August 3 - Update to the Reviews Feature!

@Laura

I really like this idea but I think it would be better for the members who haven't reviewed/giving ratings the listeners yet, should be notified via email or 7cups like us listeners aren't getting paid. I really think it would be better if we did get a notification system with both the members and the listeners regarding the feedback been given. Even notifying the listeners that we got a rating like that seriously would motivate me to listen more and more!

@Irishcat

So better managing of the expectations to the member? What can a member expect from a listener?? I think that is smart!

@Laura i think thats a great idea there are constantly new members and with a site like this which is so unique and different new member expectations about what this site is for and a better understanding about the limitations of their chat experience i think even before a chat a popup of some kind like a new member orientation of sorts to explain to members what this site is for and reasonable expectations would help a lot i recently had a member get very very upset with me because i declined to talk down an actively suicidal friend of hers who was wanting to talk to a listener on 7cups instead i gave her the suicide hotline number and suicide.org site and said id love to talk to her friend later when shes not having an emergency but she wanst happy at all with that or me or 7cups no matter how much i tried to nicely and simply explain in different ways that i wasnt trained as a crisis counselor and listeners here are non emergency and wasnt confortable in my ability to talk to someone who was that serious about suicide she spent a lot of effort and time trying to debate it with me and talk me into it so especially when time is important it should be made clear from the start reasonable expectations and limitations and just find a way to get everyone on the same page somehow would lead to less confusion for new members coming here with all sorts of different expectations it seems from trying to engage in sexting with listeners ( i know a lot of listeners would love for new members to be made aware right away that this is not a site for that ) to thinking this is a suicide crisis text line to everything in between i think most are genuinely confused what this site is for and what they should expect . Doing this would help with unfair ratings and just help make both new members and listeners happier sorry such a long post

@jennysunrise8 and for guests also a popup explaining what this site is and is not and an introduction/orientation

@jennysunrise8

Yes! That's so important. It's not clear what a 'trained listener' is or what the expectations are before joining the site; just that it's free 24/7 emotional support.

@Laura hey! There are some positives to this update but I think it will lead to far less reviews being made overall. Majority of reviews are just star ratings and not written for many reasons - reasons notwithstanding, I think this suggests that majority of people don't want to type a review. SO if they cannot leave a star rating without a written review, I am sure most won't give any feedback.

Do others agree?

@niamh333

That could be true. I think it will result in more reviews. We will be monitoring the data! good feedback!

@Laura As some might already know I was a big fan of the categories but i love that there is a minimum character limit and that reviews or only count if they say something acurate about the chat. Tho I hope this will be realized in the same way no matter if it is a good or bad one.

@Laura

Yay I'm so excited!!!! cx

@Laura you didn

@SmileDandilion same thoughts.

... it looks so bare now.

ah, i don't really like this update but *shrugs* we can't all be happy about the updates haha

@Laura I love the developmemts made since last thread Laura. Keep ip the good work. Exvited to see how it works. :) ❤

@Laura I don't think this is an improvment. The categories gave listeners important information about how they were doing and in what areas they needed to improve. Now that's gone. Also, the fifteen character requirement may discourage people from posting a review. How will that benefit listeners? It seems like the more reviews posted the better.

@Harry53

unfortunately, most often the star ratings were used by members to share hurtful, unrepresentative reviews of the quality of the listeners. I am going to look through the thread and see if any members have similar feedback!

Thank you for sharing this Harry. Sorry you arent a fan yet!

Nothing in regards to the update, I just wanted to point something out. Every post from a listener, where it was obvious that you (Laura) disagreed with its contents, you've written something along the lines of 'wanting to hear from members'. I'm sure it wasn't done consciously, but if I didn't know better I would think that you didn't really care about what the listeners thought.

Oops. Skimmed over TortueDesBois. Just replace "listener(s)" with "anyone": the rest stands.

@Laura one more comment. The reviews now refer to the "chat" rather than to the listener and that seems too impersonal. For example, compare these two possible reviews of one chat:

I really loved the chat.

I really loved chatting with Laura. She's a great listener!

As a listener, which review would you prefer Laura? The second one, obviously!

@Harry53 yeah and the personal biases that might already exist, which would cause a member to already have a preconceived notion about a listener? Based on their country, the name or even the description.. all of that do have an impact when a member decides to talk to a listener.. as you said right its about a chat and not about how the listener was during the chat, so it would mean its greatly dependent on the mood/ emotions in the chat, of the listener and the member.. I feel Its also less directional now. Lets see how this works..

@Harry53 Thank you Harry I hadnt noticed that somehow before. Yes that is problematic

@Harry53 ah, agreed

@Laura

I can sum up my feelings for this via some of the reviews many listeners have received:

"Nice"

"Good"

" :) "

"Helpful"

I am still new here so this really doesn't bother me at all so I just go with the flow and do what the owners of the site want and what the others under them feel is needed .

Unrelated to this subject but the one thing that would help is the way the Forum set up is, it makes it very hard for people to find things , I am used to logging on sites and seeing all the forum sections and then clicking on each one and you also see the comments and much more. It is also very confusing with so people having titles under their names and not know who is above who or what their actual roles are here because several say they do this or that but aren't so I dont care about my profile and ratings I care about how people logging on can better understand this place and it be alot easier, so many coming here are confused . Many other sites have sold out and people are coming here they are not understanding why its so hard.

7cups by far has the most info and help on it and members I have ever seen, THAT IS AMAZING!

@Tyedyedbutterfly65 Thanks for sharing your feedback! I'd encourage you to post it to our suggestion box (found here) so our admin team can properly review it ^-^

@PhoenixAsh Thanks so much!! appreciate your reply!! also sharing where else i can share.

The one category for rating a listener is absolutely best.

I used to love the categories. At least I knew that I had to improve my responding time and so I did. I used to get excited about two things:

when a member get satisfied, relieved..

when I read their appreciation and uplifting words in reviews.

I still go back and re-read reviews. I can remember those members, my journey in here..Now members get to review the chat. "the chat was good". what do you conclude from that? it doesn't mention anything about the chat, so you are not gonna take it into consideration. However the member usually come back to talk with that same listener and won't leave another review again as many people don't keep on rating a place each time they visit unless a change happens. Many scenarios can be built that shows how it is unfair (not that the old system was that fair, but it was better).

Can't you just put an optional or a required question to fill about the chat without getting ride of the old one. or maybe a required pop-up window to fill everytime someone rate under 3 stars... instead of those redirecting pop-ups?

I've been lurking in this thread for a few days to kind of gather my thoughts and decide how I feel on this update. All in all, I think it has its pros and cons, but I think there are little things that could be tweaked for this new system to succeed!

1. As SereneCirius has just said, only require a written review if the rating is 3 stars or lower (and otherwise allow it to be optional) - this will help to reduce the number of incorrect negative reports and allow action to be taken to improve listener quality, but won't discourage people from leaving positive reviews if they don't feel up to writing a review

2. Have some suggestions there on what the member can consider when leaving a review, ie Did your listener respond promptly? Did they support you well? etc

I'm happy with other aspects of this change - I like that 'helpfulness' is gone for the reason that it could be taken as meaning 'giving good advice', which as listeners we can't do. I'd still like a prompt of sorts to convey what things to think about in the review though.

Thanks for your hard work in rolling out this update!

Don't like it.

Sometimes people can't be bothered to write a review and would rather just leave a star rating; Sometimes people have to run out because they are late for something, and don't have the time to do a written review; Some people find it difficult to find the vocabulary to explain properly, or find writing difficult; Some listeners haven't felt "substantial" enough of a written review, but the kindness they offered to try for you none-the-less felt worthy of a star review;

If I was that person for any one of the above reasons ^^^^ and was forced to leave a written review rather than just drop a quick star rating, and even then it had a minimum character limit of 15 letters, I'm sorry but I just wouldn't leave any review nor rating full stop.

I'm really sorry to have to be blunt and "rude" like that, but not everyone is generous and contributory to cups, as listeners and the staff, alot of people on here are "normal" people or randoms seeking help, just people who do as they please for themselves, and just trust me, watch as how you now find it difficult to get the reviews or ratings in.

I prefered @Anomelia 's idea (did I spell his/her name right?).

Thanks,

RedMeeko

@RedMeeko @Laura @Anomalia ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Thanks x

@Laura Also, can I just clarify, if someone leaves me a review that the team don't deem as 'helpful' such as 'good' or similar - will it not be posted? So I won't even know I got a positive review? Thanks

So when are listeners/members going to get a censorship kick back message that is specific to what is triggering the censor so we're not frantically trying to reword ourselves in all the paragraphs that we type so we don't end up with our accounts' deactivated?

@MsSpearmintMemberMode

I think you can learn from making the mistakes/experience, although I can understand where you are coming from; I think its more trying to evade the censor or whatever that they discourage, I think if you accidentally set the censor off it can be seen as just a faux pas or whatnot. I mean how else would you learn, how would they expect you to know? Its not like they have a list of banned words published somewhere that you can revise on. Lol.

Obviously as more and more words are added to the censor that were not there previously, there is bound to be some surprised setting off of the censor, or for people with memory issues too, amongst other issues.

But, saying all this, I can totally see where you are coming from, altho personally for me it would feel a lil frustrating being blocked from posting, and having to go back and re-type my message whilst the conversation rolls forward and leaves me behind. I think people can quite easily fill in the gaps if you were to post and there was a word accidentally censored, and they can still understand what you meant to say in a politer context.

Anyway just my two pence, I do also understand what you mean and can see where your coming from and thinking and I don't disagree with it either. Just an interpretation x

@Laura

I joined the site earlier this year as a listener and and have endeavoured to take on conversations. I find the lack of input from fed back on the occasions I have asked for advice frustrating. I have been working on the path and finding break away groups confusing. I obtained really positive fed back on the star system only to go on to have mock chat and hear no follow up? I also seem to have lost the link to my email for new conversations. What appeared to be straight forward now seems to be a tad confusing. Badges, awards, ratings, changing information and sharing of posts-pictures etc: spell check on site actually is totally challenging.

Thank you Laura for any fed back

kind regards

Summer

@Laura

confused as one click ended up in X two comments on the same post!

Sorry however not sure why?

regards

Summer 💗

@sunshineEmbrace53 I deleted the duplicate for you (sometimes that glitch happens, no clue why) Thanks for sharing your feedback!

@PhoenixAsh

Thank you so much 💗

Summer

I am okay with the changes that were made, but I have one question: can a listener get a bad review or all bad ones will be rejected and I will see only good ones?

@MarinaniraM good ones will be published. Helpful critics result in a coaching mail which will suggest improving in that area and offering help.

Hi,

This has been a controversial update! I appreciate 7 Cups looking for feedback but given that the update has already been implemented I'm not sure how helpful this is.

Having said that

- I wholeheartedly agree providing written feedback should not be compulsory.

- I dislike that there are only star reviews now and you do not get the breakdown like you used to. I'm lucky in that since I've been a listener I've only ever gotten 5 star reviews, but if a member gave me a 4 star or 3 star review, I'd love to know why. Is it that I didn't show enough empathy? Or that I took too long to reply? Or just that the member was frustrated with my boundaries? You've completely lost that ability to give specific feedback for improvement.

- It's not clear how the star will affect the overall rating. If I suddenly get 1 star, how does that affect my overall 'star' experience?

- The feedback isn't clear; and if anything I think it's less clear. If someone is unhappy with a listener, might it be because they didn't feel heard? They couldn't connect? They got harrassed? The listener didn't take them seriously? They didn't appreciate/respect the boundaries? The listener crossed boundaries? There is so many things that we do not know and members haven't been asked.

- There are a number of members that I've talked to that have had unpleasant experiences with the site and the listeners - but I've never spoken to a single one who has either reported the listener or emailed 7 Cups. As a listener, I want feedback - and participating in the site - I want consistency.

@romanticthi3f

i've encountered some members who actually do something about it