Inappropriate usernames both for listeners and members
While I believe 7cups is ultimately about being safe to express your emotions and some of you do that through your usernames, we need to be respectful of others too because they are freely visible in the community. I think that usernames which are inflammatory should be censored. @Laura @GlenM @Heather but in the mean time I think that having this in the open would I hope increase your willingness to accommodate others. I will give some examples
1. Political censoring
'Ihatethewest789'
2. Religious censoring
'Sataniscoming666'
3. Trigger censoring
'Suicideismyreality'
4. Sexual censoring
(Well you can imagine)
I have actually seen many many names which are very similar to these so please let's all be respectful of each other and let our actions online mirror those online.
Sorry for the typo- I intended to sayOffline.
@Cadence @Lyra @LilyListens @Pickles68 @Sarah @Honestyismyweakness
Thank you for tagging me in @Miracle
I agree, names are so important, and all the examples you gave above are great ways of showing how our choices can affect those around us.
If I can add a fifth category:
5.) Names that insult yourself
'fatuglyandstupid555'
- This is what you see at the top of every page when you log in, and this is how others have to refer to you in the chatrooms, and it makes me sad to think that people come here for support, but then due to a choice they made when they joined, are reminded of what caused them to come here in the first place.
Perhaps my point doesn't fit in well with the censoring, but I would love to see more screening of triggering or insulting names.
@Lyra I understand, see and like your point it's insightful and was not something I considered in great depth before posting. However the only issue is that certain descriptors may be defined as 'bad' or 'self depreciating' only by society. I think this offers a good examplehttps://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rEEz560JmDg
Some things we cannot change, while 'intelligence' especially emotional intelligence may not be a fixed concept and increase with growing self awareness, I believe we strive for acceptance not simply telling people they are not: fat, stupid, ugly. Rather by allowing them to feel accepted no matter what because they have an intrinsic value as humans, and in that case even a constant reminder like that would become less important. Because words only have power when we give them power, and self descriptors are an individual choice. Where as the emotions someone else feels when they see our username is something we personal cannot learn to change and control.
I think members and listeners should only be granted the ability to have a non generated username at a certain stage in their growth path?
Maybe their could also be an option for moderators to 'send an alert' for usernames in the chat rooms - I did this once. At which stage it directs the member for a name change and if they refuse it is passed to admin to make the choice. ? These ideas are not great I'm just trying to think my way around it maybe trigger words ? But this didn't work too well before. @Lyra I later realised my post was unfair and potentially upsetting and I wish to apologise your point stands I deviated.
@Miracle Thank you very much for starting this thread, and for your work here on it. Truly a wonderful idea, in my opinion, and you have my full support on this. I am hopeful that together as a community we can find a solution that is, as you shared, validating of the intrinsic value of every human being. Again, thank you.
@freshlight64 @sensiblegrapefruit
@Miracle
Your proposal that members and listeners should only be granted the ability to have a non-generated username is an interesting one.
For members, I wholeheartedly agree. For listeners, I'm a little more on the fence to be honest. There are only so many names out there and looking for a listener in Browse Listeners at present is difficult. It would be even more difficult if you had auto-generated names so it would require some working to make it work on that side I think.
Either way, the only way that I see this being practical is if it automated because of the work involved. Even if automated, the risk of potentially offensive names is actually lower than what we currently have.
With regards to having a warning alert for usernames, yes, possibly. Do you see many of these sorts of usernames in the rooms or in chats, @Miracle?
@Roadieyes I see them fairly often when looking to see who has taken chats. I can see what you mean in making it hard to browse listeners maybe we could have to have the name approved first because the 5 minutes it takes to become a listeners is a real problem in terms of listener quality anyway and it would help weed out people who do not really have any motivation to be a listener beyond curiosity.
@Miracle
That's a good way to find them to be honest so it really must be an issue on the listener side also. And, yes, approving listener account names seems like a good option. Trolls will still come through but it'll solve the name issue, you're right.
I definitely agree with this. Also, I feel there should be a system to check the pictures people upload as their profile pictures. There is one girl who has a picture of her naked chest as her icon picture, and I feel that's very inappropriate.