Update!
All,
Hope you are well! It has been a while since Ive been able to post with any regularity. Fortunately, I have more time - finally - to engage more on things. I wanted to take a minute to share some updates with you.
Startups are tough. Mental health startups are really tough. The thing that separates us is that we are a community of compassionate people dedicated to helping one another out. We are a small city of people aligned on this purpose. Our shared values make our startup considerably more meaningful and purposeful. Ultimately we are and always will be a place where people like you and I can volunteer to help another person by simply listening. That is something special.
One part of running a startup is paying the bills. When we first launched we had a very small team and we were running out of money. We figured out online therapy and that allowed us to keep the lights on. Universities and other organizations came on and that helped too. When we generate more revenue we are able to hire people to further build up our city (better street lights, teachers, firefighters etc.); when we have less revenue we need to let some of those people go in order to best support the city. These times are particularly challenging. More recently, we had to let some people go and this was very difficult for us and has meant less people to help in the city.
Some of you noticed the group room announcement. That is part of the scaling back. Not ideal I know, but we have limited resources at present so we have to be as smart as possible with what we do have. Everyone on the team is working hard to grow revenue so we can scale back up. We are pretty good at this, but things take time to unfold.
Ordinarily we like to give time for discussion and processing before we make a big change, but sometimes we need to act quickly. Ultimately our rooms require an adjustment to help keep them safe as possible. We understand that change can be incredibly hard when youve grown accustomed to certain features or expectations, especially sudden change. It is always your choice if you decide to stay with us and continue utilize the support our community offers. If you do stay, please remember that staff, ambassadors, and volunteer leaders are all human and all deserve to be treated kindly. Just as the rooms, forums, and messaging on 7 Cups should be used with integrity and for emotional support. This is why we do what we do. If you need emotional support and agree to follow our community guidelines we welcome you with open arms. If you would like a chatroom environment free of rules and moderation there are plenty of websites that offer that ability. We will always be here for you if you decide you prefer inclusive, moderated, and safer rooms that are support focused.
If this is where you want to be and you are open to our attempts to increase safety while also surviving the challenges of a startup, then we have each others backs and will steer into problems together solving them one at a time. It isnt always easy but it is always meaningful work and that is what ultimately matters. Thank you for supporting our community team and rallying. We are all in this together.
Onward!!!
[Jill added link]
(Edited by Forum Mentor @Emily619 to fix a typo)
If 7 cups is doing great financially, we would assume that the chat rooms haven't been closed because of financial reasons?
As you can see here and on the official post about the major chat room changes, there are hundreds of people against closing the chat rooms. Many are extremely affected and it's very difficult to adapt to this and get the same support that they have got in chat rooms. Please prove that our voice matters.
Do you think it would be possible to make a poll/survey so everyone can vote about safety in chat rooms?You could ask if people think the chat rooms were safe (except Depression room who had problems) and if they agree with this decision of closing most of the chat rooms? Safe chat rooms are great, but closing all the chat rooms won't fix things, on the contrary., plus many chat rooms were pretty safe, except depression chat room.
More than 90% of the community is against losing all those chat rooms, so a democratic approach and letting people express what they really think of safety in chat rooms and if they agree with this major change through a poll or survey would be perfect.
@ImaginaryPainting
It wasn't just the depression room that had issues, but closing every single room permanenty and to everyone is a step too far. It's punishing the entire community, throwing everyone under the bus for the sake of a few trolls and bigots doing wrong. Even so, most of the problems I've faced with this site have been from listeners. There are only two occasions I can think of where non-listeners caused problems for me.
Literally this evening alone I encountered a listener who was using his status to target vunerable people so if the site is going to force me to just deal with listeners maybe I should just go. It's obvious 7Cups needs to get it's priorities in order.
@TheMadQueen420 the rooms will open when mods will be available for moderating rooms, simple, no room open without mod. lot less chaos, lot less unsupportive chats. but rooms will open often, regulary.
@TortueDesBois
You say "regularly" when I haven't seen a single room open all day long. It's a blank page, and still is.
Not only that but those chats were supporitve. Listeners are not, at least in my experience. Yes, I've had some good experiences with them but it's mostly been bad. Just tonight there was a creep. and another one who said some questionable things as well.
@TheMadQueen420
Listeners being creeps, being openly bigoted towards me (even messaging me outright just to spew hatred), listeners telling me I'm "lucky" for having had abusive relationships, listeners telling me that I'm worthless or that my concerns aren't valid. Yeah, there was a reason I stuck to the chats.
I've been in them at some of my lowest points, and with the exception of about 3 members everyone has been supporive and accepting of both who I am and my experiences. I have been talked down from panic attacks and worse via the rooms, and been handed some genuine advice and been reassured that not only did I matter but that I wasn't alone when it came to something.
Like I said, I've had good listeners though but it's mostly been bad, which makes me not want to use that function at all. What am I meant to do now?
@TheMadQueen420
I have two good listeners that I chat with relatively regularly, but I had also shut down the option for listeners to initiate contact with me because I got tired of being in tears during or following a chat with many of them. 👎 I have social anxiety and it was seriously being heightened by that 💩.
i'll tell you what would happen if i cared enough to have 5 chats with 5 listeners in order to access the new live chatrooms.. i start a revolt and as soon as i entered the new [edited]. haha
edited by Anomalia for unsupportive content
@reliableSpring6321
Wouldn't matter if you had five chats. Most of us have but still can't access the room.
@TheMadQueen420 let's break the rules on this thread
@reliableSpring6321
We can do what we like, it's not like those in charge would ever listen to us.
@TheMadQueen420 In line with the chat count situation: I've participated in a ton more chats than the number that shows on my progress page. It's only gone up 5 points within the past 2 months. I've definitely participated in more than 5 chats in that time frame. I have commented in forums about it, reached out to my forum contact about it, sent a message about it through the Support & Feedback portion of the site, I also emailed community@7cups.com about it. No one has responded, and this has been going on since September. There must be a glitch in the system but who knows.
Community mods (like CommunityModGabe) are getting paid to moderate, yet they barely engage with people and don't even come near the awesome things the volunteer mods do, why not instead pay some people who actually do the best work on the site, and also pay someone to actually answer people's questions? Yes, tech engineers etc. are valuable to the site functioning... but who shows up to the site? Who posts threads in forums? Who cultivates a sense of community? Who moderates the pop up chats and does so really well by engaging and helping others? It's the volunteer mods! I'm not even a volunteer mod & listener, but if I were, I would be outraged by how the higher ups just decide my fate on the site for me, without consultation, which includes dealing with more 1-on-1 chats to help people frustrated by the recent changes, aka doing more work to compensate! Volunteer mods should definitely get more recognition, as they are way better than the bot-like community mods who we don't even know and who don't even form a sense of community, they only pop up in rooms to make sure messages are in conjunction with the chat rules! If more mods are needed, why not put it out there and let people in the community know?
As in your case, some people can't see the chats when they should be able to, and it's just another issue that seemingly no one is doing anything about.
@fearlessWriter78
I just get the feeling that the higher ups don't care about us at all. I used to think so, but this recent events have shown me otherwise.
Time to find a new site. Any ideas?
@TheMadQueen420 I have gotten that feeling too, and expressed this to Lorraine in her thread here. She blames us for "misunderstanding" the initial announcement. No, we read it and understood it well. He said the chat changes were for "safety."
Well, then he, in his "Update" thread, said the changes were a part of the site's "scaling back" due to limited resources and revenue.
He and Lorraine have given us conflicting accounts of what's really going on, claiming that despite the monumental recent changes on the site, and the layoffs, that the financial status of the site is "fine," which contradicts his statements in the "Update" thread. In addition, according to the salaries listed on Glassdoor, the paid employees are being paid really, extremely, well. Why not cut back on some exorbitant salaries instead of hurt the actual members, and community, of the site?
Meanwhile, I'm sitting here going, wtf?
@fearlessWriter78
Sounds like they are just making excuses. After the "safety" concerns weren't bought, they came up with something else.
Overall though, I get the feeling that they do not care at all and we would all be better off elsewhere if somebody in this thread knew of a good alternative to this site.
I would set it up myself if I had the finances, to be honest.
@fearlessWriter78 - I appreciate your helpful resource links. I am jumping into this situation after not being on the site for a couple weeks and this really helps me follow the madness. Thank you <3
@wontwakewontsleep No problem, glad to help! 
@GlenMThe main issue was apparently in group chats some people are trolling and being a bully to others which isnt nice because everyone is encouraged to support and respect here. And the groups must have moderators now to see and control if ever such conflict arise as we all want this to be safe for us and not to get hurt. <3
@snowneoonbluez43553
Yet listeners can troll and be cruel all they want with no consequence, right? Because that's what's been going on, and yet that's not addressed at all.
A few trolls in the depression room and a few of the others and bam, entire group support system is gone forever.
What a joke.
@TheMadQueen420 i also mentioned that 7cups seriously need to update strict training for listeners and strict rules for members. I personally have encountered listeners who dont even reply so say i dont care or ask ridiculous questions. So it's a dynamic issue. So some listeners and some members. Not all. I hate not being heard and understood when some listeners still lacks the skills and training. There's more to this and i hope there can be some amendments
@snowneoonbluez43553
It's incredibly hypocrtical for them to erase an important part of the site and a support network for many people over "safety" concerns yet everyone and their mother can become a listener and from then on basically say and do whatever they want.
Gives me the impression that scrapping groups didn't have anything to do with safety and was instead about cutting costs or something along those lines.
@TheMadQueen420
Literally just after reporting yet another listener, this guy accepted my request just to, in his own words "be a dick"
This website is truly doomed. Somebody please point me in the direction of a vialbe alternative.
Does anybody know how to get the strong bond 1 badge? I've had 5 conversations with 5 different listeners but I still don't have the badge, this is really frustrating.
@Moonlitrose1
I've had at least ten this evening alone trying to get the badge (and also asking for alternatives to this place) and I still don't have it.
Perhaps they just don't want us accessing the new chat room at all?
@TheMadQueen420
^ Disregard that tag.
Maybe not but I also read on this site that in order to get the strong bond 1 badge, you have to have 10 conversations with 10 listeners, yet their telling us that we supposedly only need 5 conversations with 5 listeners at 30 messages each. Seems a bit fishy 🤔
@Moonlitrose1
And is it 30 messages from you or 30 messages overall? They aren't clear about any of this, and part of me wonders if they are being intentionally vague.
@TheMadQueen420 In general, it seems to me, the people who interact with the community don't really know how anything works. They can only pass on what they are told by developers. This can come across as vague, but personally I don't think the vagueness is intentional. It's just a side effect of a communications gap between the developers and everyone else. The communications gap itself, however, is intentional although I don't know what the goal of it is. Maybe it's just that developers get more done when they are not interrupted.
Yes, the current description of Strong Bond I is "for completing 5 chats each with 5 different listeners". A chat usually means 30 messages overall, but there's a catch, which is something like there have to be at least 10 messages from each person. I'm not able to verify the details precisely.
Charlie
@RarelyCharlie
That's pretty difficult to get and sounds a bit far-fetched as talks with listeners can be incredibly varied. A conversation may last less than 5 messages or even up to 40 depending on who you end up talking to.
@TheMadQueen420 I agree with you. I think (but I'm not sure) that if you have a series of short conversations with a listener it counts the total number of messages even if there were long gaps and the conversation "ended" several times.
And I think (but I'm not sure) that if you have long conversations, every 30 messages counts as a "chat" to the system. (But of course this is not relevant for Strong Bond I.)
Charlie
@RarelyCharlie
I mean I've been talking with listeners all night and I still don't have the badge so I'm not sure what "works" towards it.
@TheMadQueen420
you can message me for one of your chats and anyone else here who needs a listener chat or hearts requirement can message me 👍 we can talk about anything even vent about rooms closing or anything else if you want to
Here's my all encompassing solution against trolls that will benefit everyone... Just make it a monthly subscription thing. Like a token sum of just 14.99 $ a month in order to have access to the chats.. This will not only solve your financial problems with the site, but it will eliminate trolls since they dont like putting anything on the line. Everybody wins
@GlenM I am sorry to hear about this revenue issue.. I am sure that, under your leadership, this issue will be resolved and 7 cups will continue to be the wonderful website it has been for so many years now. We have full confidence in you. Keep up the good work, Glenn!
I have only recently joined 7 cups, but my first experience with listeners was not good. It took a long time for someone to connect with me, and when they did the did not reply. I was just sat here looking at the chat and nothing happened. However, when i joined a group chat I was welcomed and people were really friendly and helpful, even if I had a hard time accepting their help.
The loss of the group chats makes me less willing to use the site, to be honest. After all, my best experiences so far have been in the group chats. I might try the listeners a bit more, but I feel like this place got a lot colder and more shut off now. We'll see how long i'll stay.
For me personally the Group Chats were the strongest feature of this site. Currently many listeners are underwhelming to talk to and the forums are ok for posting thoughts but the chats made for interactive real time discussions. I'm not sure if I'm really willing to suffer through 5 chats with 5 listeners just to gain access to a chat that has little segregation bassed on issue or concern.
@GlenM what was the scale down because I cannot see any group chatrooms at all to join.
Hope you are having a good day @GlenM