January 2: Saving Messages in 1-1 Chats & Group Support

@Laura

question after a month if nothing is communicated will the messages be completely wiped ?

@BurningEmber

This is a good question. Perhaps krink knows. @krinkthemellowunicorn right now, I can connect with a user I haven

@Amelia I like the way how you think! I would say it would be the best to keep saving 10 messages like all the time and more than 10 only one month, I bet it would be useful, at least for me it really would be!

@BurningEmber

Hi ember, I've just clarified with the dev team!

The answer is - yes, the content of old messages will be wiped. However, your browser on your device also saves some messages, so the answer is yes, the database would ahve zero messages but when you laod the conversation, you may still see some of the last ones (unless you clear your cache).

Thank you!

@Laura

ah thanks.

@Laura are you trying to pet a puppy and type at the same time? :x <3

@Laura this is unfortunate. I too have gone back to messages that have been sent long ago that I go back to look at for encouragement and such, even though I might not connect with those listeners anymore. I think it'd be much better as well to keep those last 10 messages still, even once that month is up. I will be really sad to see everything wiped once that month happens. I like the update of keeping the rest of the conversation a bit longer, but find it actually a step back that those other messages will be lost. This is not something I'm looking forward to at all.

@Laura

Really disappointed to see this has been implemented. Now going back to my messages, most of my conversations have been wiped out. It's honestly decreased my desire to connect with listeners even more, because if there's no response in that time frame, I don't even know what the listener or myself has written last. And having the conversation sentence visible in the chat list and then the conversation being empty, that's actually kind of cruel...thinking the conversation is still there, but then coming upon a totally blank chat window. This is one update I'm really unhappy about, and I don't think it was thought through fully, and the impact it would have on listener/member conversations that were long term check in conversations, rather than just one time conversations. I think it's odd that you guys are encouraging long term connections (ie. Sponsor/sponsee) but don't allow those long term conversations to be visible. I think it would be wise to revisit this and now that implementation has happened, check in and see how many people actually like this, and how many are disappointed and left feeling empty when they come upon the blank chat window.

@Moj @KrinkTheMellowUnicorn @Laura this is something really annoying that I've noticed. Instead of longer history, it is always always wiped after 10 messages with no local cache anymore. If it isn't cleared entirely. Tripped me up a few times.

@Moj - I actually agree - I liked the idea of being able to see more than just a few messages for a bit of time to reflect on, but I think it likely needs to be adapted so that at a minimum you still always have the most recent X messages (unless someone deleted them deliberately) so that if you haven't connected with someone in several months, you still have the remnants of the conversation to use as a starting point

@Laura @KrinkTheMellowUnicorn

@Anomalia YES, exactly!!
Pretty, pretty please!! @Laura @KrinkTheMellowUnicorn

@Moj - I also have lost older messages and feel your pain.

We need to adjust the "rules" for saving the messages to make sure that they are more "generous" and also that unread messages are not (easily) lost.

I have been discussing this with the developer team and we'll need to figure out more complicated logic, but I'm sure we can come up with something better, and this feedback is important for that.

@Laura - we've talked about this but not really resolved it yet.

@devTeam - real world examples of how the current logic/rules are frustrating people.

Glad to see we're trying something new. Also, I love being able to see those statistics - super interesting. Thanks for the post. :)

@ZizyTheTurtle

yay!

@Laura thanks for sharing. One important question: when one of the chat participants in 1-1 chat is deleting messages will it be deleted for both parties? That's something most of the people I know expect: press delete prunes the messages for everyone.

@kindSoul10

Hi There! thank you for the question.

Yes, if one person clears the message content, it clears for both individuals.

@Laura Thank you for this Laura. I have trouble with my short-term memory and often can't remember where the conversation left off with the members I do longer-term support with. This will help me greatly :)

@VinylFly

glad to hear!

I'm glad this was something brought into consideration and something we can move forward with. I can see the positive potential with this change helping listeners who may have struggles remembering chats because they have many regulars, or for any other reasons. I can also see this helping members be able to reflect back on what was said, look back over any tips that were given for coping, etc, and review on the support they were given for that month by a listener.

@Jenna

well said Jenna!! :)

For Group Support, does this mean I see 24 hours of what I was present for, or the last 24 hours, regardless if I was present or not?

@AffyAvo

this is a good question as well. @krinkthemellowunicorn do you know the answer to this?

@AffyAvo

You will see all the messages from the past 24 hours, regardless of if you are present or not. HOWEVER, at launch, you will only see the previous 40 messages. We will add a "see more" button that will load the rest of the messages form the previous 24 hours in the near future.

@AffyAvo - I suspect it is a blanket rule that just trims messages that are > 24 hours old, but by now we probably have a sense of what it's like in group chat?

@KrinkTheMellowUnicorn I haven't really figured out what exactly it's showing. It's not the last 24 hours for sure. It's not even the last hour. It does give more recent messages than it used to (I think a certain # than a timeframe) and then there's a big jump back in time, not sure if that's when I was last on as I often have a tabs open that I don't pay attention to.

@AffyAvo - a big jump back in time generally means messages stored locally on your device

@KrinkTheMellowUnicorn I tested another browser, it went back about 5 min. So probably just a certain # of messages.

@AffyAvo - hmmm, ok.... that seems different from what I expected. I'll talk to @devTeam

@Laura I have read that there were issues with the voting form - have all persons been able to re-vote and have all issues been addressed? It doesn't look like it from the messages on the other post.

@cloudySummer I agree at this looking at the polls - it looked lilke there were 2 main groups - those concerned about privacy and wanted things deleted fairly quickly, without having much of the chat saved and those who felt like it should be available long term.

The original poll didn't really include either option.

@AffyAvo I personally would have preferred either no change, or just an increase in the number of messages, or something different altogether (see below)... I'm still within the first conversation with my listener, and we're only exchanging pms a couple times a month... Which will become a lot harder to follow soon, unless at least a certain number of messages is kept - like 'either the last x messages, or the last month, whichever is longer'. But it would have been hard to vote on that, except in a multi-step-vote, that first collects options, and then in a later round picks the most frequent suggestions for voting.

@cloudySummer

I corrected the form twice and allowed ppl to resubmit if they requested. (disregarding their previous vote in the count)

@Laura Yes, I saw that - it sounded like three times, even, those google forms seem to be very obstinate! But after the last correction you posted about, people were still complaining that some parts were mandatory, when they should have been optional (e.g. the post by dawnA). That's what I was referring to.

@Laura you never corrected the form, though.

people who didn't want the change had to vote for 1 month because it was the lowest. that's why it got the most votes (not that i'm complaining, because it looks like 6 months would've won and... yeah).

there was no 1h option for group chat, which is what it should be because honestly at what point does anyone need to go back 24h even when modding? tbh the 40 messages we're getting now is enough to figure out exactly what's going on.

overall, i was very, very upset with how it was handled.

slightly less so now.

but yeah being presented with the illusion of a choice is rly upsetting :( <3'

also this never should've been a general poll. if you want the community's opinion, the least you can do is determine if someone is a member/listener/community leader & how long they've been on the site.

because of course everyone should be heard, but this topic probably should've been most focused on what new members and community leaders think yah? coz if those align, bingo. & ain't nobody, even me, can complain about that.

unless you force me to choose 1 month :P'

(also tbh you should just pull that data silently but you don't i's shusling now bc at least the site works :D)

@bunnypants @Laura Yeah, illusion of a choice is a good phrase to capture this. It was the same with the animals. If all 7cups want is applause, then - well - they could just ask for it. I feel these 'giving the community a chance to engage, but we have actually already made up our minds before asking them' questions are examples of a very inconsiderate and dishonest way of dealing with people, completely contradicting the philosophy they advertise.

@cloudySummer

With me, I didn't even know there was a vote going on. Sad to not be able to make a vote at all.

@Dawn04 same here.

So starting today, I won't have to manually copy paste my listener's important advices ?!
Also, if a small copy button be provided with the message sent so that we can selectively copy messages important to us in one folder or something. Saving is important to me as my memory fails me too often.

@affectionateCity5267

Interesting idea on the copy button, I will share it with the team. However, copy/ paste is easily available to you & the notes section!

bye bye the privacy. this thing will now be part of PAST and will no longer exist. mainly in group support if everyone can see the messages from past 24h no matter if they participated or not. I guess there will be a huge decrease in participation in group support chatrooms.

Hoping the button for clear chats in 1-on-1 will work better and remove the messages for both parts properly, because regulary it did it only at half. and if all messages are for staying there 1 month when the button doesnt work properly, then it will be a HUGE privacy issue.

For people I follow up only once every 1-3 months, then i will have to work my memory because there will no longer be any trace of our last messages. mainly if someone blocked us and recontact us, we will not can see what is happened before they block us. but its fine i guess.