Chatroom rules/ general randomness.. Neurodiverse based
Here are updated rules for the chatrooms :)
Feel free to leave your thoughts below.
Be Respectful: This a place for kind, supportive, open-minded conversations only.
Nd: Being respectful is important for all. Try your best to be kind and supportive. Open minded conversations are encouraged.
Be Appropriate: Graphic, flirtatious and sexually suggestive language, profiles, links and content are strictly prohibited.
Nd: Don’t use any language that you don’t know the meaning of. Keep profiles and links clean.
7 Cups is not a crisis resource. If you are currently in crisis please visit this page. If you feel a participant is in a crisis, click "Refer" on one of their messages.
7cups is not for crisis. If in crisis please refer to this ( insert link ). If you think someone else is, click refer or use the emergency form.
If feeling overwhelmed, anxious, or do not feel the present environment is aiding in your personal healing, please visit our Browse Listeners page to connect with a Listener one-on-one.
If you are feeling overwhelmed, step out. If anxious, go to sr or another support room. If current room isn’t helping, go to another room or connect with a listener.
Be Safe: Sharing social media, personal contacts, and confidential information about fellow members and listeners is not allowed (this includes revealing your member account, or talking about others listeners who are not present, or anyone's username).
Don’t share anything personal ( social media, people irl , legal information, revealing others accounts or your own, or sharing usernames.
Be Inclusive: For moderation and inclusive participation, please use English to chat.
Accept everyone whether neurotypical or neurodiverse. Help everyone feel welcomed.
Please use your personal mute button if you wish to not engage with another participant in the room instead of engaging in conflict. In case of conflict with a Moderator, please resolve the same using personal message.
If someone is causing conflict ~ Member or listener = use your mute button. Commod, mod, admin = Pm them.
Be Considerate: Don't SPAM the room, please do not give medical advice, and let's keep religion and politics out of our support areas.
Don’t spam the rooms. Don’t give medical advice. Also keep controversial topics such as religion and politics out of the rooms.
Minimum age to be a teen member is 13 and 18 for adults: If you are in the wrong age group, please log out and email community@7cups.com your username and correct birthday so your account can be corrected.
You must be 13 to be on the teen side and 18 to be on the adults side. Not correct age ? Email ( insert email ) and state your username and accurate birthday.
Be Professional: Listeners must be professional and sober at all times. Learn more about the role of a listener in group support or listener rooms.
Listeners shall remain respectful and sober at all times.
Respect Special Sessions: Events and discussions regularly take place in these rooms. Please participate positively and keep to the theme of the room, or you will be warned.
Don’t get mad at a host for hosting in a room. If you struggle with transitions, let them know.
Therapists Role: Follow listener guidelines including, but not limited to: refraining from giving advice and remaining professional at all times. Please check out this post on a Therapist's Role in Group Support.
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Any attempt to bypass a mute or account ban will result in removal from the site. Login issues? Find out why here.
Don’t make alternate accounts. Cant login? Email ( insert email ) with the subject login issue.
If there is an emergency in the room and no mod is present, you can call one in by filling out the emergency form here! Also here is the detailed member chatroom rules guide!
Use this form when needed. It will call a mod to the room to handle the situation.
Respect Our Mods: They are here to make 7 Cups safe and supportive. Let us know how the mods, room supporters and listeners are doing here.
Respect the mods and commods. If they are struggling , pm them and let them know how to best help you.
If you want to leave an appreciation message for a member, please submit it here.
Appreciate what a member did? Use this form ( insert link ) to thank them!
If a pop-up room needs to be opened/closed, please submit your request here!
Is a room open that doesn’t need to be open? Or do you need a room opened that’s currently closed? Use this form ( insert link ) and someone ( a doorkeeper ) will take care of it.
Your Group Support Questions answered here! Frequently Asked Questions. If your question is not listed, add your question below in the post to get it answered.
Add a question to this post if your question wasn’t addressed.
What are some ways cups can improve the neurodiverse features? Leave a comment below.
@sunshinegiraffe123 Hi Allie!
I wasn't able to work out what makes these rules neurodiverse based. In what ways are they different from the general chatroom rules?
Also, I found some of it confusing. For example, the repetition in places.
I wonder, is it a good thing for different people in a chatroom to be following different sets of rules?
Charlie
@RarelyCharlie
I apologize. The rules that I'm trying to work on .. I'm not fully sure how to develop.
As for your question about different rules, I have been thinking about this question for quiet a bit actually. At first I would've said no. It's not good to have different rules just because people are different. However, my view on the question has changed and I now say yes. We need different rules mostly because everyone or well most people believe that " rules are the same for all " and that's not true. We need rules that relate to everyone yes, but we also need something for neurodiverse members, listeners, mods, commods, admins, and atls. Does this answer your question?
@sunshinegiraffe123 Oh, I get it now, these rules are in development at present.
OK, I agree with you that most people believe rules are the same for all. I still don't understand why that's not true. Could you give just one example of a rule for neurodiverse people that doesn't apply to neurotypical people? Or the other way around—a rule for neurotypical people that doesn't apply to neurodiverse people?
Charlie
@RarelyCharlie
Correct, the rules above are just my first step towards making different ones. The goal is that they will be similar for both, however not exactly the same.
As for your question about an example; my example is ( Neurotypical people are highly encouraged to go to sr ( support room ) if they need support or to talk about something; however neurodiverse people sometimes can't go into sr ( it may be too stimulating, there may be too many people, or they just can't go there ) I know personally, I can't always go to sr when I'm melting down, as I'm not always sure when they will occur. )Does this answer your example question?
@sunshinegiraffe123
I get that you weren't really talking to me, but I wanted to give my two cents...
This sounds like more of a user-specific, or personal, thing. Yes, neurodivergent people are more likely to get overstimulated; this doesn't mean neurotypical people can't find the support room overwhelming, or any room for that matter. It seems unnecessary to make another set of rules just to say that you don't have to use the support room if you find it unhelpful for any reason (like being overstimulated), just for neurodivergent people.
@MoriSystem
Any answers are allowed and accepted :) If I didn't want certain people to answer or anyone else's views , I wouldn't have made this a public thread.
i also see what you are saying, but I'm waiting to see what others say. It may seem like more of an individual problem, however speaking to certain members on the teen side as well as other people of cups, there's stuff under the surface that very few speak this openly about. This was also created to give them a chance to voice things as well. I hope this makes sense.
@sunshinegiraffe123 Yes, that's a good example. Thank you.
I agree with @MoriSystem that anyone at all can find the support room overwhelming. It's a personal thing.
So I think the rule, "people are highly encouraged to go to sr" is just a bad rule. Everyone should be given a wider range of options when they need support. There is no need to treat neurodivergent people differently in this.
Charlie
@RarelyCharlie
I see your point in this. However, as I put above, I'm not the only one who has been having issues. And this also ties into my other point with the lack of consistency between people.
Having the new neurodiverse rules would ensure consistency between people who are supposed to be encouraging a safe community, does this make sense?
@sunshinegiraffe123 Yes, that does make sense. It sounds like those people who are supposed to be encouraging a safe community are not getting it right, because they are not taking into account the different needs of neurodiverse members and listeners.
I think it is a difficult problem to fix. But at the same time I'm not very happy with the idea of different sets of rules. I don't have a good solution.
Charlie
What do you wish someone said to you?
Admin:
Commod:
Mod:
Listener:
Room supporter:
Atl:
Member:
@sunshinegiraffe123
It's a really nice thought to try and adjust the chatroom rules to be more accessible for neurodivergent users, however, as a neurodivergent user myself (autism + ADHD), I personally haven't had any problems understanding the rules. I understand that is entirely subjective, though.
Do you feel like these updated rules seem to just be the same rules as before but worded differently?-- if anything, I think they seem more vague and confusing at least to me. It's especially confusing on the rule, "Don't use any language you don't know the meaning of," which is basically telling you not to use words you don't understand, which doesn't seem to help make chatrooms safer really? Saying don't use inappropriate language or swearing seems a lot easier to get the point across, especially from a neurodivergent standpoint where you might not understand vague wording. That's already what the rules say, though, so the change was unnecessary.
I've also had difficulty understanding your viewpoint that neurodivergent users should be exempt from certain rules or follow different rules, when all of the rules are straightforward to follow regardless of neurodiversity, plus necessary for the wellbeing of the rooms and users participating in them... Not being rude, not being graphic/flirty, not using inappropriate language, not using a non-crisis resource for a crisis, not sharing personal info, not arguing, not giving advice, not spamming, and so on feel very self-explanatory for me and something that all members should follow no matter what for the sake of everyone's safety. I just can't figure out how or why a neurodivergent user should be able to bypass these or follow different ones when these have been working for the entire existence of Cups already; I've never seen anyone comment on them until now.
If you're having issues with understanding the rules due to being neurodivergent, I highly recommend checking out the detailed rules that even include examples and explain what each rule means specifically. You can find them in this official Cups link:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1X-5Hy0PrfD2dciQmS9kavBQE1NOdpawRaa6s9lqYdls/edit
@MoriSystem
At the current moment, yes, the updated rules are the same rules just wording has been changed. They are not final by any means as of now.
i understand as well that the wording can be confusing, as this was just my first try with rewording them.
i am not necessarily saying neurodiverse members or anyone on cups shoudl be exempt from rules, rather not everyone should follow the same rules given their disability.
@sunshinegiraffe123
I hear you. How do you plan on improving your draft further?
Is it going to be helpful to give a different set of rules to neurodivergent people when every single one of them is different and perceives things uniquely? I understand that you personally have experienced struggles understanding the chatroom rules as a result of being neurodivergent. I'm also neurodivergent, and I haven't. Therefore, it would just cause more confusion to the neurodivergent people who don't need to follow separate rules-- it's like telling people that they need to follow these other rules just because they're neurodivergent even if they can understand the original set fine.
I think your idea would work better as an extension to the rules linked somewhere within the original rules, just like the link I sent you, so if people don't understand the original set regardless of neurodiversity they can get an elaborated version elsewhere. Although that's already been done, you might be able to make a specifically neurodiverse-friendly version. I don't really know how it would be specifically neurodiverse-friendly, though.
What do you think about that?
@MoriSystem
Your first question is a very good question. I'm currently trying to come up with more ideas on how to change/further develop the rules ( one reason this thread was created ).
I like your suggestion as well. Offering possibly a second set of rules in a way that doesn't replace the original rules , rather it allows the members ( like me ) who do struggle with some of the rules a chance to still follow them but also get what they need if possible. I like the idea of creating a guide based on this ^ however, we are still waiting on approval of another guide at this moment. I'm also working on something else behind the scenes currently so I'm not fully sure when I'd be able to work on this guide. Does this make sense?
@sunshinegiraffe123
Fair enough and it does make sense. I believe that the chatroom rules shouldn't be changed in any way at the core concept they're trying to convey, because I think they're just fine as is. I think that everyone should follow the same rules, but a neurodiverse-friendly elaboration could help users who are struggling to understand them so they can follow them properly.
It seems like you're possibly working on this. Maybe check out the link I sent you and see if it helps you understand the rules; you could also use it as inspiration to help write your neurodiverse-friendly elaboration. If it's helpful in itself and already neurodiverse-friendly, it could save you a lot of work writing another version.
@MoriSystem
I have actually checked out that link that you sent up above s few times. It is helpful however I find it to be a bit too much filled with information and I can't process it all.
Also, let me bring up another point. I wasn't planning to bring this up just yet, but your post has led this to me wanting to bring it up. Not all commods operate the same way which I is also confusing to neurodiverse members who are trying to follow the rules, as they get mixed messages. Does this make sense?
