Group Mods: Ask A Community Leader Anything!
Hello to all our wonderful groupmods! This isYOUR SPACEto ask a community leaderanythingabout moderating the support rooms and all that it entails. We'll doour best to answer as quickly and as helpfully as possible.
Please ensure you read the following Ground Rules carefully before posting:
✦Askonly onequestionper post
✦Keep itshort and sweet- this makes it easier for us to read and respond quickly
✦QUESTIONS ONLYIf you want to discuss an issue with other mods please create a separate thread for this purpose
✦To avoid confusion,only community leaders mayanswer questions posted on this thread
@Laura @Heather @Apple74@Jake @Sarah
Thanks for creating this space Heather, I just want to post on this thread so I receive notifications for any new posts :)
If you have any kind of confusion, please ask us. We are here for you
I'll start with a question. When an "attention troll" is muted after warnings, then creates new accounts several times in one day and browses chat rooms just to disrupt others, is it ok to mute for all without warnings after a certain amount of account changes? Thanks for being here!! :)
Hi @AutumnLeigh ! If you are sure that it is the same user who is logging in under different names then you can mute them without warnings.
Hi I'm currently on break as mod but wanted to ask this question, what to do when members/guests tell you while you are modding in TS or WR that they are under the age of 13? Do we kindly ask them to leave and refrain from participating? Mod mute? What would you say or do?
@Heather @apple74 @Sarah @Jake
@sweetBlueberry19, if a guest member is under 18 and they enter the adult rooms you can ask them to clear cookies and choose the correct age and join the teen support room. If it is a member, you can mail Community@7cups.com and inform them about this. If the guest/member would not leave the chatroomyou can mute them. In case they are in crisis Please give them the appropriate resources and then ask them to switch to teen rooms
No offense to you, @apple74, but you didn't really answer the question that was asked above. The question was about members of the site that under the age of 13 (Not in the 13-17 range of teen members)
@FlowerinDisguise19 if an underage member/guest comes into the room please gently explain that we have a minimum age limit of 13 to use the site and suggest they try searching for help sites designed for younger children. I would then mod mute to prevent them from using the rooms for their own protection.
Thank you, @Sarah :o)
I'm just bringing that thread back up as it is useful to be able to have our question answered ! Personnaly I have a few things in mind ... What should we do when a member follows the rules ,but at its limit ? Like ifit is kind of disturbing the chat ,but we don't have super serious reason to warn them because noone is really offended by it and it would get them mad if you hand out a warning . Sorry if this has been talked about somewhere else ,I think it is something most mods have trouble with because it happens quite often.
Hi, @Ace13! Thank you for reaching out on this question.
Members should not be causing issues or disturbing the chat, as you know and have pointed out. If a member is disturbing the chat then it seems that they would be breaking one of our rules. I think I might need a bit of a more specific example here to answer your question better. :) Let me know!
Jake
Thanks for answering ^_^ I'll pm you
I have a question - do the admins ever give members the right to break the rules?
I ask because I have an under 18 member in the chatrooms. She keeps telling me @Laura told her it was okay to be in the room. Unfortunately, I have no way of really knowing that, so I tell her that because I wasn't privy to the message, i need to ask her to go to the Teen Side and to E-mail the site to change her account. However, she does keep coming back into the chatrooms.
I am okay with it if I have to keep asking her to move over. My main question here is to figure out if she really was given special permission, and perhaps to establish some sort of document for the members who are given special permission. If that's possible, maybe we can make a Google Doc that mods can check so we aren't enforcing rules that the admins say are okay to break?
Hi, @HelenHopes!
No admin will ever allow a listener to be in the wrong age group or be underage. There are no exceptions to this rule. If someone says they are the wrong age, please let them know they need to move their age group. Mute them for the time being and please email community@7cups.com so their account can be deactivated and they can make a proper one.
Thanks for asking! :)
Thank you, @Jake, that's what I've been doing. I'm glad to have it confirmed! That makes me feel better :o)
I will probably get a lot of hate for that question ,but I really need to ask this. How can a moderator feel safe/protected when they mod in a chat room that has a lot of angry people and people who are breaking the rules ? Seeing mods getting their badge removed for unexplained reasons is worrying.
Moderating the rooms when there is a lot of conflict can be difficult, we ask that you remain professional, redirect the conversation and if people become aggressive or offensive then follow the warning procedure. If you would like help in this situation then you can always reach out to a mod leader and we would be happy to support you.
The second point you raised about badge removals, we do not remove a badge without reason. We are aware that false reports can be made and we are very careful when going through the reviews and always look into incidents. If you do receive a warning from a mod leader that you feel is unjust, then please reach out to us as we are always happy to discuss it with you.
@Sarah
I just wanted to add on to this question - firstly with the recent post about someone having their badge removed which they felt was totally unfair as they haven't had warnings - whether or not it was a mistake or a just decision, I don't know, and to be honest, don't care. I'm just saying that recently there has been a fair bit of discussion about people losing their badge unfairly...
To my question though, when I had a report, I wasn't allowed to be told what it said or from whom, and so how are we expected to be able to defend ourselves when we don't actually know what we're meant to have done... My report was due to being 'unprofessional' or something, yet I was given no example of this, and so I had nothing to discuss...
Basically, in short, how are meant to discuss the report when we can't be told what was on it, or which instance it was... Therefore, how can we defend ourselves appropriately...?
I wonder that too ! Moreover ,how can we improve if we don't know what was our supposed mistake ?
@Mobbsy I am sorry this was missed, we state to only ask one question per post and for only Mod Leaders to answer on this thread as when it becomes cluttered we do miss questions. We can't reveal individual reports for confidentiality reasons, however we can expand on the category of the coaching email. An example of this would be to talk to a mod about theirabruptness or wording of responses, it would not outline the exact situation that triggered the report, but more to help the mod to be mindful of their tone when they respond to members.
@Sarah
Thank you very much for answering - would you mind/like me to, tag you in a thread which I'll be doing tomorrow/tonight about an improved group mod review process?
If you have suggestions for an improved process it would be better for you to either submit in the suggestion box or bring them directly to the mod leaders so that we can discuss them.
Well, I was kind of going for a more: see what others thought about the suggestions, instead of possibly wasting a mod leaders time about it...
That's always what I try to do ^-^ But I mean ,heading in a chat like is almost a guaranteed report. And sorry ,but I think I will never be convinced by that :s No one is perfect ,how can we ask mods to be ? Sorry for all the rambling ,I'm just unhappy
Hi! I hope this is the right place to post, sorry if it isn't and I'll redirect it somewhere else!
I recently took an unoffical break from the site for a couple of months due to school. Before I left I was an active group mod. I don't seem to be able to moderate anymore and my group mod badge is gone. Does it go away with inactivity/should I have alerted someone? If so, I can reapply! Just wanted to check. Thank you and thanks for all you do :)
I know I am not a mod leader ahaha but you need to have 10 support group chats per mont , otherwise your badge is automatically removed , if you reapply , you should get it again ^_^ or maybe for that part you could pm Heather or Sarah
Thanks @Ace13! I appreciate it :)
@TheSnowQueen18 - Welcome back! Yes, please reapply again here.If you didn't receive notification of the badge removal, it was likely due to inactivity. We'd love to have you as a mod again :)
Aww, thank you Heather! I just reapplied last night. Good to know for the future, though. Do you know if the badge can be suspended or some such thing if we notify a member of the team that we'll be gone?
Hi there
I have taken time away from the site for personal reasons that I made Laura aware off at the time, but am happy to say I am back to chatting and modding.
My question is now I have a LBGTA +support badge next to my moderator badge, does it mean I have to stay with in that chatroom as a mod or can I still go into others ??
I would also like to say well done for the brave choice of putting in a LBGTA chat room, it is brilliant and I see it helping people every hour, there are not as many trolls etc I expected and some great conversations
@Timm - You will have this badge as a result of applying be on the LGBTQ Support team. If you don't think this is something you applied for, please PM me to discuss! Otherwise, you can indeed move around the rooms as usual, even with the badge :)
Thankyou@heather for your quick reply
Yes I do remember applying for the badge, I think it was just before my son died so I completely forgot about it. Thank you
Like I said I am back to carry one where I left off and through my hardship with losing my son I would like to say using this site as a member really did help a lot.
You have something really magical going on here and I am proud to be a small part of it
@Timm
This is a bit off topic, but I just want to reach out and say that I am so sorry that you have lost your son. I can only imagine how hard that is for you...losing someone close to you is one of the hardest things to go through. You are more than welcome to reach out to me on your member account if you are in need of some support with this. Always here for you.
I am glad you are back for sure, but make sure you take care of yourself too. I am so happy to have you here and to help in group support, but taking care of you is more important. If you ever feel like you need a break, take it! :) You can deactivate your account and come back whenever you'd like. You can make this journey yours. No pressure from us to do it a certain way.
Sending you positive vibes, Tim! :) Thanks again.
Firstly, I'd kindly ask a group mod leader to reply to my post above...
Also, next question, what happens if a group mod leader gets a report?
If a mod leader received a report then it would be reviewed by Heather, we also have guidelines to follow and standards to maintain. We constantly receive feedback for our work and any issuesthat arise;we use this feedback to constantly improve ourselves and the way we work.
