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 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.
@caringPanda45
Well said, Panda.
@caringPanda45 Very well said Panda 
@caringPanda45 Yes times infinify!! Its practically the SAME reason they dont have Adults and teens chatting together (but I heard that was legal stuff)
We the older people used 35+ to reminisce about old times. I went into the Support room and said I missed the 70s and 80s. All I got was 😳😳😳 reactions. Also I already got AGE SHAMED 5 minutes into being in one of the rooms. I cant go into what happened but it was pretty bad. Also, I got labeled :( "cishet" its nice to know that the LGBTQ has a label for me. I guess I'll have to make one for them!! What comes around goes around.
Unbelievable mess 7cups!
Hi, I believe we members are the real reason this site a place that can support all people. It's all us members who are all passionately sharing from our hearts, with deep empathy, and care. Many members work very hard choosing the right words to convey amazing encouragement and wisdom.
We all have eagarly contributed wonderful advice, kindness, and our intellectual gems of knowlege (giving up our intellectual property rights) to give the very best of ourselves in an attempt to help others have healing experiences, and as we honestly engauge in these great mutal conversations and joint efforts to find healing, we give it all freely!
If 7cups leaders dont stop the chaos, and quickly learn to respect all the unique fountain of member's gifts, efforts and value all this free wisdom it's members bring out of the kindness of their hearts for free; "then soon somebody will create some place that will"!
There is to much suffering and money should never be an issue!
One good complex algorithm programing process of calculations could make the feed work correctly and free forever, and all other problems could also be alieviated so this is an easy to use welcoming place of refuge.
Members come to this site suffering from many of life's deep disapointments and 7cups gains extremely valuable information in this process which they used to generate great income for 7cups. They use what they learn from us to fill their pockeys! And can be writing best seller self-help books, manuals, guides, and to train mental health and professionals, and so much more. Profits should be used to better help society - this should be the primary goal!
Members offer these gems freely and for free in an exchange for having a place to be mutually helpful for everyone. So they (7cups) need to step it up and make the fixes that enable member to member messages to be gauranteed of delivery, and a cutomizable feed each member can control, plus a system in place for quick problem solving when a member sees something important needing editing, repair, or is malfunctioning.
Lives are on the line here.
This is no joke!
The emotions and feelings of all members of a website like this are an absolute nessesity here.
Members should be happy, feel respected, and know they are important on any site that wants the responsibility of all of our lives!
I dont want to be here if the top people are going to neglect us in the many ways ive heard about, and am currently personally experiencing. Come on 7cups.
ALL OUR LIVES MATTER!!
@humorousDay8793 I can't agree enough. You put it so well.
@optimisticDreamer3906
Thank you, I had a feeling many of us see it like that and it had to be said in a nice but clear way. I hope the right people read it, and i hope more people push them to improve so i dont have to write the new programming and start my own peer to peer for all of us.
Lot of work😊
@humorousDay8793
@GlenM Hi there! i
Let me first start if by saying I feel like a change like this was needed. I have joined many chat rooms recently with a lot of unsopptive behaviour.
Saying that there have also been many rooms with supportive behaviour.
I personally think this has been rushed and because of that a lot of the community feels upset. I feel a major change like this should not be done within 1-2 days. It should of been given the opportunity for the communities feedback and worked with the community to make this change.
I know the goal is to make group support a supportive environment and that's what the goal should be and that goal should not be taken away by the communities ideas. Although I still think we should of been given a chance to talk about it.
Time will tell ❤️ And I do hope this is for the better.
@Peter1447
You said:
"I personally think this has been rushed and because of that a lot of the community feels upset. I feel a major change like this should not be done within 1-2 days."
I personally disagree with you 100% on that. I don't see anywhere that "a lot of the community feels upset" in such a brief period of time since GlenM, the founder and CEO of 7 Cups, made this announcement, as very few read the forum notifcations anyways nor care about it, and I strongly believe that changes should be made immediately if not sooner to put all but an end to the inane trolling going on lately, especially in the member hangout room. That room is the pits at times lately. :(
@Marcolite Perhaps you haven't read all the comments in the forum posts about this issue - most of the comments are negative/against it.
@fearlessWriter78
Still, even hours later now at this time since Glen's post, regardless of the negative comments, I am overjoyed and exuberant that the changes went through so fast. It's now a sheer pleasure to see fresh new names in the Member Community (yay no more "hangout" connotation attached to it) room that previously was beyond stale and stagnant with the same old members, and a few of them being the same old trolls too. It's truly a great and momentous day at 7 Cups. Thank you GlenM.
@GlenM
Could you possible elaborate on the reasoning behind the group chat changes?
I know in the 35+ room, people are very worried. I've noticed that that's the only room I'm comfortable in, and I was happy that I had found a room that fits me. I'd hate to see it go.
@Envisage Hey there! The changes have come about to ensure our rooms are safe and supportive. There have been new requirements added so that we will experience less trouble. The rooms will also be moderated when they do open. We are not deleting chatrooms but instead requiering a moderator to be present. This means there is still an opportunity for mods to open rooms and member to gain that support and connection as much as possible. Hope that makes sense.
The badge requirements sound nice :) I don't think confident voice is really an appropriate one though since a lot of people go to the chatrooms so they don't have to talk 1 on 1. It's a big reason people find safety in the group discussions; because they have other members to look to. Making them confront 5 listeners alone is kinda a big ask for someone who struggles with that sort of close interaction. Participating in group chats is easy. It helps us feel safe knowing that we're not being spoken directly to most of the time. It lets us learn the community quickly and settle in.
I know security of chatrooms is important. I'd love to see better verification and permanent bans to those who aren't here to construct anything for the community. I'd like to see some sort of moderation to take care of dangerous topics and users. But with this move I see the isolation of a large count of members.
On a bit of a more bitter note, it'd be nice if the development and changes team were to discuss potential updates with a decent notice. Both this and the last notice regarding feeds being removed overnight have been handled poorly in my opinion. Near zero suggestion or warning that this was coming. Zero discussion. We're part of the community and we're invested into its future. It would be nice to have a some input, rather than having to voice our grievances to a thread that will be met with " Sorry to hear you're upset" or something similar. It's frustrating and this creating a rift between designers of this space and users of this space.
@MountainBubble
Ive tried the rooms and hated them, felt like there are clicks that dominate them and felt very uncomfortable each time so i dont plan on ever trying them again. F the badges, im not here for notority, just some safe help.
@humorousDay8793 I completely agree about cliques and closed conversation in group chats. When this gets going the chat is often centred about a couple people and very uninviting for newcomers. Definitely a point that I think needs to be adressed via moderators as it's hard to make an automated solution to this; it's just unfortunately the way of lot of friend circles develop and that's not the environment I'm looking to forward in anyway.
Boundaries need to be set so people who are new do not feel lightyears behind everyone else in terms of connections and in turn, isolated. I'm happy this behaviour is one of the things they mentioned
What I'm trying to say with badges is that sealing off a form of support to people who are uncomfortable with talking to listeners shouldn't be a by-product of security
@MountainBubble
I totally agree, ive only been welcomed to a room once. Very much felt like the new kid in school in the middle of the school year.
Uncomfortable!
They can keep their useless badges.
Badges are just a way they can blow smoke right up our a $$es
it's quite impossible to speak for months and not get 'familiar' with one another.
it's quite difficult to start collecting names "all over again" if you already know 50 users from Cups, and have to know new users. Im not here to make friends. Knowing 50 lives is already too much. Sometimes we dont speak to new people because WE HAVE A LOT OF 'PEOPLE' in our head!
Just want to provide some vantage from the position of those who have been here for a while. We are not cliquish.
@GlenM Coincidentally (I assume), about an hour after this announcement Tumblr announced that they now support unlimited group chats for all their users: Oh, no. Oh, dear. We have awful news. We accidentally added group chats to Tumblr.
Charlie
@RarelyCharlie Really? That sounds very coincidental.
@RarelyCharlie
Whats tumbr?
Thanks
@humorousDay8793 A sort of social networking site.
@optimisticDreamer3906
Oh, thanks. This (7cups) is as close to social media as ill get.
😲 Im worried and have major trust issues
.....working on it though😊
Dear 7cup i'm not good at handeling changes ... even a little change can confuse me ... hope u think about people like us ♥
@SleepyHeart1
Thank you for saying that, its my worry as well that my life might mean nothing to 7cups (the business part) most members are wonderful people just trying to keep our boats floating in a sea of waves and gail force winds. 7cups is a life preserver and i pray they know how much we all need a site like this to work glitch free so we can lean on it when we have nothing else to hold us up.
@SleepyHeart1
We do understand and deeply sympathize with how difficult change can be. If you have questions about how to access the rooms or where you can get support, or just need to an ear while you process this, my PMs are open. ❤️ We (admin team) are here to help make this transition as easy as we can.
