "badge locked" idea/system as a good deterrent (but not at the 100% level, nothing is in reality on the Net) for this sort of bad behavior here, and always wanted it to be made more stringent yet of course stll fair enough to ALL NEW users.

As a former Member of the coveted Safety Patrol here, all lovely caring people on it by the way, and after spending countless extra volunteer insomnia night-filled hours making the site safer and much more secure via flagging, I had noticed that a reproducible highly-concerning, troublesome/worrisome problem/pattern in a certain chat room always seemed to arise with the [sudden] arrival/appearance of some NEW users, though almost always, these NEW users were in fact not NEW at all, had been in the chat room quite recently (like minutes ago, a few hours ago and maybe a day or so ago) before, banned, and had quickly returned on a NEW account.

Locking ALL NEW users (I personally have never seen older/established users suddenly become bad) out of ALL chatrooms (up for debate if a designated support-only room would be included or not, i.e., a room where questions would/could be answered and no casual chit chat is permitted) until they had been fairly established on the site by some pre-set/pre-determined criteria to be met is paramount, the key, to obtaining the best safety, security + protection posssible of all for the genuinely good users in the 7 Cups community.

@GlenM I am sorry to see this happen. I know from my experiences as member, Listener and Moderator that when chat gets busy people get stressed and/or overlooked. Having fewer rooms means there will be members requiring support who will get lost in the chat. Also, a lot of members leave when there is a discussion and during that time have no group support (another reason discussions appear successful as only a handful of people remain). 35+ also focusses on issues pertinent to older generations that younger generations have yet to experience - they too will get lost amongst the chats of school and dating.