Refer Abuse
I have received 8-10 independent complaints this weekfrom those being referred when it wasn't appropriate. Last week hovered around 4-5 complaints. These moments are when I am actively moderating and scanning the conversations; this isn't hearsay. Is there a way for us to modify the system? Perhaps Listener/Mod only? There should always be someone on to execute the refer button if we do make it Listener/Mod/Peer Support only.
I am really not passionate on a specific method, but this one seems to have flaws. Thank you for reading. :)
Agreed, I've been getting complaints about that too.
Yup - had a fair few complaints in the Teen support room as well - I agree with Ej, there's pretty much always a mod/listener in there and so maybe keep it to mods/listeners abke to refer...?
Hi There!
I think this is regarding the group chats, so I have moved it here. regarding guests being referred, well every member/guest can refer or mute another member/guest in the support room. Hence this icon is being abused by trolls or members who find certain conversations triggering.
As a Mod, you can try not to have any triggering conversations in the rooms. If someone is triggered you can ask them to move to another room(In case you find the conversation is not triggering eg discussion of relationship etc. may be triggering for someone who is going through break up but otherwise it is not a taboo subject)
Try avoiding conflicts. Often there are misunderstanding between members and they tend to refer/mute others to resolve this.
Being a Moderator you need to insure that the environment of the chatroom is always friendly and supportive towards everyone.
@apple74
I can't be sure for adults but actually I find it's nothing to do with the capability of the moderators or the topic. Some people just seem to have fun referring people when they don't need it.
In actual fact, people never complain about referrals when something is triggering. Your comments would be helpful if what you've addressed was actually the problem...
@mobbsy, do you feel members are doing it for fun? Well in that case you can only make a general request to stop them from acting in this way.
More than often I have found that keeping the conversation toned down in the chat room helps. As a mod you can help people resolve issues in a better way., as that is the main responsibility of a mod.
If you want that members should not have a right to refer, I am totally against it as many times the rooms run without moderators and members should be able to keep themselves safe in case someone is being rudeor needs help.
More than often I have seen Mods being authoritativeand arrogant towards guests and members.And in this case I want the member should not be parted with the power to refer or mute.
Hi. Can you explain what happens when people are refered? I did it twice when people mentioned possibly having suicidal thoughts in a chatroom. Was Ijumping the gun? Did pushing that button kick someone off the site? I won't do it if it's causing problems. I just thought it was sending them a link to a hotline. The last thing I want to do is make a bad situation worse.
@Empatheticdude, when a person is referred they receive a set of hotlines they can use to deal with the situation in a better way.
I can see how it could be annoying, at the same time, though, it's not the worst thing to happen in the chatroom. If someone is referred and they feel they don't need the information, they can just disregard it and move on.
In case of trolls abusing the refer button for no reason, that is a different issue, imo. I think it'd be good if, for example, one person could be sent the referral numbers only once in X amount of time, so they wouldn't get flooded. However, I don't think it's a good idea to restrict this feature to listeners only, because with three chatrooms now, there really isn't 24/7 mod coverage, and I feel that members should have the ability to refer actively suicidal members as well.
