Features I'd like 7cups to have

@shyPapaya268 I love the idea about having a user have to reach a certain feat in order to get their personalized username. They can probably follow similar code to the profile picture.

Hopie

@shyPapaya268 Interesting ideas! Unfortunately it is extremely rare for ideas from the community to be implemented.

• ability to change chats using keyboard shortcuts. never having to click the mouse

On the rare occasions when I chat to more than one person at a time, I use a separate tab for each chat. This prevents messages from the start of the chat from disappearing, and I can switch tabs (in Chromium on Linux, anyway) with Ctrl+Tab. Tab also works for me in the chat list, although tabbing to the chat list is bit of a a pain.

• prevent members from blocking a listener who has not said anything and just accepted the chat

Sort of makes sense, I think, but I think being blocked after a few hostile messages would be even more annoying than being blocked immediately, so on second thoughts maybe I prefer allowing members to block me immediately.

• prevent listeners from taking too many chats at a time.

I agree. However, at present the system doesn't know how many chats a listener is taking, because it doesn't track when each chat ends (as you mention below).

• I suspect (but can't prove) that some derelict listeners are just trolling by accepting every chat in the queue. At one point I talked to a member who claimed to steal priority for his personal request by creating a listener account and emptying the queue so that his member request was the only one left. I can't prove it but its possible people are doing this.

I've never heard of that! It seems pointless because there are always many more listeners available than members in the queue.

• Region-code the servers, so everyone in North America, South America, Europe, and Asia/Africa have their own server. I know this is controversial, but I feel like it would improve the site for everyone.

I don't understand what this would achieve, and I haven't seen the controversy.

• give a ding alert to a listener who has not responded to a member for more than X minutes. Dont allow them to take another chat if a current member has been ignored. This would require a change where every listener would actively have to press the "power" / end chat button after each chat was done because otherwise the server would think that chat was ignored. but it would improve quality.

Great idea. It could usefully apply to members, too.

• BIG ONE: do not allow new members/listeners to change their auto•generated ID until a certain number of chats AND only after a mod manually looked at the personalized ID to make sure it is not obscene. Every day I see members with obscene (or discriminatory) user ID's and it makes me feel very uncomfortable.

I agree that there's a problem, but I'm not sure the solution is to make more work for mods. Maybe it would be better to allow any verified listener to report usernames (and profiles)?

• Shadow ban certain people. If you ban them, they have the feedback to know they've been banned, and they can easily make a new acct. A shadow ban will slow them down because their acct will appear to work, but either nobody will answer their chat, or they will have to wait a much longer time before being connected.

I think the feedback is important, and I would worry that these "certain people" are people who need our help.

• Find a way to discourage or stop the flood of "Just a casual chat" members. 7cups has never been a "casual chat" site, and if you dont stop it, thats what it will become and it will push away people who want to have bona fide discussions about mental health.

I disagree with this one. All the chats I have here are "casual" in the sense that I don't diagnose or treat mental illness. 7 Cups is not primarily for discussions about mental health. As it says on the front page: "7 Cups connects you to caring listeners for free emotional support". Any member who's coming here for casual chats has an underlying problem preventing normal social interaction, and listeners can't fix that problem for them, but listeners can care about them and support them.

Charlie