August 3 - Update to the Reviews Feature!

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

@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?

@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

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?

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.

I think getting rid of the seperate categories for the star ratings was a bad idea. In particular, the response time category. I could have a very supportive helpful listener but maybe they take quite a while to respond. I wouldn't know where to put them on the star rating because it seems the rating is now just about the quality of the chat. How am I supposed to know when I connect with a new listener if they'll reply to me quickly?

Hi. It took me like 5 days to really grasp this update and another day to find the proper words to write here. So, here we go.

I'm not honestly sure how much I like this update. Written feedback shouldn't be compulsory in my honest opinion. I mean, that's why we had a distinction between ratings and reviews in the first place, right? It's basically forcing members to type a review when there are times they don't want to, either because they can't find the words, they don't want to leave a generic review, or they just don't want to.

The removal of the rating categories is going to be a huge blow to a large group of Listeners here. I, for one, like coming on my profile and see the categories that I need to put my effort in because most of the time, the members I talk to don't both to give a written review but would gladly click stars since it conveys what they want to say easier. This overall rating experience, while it may make it easier for some, would turn away a group of people who won't be able to easily decide how to rate a chat in such a limited scope. It also makes the whole process lazy, being able to rate a Listener without putting any thought into it at all. I mean, how do you manage to condense all those categories into one vague rating? It really doesn't make any logical sense at this point.

There was a time when I got an email saying that I need to work on my response times besed on the rating I got from a chat so I knew what I had to work with. What happens now? If the rating is too low and it notifies me that, how would I know the reason? It would make improvement harder when the system was doing what it should in the first place. Yes, I would admit there are times when the system is abused but it happens in all environments where systems like these are in place, right? There has to be some way to compromise on this.

Also, I'm not sure if I'm interpreting this correctly. " This means - if the star rating is a duplicate, or the flag is marked as unhelpul/ doesnt tell us anything about the listeners abilities, the star rating will not count. This will help a great deal in making the reviews accurate!!" Does this mean that if someone gives a bad rating, but doesn't give text to support it properly, it would be turned away? So what if a review for a chat is genuinely not up to par but they don't know how to state why? It'll just be discarded? Wow, it really feels as if you guys just trying to make listeners feel "good" about themselves on this site.

I do agree that there was a need to update the review/rating system but this is definitely not the way to go about it. I really don't see more reviews coming out of this update. Yes, it is easier in some aspects but it is harder and less... real in the way to go about it.

LOVE THE NEW REVIEW BADGES

I do think it was good that it was changed. I'm not loving everything though.

The Overall Rating - good. I think this is the rating that should be used for criteria when it comes to entering roles on 7cups.

I think rating specific areas should sitll be done though. This is useful to other members even if it doesn't show whether someone is good with active listening skills. Ie. Response time - sometimes one wants to have a quick chat with a fair bit covered. If someone has a low rating for response time, it's likely they are better to contact when someone has more time, or if they are looking to send mostly offline messages. I wouldn't include all the areas that were there before though. Professionalism meant too many different things to different people, listeners aren't mental health 'professionals' and that's what some expected. Helpfulness was one that could be iffy too. Ones I would consider bring back/adding: Empathy (this is what active listening is about!), Response Time, and Judgement-Free.

If rating specific areas isn't going to be included, at least have a little informational popup button that can be pushed so that members can have an idea of what is considered to be useful feedback. The blurb that's currently given doesn't really give enough detail.

I do understand the reasoning for requiring comments and not just rating out of 5. I think more information needs to be shared as to the criteria for what gets accepted though. If I give 3 stars and say "this chat was just ok" does that 3 star rating go through?

I flip flop on one member being able to rate a listener multiple times. I would actually prefer to see the ratings split - the average for the first rating given/member and then another for repeat ratings. I do understand this complicates the system, but I care more knowing that 9/10 people gave a low rating than that one person gave a high rating 10 times. Another option would be to use the most recent rating per member. So 9 people give 5 stars, one person gives 1 star rating = 4.6 Later though, someone who has a repeat chat has a horrible experience, gives a rating of 1 star, the new rating then changes to 4.2

Finally let us know when we can give a rating/review. I tried to rate a listener twice within a short period of time just to test this system out. I didn't see that I couldn't give a review until after it was all written and I tried to submit. Don't have the Send Feedback button appear if it hasn't been 48 hours, make it show that I still need to wait. It's frustrating to give thoughtful feedback only to be unable to submit and I can't even remember if I reviewed someone all the time.

I would also like to see how this information is being used. Before, it was pretty clear to me if I gave a listener a bad rating on one of the areas what would happen. Now I have no idea what type of feedback is being given to the listener, other than if I write something positive it goes on their profile. I suggested before having a text box where it's clear that it's for feedback that gets emailed to the listener. I still want to see this - make it clear that particular text box will be reviewed by someone on a team and if appropriate, forwarded to the listener anonymously.

So what I kind of envision, using words to describe the layout (if either text area is filled out appropriately, star rating is used)"

Star Rating Overall

Star Rating for Empathy, Response Time and Judgement-Free

Feedback on Chat - not to be seen by the listener - info button beside this that brings up a popup describing what type of info is used here

Review Listener - This feedback gets seen by the listener, if positive, it gets published on their profile.