Follow Up to Rooms Closing Announcement
We have received lots of feedback regarding this post announcing the transitioning of several rooms from 24/7 to pop-ups. We appreciate those of you who took the time to provide thoughtful feedback in a respectful way. Some of you have made helpful points that the community management team has taken the time to discuss and consider. As always, nothing is set in stone and we all reserve right to pivot on a plan as needed.
Our goal in the group support rooms (and on 7 Cups as a whole) is to provide support and a safe space to those living with mental health conditions and other disabilities. We make conscious efforts to offer support while also working to ensure that all interactions on 7 Cups are safe and appropriate. This is a balance and one we are continuing to work on every day.
It has become clear that members of the Disability Community need a slower paced room in order to feel comfortable and safe. We want to be accommodating of users living with a variety of conditions and disabilities and have decided to keep the Disability Support Room open 24/7 as a space for those living with disabilities to seek and share support.
With that being said, to keep this space open, we all need to step up as a team and work together. With our new Volunteer Tracking System, we are all able to more closely track activity and engagement. Use this update as an opportunity to show how much you value your teams and communities. Participate in the rooms, host open chats, pop-ups and discussions. The chatrooms are meant to be a place for support. A new user entering the room, should be welcoming and invited to participate. Joining an empty room doesnt feel welcoming or supportive so lets change this.
Moving forward, we expect you to share your feedback and thoughts in a respectful way, even if you disagree. Insulting the community management team or other leaders is not tolerated and is not the way to get your point across. Bullying, using an inappropriate tone and threats are all violations of our Community Guidelines and not helpful to sharing your opinions. Every member of our team joined 7 Cups because we have a passion for mental health and community. We will listen to constructive feedback and we will brainstorm solutions and problem solve with you when controversy arises. But it must be said how genuinely disappointed we are in the abusive language and actions that have been taken this week. That is not what 7 Cups is about. It took away our focus from coming to the decision to keep the disability room open 24/7. This should be a safe place for everyone.
We are open to feedback about the renaming or rebranding of 24/7 rooms and pop-ups to help better reflect their purpose. Our goal is for all rooms to be a place where members can come for support and understand that there is confusion regarding rooms that are support rooms vs. light-hearted chat or community rooms. Please let us know your feedback and ideas with this regarding the LGBTQ+/MOGII and Depression Rooms.
Again, thank you to those of you who providing thoughtful and professional feedback on this update.
@Laura @Jill7Cups @Power @Heather225
This is great news! I also like the points that @1Marg1 has made though. There was no communication with the community that this was a problem. Our only warning was the fact that it was closed for a while back in 2015.
@AffyAvo
These are my own thoughts but- To be fair, there may not always be enough time to let people know. Also, as a business, and this is purely a business perspective, they dont necessarily have to get input on everything. I dont just mean that for 7cups- any business does not have to let customers get choice on everything.
Example: when a restaurant in the USA got rid of a staple food product, people were upset, but that was ultimately the companys choice to make. It would be really great if every company did 100% of the time though :)
Anyway, Admin does care about the community and wants it to thrive. They willingly listen to feedback and tweak where necessary. I like someones idea of checkins every month with admin to see how things are progressing/doing or 30 day notice etc.
@EvelyneRose @AffyAvo I feel like this site has a really passionate community willing to help and brainstorm if needed and it feels kind of wasted if they do not even get a chance to at least try to resolve their problems.
Not that the admins do not have the right to make decisions on their but this always felt like a place where problems can be openly discussed and that is some thing about this site that I love and there are always so many interesting point of views and ideas to almost any issues. Of course, there are also some inappropriate reaction as well sadly of which I am still sorry.
It is definitely really nice to see the feedback being heard and probably this was a push that the community needed to act on these problems as well maybe just giving a bit more time prior to big decisions like this to discuss would make a huge difference.
It is hard to tell I think because I am really always try to avoid conflicts and being an admin and making decisions can be a really polarizing position so in a way I think I look up to the admin team but I feel like the community deserves at least a word or just a notice as well before bigger changes anyway.
@redmark
Oh it's definitely good that they hear people out :) That's what's great about the community. I was more saying it's really nice that they heard people out and changed their mind, despite how visceral a lot of people were. They didn't have to after that, but they did anyway.
@EvelyneRose I've been to many meetings over the last year. Many of these were things we could be doing in regards to subcommunities. I'm not just a 'customer' I put lots of volunteer hours in. Admins typically aren't the ones participating in the chat rooms, running discussions, etc. If they aren't pleased with the amount that's being done I think it's fair to tell us that instead of just kicking us out.
It wasn't just me, the entire Disability Team was unaware. A better analogy is the management team at a location of a chain. Head office isn't happy with how things are going at a particular location, but never provide any feedback. There are weekly meetings throughout the year that the management team attends, but the head office teams never mentions to anyone on the mangement team there's an issue. One day the just shut down the location and decide to only have it open for a few hours for a market. That's what I feel happened to us with the way we were informed.
@AffyAvo
I upvoted you for good points :) and I 100% understand what your mean, I'm just saying there was a lot of anger there and perhaps that anger could've been worded better. I am not saying everyone shouldn't have gotten upset. Hopefully from this everyone learned something and the community can move forward with more open communication on both sides :)
@Kate
Thank you, and all the people making these decisions, for listening to the community and giving us another chance. I've been following the feedback you've been getting and it has been way more rough than necessary at several points. I am sorry it went to that, because no one really deserves that. A lot of ppl have pointed out poor communication when it comes to letting the community know about this whole thing, something I do agree to at a certain level, but that poor communication has happened on both sides by now. I am glad about the news though, and I do want to thank you for the decision to keep the room open. We'll see what the future holds.
@Kate thank you so much for keeping disability open, im really grateful to the whole admin team for listening to the communities wishes
i do hope that whoever threatened the team of lovely admins will read this message and realize that there are much nicer, more professional ways to get your point across than making threats or being rude
@MidnightRaven999
agreed
@Kate thankyou sooo much kate
@Kate
Just a thought on the rebranding regarding the LGBTQ+/MOGII room. Its noticable that not all rooms will be rebranded, and that most seem to follow the format of 'topic support'. As the main focus of this site is support rather than just a community group like a thousand other websites, wouldnt it make more sense to follow the theme and have the LGBTQ+/MOGII room named as a support room also. This can make it more clear for newbies and maintain consistency with the rest of the site. Meaning those who desire support feel they are able to speak up in that room over the top of general chatter, rather than feeling they need to be pushed to alternative rooms labelled up as being for support. Functionally it would make no difference to how the site it run, but semantically it is quite significant to the users of this room and highlights that we aren't on this site because we are LGBTQ+/MOGII, but because we are struggling with issues associated with that.
The best parallel would be to student support, which clearly shows the room is for people who are students requiring related support, but also identifies the underlying purpose of the chatroom is different to that of all the other student geared websites. However, if this is part of a site wide change where 'support' is taken out of all group chat names (as it is to be assumed all chats are for support) then this point is null and void.... however from the posts I have read I dont perceive this to be the case.
I concur with the above. Semantically, I prefer LGBTQ+ Support over LGBTQ+ Community. I wouldn't mind taking this as an incentive to think about new name options while we're at it, it's good to hear what others think about this, but do believe in the importance of emphasising supportiveness, and would personally gravitate toward names that underline this.
I believe that the way we perceive a space and the way we integrate new visitors into a space depend on the way it is branded and to what it is dedicated. I think this partially goes back to the way 7Cups has been structured for a long time (and I will do my best to see things in a different organisational light if we are moving toward one), but it is a general social dynamic as well: LGBTQ+ can seem like a natural example for what a community is, but the core thing we have in common on here is wanting to receive and exchange support. There are several layers to what LGBTQ+ is, several ways we use and express this as part of our identity, several stages of readiness to participate in LGBTQ+ community spaces, feelings of belonging or not belonging, of reassurance when it comes to reaching out for support in what is presented as a primarily lounging community space. I think this may be a user-friendlier option for new members, as well as a useful pointer for long-term members and any listeners participating in the chatroom.
Finding community can indeed be a form of support, and I appreciate this aspect of 7Cups, but also believe that classifying a space as primarily support-centred, secondary community-building, makes sense both in the context of LGBTQ+ and the greater 7Cups quest. A long while ago in another chatroom-related discourse, I expressed the thought that while there are many community and chat-oriented webscapes, support-oriented safe spaces are scarce and worth preserving. I see this as a bit of a continuation of that sentiment, and feel that focusing on mutual support makes a great foundation for a thriving community that follows. It's much trickier to maintain a healthy community solely through the fact that its space says 'community' than it is to maintain a basic level of support in a clearly support-dedicated chatroom.
It makes sense to extend this note to the greater 7Cups community. I agree that keeping a supportive morale is valuable and likely in the best interest of both perspectives. There is also merit to the thought that sudden and finalised announcements easily cause more social upheaval than necessary, and that perhaps a conclusion, and feedback and constructive discussion, may function better when reversed. Finally, I believe the betterment of our community to be the driving factor on both sides, which, in the end, is an encouraging sight. I'm glad Disability Support was brought to a resolution and appreciate the opportunity to provide feedback on LGBTQ+.
@placidTiger1340
@OceanChild
Agreed! I too preferred the support room for LGBTQ over the community. I too look forward to the town hall meeting to discuss the room.
Thank you so much for the entire management for hearing us out. 💜
This is awesome Kate! I am sorry you received many rude responses. Hopefully next time people can comment more constructively. I think its nice you decided to reverse the decision despite the amount of rude comments (from listeners and members) when they couldve been more constructive. I know not everyone was rude, but some were. I think its great to keep it open because people really value the room.
@Kate Thanks so much for sharing I didnt know until I went into Disability Chatroom today I was actually dreading going in because so many were hurting including myself..
I do not believe it was Anyone ones fault so it is wrong to accuse ONE person and use inapproiate behavior or using fowl words or attacking anyone..
I am a Mod for the room and I will do all I can to help keep it up and running and so will all the members of the room and Listeners who are Mods and support teams.
I want to thank You Kate for answering mesages and showing nothing but kindness and support , You do a wonderful job and I am so grateful !!
Thanks 7CUPS for keeping the room Open !! God Bless you all and To my Disability room members and team , we will make the room run like aways . caring, compassionate and loving, most of all Supportive!!
5 months with the disabilty room these people I love dearly and welcomed me with Open arms !!!
Peace and Love, Tyedyedbutterfly !!
@Kate
I approve this message.
Thank you for taking the time to evaluate and review the feedback, despite being treated very poorly. I think this is a good decision, and only wish people could have expressed themselves a bit more tastefully. Remember kindness goes a long way!
