Clarification on the offsite contact community guideline!
Hi All,
It has come to my attention that some people are unclear on one part of a particular community guideline. Offiste contact is never permitted while you are a member of the 7 Cups community, including if you are on a self-care or deactivation break. While you are a member of this community, no matter your account status, this is the rule. There are no exceptions. Please respect it & keep yourself safe!
Thank you
@Laura
Thank you for this reminder!
There are exceptions, as if we are banned we are told to use our email.
@AffyAvo
That is if you are wanting to discuss your account status with the admins. This post was meant for those who give away their social medias to other listeners or members for offsite contact while they are away from the site.
@JaceofSpades Sure, but instead of saying no exceptions it would have been nice if the exceptions were stated. Especially as this was meant to clarify the rules.
I agree. As there are very obviously exceptions, to read that there are no exceptions is simply bewildering.
It would be helpful to have the exceptions clearly stated. That is easier said than done, however, because the reality of the matter is quite complicated.
Maybe the real problem is that treating it as a rule with exceptions makes it too difficult to explain in a way that people will understand and respect. Maybe an altogether different approach is needed.
@AffyAvo
@RarelyCharlie Interesting perspective on the different approach!
My one example of the email was a pretty clear exception, there are others that are not so clear!
@AffyAvo
Sending an email to community@7cupsoftea.com for an account review, learn more about what is going on with your account is a standard customer service practice. As you are not sharing your email address with anyone besides site admin, I wouldn't call that an exception rather a protocol on how to manage your situation if your account is removed.
@Laura What about the other possible exceptions I have seen? Any I didn't list?
Guys, the almighty ones have spoken... resistence is futile, tis written in stone...
@Laura
This seems very threatening and a slap in the face to someone who probably put in more work than anyone who probably comments on here. #Truth #Make7cupsgreatagain
...... I'm also quite sure that innocent people get punished. Like myself and many others who have left.
@Fear333
"This seems very threatening and a slap in the face to someone who probably put in more work than anyone who probably comments on here"
Can you explain how this is relevant to the rules? 
The rules/guidelines are for everyone to follow no matter how much our contributions are to the site.
@JaceofSpades
Actually they are not for everyone. :).
I would also like you to respect my wishes for you not to talk to me as I said before. [comment redacted by forum moderator Cadence for somewhat confidential remarks. Feel free to PM me with any questions, lovely.] I know and it's pretty obvious that this thread was posted because of another recent thread that mention this. And they are not here anymore. The fact is upper management keeps on messing up with their choice of words. This isn't the first time and it probably won't be the last. So have a nice day.
This actually makes me laugh. Let me give you a perfect example of what actually happens on here with this rule. A memeber connected to a listener, this listener harassed them and threatened them. The listener demanded for the member to contact them offsite, the member was scared and agreed. Is this member in trouble all because the community failed to protect? With all respect, in the end, it comes to people's decisions. Admins have bigger worries than trying to check those who share offsite contact. I also feel that the social solider team goes against this rule because they now can easily DM on Twitter with their social solider account and you say that is okay? Seems a little unfair. Can you please explain
@LoveYourTrueSelf Is it breaking some rule to want to hear the answer to this too ?
@LoveYourTrueSelf
Social soldiers confuses me too. For a while twitter accounts were being linked to in the calendar.
Other possible exceptions, some of which I'm not clear on:
- The emails provided here as I (partially) mentioned above. Community, support, as well as some individual 7cups emails have been given.
- The conference calls for subscribers
- LIve streaming video where there's been people (and I don't think they have all been admin positions) interacting on the stream
- The youtube stream from the podcasts. Can I leave a comment there? I can see some people's user names here as well as their user name on youtube in the comments.
- If sharing the referral link can someone also mention their username, in particular listener name?
- With the 'Solutions' section, as well as the plan to have a directory, I suspect that there are going to be more people who are not anonymous, similar to Kimson. When people are part of the same non-7cups group/organization/therapists office can they discuss 7cups? Are they just supposed to pretend they have no idea they don't recognize each other here when talking off the site?
- Will professionals be able to provide their website?
- A lesser point, but it's pretty clear admins don't need to follow this rule with each other.
Those are just things that I came up with quickly while being pretty tired. This clarification on the rule just leaves me more confused. The only point to this thread that I get is that if I plan to leave the site for a while/for good I can't share any contact info here with people so that I can connect with them offline. To me, that was already pretty clear, but the no exceptions just makes the general rule more confusing to me.
@AffyAvo Finally!!! Someone agrees with me!! I agree with all of your points as well. But, psst, admins don't have rules. They create rules, so they are above them it seems. I want an admin to clear things up 
@AffyAvo
"The youtube stream from the podcasts. Can I leave a comment there? I can see some people's user names here as well as their user name on youtube in the comments."
Can you please reach out to @Noasu (who deals with the podcast youtube channel) and mention exactly where are these? That may help us remove them and protect Listeners/Members identities.
It's a great idea to increase moderation of comments OR disable the comments completely on youtube so that the threads of those specific videos be more active. Anyone, ideas about this?
@Laura @GlenM
@LoveYourTrueSelf
True, and also goes the other way around
Also, seem odd for this to be shared this way:
@AffyAvo
Thank you! I heard many mentions about this meetup and haven't been able to find the picture.
So...here's an attempt to draft a new rule that better reflects reality. Just to be clear, this is not clarification of the existing rule. This is a replacement for the existing rule.
Within 7 Cups you may only share information intended to allow offsite contact in private communications with mentors and staff.
This information includes e-mail addresses, social media handles and information about other means of contact with you or with any other listeners, members or guests.
Within 7 Cups private communications means private messages, e-mails to 7 Cups addresses, and forms that are part of the website or owned by 7 Cups.
Mentors and staff may only use this information in carrying out their agreed duties, and only for the specific purposes that the information was shared for.
As a listener or member you are not required to share any information intended to allow offsite contact with you, other than the e-mail address that you provided when you signed up. You may choose to share other information intended to allow offsite contact, but only in private with mentors or staff for specific purposes that are part of their duties and that you agree to.
I think this covers many of the more obvious cases, although some difficulties remain. Note that it does not forbid offsite contact—if a married couple and their teenaged children all sign up as listeners it will not cause family breakup!
@RarelyCharlie WE CAN CONTACT MENTORS OFFSITE???? Aren't mentors adults and erm, isn't that creepy??? It's one thing to contact someone in the same age group but teens contacting adults offsite from here, freely. Adults contacting teens offsite from here, creepy. An admin seriously needs to explain more 
@LoveYourTrueSelf I meant creepy, not freely
Well, nothing in my draft proposal suggests that anyone can contact mentors offsite.
Adults and teens can certainly interact at 7 Cups, and hardly anyone thinks that's creepy. If mentors and staff have legitimate duties that require them to contact teens offsite (for example, by e-mail) then I'd be surprised if anyone thinks that's creepy either.
But overall I agree with you—it all needs to be explained in a way that everyone can clearly understand.
@LoveYourTrueSelf
@LoveYourTrueSelf
The coloured lines are suggestions NOT current rules.
Here's a list of social media links being shared on the Calendar, I tried to just grab ones for March 28. At least none of these are full of racist tweets like I have seen in the past:
https://twitter.com/CaringBrit
https://twitter.com/Ace13
https://twitter.com/OneLifeToLive
https://twitter.com/ResilientLucky
https://twitter.com/conbon
@AffyAvo
Not sure what you're saying here. All these have to do with 7 Cups and are NOT personal social media accounts. They do not share personal names and are focused on people's activity on 7 Cups.
@cristiana33 Some of them have people's names on them.
@AffyAvo
Thanks.
That's not on 7 Cups responsibility tho. That's something each of us needs to take personal responsibility on and it's worth reporting to those managing the Social Soldiers project.
@Dilion @JaceofSpades Not sure if my tags are correct.
@cristiana33 I'm not even certain what all of those twitter accounts have to do with 7 cups. One seems to be promotion based, another is full of food posts, political posts and is linked to a blog.
@Laura Am I ever able to get my account back? I haven't shared any information on my social media.
You can submit an account review request if your account was disabled for wrongful reasons, so that the situation is looked into, and your account restored if everything adds up.
Whats the diffrence if you share this site which 7 cups of tea have said a few times share this site on twitter and facebook whats the diffrence between sharing the site on social media or passing out your facebook or phone number to the member or listner cause they prob come a across it on facebook too cause theres a like page on facebook who are on this site aswell on the like page on facebook so what!!!? If two people off this site meet on facebook and they come back on this site and they say to each other oh remember that post on facebook or remember that 7 cups of tea is going to think they swapped infomation cause of this they get in trouble for something they didnt do when 7 cups of tea said share this site on facebook and theres a like page on facebook which there might be a percentage of people from here on there
@BrightRedFlower2322
You don't see any difference between sharing the www.7cups.com (home page) on your social media accounts to friends etc. and sharing your personal informations on the internet to people who are annonymous on 7 cups and whom 7 cups cannot protect you from? I am confused can you explain more your idea?
@cristiana33
You can't get protected on here and you can't get protected on Facebook either so what's the difference THERE IS NO DIFFRENCE IS THERE big whoop they are friends and family but don't you realize others that ain't your friends or family can still see it CAUSE NO ONE IS SAFE ON THE INTERNET DOESN'T MATTER IF THEY FAMILY ON FB you all are still not safe being on here talking to strangers without giving information out you are still not safe cause on here everyone know knows who you are and your life story so that's the difference 7 cups can't protect on here nor on FB or any other social media you share what's the difference your talking to a complete stranger about your whole life issues that's not safe and you share them emails and talk to them off here and talk to them by email instead still not safe no one SAFE
@BrightRedFlower2322
The fact you don't use any commas makes it really hard for me to follow your line of thoughts. Please don't use Caps as it looks like you are screaming at me and that is hurtful. I will stop responding here.