Word censorship

Hey All! The censoring feature will be tweaked. My apologies to those of you who are frustrated at present. Thank you for this feedback, we are going to work hard to get this feature right.I am going to go through each point and we will work towards making this feature function in the most appropriate, safe way for the community. We'll work over the next few days to get it right.

The main goal of the censor feature is:Give people resources if they need them.For example, if a member says they want to commit suicide,we can give proper referral information right away. This helpful in ensuring those who need support get it.

Additionally, the feature helps support quality of listeners, there are some phrases that should never be said in the context of a M/L support chat (not going to name any here), having the ability to quality control for thesecomments helps ensure members are safe and supported.

Right now, 2problems we need to address:

1) Certain words/phrases are being censored that do not need to be censored.

2) Context - we need to address context, as it does matter. There are 3 different chat settings: M/LPMs, L/LPMsandChatroom- each context has its own set of needs. We will look at each chat setting and make the appropriate adjustments as soon as possible.

--->Lastly, and I would like toemphasizethis,confidentialityand anonymity arekey components of the 7 Cups missionand our community. We willneverstray from this mission. You can expect changes to be made to this censorfeature shortly to ensure that our entire community feels safeand secure.

Thank you all for your patience, feedback, and support as we transition into these new features. We will work along side our entire community to get it right.

I'm glad you are working on new tools and techniques here. Thank you for making this site a safe place for all of us. : )

I appreciate the effort to improve the site, but being censored makes me feel less able to express myself. Now I have to be careful of what I say in a place where I always felt before like I could just say anything.

I think the censorship is Right.. Cos using swear words are contagious... I am glad that they are into making this site an appropriate place to be...

Censorship to me seems like a big step for a site like this. Sure you can block the swear words etc. but leave them in context. Ex.) what the ****!

Gets the point across, censors, etc. but when it comes to things as important as suicide prevention etc. it can actually be hurtful to censor the posts. I'd rather the message flash a warning or some type of signal that something important like this is coming across and draw our attention to it rather than remove it from view.

The censoring feature has been completely updated. Thank you all for your patience. Below is a list of moments, censoring will occur.

1) Hotline information censoring. What does this mean?

If a listener or a member/guest says a phrase (note: not specific words, just a short list of phrases)which signifies they may be suicidal (example below), we censor the comment, with the following message:

"Error:Your message has been censored for potentially inappropriate content.If you are in a life threatening situation, please call 911 or the Suicide Helpline at 1-800-273-8255.If you believe this to be in error, please rephrase your message and continue the conversation."

Example of the type of phrase:

"I am going to kill myself"

Note:This censoring will happen in all chat situations, including: chat rooms, M/L 1-1 chats & L/L 1-1 chats.

The goal with this type of censoring is to ensure that those who need support, go to the proper support networksto receive it.

2) Group Support Chat Room Censoring:

1) Hotline censoring (same as described above)

2) Key words will be censored,but you will still be able to press send. So it will look like this:

*** happens

The list of words includes commonswear words. Youwill still be able to say what is on your mind, but the word will appear in the phrase or sentence with ***

We will not be able to share the full list of words, but we did researchto come up with this list and we hope it encompasesmost of the necessary words.

Why do word censoring in the chat rooms?

As you all know, community morale is very important. We all work hard to create and build a supportive, positive environment in which we can grow and learn. You all will be able to speak as freely as you like, but certain words will not appear in the chat room to preserve our community morale.

Note: No actions will be taken against anyone who says a word that gets censored in this setting,nor will be recording instances of their use.

The key word censoring willonlyoccur in the chat room setting, not in 1-1 chats. This is to ensure all participants feel safe to share and grow in our chat rooms.

Final Note:Thank you for being patient with us as we get this censoring feature correct. I am very sorry for anyone who ran into the censoring in the 1-1 chat setting and felt uncomfortable. We are going to continue to get this right and learn and grow, so that we can create and build the most supportive and loving environment for our entire community.

I'm really sad for this. If we are adults it irks me that we can share such hardcore things, and then we have to talk like babies. Not that I course all the time, but really, why so sissy after reading about suicide, abuse, cutting and all the worst things that happens to us? It's more a moral restriction than an actual necessity on this site.

It's like being judged, seriously. Let's all face family loss or incest, but no big words. Really?

some members are younger

By using sword, people won't understand the samething as if you are using a proper language. I understand your point, but some people who goes on this site are still young.