No longer fixing bugs with the Feed
Hi everyone! Ece from the 7 Cups Product team here with a tough announcement to make. Here goes:
As of this week, we will no longer be fixing bugs with the feed.
This was a tough decision & not one we made lightly so I want to share with you the full reasoning that went into it:
1) The feed is hard for us to fix: The code that powers the feed is now some of the oldest on our site, which means the engineering effort it would take to fix the update bugs, hashtag bugs & other feed inconsistencies being reported is really high
2) It is hard for us to keep fixed: Because it's so old, the feed content actually lives on totally different servers than the rest of the site. Some of the bugs are due to this separate server set-up & it takes ongoing maintenance & additional time to keep them from regressing
3) It is expensive: That separate server set up is more expensive than all the rest of our servers. There have been months where server costs for the feed are as high as 1/3rd of our total server cost for the entire product!
4) Most people arent using it: Over the past 6 months, less than 2.5% of active users on the site have engaged with their feed (posting, following, hearting, etc). Even if we look at only engaged Members & Listeners, that number is still just 10%.
We're a small team with limited resources & in considering all of this we came to the conclusion that we just can not afford the engineering time it would take to fix the feed when it does not benefit > 90% of our engaged Members & Listeners.
Next steps:
We know some of you really like & regularly use the feed and it's frustrating to be hit with the no updates bug or have hashtags not work. We want to take this opportunity to gather feedback from you directly as we think about how to proceed in the future.
Comment below with your thoughts:
- If you use the feed, what do you value about it? How would you complete the sentence "The feed lets me.....?"
- If you don't use the feed, why not? What about this feature didnt work for you?
Thanks so much for your understanding & your feedback!
I don't use the feed regularly, but I do appreciate that it makes some things (more) possible than other areas on the site:
- It lets me see users I might not otherwise interact with when something gets reposted
- As much as it pains my little forum heart to say this, I think it's less daunting to new users as a way to start engaging
- It has a viral nature when something comes up that can benefit many people (e.g., a little gif or motivational picture that might not ever be seen in a forum post)
- It is a way to access a large group of users without having to tag - opt in because they have to be reading the feed to see it, but accessible quickly to more people (e.g., anyone who follows me has an opportunity to see something I post without me having to tag them directly)
- It works well as a 'status update' since we don't have another one - e.g., I will post when I will be away for a while so someone wondering why I'm not responding can quickly see what I've posted, and I check other people's feeds when I am wondering if they're away
As for why I don't use it more, mostly it's just a time and focus thing - 1-1s and forums take most of my time, so I don't frequently go into other features like group support or feed
@Ece7Cups
If you use the feed, what do you value about it? How would you complete the sentence "The feed lets me.....?"
I use the feed and I love that it lets you post pictures of things and as a way to gain attention for different communities as well as raise awareness about things.
"The feed lets me..." raise awareness and show positive things to others and to support whoever looks at the messages.
An idea I have for the feed to make it more popular could be changing formatting or the software 7cups uses to reduce cost. I would also suggest creating a gofundme page if that wouldn't break the no offsite contact guideline.
@Ece7Cups
Thank you for the update Ece! Honestly the feed turned out to be much more useful than I ever could have imagined. When it was first announced, I didn't really get it and thought it would just be used for stalking. However, it ended up being an incredibly useful way to be connected. Moving forward, my recommendation would be this:
Take the aspects of the feed we liked and make improvements to the forum.
The forum is an aspect of the site we already have and people use (I assume much more than the 2.5% of feed users). Some things I really liked about the feed were:
- Ability for adults and teens to interact in a safe place (similar to the forums!)
- Ability to search for posts by hashtags (please improve the search function for the forums :(
- Trending section
- Visibility on a user's profile
I think if we take the forums we have and start to make them more robust, it will vastly improve the site. Just my two cents <3
@MonBon love those ideas!
Ah, these are sad news.
When I was prompted by the Growth path to post things to the feed, and got feedback or support from others, even just a heart to say they read it, I found that helped me see I wasn't alone.
I also very much liked the many encouraging posts, and the ability to subscribe to specific persons, to get updates on quiz results and other info.
I also used the 'follow' button to 'bookmark' listeners who I might like to ask if they'd listen to me.
It would certainly be possible to replace (some of) the feature with the forums, but to achieve this, I agree that the search functionality must vastly be improved and - most importantly - be sped up. It's awfully slow!
In addition to that, the buggy feed should no longer then be the place where the growth path activities link to.
Hashtags for forum posts would be cool.
The regular posters who post encouraging things or pictures would need to move to the forums.
Add to this the other suggestions from previous posters :)
@cloudySummer Ooh yes to the slow forum search, it takes so long sometimes!
The feed lets me connect with all my regulars - I can post when I am going to be gone there instead of having to track every username down (often people disappear from the chat list and they have to find me to talk to me again). I also like being able to post uplifting or interesting or heck even funny things so when I'm not here people at least can see stuff I have posted and I can hope something inspires them or at least makes them smile. The feed also lets me connect with various groups here - like the 35+. I think it's awful to just basically stop caring about the feeds here. All the updates lately have made this website much worse, not better.
@Dawn04 Agreed. The feed was (past tense because it's effectively dead at this point even if admin technically isn't taking it off life support) a simple and effective means to network, explore the community, and engage, especially for new users not yet ready to navigate forum/group chat social dynamics. Keeping it up without maintenance is just cruel.
@melliotm
@melliotm
I don't feel the feed is a relic of the past yet. I post there regularly and link to several other feeds in other forums.
@Dawn04 Alas I'm among the abandoned cohort with a feed that hasn't updated in nearly two months (a group that will inevitably expand with backend neglect) and will never update again as a result of this decision. So I don't mean to discount your efforts. I just wish I could enjoy, amplify and engage like I used to.
To answer the question what do you value about the feed, as it was said by @Erica the feed I am a teen listener it allows me to connect with adult listeners who are not a "ATL" it is an easy way to communicate. I am on the official feed team to spread awareness does not updating the bugs on the feed mean that it will get so buggy that we will be unable to even use the feed? The feed also allows me to communicate to everyone about subcommittees help wanted post using the "buggy" hashtags, we are able to advertise all the subcommunities when they ask us to this I do through ETF on the help wanted area. You are saying a lot of people do not use the feed maybe the reason is that it might be too buggy or not simple enough to understand. This is devastating news to hear for me as mainly rn for me on 7cups it
@7CupsCommunity - just going to add you to this to see if you can answer this question. To add one other thing is what is being said that we are going to let the feed get worse to the point it isnt able to be used?
@KarrotCake as we explained above, we just aren't able to invest the time to fix feed bugs given the low usage. We are certainly not doing anything to make it work less well or introduce new issues - but you are right that it's possible the existing bugs may get worse & the feed will get harder to use for more people.
All the feedback coming in from the community is really helpful - it lets us hear directly from you what about the feed was most useful & important and it will help us figure out how to improve the product going forward!
@Ece7Cups
Thanks for replying so quickly yes I just saw what was explained above, hardly keeping my eyes open now, Just what this news will do to the subcommunities and the teams like ETF and feed team its going to put a drag on the leadership roles avalible, is what you are saying meaning that you guys are looking into another option other than the feed, yes Ik coding is annoying once it gets old with all the plugins I do I totally understand they get harder to fix. But will this result in something new its just feeling like the loss of hope for the feed what if we can get people more involved in using the feed would that help at all?
@KarrotCake
Don't worry! ETF will continue to function as it has been. We'll need to brainstorm how we want to move forward in the future, but for now the feed will still be operational (albeit buggy).
@KarrotCake
We are going to use the time and resources we used to dedicate for fixing the feed toward creating a new feature. Ideally this new feature will retain the aspects of the feed we liked, while fixing the aspects we didn't, including a more sustainable and popular format.
@7CupsCommunity This is very reassuring, and it might be worth mentioning in the original post at the top of this thread.
I'm hopeful that it will be an easy thing to do, because forum threads already seem to have the building blocks that could be put together in a different way to make a thing that works pretty much the way feeds work, and then there would be no need for that costly special server setup.
Charlie
@RarelyCharlie
I'm hopeful too!
@RarelyCharlie
Thank you for the feedback!
@7CupsCommunity - Thanks for saying that gives a bit of reasurance that there is something new out of the situation that is at hand
@KarrotCake
Thank you for the feedback!
@Ece7Cups - is it possible to get automated tag lists where people choose to subscribe/unscribe with a click of a button that doesn't require a team to manually update the information?
That could take care of some of the 'following' options for informing people, but I don't know if it would have some of the same coding issues that the feed currently has.
@AffyAvo It is certainly possible, technically, to use a forum thread to manage a taglist automatically. I implemented this last year, and although my version is messy it basically works. Details here: Manage taglists and an example of it in use here: Bipolar Support Taglist
A lot of things would become easier if we could have more then one type of forum thread. Then threads of different types for different purposes could be stored together in the same database (in the same tables, in fact), avoiding the costly special server that the feed has been said to require. One type of thread could be for taglists, and it could easily display buttons so people could add or remove themselves.
I agree with your thinking—following a feed is essentially the same thing as subscribing to a forum thread.
Charlie
@RarelyCharlie @AffyAvo Charlie's automated taglist is brilliant! I use it a lot and it is great, Affy if you want any user experience putting it into a forum let me know 
Listening .... One Step At A Time
@RarelyCharlie Thanks!
@RarelyCharlie - agreed. a future incarnation of the feed is much more like to operate as a sort of personal forum/thread and/or an update of activity you have subscribed to / followed / expressed interest in, but that will take some time for us to sort out.
Besides the forums, the feeds are my other primary means of communication on 7 Cups, as I do not really use the chat rooms and would not plan on it unless I'm joining a directed and moderated discusssion (an online "meeting" or "conference", if you will 
), and I have gotten many followers from the feeds since I also post my growth path steps there.
Unfortunately, feed posts of those I'm following aren't showing up in my feed anymore and mine aren't in theirs, either. That's probably the biggest bugaboo of this. 
@AbbyHarris1976 Yes, I've been missing your posts. My feed doesn't work, either.
@AbbyHarris1976 I don't see anyone's feed posts anymore either
@Ece7Cups
I do use the feed, but if you can make a forum in which I can post just like the feed, I wouldn't care if you drop it