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]
The idea of only having rooms open at specific times in a calendar is incredibly problematic in of itself. Many of us have jobs, families (ect). I work 3 12hr shifts a week, and that's just me. Even those that don't have jobs and families, what are they (and us) meant to do? Schedule for when they need help? That's not how it works!
Well,, I tried. Can't seem to connect to my old friends in 35+ room. Thanks all you guys for your great friendship. Thanks Pam, Lady, Ralph, TJ, for all the good times. Maybe someday I'll check back.
So disappointing. Thanks for considering us all and what WE thinj or feel. This sucks balls
I'm not trying to bash anyone..... What's done is done and we have to live with it. But I can't live my life around cups. We can make our new support system via this set up but as to the separate rooms the support is no longer there. Yes this might be stressful for the time being but I think with time we can get through this. It's not going to be smooth sailing but what's a sea without the occasional storms. We are stronger together.
@SgrAsystem
Thing is not only can people even with the badges access the one room, but with the seperate rooms gone a lot of people just lost their support networks. The admins are expecting us to schedual when we need help almost, which is insane. Even with the one giant room, there isn't really any chance of getting support as everyone is in one place. Your concerns will get drowned out among there being like 50 people talking at once.
We can't be "stronger together" if there is no "together", if the aspects of community have been stripped away completley.
If you are trying to work out how to get access to the room witch are badges locked.
https://www.7cups.com/forum/GroupSupport_168/LorrainesLounge_1969/LGBTQandDisabilityRooms_211809/
Is the link. ❤️❤️
@Peter1447
And what about the main chat? That's invisible to most of us here too, despite having the badge requirements.
@TheMadQueen420
i am not sure who is looking after the main room access. I can find out and let you know
@TheMadQueen420 Hi looking at your profile you do not have the strong bond badge , which is having 5 chats with 5 different listeners. 1 chat = 30 messages with at least reply from the listener. I hope this makes sense, if you want to message for more clarity you more than welcome to message me.
You can see exactly how many chats you currently have by clicking on my path - my progress on the browser version of the site.
@fluffyUnicorns84
Well that's just great, given so many listeners are awful means I have to put up with their abuse JUST to get access to a room.
God, this site has gone downhill.
@fluffyUnicorns84 Do the 30 messages have to be in one chat with the listener? Or can it be done in repeat chats with the listeners? Thanks
@fluffyUnicorns84
Hold on, when I look at my profile it says I've had 30 chats and 23 repeat chats. How on Earth do I NOT qualify for the badge if you're only meant to have five?
@GlenM this ought to be done much earlier. Depression support is the most volatile room on cups yet it exists. There are few occasions where people do use it for the purpose intended but far more than not it is full of trolls, heavy verbal abuse and people talking about random *rap. Thank you Glen and everyone involved for improving this 7cups.
@DontCensorFreeSpeechPls
I could understand removing the depression room but they have erased every single room. It's like moving house altogether instead of replcing a broken lightbulb.
@DontCensorFreeSpeechPls
A pod was launched into space containing all the information about humanity about their struggle against the trolls and how they finally defeated them.
After the nuclear solution there were no puppies, no bunnies, no kittens and birds, but finally also no trolls. Humans finally created peace on Earth and finally found a way to get along just fine. A safe space for radioactive rat cockroaches
Sometimes people need to learn to take the good with the bad since rarely are there perfect solutions. Usually its a trade off.
@ArachnoChronos I thought you were just sarcastic but you come off as an ass. I get you may be fine with it all, and hell you may be like "it was free so why are you all complaining" but you are not the center of the universe, your views are not the views of everyone, and you sure as hell have no clue what personal battles people are dealing with.
@DontCensorFreeSpeechPls Thank you for your support.
@GlenM
I'm sorry to say this but this is an unwelcome change! condensing 10 rooms into 2 is not going improve support by any means! May be time to get off this site!
@InfiniteThoughts2k19
Its gonna make it easier for him to employ less mods though. Hell he might as well fire all of the paid ones since there are enough volunteers to manage 2 - 4 rooms already.
The users on the other hand have to learn to share.. We'll be handing out emergency chat rations consisting of 2000 characters a day to each and every member. That will fix the problem of too many people writing at the same time. See i made i found a solution that benefits everyone
@ArachnoChronos They are still the same amount of rooms, just some need opening. To open those rooms we need moderators present in them.
@fluffyUnicorns84
It's not like everyone has the same timetable and this is an international website so timezones are different for people too. So for the vast majority those rooms might as well be gone forever.
@GlenM
I completely understand the reasoning behind this and am sorry to hear that the growing pains of a startup are hurting the community here. I just wish there was more warning for people who really rely on this.
Well, it
@GlenM hey I can't see any rooms anymore why is that
@CreativeField2019
Gotta hand it to him, he really did solve the troll problem by removing all the chatrooms XD Oddly enough everyone's silent while the community they built for years is falling apart in a matter of days due to poor planning and no interraction... Great job people. You've done what no troll could ever dream to achieve here XD
@SirJambabwe
What? What did I do?
@CreativeField2019
I know that is sad when you can't get into a chat room and I am having the same probelem can't get into one anymore.
