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]
What I am seeing is 47 people in the room when the average used to be 15. I have seen a many people come here with problems and they get ignored because chat with 40+ people moves too fast.
@Positron2 AND in the support room you're not allowed to talk or voice your opinion about the changes made on the site today. Instead, mod Gabe advised me to post my comments here. WELL HERE YOU GO GABE!
@fearlessWriter78 right because here peoples thoughts are not in everyones face where sentiment can grow. I mean it would be great to thing the mods or even owner of this network read these comments but I am assuming this is a place for people to complain and be ignored.
I for one have no intention of joining the 2 adult rooms which are just a waste of time as far as I am concerned. I will keep in contact with a few listeners I have developed a repore with and other than that my use of this site will drop significantly until changes occur that bring people together again.
@Vrsyren Yeah I don't intend to use the 2 main rooms either as it's too busy and support is not really given.
I wonder if the site is under construction or something cause when I click on the link to go to group chats/discussions, the list of rooms aren't there at all. Anyone know what's going on?
@elle9o Glenn the owner has explained in his post that the rooms have been closed so now there are two rooms for adults and two rooms for teens... also the Listeners have two rooms..
So this is why you are not seeing all the rooms and some you will need badges to get in too. .
You may also need to check back as they are working on the site.. Refresh your page .
@GlenM
What a wasted opportunity. I get the whys of it all. But wow, all the 7 cups family you had at your disposal. 'Tis a shame when those who build the brigdes burn down the stairs that reach them.
Best of luck on future endeavors. Thanks for the help you were providing.
do i need to talk to 5 listeners before i can enter the chatroom? or is 50 compassion hearts enough? help pls
@ElectrolytesSmell
You need both the badges to access the rooms
thank you imma about to slide into some DMs lmao
I feel like ALL of the 7cups discussions we did in 35+ were a COMPLETE waste of time. They recently did a discussion on coping skills. Now that the rooms are closed and many members are still having a hard time without the rooms, does it matter to the Administrators how we the members are coping? I seriously doubt it. Why would they do discussions on coping skills? Its like "Here's some coping skills. Use them when we close the rooms. We dont really care about your coping anyways. Buh Bye."
@Figgy50 I can assure you that this is not because we don't care. We want to ensure people are safe. Sometimes these tough calls need to be made to make sure that when someone goes into a community space they are safe and guarenteed quality support. The idea is not to get rid of them, but to provide what we can while still making sure its a healthy environment for everyone. 35+ has a very strong team backing it and I know they will do their best to have the room open and offer the community the support it deserves. Im here if you need to talk.
@Lorraine234
What are you talking about? I could barely say anything in the group support chats to begin with, it seemed like every other word was censored. What are you doing with it now?
@Cerberus28 Im unsure what the question is here but happy to clarify whatever you need
@Lorraine234
Well, my first question is why? Why exactly is this going on? What prompted you to do this? Was there a problem? And if so, what was the problem?
@Cerberus28 Wheres your answer?
@Cerberus28 As Glen stated in this post , we observed that rooms were at their safest and support based when a open chat was happening or a discussion with a moderator present. This is what prompted the decision.
@Figgy50 figgeh i still can enter the chatrooms even after speaking with 5 listeners ;_;
@ElectrolytesSmell it seems that you do not have the badge that says you have spoke with 5 different listeners reaching 5 chats with each one. So thats the reason you cannot access the rooms yet. 1chat = 30 messages. So you would need to exchange at least150 messages with at least 2 messages being from the listener for each listener. Hope you gain access soon.
@fluffyUnicorns84 This is confusing. I have done some chats with listeners,but I'm not sure how to know if I have gotten credit.
Hey @adventurousBranch3786, if you use a browser rather than the app to access 7 cups you can click on Path on the blue tool bar at the top of the site, then select my progress and you can access all your stats including how many compassion hearts you have and how many chats you have etc. I hope that helps, feel free to message me if you need further help.
@fluffyUnicorns84 thank you
@fluffyUnicorns84 omg fluffly thank you for the clarification, you're the best
@fluffyUnicorns84
this is incorrect you dont need to exchange 150 messages with every listener its only 30 messages you need to exchange with each listener but it must include 10 from both the member and listener to count as a chat and so it could be over 30 to meet the chat requirement
@jennysunrise8 nope the badge to access the rooms is 5 chats with 5 listeners. so 30 x 5 is 150.
However they some confusion around how many those messages need to be from the listener...
@fluffyUnicorns84
you said in your above post 5 chats with each of the 5 listeners but in fact the requirement is only one chat with each listener not 5 so just letting people know because this is something people have to talk with listeners about and agree on or the chat with the listener wont count if its less than that but certainly you dont want members and listeners counting 5 chats per listener if they only need to count one which will be hard enough for a member to do on their own finding 5 listers who will do one chat and agree to send 10 messages
@jennysunrise8 yes it got updated :)
@fluffyUnicorns84
@fluffyUnicorns84 The requirement to get into the rooms is almost as stupid as the decision to make the changes. Basically they are saying before you can get into a room and talk with others for help you have to get time with Listeners. But hey 7Cups you dont have enough of them, and getting chat time without it being 30 minute delay in responses or greater is almost impossible to find.
The more I hear about the changes to the site and its support the more I see the inside of a tiolet bowl. I have yet to go into a room istead I just chat with people I met in the LGTBQ room.
7Cups, great job at committing suicide to your service.
@Figgy50 I encourage you to join the open chats, which will offering times for seeking support, but in a supervised environment so much safer and supportive for you
How about the listeners quality on here? Don't get me wrong, some listeners are professional and good, while some are not. I feel that's the reason why members chose to get support from those retired support chat rooms. Some members are clearly better than the listeners on here. I would love to see what strategy you have to improve listener's quality on here. It seems to me that 7cups prefer "quantity over quality" when it comes to participation as a listener on the site.
@Sleeplesssleepy
well then tell your beloved "members" to become listeners.
@planedark72111 Someone does not has to be a listener to listen on here. I was just trying to pin point a major issue here on 7cups. :) Chill there.
@Sleeplesssleepy
i agree listeners should be vetted but all a member has to do to talk to any member who is supportive privately is for one of you to get on a listener account each person can have one of each a listener and member account
@Sleeplesssleepy Amen!!!!!!
@Sleeplesssleepy
Yes, i agree. There was major change to the rooms due to "ensuring quality support", but nothing was done to prevent liteners blocking members for starting totally appropriate chats on appropriate topics for which listener maybe doesn't feel comfortable to listen to. If listener isn't comfortable with topic or can't listen at the moment (maybe they picked chat by accident? Ok) they can just say that they don't feel comfortable with the topic and refer me to another listener (link to browse listener isn't needed, needed is just some kindness and basic politeness - blocking is everything else than polite). When will it be fixed? When member is blocked they can't do anything about it anymore. No possibility to give a review to listener who blocked member for no reason or due to totally appropriate chat with which listener isn't comfortable.
@Sleeplesssleepy I dont know if this will help or not <3 But I can promise that this is being worked on too , 1-1 quality fix isnt as straight forward.
As a listener, I'm raelly upset with these changes because I know of many members who won't touch the general member chat with a 6 foot long pole. Do you know how crowded this is going to be? How are anyone even going to get a word in when there's only two chats now instead of specialised ones. Yes, we get the point that it's getting difficult to moderate a large amount of rooms, but do you all really thing it's going to be any easier moderating a high traffic room?
I was a room supporter for the Depression and Student Support Group Chats and honestly, having chatrooms for these topics instead of forcing people to use the forums to talk about things was really great! You had some people jus ttalking about their day, some asking for help, some just there because they want the company, but the point is the group rooms worked. Yes, we had trolls and whatnot every once in a while but for the most part, the system worked.
With this change, all I can see is less persons using the site. Now with all the chats being condensed, some groups will feel alientated not being able to be apart of the general discussion (take 35+ and disability for example) and those who come for genuine support won't get noticed through the wall of text, or are too overwhelmed to even enter the chat.
What's next? Removing DM ability between listeners because they don't have the Peer Support Badge? Increased restrictions on members before they talk to a listener? Locking down the forums?
For a group of administrators who continue to say 'we care about our members', you guys are doing a pretty poor job at that lately with the kind of changes that are being made on this site. With each update, I feel more disconnected from the site and it doesn't feel like it will be long now before I just up and go with the way things are being done...
@mySong I feel you, its a shock to have this happen when it happened so quickly. However I am thankful that we have been able get development team dedication on this though and make the changes so we can work on making the rooms more support based and safe. The group support team really appreciate your time you put in as room supporter for these rooms. I am wondering if you be interested to build on this and become chatroom moderator so you can make this rooms available for the members for that extra time you can spend in there?.
You can find the information on being a chatroom moderator here: https://www.7cups.com/forum/GroupSupport_168/GroupModApplicationsProjectInformation_1242/HowToApplyForGroupModInformationonCommCenteredGlobal_112280/
Also 1-1 support would never be taken away, as that is the sites primary source of supporting both our members and listeners.
@mySong Hammer. Hit. Nail. On. Head.
MySong, I *WAS* part of the LGTBQ chat room and like you the conversation flowed but we also helped a lot of people learning to come out, trying to fight off negative feelings, or not knowing where to go or start. As we were all part of the community they felt safer opening upto us and without the wall of text they were able to actually been seen and helped.
The fact that the site expects those same people to open up in a general room is ABSURD.
I know from the few I keep in contact with that nearly ALL have significantly decreased usage of the site and none use the general rooms. I wont touch the general rooms because I know what a S-Show that will be. All this site did in the name of quality was slam the door on people and push them away.
Okay, so what I'm reading is that we have to have a certin thing to get into any of the rooms? That's some bull crap (no offense). There are people that need the rooms to talk about what their feeling.
@KelciH Hey there! Yes, there are certain requirements however they are kept low to ensure people can get access. This is to ensure that people cannot just reenter once they have been removed and hopefully and extra step in the process will make this a safer and more supportive space.
@Lorraine234 i meet all the requirements and I'm unable to see the rooms
@ElectrolytesSmell have you got this sorted now?
@fluffyUnicorns84 nope, no one is replying properly. they all keep asking me to pOsT iN tHe fOrUm
@ElectrolytesSmell
are you able to get into the chatrooms yet i see you posted thia a week ago with no response yet
@jennysunrise8 oh yeah i can access the rooms now
@ElectrolytesSmell
ok good glad your getting support in the chatrooms again
@Lorraine234 FYI it can actually take a while to get 50 compassion hearts now with less rooms
Alrighty, time for me to "throw my 2 cents in" as someone who is approaching their 2 Year Cupsiversary this month and has seen a lot of changes since I've been here and grown into my leadership positions within the community.
I would like to share both the positives and the negatives that this change could have and to write a conclusion at the end.
Note - These are simply my own, personal, thoughts and I mean no ill-intent other than to voice my opinions respectfully and maturely. I trust that the 7Cups Administration are doing what they, personally, feel is in the best interests of the community.
Positives of this change
1. Moderation
On one hand, as a Group Mod and Support Team Mentor myself, I can entirely see the reasons for wanting to close some rooms as it means that Group Mods and Community Moderators (Interns) don't have to spread themselves out across a diverse range of rooms and monitor numerous environments at once.
2. Empty Rooms
This change will also help to solve the problem of having empty chatrooms as there has always been a very well-known issue of people entering certain chatrooms, hoping to seek support, just for them to be the only person there, most likely due to time differences and topic popularity. By grouping people together, there will be a lot more people available to listen.
Negatives of this change
1. Topic Overcrowding and Triggers
On the other hand, by closing rooms such as "Depression Support", "Student Support", "LGBTQ/MOGII Support", etc. you are forcing people to all group into one major room for support (the other, being a "Community" room, I presume is simply for casual communication, but even still, two isn't much better) and many people might not be comfortable discussing certain topics, but may still wish to share their own. Moreso, if someone wanted to discuss something such as an LGBTQ+ related issue but had a trigger for the topic of depression, by forcing them in with people who wish to discuss that topic, it could be very damaging.
2. Overcrowding and Need For Support
By forcing everyone into only two rooms, or even less; one for support, it is likely that a lot of people are going to be seeking support and speaking over each other which will make it very difficult for people to get the support they need via the Group Support Rooms, especially as some Members feel more comfortable sharing with their peers instead of contacting a Listener 1-1.
3. Short-Notice Change
There's also the matter that this change was done within such a short time period with little to no notice which can be very overwhelming for those dealing with anxiety or, like myself, autism and who may not be able to handle change as easily as other people are able to.
4. Group Mod Irrelevancy
As a Group Mod, I actually really enjoy(ed) the implementation of the Community Moderators (Interns) as it meant that they will be able to assist when the volunteers (Group Mods) weren't available, and when we were available, they could let us take priority but still give us the backup we needed; if needed.
Now, however, with only having two Member chatrooms, there's obviously going to be a lot more Global Mods in there which can seem quite overwhelming for some Members and it also means that with Community Moderators (Interns) having access to the Group Mod Emergency Responses and one always being available, there's not really as much need for Group Mods anymore.
As I said at the start, these are just my own, personal views on the matter but I'm sure they will be treating this somewhat as a trial and will choose to revert the decision back to how it was if this doesn't work out.
As always, I appreciate the efforts of the 7Cups Administrative team.
@ItsDev
You said everything that is in my head.
Couldn't of said it any better. ❤️
@ItsDev Love you Dev bae 🧡
@ItsDev oops! Thought you were someone else. But I DO love what you said! Very eloquently said! Thank you!
@GlenM
How can I be a mod in the support room. I am a mod for a room closed and feel that I am being punished for this new change.
@pamharley003 the support room is not linked to any subcommunity. If you do however want to moderate you are able to request any room to be opened for you whenever you are available! The community mods will always be around so if you cant find a doorkeeper they are there and can open the room for you.
@pamharley003
*calls from the back* we love you Pam!
Also, I wanted to say goodbye to you Pam. I'll be leaving 7cups in a couple of days and I'm trying to reach out and say my goodbyes to all. Take care of yourself.
@exuberantocean5576
goodbye ocean I'll miss you
@pamharley003 Everyone room supporter and Community centreered mods are in the same position <3 No one is punishing anyone. We want our amazing volunteers moderators in the topic support rooms to ensure that our members get the support they deserve in those rooms. If you are available to mod a room you can find and ask the community mod that is on duty by checking their timetable and messaging them to open the room<<click here: >>
@fluffyUnicorns84
Okay I will begin supporting the support rooms and help the best I can