New profile picture policy and review tool!
As we all know, 7 Cups is an emotional support platform. As such we want to ensure everyone using our site feels safe and that others also using the site are here for the same emotional support reasons. Profile pics are one of the first impressions for new users of 7 Cups, and our product team has been working on a new safety measure to help with this. They have investigated different options and have been testing and improving a new automated feature that will be released tomorrow to help us be more consistent with flagging potentially inappropriate profile pics.
We really appreciate the time they have taken to work on this project, and to really test out the best ways to ensure pictures make sense for 7 Cups. As part of this new project rollout we are also updating our guidelines on profile photos and any other photos shared on 7 Cups. This guideline goes into effect immediately.
Community Guideline on profile photos:
Profile pictures must be appropriate for an emotional support site. No nudity (including exposed stomachs or bathing suits), no graphic or sexual content (innuendo or otherwise), no violent reference (including weapons), no religious or political insinuation or reference, no celebrities and no images protected by copyright.
Due to how this new system will work, users will no longer be able to upload gif profile pictures. If you currently have a gif it will stay until you update your photo. Gifs will still work in forums (yay).
We will continue to review profiles and usernames to ensure safety, something we appreciate! Thank you in advance to everyone who agrees that 7 Cups is a place for kind and appropriate imagery!
@Jill7Cups thank you for this important update! Tagging SPOT peeps to make sure we all hear about this! @SmileyPower @EvelyneRose @MistyMagic @ItsDev @Peter1447 @Erica @FrostyOcean72 @Crystalclearnow
@MidnightRaven999
@Jill7Cups
Thanks for this useful update!
@Jill7Cups
No gifs? 
I will miss my gifs.. poor gifs
@Jill7Cups
According to new guidelines is my profile picture still appropriate? If I need to change it I can I just need to know because I originally wasn't planning on changing my profile picture until May of 2020.
Nice update! Kudos on the new improvements. 
"7 Cups is an emotional support platform. As such we want to ensure everyone using our site feels safe and that others also using the site are here for the same emotional support reasons."
Hopefully, with more badly-needed programming improvements/changes/tweaks to come, the end goal of making 7 Cups as safe 'n secure as possible, plus ensuring that most, if not all site users, are [actually] here for emotional support/therapy reasons, will become a reality.
@Jill7Cups
Censorship is very good for protection but care must be taken as to where to draw the line. Regarding celebrities, I understand the copy right and need for privacy but they are already public icons and for some of us who suffer having an idol or an example helps, like a successful tennis player, or a fictional game character or an actor...just saying...otherwise I agree with everything else.
@feelitinyourbones
agree idols should be allowed as long as they are not impersonating the person saying they are them in their profile and the image gives the person emotional support or confort of some kind that should be the priority above any ideas of professionalism is the message and what the image means how it helps the person absolutely that should matter the most :)
@Jill7cups Thank you for this update! GIFs will be missed, though we surely understand why there's a need to update the guidelines and restriction in uploading profile pictures. ❤ I really hope this helps in increasing safety here on 7cups.
@Erato
I fail to see how stopping gifs leads to me being safer,???
@Fireskye13 its not that gifs are unsafe, it was that when the new site update came out when this change was made, it was assumed that gifs would no longer be able to be uploaded due to a lot of them being too big (however, that is not the case, so as long as the gif is following the rest of the site guidelines, you can still have them!)
@MidnightRaven999 The size restriction was always separate from the format (no GIFs) restriction.
My understanding is that someone recently changed the code, and at the time of writing you cannot upload a GIF, not even if you rename it. But you can manually convert your GIF to a PNG or JPG and upload that. This doesn't make any sense, but it's how it was working the last time I tested it.
Charlie
@RarelyCharlie
Hi how do I change the gif to jpg?
@Fireskye13 If you search the Internet for GIF to JPG you'll find a lot of free online converters. You can also use an image editor if you have one installed—just open the GIF and export it as JPG.
Charlie
@RarelyCharlie
Thanks so much I appreciate the help 💗
@MidnightRaven999
Oh thanks Ig I misunderstood, it was my understanding that gifs were no longer allowed seeing how it wont let me upload 1.
@Fireskye13 yeah, you can refer to @RarelyCharlie 's post above, i think if you rename it it will let you upload it!
Thanks, I already love this update! All those jumping images were driving me mad. It's hard for me to concentrate on content when a comic figure is jumping up and down or going through full adventures - or to still see what's going on in the chat when everyone's icon is moving like crazy.
Some were really funny, but so annoying in the long run ... And thanks for making it clear that copyrighted stuff as well as impersonating other people are a no-go.
@cloudySummer
No, gifs just are a hazard for people with epilepsy or prone to epilepsy and the repetitive images may trigger unconfort or even a seisure...
However, those prone to eilepsy know about this and they are very well capable of protectimg themselves when met with dangers like these...
I experienced it myself on 7cups...one day in one room I told a user that the gif affected me but otherwise had no problem and they immediately changed it to a pic for my confort. It was not a permanent change but just making a guest feel confortable when entering your house...
I like gifs because they are creative and I know how much work it takes just for a few secs of motion animation and how hard it was in the old times to do it...
I do not suffer of full epilepsy but I had my episodes and I fully understand what it means and its dangers...
We must find ballance and understanding in everything, we must explain to people why gifs are bothering yet let them the freedom to use them when we are not around if that makes them confortable...i personnally would allow gifsas long as people who are affected know how to protect themselves from epileptic triggers and as I gave the example the users might shift from gif to pic on request kindly and nicely and considerately...then return to their gif...
I would not like to take away the joy of gifs from people, we can find dynamic understanding and equillibrium wkthout raising concrete boundaries when there is no need to take such drastic measures...
@feelitinyourbones i believe that the update isnt forbidding gifs, moreso something in the software used for the new update will prevent us from uploading a gif as our picture after this (this is how i interepret the wording of the post)
@MidnightRaven999
I was reffering only to gifs in the profile picture.
@cloudySummer I understand about the jumping gifs which is why the creator of mine spent so much time getting it to the stage that members are happy with it and don't find it a problem. But would be sad to lose it.
@Jill7Cups I noticed a few things that could perhaps be clarified.
images protected by copyright
All images are protected by copyright! I produced my profile image myself. It is protected by copyright. Some other images on the Internet have Creative Commons or other licences that allow them to be used freely, but they are still protected by copyright.
There is a legal trick known as copyleft that removes copyright protection, in effect, but it is not often used.
I don't think the wording of the policy expresses what you really mean. Perhaps you mean that whoever holds the image's copyright must have given their permission for the image to be used.
Terms of Service
The Terms of Service include this provision:
7 Cups shall retain all ownership rights in and to all content displayed on the Sites
This means that if you use your own image in your profile, 7 Cups now owns the image and you don't. It also means that if you use someone else's image, the copyright holder must have given permission for ownership of the image to be transferred to 7 Cups. I think it would be helpful to note this in the policy.
GIFs
I don't understand this. It looks like you now forbid both static and animated GIFs, but you permit both static and animated PNGs. I could understand it if you forbade animation, but the policy doesn't mention animation anywhere.
Charlie
@RarelyCharlie im not sure about the first two parts, but as for the gifs i believe that its not that we're not allowed to have them, but rather we wont be able to upload them anymore (which is why if you want to have a gif, you need to upload it before the date stated so that it will be there after this update is rolled out)
@MidnightRaven999 That's what I don't understand. It's possible to convert any GIF to a PNG. An animated GIF can become an animated PNG. This seems to mean that if you want to have animation in future you will still be able to.
Charlie
@RarelyCharlie has anyone tried yet? The issue is more with the upload size I believe and less about if a gif is "appropriate". You should test your theory and see if it works.
@Jill7Cups The upload size is limited to 5MB, according to the text on my Settings page. This is nearly 100 times the size of my profile image, which is about 52kB as a PNG, 54kB as a GIF or 91kB as a JPG. As you can see from this example, for small upload size it would make more sense to allow PNG and GIF but not JPG, and 5MB is far more than anyone needs. So this still isn't making sense.
You're right, it would be interesting to experiment and see what works. Whoever wrote the code could simply tell us, of course, but I suppose that would be too easy 
Charlie
@Jill7Cups When I tried it on my member account just now (at about midday on Thursday, October 17, 2019 EDT), nothing had changed. I could still upload an animated GIF.
Charlie
@Jill7Cups When I tried it on my member account just now (at about midday on Thursday, October 17, 2019 EDT), nothing had changed. I could still upload an animated GIF.
Charlie
@RarelyCharlie I've never seen the forum duplicate a post like that before!
Charlie
@RarelyCharlie It has happened to me, too and I've seen a few more duplicates in forums. A bug, perhaps.
@RarelyCharlie
Doesn't it depend on the typoe of Copyright? Like with a Creative Commons License, it's usually fine as long as you attribute work (in addition to the other requirements for that license)
@Jill7Cups
I do agree with this policy for listeners but not for members .....
members should be able to choose whatever imagery comforts them and gives them courage and confidence here swords for example are weapons but symbolize strength assertiveness exc. and having that symbolism for that member what it means to them the same with a members chosen religious imagery if this policy does go into effect for members i hope at least exceptions are made for individuals based on understanding and compassion for that with their emotional well being a priority not some blanket policy
@jennysunrise8
It is always that fine line what to allow and not and turn general rules into personalised adressing issues. A general tool is a first wall of defense but mind the friendly casualties too...
A friend might like Marvel characters, copyrighted and featuring "weapons". It might be their way to cope with life feeling frail I always thaught myself in Transformers adventures in school, not paying attention to classes but just fantasysing about having my robot friends come and save me...silly, but it was my mental escape...
@Jill7Cups
Understood. I'll have to remember not to change the profile picture I have now :)
"We are all different."
@ThankYouForLettingMeTryingToHelp
You will be one of the few gif reliques myfriend, a living fosile😉🤗😊
Maybe one day they will alllow gifs again under a different dinasty and you will be able to change your gif.
By the way, your personal pic makes refferance to Cups so I don't think that is very good since they said no ref to cups😉🤗
Myfriend..
@feelitinyourbones
Where did they say "no ref to cups"? What did they say, exactly?
@ThankYouForLettingMeTryingToHelp
No refferences or alusions to 7 cups, but don't worry in fact they were reffering not to use their logo or registered users that is all. I made a joke, you need to relax more L😉, learn to unwind and relax...