Special Projects - We Need Your Feedback!
Hi, everyone!
From our research on the survey and interviews we've conducted with several of you, we have realized that many people are playing important roles that do not necessarily fit into our current leadership and badge structure. We have been trying to think outside of the box, and one new idea we have to recognize and nurture those not in high level leadership roles is an idea of special projects. This would consist of people that are engaging in unique activities that are specific and helpful and broadly aligned with a particular track (quality, group support, SCs).
We are still thinking through this, but wanted to float this idea by you all to get your take on it! What knd of projects would you like to see? What could you see yourself doing to contribute to cups? We welcome your creative thinking as we conceptualize new ways to include more people to contibute to our community.
@Heather225 thank you Heather for posting this! In talking with people and interacting more deeply in the community, I can see that the current leadership structure is a little inflexible and I think this makes space for people to contribute in discrete ways that are valuable, but outside of the programs as we originally envisioned them. I look forward to seeing ideas here! We are a multifacted community and I think special projects will be a nice way to help highlight diffferent ways of contributing!
@Heather225
Hi there. I have an idea that could be put into prospects. This could possibly be introduced as a community or thread. I had scoliosis. Scoliosis is the curvature of the spine. Its not very well known about but lots of people are being diagnosed with it. I know lots about it thanks to my specialist doctors telling me facts about it. I would love to help people in this way xx
@JazzyQueen you are very welcome to participate in the disability community. :)
@kindSoul10
thank you. I will xx
@Heather225
Hello Heather,
Id like to reccomend a task force of volunteer scouts to seek out posts via keywords to look for people who are posting in crisis. I know ive found some and jennysunrise8 does a lot of this as well. Many go very troubled people's post go unanswered if we didn't go on the hunt.
Thank you, Reed
@Heather225
Are you thinking perhaps along the lines of the more specialist support areas that are not particularly well covered by other subcommunities on the site, but have a few people engaging in them? e.g. the Emergency and Medical Personnel Support community I have been working on with @MistyMagic (currently only a forum category here), though nobody involved hold any roles or badges associated with it.
@Heather225
SPECIAL PROJECTS I'D LIKE TO SEE
I'LL LIST THEM EACH IN SEPARATE POSTS.
HERE IS THE FIRST:
1) MOST IMPORTANT PROJECT: "MAKE GENERAL REQUEST PROBLEM VISIBILITY MANDATORY"
PROJECT WHY: We are all here to have 1-1 chat match ups that end up with good chat results, and Listeners getting good learning experience as often as possible in their core subject areas. But that can't possibly happen if Listeners can't find the right Members in General Request lists because 7Cups allows Members to get on the General Request list without listing their problem.
PROJECT WHAT: We need to help 7Cups "see the light" and enable Listeners to pick appropriate Members from the General Request list.
PROJECT HOW: Community create a proposal to convince 7Cups to make General Request problem visibility mandatory. Propose a survey if needed to prove it would help Listeners and Members.
Current Situation Details:
The General Request list usually always is made up of Members who usually don't list any problem because it's not required by 7Cups. So effectively, 7Cups is forcing Listeners to blindly guess to try to find appropriate Members that match their training. The best a Listener can do is quickly check the Member's bio which only is insightful if the Member has some history. Otherwise, Listeners willing to take a chance and pick someone not listing their prolem will have no idea what the Member's problem will be. It's like going on a blind date!
What kind of quality do you expect from that kind of process?
This situation allowed by 7Cups prevents 7Cups from providing quality chats and causes other weaknesses!!!
PROBLEMS CAUSED BY 7CUPS NOT FORCING MEMBERS TO LIST THEIR PROBLEM ON GENERAL REQUESTS
It's the Root Cause of:
Stress, frustration, and dissatisfaction experienced by Members and Listeners.
Why? Listeners don't want to chat about certain topics or are not trained or prepared. Members then feel uncomfortable. The chat ends up very poorly handled and the results are bad.
Drop out by Members and Listeners
Why? Because of stress, frustration, and dissatisfaction.
Longer response times. Member burn out. Listener burn out.
Why? Because many Listeners are probably waiting for someone to finally list a problem they want to chat about. So Members accumulate on the General Request list but can't be properly matched to Listeners who don't know what the Member problem is, so Listeners wait rather than go on a blind date chat. Meanwhile, it's like ships passing in the night: Members with problems don't get matched with Listeners trained and ready to specifically help them. Eventually both log off unsatisfied.
Poor 7Cups competitiveness compared to specialized sites like for Anxiety or Depression etc..
Why? Because compared to specialized topic sites, 7Cups Listeners can't get enough experience quickly in one topic area, and then get frustrated and drop out. It's a viscous cycle. Meanwhile, at specialized sites like for Anxiety, it's a virtuous cycle. Their Listeners know their Members problem is Anxiety. Those Listeners get better and better much quicker and have more satisfaction from their improvement as do the Members they serve.
Conclusion:
It's time to stop the General Request blind-date situation and give Listeners visibility of Member problems so they can have high quality chats and learn and need less self-care. Let's make 7Cups really competitive. This is very easy to do.
@7motivation
I love these ideas and would maybe tack on that I think it would be sweet if members could list more than one issue when they're putting in a general request. Maybe this would be too difficult to manage, but one example is that when I'm on my member account one of the biggest barriers to putting in a general request is that I do not know if the person on the other end is going to be LGBTQ+ friendly let alone competent. The things I've needed to talk about have nothing to do with being queer or nonbinary trans, but I cannot speak to a listener who may very well hugely invalidate my identity in the course of talking about other vulnerable things. As a member, I would love to be able to put "relationships" and "depression" (if, say, my issue is at the intersection of those things) and also always include "LGBTQ+" and "disability" to make sure the person taking it is prepared for that all to be part of who I am and to handle that appropriately. And obviously I know it would help me as a listener as well to make sure I'm taking conversations I feel prepared for, confident about, and will not be harmful to my own mental health.
@ElephantLover135
I totally agree, and I should have mentioned that as yet another reason to improve the General Request problem category process.
Thanks for pointing that out that combination "LGBTQ+" and "Disability" example. Other people with Trigger issues may also want multiple listings.
We, as a Community, need to encourage 7Cups to make the General Requests process much better at match-making.
It's in 7Cups' best interest to enable Members get proper Listeners,
so 7Cups should want to enable Members to list multiple reasons for being on the General Request list.
It would be nice if 7Cups explained their position on this fundamental Community concern.
Perhaps 7Cups will say: "People with multiple concerns should forego using the General Requests process to get immediate support, and instead they should search for appropriate Listeners using the browse tool and wait for support if necessary.
Or perhaps 7Cups will say people with multiple concerns should explain them when the chat begins."
But that still creates the problem for the Listener not knowing and being uncomfortable as you said.
I personally don't see why 7Cups can't simply allow Members to list multiple reasons for going on the General Request list.
Maybe 7Cups would be willing to explain their position on this suggested simple way to greatly improve chat quality.
@7motivation I think this is a great idea!
@7motivation It sounds like you're blaming members here. Are you aware of a glitch that prevents the topic that is choosen from being listed?
What if the issue doesn't have an available topic to choose from?
@7motivation I agree that members should list down their problems and this should be visible to Listerners in General Request. It will be indeed helpful for listeners to know what they might be listening to and also not to take chats which they are not equipped to cope with or subjects which can be triggers .
@Heather225
I would be very interested in being involved with or organizing any or all of the following projects :
- simplifying and organizing 7cups preferably with @RarelyCharlie at the helm ✌ along with other great analytical volunteers such as frigidstars and so many others evaluating everything (or some area) and downsizing simplifying and organizing so so much time isnt wasted by processes that are more complicated than they need to be so that time and energy can be spent on other things .... in other words a brainstorming group focused on evaluating and simplifying everything
- a group screening and selecting people who become listeners beginning with a brainstorming group on best ways to do ensure listener quality before instead of after people become listeners so much time and energy is spent on quality projects after people are listeners after the damage is done and members are mistreated this quality project needs to happen before not after
- an advocacy group speaking out and helping people members and listeners alike with different issues that are not being addressed in the existing system a safety net for people
so any of these projects i would be interested in being involved in 👌
@jennysunrise8
I'd also be interested in being involved in a group organizing and/or doing preemptive screening of listeners beyond just passing that short initial training since it does seem like there is an issue with listner quality that needs to be addressed closer to the root than it currently is.
I would be happy to help and join a brainstorming group focused on evaluating and simplifying everything
@0yoshisquirrel0 It's K, I'm here
I would create a way of the members in tech to be able to contribute. There are many here who make their living in creating web based services and solutions. Im hoping Charlie et al will see this and chip in as he has around the forum. I for example work often on UIX and would like to see meaningful progress there.
Further I would work on better ways for the communities to self curate. For example, the 35 room has been very successful in creating a culture that stands on the shoulders of the regulars. Not only mods and listeners but the members largely too. I would give these groups more tools to protect that culture. Questions to consider:
- how seniority is defined within a community and does that seniority cause work to the people involved or is it an organic growth stemming from the generated value. The latter part here is especially important here as the site relies on volunteers
- how to give everyone more tools to indicate whether a member/listener/mod is supporting the culture of the community or distrusting it. This issue would require more sophisticated ML utilization to be affective. Youd want to rely on trends here rather than one off incidents. Youd also want to consider how to create a system that is welcoming to different types of people. We dont all get along but that doesnt make us all worthless..
- how the roles in the rooms can be flexible enough. I would like to run discussions independently but as a member I cant do that. Same goes to all roles. Most of us are here because we need support at least every so often. There should be no question what comes first for the volunteers. It always is selfcare when that is required. And when a mod for example needs to take a break the community needs easy and low cost (cost of time etc) options to step in and keep the community going as long as needed.
Ive made several suggestions in different forum posts and other discussions around the site. I will look into them and try to build comprehensive document as soon as I have the time and energy to do that.
many typos, autocorrects, and other mistakes on the text.. isolating one so the message doesn
@lilmango All great thoughts, it seems to me. Extremely challenging, and maybe even threatening, in the context of 7 Cups' traditional culture, but all very possible if there can be some kind of culture and technology reset.
Charlie
@Heather225
I would like to see a Community Needs Team as a new leadership role run for the Community by the Community, that consists of those members of our Community that are vastly under-represented in current leadership.
We all have skills to use, I'm am a Bereavemnent Counsellor
1 NT Leader
4 Subgroup team leaders and
1 members/listeners from each community ie:
Schizophrenia & Psychotic Disorders
Bullying Support
Personality Disorders, Bi-polar
Autism
Carers Groups
Disability
Young people of colour
Veteran & Military support
Trauma Support
Self-Harm recovery
Teens
OCD/BFRB
ADD/ADHD
Eating disorder
Anxiety
Depression
Others not listed
After initial meeting, these are divided into 4 subgroups, each with one Team leader, all contributing with specific ideas/needs etc
More details if requested.
Lucy2 <3
@Heather225
Hi Heather225 and Everyone else here posting ideas, replies, and making upvotes.
We're all trying to find out which project ideas are the most popular, right?
So Everyone...
Please post your ideas in separate postings.
That way each idea can be upvoted and commented on separately.
Then we all can easily comment on individual project ideas and easily see which are the most popular.
Thanks.
