Room Supporter Role Idea - Feedback Needed!
We know that there are many Listeners who regularly participate in group support rooms, are passionate about their room, but are not necessarily ready to apply as a group mod yet. Keeping this in mind, we have an exciting new idea for a role that we would like your feedback on!
Role: Room Supporter
A listener (adult or teen!) who is dedicated to specific group support rooms, spending time supporting members in that room, building a community bond, steering conversation toward topics relevant to the room and verbally de-escalating conflict when needed.
This role would serve as a stepping stone for listeners who want to work toward becoming a community centerred moderator. Room Supporters will receive specific training on de-escalation and verbal conflict resolution from the Support Team Leaders of each team but will not have access to the moderation tools that a moderator has. The role of the Room Supporter is not to moderate the room. It is to provide quality listening and build community within the room, but also be trained in active listening and be able to verbally de-escalate a conflict.
What do we aim to achieve through the Room Supporter role?
- Integrate listeners spending a lot of time in group support into sub-communities and support teams.
-Allow new listeners to have more guidance when venturing out as a listener into group support.
- Help with community building between listeners and members.
- Create a stepping stone role to group support moderator, similar to forum supporter role before forum mentor.
- Increase quality of listening in group support.
- Allowing listeners to become acquainted with a specific room and its dynamics before venturing into higher leadership positions within the team.
The role would work similarly to Community Centered Moderation. A listener would be listed in the Subcommunity Leaderboard as 'Room Supporter' and appear similarly to how the Mod Badge shows up in rooms for Community Centered Moderators.
Ideas about this idea for a role? What are some pros and cons you can see?
Special shout-out to @sweetLily41 and @SupportiveMonkey46 for putting in a ton of work into drafting up this role!!
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@RaCat@brilliantTurtle89
This is an awesome potential role! It's sort of like an equivilant to becoming a project agent, where it's the first step to becoming a teen star or mentor. Instead, becoming a room supporter would be the first step to becoming a community-centered group moderator. I think something else that could potentially be neat is to have co-leaded discussions with the support team leader and room supporter as well every now and then
@Kate yay! Super excited to hear some feed back and ideas about this!
@Kate
Quick question: The role would work similarly to Community Centered Moderation. A listener would be listed in the Subcommunity Leaderboard as 'Room Supporter' and appear similar to how the Mod Badge shows up in rooms for Community-Centered Moderators.
Is it just a tag they'll have similar to how support teams tags are displayed without any moderation abilities?
@Jenna Yes! Exactly. Just the tag that shows up in the room
@Jenna I think a better example is comparing it to a forum supporter. It's the room equivalent of that (although only for listeners) is how I'm interpretting it.
@AffyAvo Correct. Good comparison
I like the idea and I think for a while we had someone one our team who basically was doing this (I don't think they had a mod badge) and on our leader list but in a less formalized role.
I have seen some listeners in group rooms though ignoring the purpose of the member/listener roles. Some of them actually spend large amounts of time in the room. So I do think it's important to be mindful about not just selecting/accepting a listener for this role because they are in the group room lots, they should be setting a good example of how to be a good listener in the room. As long as the purpose is kept in mind though, it shouldn't be a problem!
@AffyAvo I agree! I think if support team leaders on board the room supporters for their room, they would be able to figure that part out. What do you think?
@SupportiveMonkey46 Yes, I think it's an issue that is avoidable. Just putting it out there as a 'heads up'.
@AffyAvo good point affy!
Love it!
This is a great way to have more familiar faces in the room so that listeners are seen as friends! On top of all the amazing points you mentioned, I think this role will be great to add to that sense of community!
@Kate
@Kate
I think it's an excellent idea!! So far, it looks good and makes things much easier :)
@Kate i absolutely love this idea great job supportive and lily awesome work so much thought and definetly awesome for those not ready but focus in certai rooms such a nice way to recognise that
Don't see it. Just seems like a new shiny title for listeners to fight over with no real use to it. They will hold no responsibility, considering they can't moderate properly. They will simply be filling out a quota and meeting others with another flashly badge next to their name.
@EnchxntedRose
I feel that a lot of what comes out of this will depend on what gets put into it. If it is treated as "just a shiny" for the Clique-ish already pre-existing listener groups that hang out in the group chats and just something for other listeners to grab, do, then abaondon.. then yes.
However that is not what I interpreted as the ideal merit behind the program. As a means to encourage Listeners who are newer and would not otherwise engage in or even venture into group chats to feel more guided and comfortable in doing so, it could be a huge help. And if embraced as an extra means of having additional De-escalation available in rooms, even without moderation powers, that can STILL have a big short term impact on the quality of directed conversation and helpful community mentality in the rooms themselves. Long term it can help encourage and draw listeners to the subcommunities and forums themselves to bolster activity and membership as well as grow potential moderators into roles in those communities, almost all of which seem to perpetually be running short-handed.
And really, is a little extra De-escalation help in chats ever a bad thing?
@BeTheChangeYouWant great post here change
@BeTheChangeYouWant
I agree and understand with you, however us as listeners can already do this with no problem in the group chat without a badge. Filling out an application or/and taking a training for basic human knowledge that is already applied without a simple two word title, is not at all needed. It literally just adds to the hierarchy of ranks that have the same permissions, or no permissions at all, they're just there. The ony part of Kate's post I agree with is the "stepping stone to group mod" part. Anything else I stand by my point. I know they won't care, even if she ends read this, and it will be added anyways. But I'm not going to virtually pay any attention to someone wielding that badge.
@Kate really love this idea! Would be a great step for listeners who are not into becoming moderators but would rather help in keeping the rooms they spend most of their time in a supportive space for everyone to share.
@Nada agree
@Kate
I think that is very good idea. but there is a huge chance to increase conflict betwwen mod and rest of the member.
Example:
Suppose a listener spend lots of time in a room. Then he knows the room very well, thats why members and other listeners likes the listener very much (no doubt on it and the listeners quality). now when they got a special badge then members may be start to ignore the rules because they have a mind setup that the listener is with them and they can do anything. now the real situations is start when a Mod come and try to control the situation. may be that trigger the member and if the listener feel no value then can create another type of conflict start. Then neither a mod can control the room supporter due to profesionalism nor can stop the members. hope I cleared my points.
but all of the things is my personal opinion. And this is totally posibility . may be I will 100% wrong.
If I will wrong that make me verry happy and I always ready for the wrost. All critisism are accepetd. thank you
