Member Statuses!
Hiya, lovelies!
Me and the wonderful @EnigmaForte have decided to pair up and discuss the possible future update of members having statuses!
This feature is already available for listeners displaying as: red = offline, orange = busy and green = online.
[Note: this allows Listeners to manually choose whether they are available to talk to people in Private Messages.
If they are set to:
Online, which means that the listener is free to take General Requests which are made by clicking the Connect Now button.
Busy, which means that the listener is active, but may not be able to respond to Private Messages immediately.
Offline, which means that the listener is either not available for chats or are using their member account to seek support for themselves. ]
Some of the positives of this feature are:
~ This gives members the opportunity to let listeners know when they want to talk and need support - instead of being offered it when they are busy doing something else in the community. E.g. forum, feed or group support chats.
~ It reminds listeners of boundaries. If a member is not ready to talk about an issue, they can set their status to Offline to allow themselves a break.
This idea has been submitted to the Suggestions Box several times and wed like to hear your thoughts surrounding it! - Please remember this is a respectful discussion with the whole community, let us listen to others and put our opinions across in a kind manner.
What do you think? Let us know! We value your opinion. 
Thank you for reading, we hope that you are doing well! :3 
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To be honest, my initial thought was that I didn't want this. I use the member statuses when chatting to members, because sometimes I'll be waiting a while for a reply, and then I'll see the status go red. If the status is red the whole time, I think I would just be waiting for no reply...
But, after thinking about it, I think that members would use this status appropriately, and *hopefully* change their status to online when they're willing to chat. For you guys who are super active in the community, such as in the forums, I think this would be really useful!
@PhoenixAsh
I can see where you are coming from. On one hand, the automatic status helps you organise your listening duties and give you a hint as to whether you'll be having a response from a certain member. However, on the other hand, it would help out listeners even more if that member wasn't up for talking and put their status to "offline" to let you know that you won't have a response, even if they are online. As you've mentioned, it would also be beneficial for people active in the forum (like me!) who needs time to gather their thoughts. :3
Thank you for sharing your opinion! Wishing you the best
I love the idea. Members being able to set boundaries more concretely would definitely be a good update.
@AshtheFab
Good point! Members being able to set boundaries would help them feel more at ease during their time here at 7 Cups. :3
This has my support! I love the idea and look forward to it hopefully happening in the future!
I really like that idea! It's very clever and think it can be very effective!
@fighter23
Amazing! I'm glad to hear that you support the idea! ^-^
@blossombreathe Finally donee with this? :p I think that it's a lovely idea and members should have greater control over their statuses
I think this is a great idea. Some members will use it and others won't, and that is perfectly ok. I think some really good points have been made here by both members and listeners as to why it would be something useful for members.
~Helping set boundaries for self or possibly some previous listeners, not being visible to the whole community and beyond, having the control to be seen when desired, being able to focus on certain aspects without feeling the need to respond right away are some of the benefits I can see in it.~
I agree with those that have also said that it shouldn't be necessary to do most of the above, but I do think that for some they might find it easier to set and stick to those boundaries, or focus elsewhere if they could set their status as being away. They may feel better about not responding perhaps, because they've stated they are busy. And for some things like someone had mentioned about those in unhealthy relationships being watched by it, by being set to online always doesn't help those instances at all, so for those reasons, it would be extremely benefitial to be able to set your own status if desired.
@blossombreathe I like the idea of giving members also a possibility to set boundaries and show if they are here to seek support from a listener in a 1 on 1 or if they want for the time being do other things: browse the forums, be in the support rooms or use the feed. Or maybe to step away when a chat gets too overwhelming or triggering for them.
On the other hand, it is quite worrying if listeners are maybe sometimes too overbearing and are sending unsolicited messages. But then, I can see how a simple "How are you?" can be triggering for some, on some days. There is the problem of members never putting their status on online and there being confusion around if someone is around for a scheduled chat.
In general, I am all for it, members should have the control to be seen as online, busy or offline, and with that decide if they want 1 on 1 support at the time or not. But I can also see how it can cause confusion, and it is a little sad that members need to put up boundaries with listeners, that should not even be an issue.
I like it.
@blossombreathe I think it would be a good idea!
@blossombreathe I totally agree with this, Lauren. Though I only talk to a few certain listeners when using my member account, I think it'll help other members not to feel pressured to respond with their listeners. Just like what they have mentioned above, it's also to set boundaries between the member and their listeners. I really think this is a good idea. 
Thank you for bringing this up, I just hope that if ever this gets to be approved, members will use it accordingly and wisely 
('cause tbh my status is always set to offline but I'm always in PM land and/or roaming around 7cups hehe 
and whenever a few members messaged me I still feel like I always need to reply to them ASAP even though status is offline because other members just don't get the purpose of the statuses, would rate me poorly with my response time and demand much more of my time. It's just hard to ignore them. 
)
