7Cups Community Improvement Survey
Hello everyone! I hope all of you are well.
I am writing this post to share the “7Cups Community Improvement Survey” form and request you all to participate in it. Please take a few minutes to take this survey and share your thoughts with us. Your efforts are greatly appreciated.
The survey includes 6 areas where you can share one problem that you identified and need to be addressed. Do share your idea/solution that you think will help us address the problem at large. You can include both non-technical and technical solutions to the problem.
A gentle reminder that implementing a solution isn’t an overnight process and will require time and effort. So your patience and cooperation with us will be greatly appreciated. We will address them one by one and keep you all posted on the progress!
Here is the survey to submit: Click Here!!
The survey will be closed on Jan 31, 2021 (Sunday)
Let’s continue to keep improving the community and support each other! Thank you!!
@ASilentObserver done 
I've just done it to. Found it helpful.
Iam just 10 days as a listener so far i have not much to say but iam grateful for welcome and instructions given when I mess-up. So encouraging from chat room.
There's an issue with the survery itself - forums aren't subcommunities and subcommunities aren't forums. Chatrooms are just as much a part of the subcommunities as forums are. It wiould be nice if we could comment on issues of subcommunities as a whole separate from forum issues.
@ASilentObserver
Done !
@ASilentObserver All done! Let's see if this leads to any improvements...😄
@ASilentObserver I know changes can't be made overnight but I sure do hope changes are made. I don't feel valued as a listener and I am constantly bombarded with "support this site" messages. I am by being a volunteer listener. This also feeds into for profit counseling so I'm not sure why there is such a need to support it financially. Maybe I am missing something. I give quality care to those I listen to. That's more than enough. Is it a 501c3? Did I miss something? Also isn't there paid staff here and even then my emails responding to random ones I have gotten weren't answered. You can't change what someone else doesn't acknowledge and sending very vague emails after I inquired had no real purpose. I never got a response that way. There HAS to be a better way!
I have volunteered a lot in my life and there's never been a time when I wasn't valued or appreciated like here. It's frustrating and disheartening to be honest. If I didn't care about the people I talk to I would be gone a long time ago.
I'm sure this isn't the feedback you want but it's my truth. Other people's experiences may vary!
@Rainbowsandmiracles888 The emails were also form letters with no real content. Just a frozen account for a few days without warning because I dared to say that I understand suicide loss because I lost two of my friends that way and my sweetheart. If I was hurting and found a profile that said that I would know that they understood. Instead my account was frozen for days without any explanation. Just a random email saying someone found something offensive in my profile but due to confidentiality issues they couldn't tell me what. That's not the way confidentiality works and that wasn't helpful at all! Instead it took weeks to find out why. All because I dared to say I can relate to suicide loss. All they had to do was email me back something personal and not a form letter! I had no freaking idea! I have 5 star ratings and you would think the site would appreciate that and give me direct feedback and a chance to change it before freezing me.
@Rainbowsandmiracles888 No, as far as I know the company that operates this site, 7 Cups of Tea Co., is not a 501(c)(3), and doesn't have any other 501(c) status. If it had, I would imagine its status would be mentioned in the Terms of Service.
I am not a lawyer, and I'm in England, but it is not clear to me how volunteering at 7 Cups is permitted at all in the US under the Fair Labor Standards Act (29 U.S. Code CHAPTER 8).
The few paid staff running the community are said to be very busy, and this might explain why some e-mails are not getting answered.
Although 7 Cups does make some money from therapy, the number of therapists has been declining slowly. I only see 100 of them in the directory today.
A more appropriate business model might be to require all listeners to pay a monthly subscription, and use the income to provide more efficient administration and service development. This would probably have the useful side-effect that there would be fewer listeners not taking listening seriously, but I understand that it would entail a big upheaval.
Charlie
@RarelyCharlie Why would listeners be required to pay a fee? Did you mean members? I don't know why volunteers would have to pay a fee to volunteer.
@Rainbowsandmiracles888 Our mission is to provide free emotional support. Therefore we cannot charge members a fee.
At present, listeners are volunteers. This does not work well and it might be illegal. For example, you wrote: 'I don't feel valued as a listener and I am constantly bombarded with "support this site" messages.'
In a better system, listeners would not be volunteers. Instead, we would pay 7 Cups for the opportunities it gives us as listeners. If you were a paying customer it's more likely you would feel valued, and less likely you'd be bombarded with "support this site" messages. A similar business model is already used by some other companies. 7 Cups could use it too.
Charlie
@RarelyCharlie Why would it mean listeners not taking things more seriously? As a listener I take the welfare of those I listen to VERY seriously! I even pray for them every night. I don't see why a listener would have to pay for the "privilege?" Of listening to other people's problems. That makes no sense. I am already highly invested as a volunteer listener and care. Spending money I don't even have right now to volunteer hours a week makes no sense. I'm sure there are some listeners that are here for different reasons but I would guess the vast majority are here because they care about the well-being of others and want to make a difference in this world! I'm also qualified to do peer support in my state. We didn't have to pay for the training though and I can get a paying job doing it.
I chose to be a listener because I love others and I know this works right now is crazy (especially in the US right now). I am an empath and sensitive to energy. I know I am not the only one. My desire for listening is for others to feel heard and know someone genuinely cares about their well being. I want them to know they're not alone. I want to prevent suicides. I want to help give others hope and be a safe space for them. That's my motivation.
Done
All set, thanks, done.
Duh done duh done done.. 🙂