General Guidelines
Profile Picture
Please choose a headshot (picture of your face), nature scene, art/symbol/image (i.e., Hope), or animal. Please do not include pictures of famous people, flags (in the context of political statements), sexually suggestive pics, or cartoon pics. You must be fully clothed in your picture. The goal of the picture is to express warmth, compassion, and kindness. Images must be in JPG or PNG format and less than 5MB. Thank you.
Profile Bio
Please share a little about yourself. Do not link to other social media accounts or share any of your personal contact information. Do not include any graphic or inappropriate language. Your bio should be professional and approachable.
Profile Username
Avoid using graphic or inappropriate language in your username. Any username that contains graphic or inappropriate language will be flagged.
Remain professional/ supportive, kind, and respectful towards one another.
Even if you do not get along with an individual listener, it is up to you to act appropriately. If you must, step away and do not engage.
Prevent hurtful rumors/gossip from spreading.
Rumor: a currently circulating story or report of uncertain truth.
Gossip: idle talk especially about the personal or private affairs of others
Aim to grow and learn as a Member/ Listener & person.
In this light, learning to accept feedback thankfully.
Refrain from sharing personal contact information
- Including, but not limited to, social media accounts, home addresses, phone numbers, messaging apps/sites, or any other medium of contact off-site. Learn more about internet safety in this forum.
- Offsite contact is never permitted while you are a member of the 7 Cups community, including if you are on a self-care or deactivation break. While you are a member of this community, no matter your account status, this is the rule. There are no exceptions. Please respect it & keep yourself safe!
Maintain a confidential atmosphere.
Between you and members/guests and between you and other listeners. All conversations between you and members are confidential. Do not share any chat details with any other listeners or members. Additionally, do not write or blog about any issues you are supporting people on.
Engage in healthy problem-solving.
Use proper conflict resolution skills with every person on the site
Guidelines on being sober
Listener Account: If you are suspected to be under the influence of drugs or alcohol to any degree we will suspend your account immediately for two weeks. To listen to another user, you must be sober.
Member Account: Can participate as long as demonstrate supportive & respectful behavior in their comments and thoughts with other members, listeners, or leaders.
Respect the boundaries of other community members.
Choose not to engage in sexting or flirting.
One User, One Account Policy
Each unique user is allowed one listener and one member account. There are no exceptions. If you are found to have more than one member or listener account on the site, both or all the accounts will be immediately suspended. Please also note that you can only be using one account at a time while on the platform.
Protect your log-in information to all accounts on 7 Cups and do not allow anyone else to use it besides the person whose name is in our system.
We expect that you will be the sole user of your listener/member account. If it comes to our attention that another person has accessed your account, we will need to immediately close your account for security reasons. This includes log-in details for 7 Cups Admin accounts.
Do not engage in hateful behaviors of any kind.
Showing hate towards any gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, religion, racial or cultural background, or imposing your viewpoint on any of these items on another user is forbidden.
Be in a healthy state of mind.
Zero Tolerance Policy
Zero Tolerance Policy draws a clear line that we will not support or entertain certain behaviors like being unsupportive, bullying, any form of discrimination or racism, inappropriate or flirting, sexting, or violation of any community guidelines.
High Warmth and High Expectations are part of the 7 Cups Community Culture. We want to foster and maintain a healthy and uplifting community. And, to do that, everyone is accountable for their behavior.
In the Group Support Chatrooms
All the chatrooms (listeners and members-focused) are operating under the Zero Tolerance Policy. We encourage you to read the chatroom guidelines and commit to following them. You will find the participation rules at the bottom of each chatroom labeled as “Please read the Chatroom Rules”
All participants are expected to be aware of the rules of participation. This means that if you are found to be violating any rules, you will be responsible for the consequences.
Consequences of violations:
- Community Moderators can instantly mute you if you are found to be violating any chat room rules after one verbal reminder. Volunteer moderators will be sending 3 warnings to mute you after 2 verbal reminders.
- If you repeatedly and knowingly violate chat room rules, you will be muted instantly without any verbal reminder by community moderators. Also, if needed, your account can be suspended.
- Both or all parties engaging in an argument or conflict will be instantly muted. You have a personal mute button for a reason. It is your decision not to use personal mute and engage in conflict.
- If you have a question or disagreement about a rule, or a topic with a listener, or a moderator, please take the issue to PMs immediately. If you continue to argue and disrupt the flow of the room, you can be instantly muted.
- You are welcome to submit a review for the Chat Room Moderators, Room Supporters, and Listeners here! and For members here!
💡 We are taking these measures to ensure the chat rooms facilitate helping and healing. We would appreciate everyone using it appropriately and being mindful and compassionate of one another.
Keeping chat rooms safe, respectful, compassionate, supportive, and inclusive is everyone's responsibility.
In the Forums
We are a community that is open to learning and growing. We welcome constructive feedback and we celebrate the positive feedback. We have grown a lot over the years and we have noticed an increase in forum posts that do not offer helpful feedback and take away from the welcoming and supportive forum environment and that is not okay.
To offer helpful constructive feedback please follow this model:
1. Identify the problem or concern.
2. Write it out.
3. Ensure you're not framing any personal opinions as concrete facts, making blanket statements, or catastrophizing.
4. Ask what the emotions that I'm evoking with this feedback.
5. Ask yourself – how would I feel if someone wrote this to me?
6. If you feel good about it, then post it. If you don't feel good about it, then revise it so that you would feel good about it.
Be sure to include solutions along with the feedback you are providing. Ask yourself, 'Okay, if I were to solve this problem, what would I do?" Try to sketch it out in as much detail as you can. Use the following headings:
- Problem - please state clearly
- Solution - usually the opposite of the problem
- Hypothesis 1 - a concrete way we can implement a solution to try to address the problem.
- Hypothesis 2 - a second concrete way we can implement a solution to address the problem.
This is how it would look for quality:
- Problem: Some listeners do a poor job of listening as evidenced by leaving chats, taking too long to respond, or not being empathetic.
- Solution: Help these listeners do a better job by fully engaging in chats, responding quickly, and being empathic.
- Hypothesis 1 - mandatory practice chat box that addresses these issues.
- Hypothesis 2 - listener tips that address these issues.
- How will we know if the above is working? We should see an increase in 4 and 5-star ratings, positive reviews, and increased positive conversations.
💡 Following the above-mentioned model allows you to provide helpful feedback that leads to further improvement of our beloved community. You are welcome to provide feedback through this form, you can also post feedback in this forum section.
💡 To maintain a therapeutic space, moving forward we will be deleting forum posts (this includes forums that come under sub-communities) that take away from a supportive forum environment. If a forum post is not helpful or positive then it will be deleted. In such a case, you will be informed of the deletion and if it violates our behavior point system then you will be assigned behavior point(s).
A simple way to ensure that your posts are in line with our guidelines is to answer the following questions:
- What kind of impact is this going to have on the community?
- Is it neutral, positive, helpful, or does it build people up?
- Does it create health or compassion?
💡 We are a community that strives for growth and collaboration. We appreciate every one of you. This update is to maintain a space where we can come together as a community and continue to work towards our mission.
💡 Toggles {▶️} are expandable and contain more details on the respective guidelines!
Have any feedback? More Questions? Submit a request here!