Dipping Your Toes Into The Forums
Edit: This post was originally posted in a listeners only forums and some links may be listener specific, a member version will be coming out soon :) ~MonBon
The forums can be something of a jungle at first, and sometimes amazing resources can be lost or overlooked. I've had this floating around as a doc for a while, which I share in the chatrooms whenever anyone tells me they're afraid of the forums, so hopefully it can be of some use as an actual forum post.
What can I do to get started in the forums?
✰ Welcome 3 new listeners in this forum, providing a little comment about their skills or profile and thank them for joining us
✰ Pick 5 listener reviews at random from the dashboard, and honour them here, perhaps providing a little note of analysis for each one
✰ Respond to a listener question – every day, listeners make use of the forums to ask about things that theyre unsure of, and if you know the answer and have the links at hand, help them out.
✰ Respond to 3 AMAs that no one has asked any questions in (members and listeners)
✰ Respond to one long member post – give an in-depth answer, reflecting on their story and sharing your own insight. This is easier to do if you have personal experience of what theyre talking about, so dont feel the need to write pages upon pages about everything you see. So many members pour their whole life story out for us to see, and it's heartbreaking to see it going to waste.
✰ Welcome 3 new members, and respond kindly to their reasons for joining (if given). New project about it here.
✰ Adopt a sub support forum you're passionate about (e.g. Anxiety) and welcome 5 new members who introduce themselves here
✰ Respond to 5 posts in ‘Im proud of myself because…
✰ Respond to 5 posts in ‘Milestones and Steps completed
✰ Respond to a ‘How I found 7 Cups post to welcome the new member or listener
✰ Spend a while upvoting – as @Roadie notes here, upvotes are the work of seconds to give, and help people to feel validated and appreciated. If you doubt this, just read the post, and youll see why its important
Points to remember while posting in the forums
✰ Always tag people in, with an @ then their listener or member name – putting anything other than a comma, full stop or a space after a name means that they wont get the tag
@Username - ✔
@Username, ✔
@Username. ✔
@Username! ✘
@ Username ✘
@Username- ✘
(@Username) ✘
@Username (in Heading 2 font) ✘ No idea why, it just doesnt tend to tag properly, Heading 3 is your best bet if you want to use a large font
✰ A bit of formatting doesnt hurt – theres no shame in a bit of colour in the welcome threads, it jazzes them up a bit (Hint, copypastesymbol.com, hint)
✰ If you see anything concerning (triggering language, sharing personal details, giving details of chats, advertising, trolling, spamming or a forum post in the wrong place), PM a Forum Mentor with the link, or tag them into the post so they can sort it out. Find the list of forum mentors here (plus theres these seven as well, if youre really desperate).
✰ When working through a page of unresponded-to posts, start with the oldest and work your way down until youve done as many as you can, and then someone else can take over from you. Dont skip entries, as it can make vulnerable people feel ignored – even if the entry is the most mundane or irrelevant thing, its still an entry.
✰ Make use of the ‘New function to see which posts havent been responded to yet
✰ Just be supportive – use your active listening skills to show that you care deeply for members who have the courage to pour out their soul for all to see.
✰ Get on top of your bookmarks game – if you come across a resource and think ‘Wow, this is amazing!, bookmark it and put it in a relevant sub folder in your 7 Cups bookmarks. This will make answering listener questions and sharing resources with members a calm and easy experience (as opposed to a frantic search through the forums trying to remember what that one thread you saw once was called).
✰ If you'd like to know how to put links into your forum posts, check this doc
✰ Ever since the forum switched from a plain text editor to a rich text editor, formatting gets copied across when you copy-paste something in. This can be useful sometimes (for example, links now copy across), but if you want to clear the formatting, copy what you want to paste into editpad, then copy it again and paste it into the forums, where it will be nice, normal, clean text.
Helpful Links:
Forum FAQ (for listeners)
Support Forum FAQ (for members)
How to act in various areas (courtesy of the amazing @MonBon )
Join the Forum Team here
The whole subforum that this thread is in
Guide to how the forum is organized
Last Updated: 24th January
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@lyra great post. Very helpful
@lyra thank you so much for this post, it has been very helpful!
