Feature Update: Forum Threads

This should have fixed the notification errors as well.

@Heather225

Love it! Thank you!

@Heather225

Thanks for the update and to the hard work put into making the forums work better for the community.

@Heather225 thanks to you and the team for working so hard on this. May I ask, is there any reason for using the 7 Cups cup as pfp for those that don't have a picture chosen? I feel that by doing this it tends to make the posts look more official? That cup is usually reserved for 7 Cups use.

I can understand the idea may be a place holder in which case maybe design and use a different cup, perhaps paler?

It is looking much better!

• I agree with others about hiding certain posts though. It seems like people who are unhappy tend to be targeted. Aren't these people ones we should be encouraged to support? If this tool isn't going to be more selective and fit with the values of 7cups, I don't see a benefit. My initial thought was leave it to posts that have been flagged, but that creates other issues of 'public flags' even if indirectly.

I do see potential for this to be used effectively with moderation, but that involves new things to be implemented - throwing more things into the mix right now isn't going to go smoothly is my guess. I'll try to circle back when things have settled. 

• The generic profile image. Besides the logo making some posters appear to be official or in leadership roles like Misty pointed out (consider com mods profile pictures) it also makes following a discussion between multiple people more difficult. The different colored letters made it much easier to distinguish one member from another without actively having to look. When multiple users have the same image it's easy to confuse one for another.

This affects modding too  - within a thread, where 2 are arguing and a 3rd is participating. With different images it's easier for me to pick out the 2 that are arguing and putting less focus on the 3rd poster. When they are all the same pulling out the argument posts takes longer.

With thread lists, different pictures makes it easier to discover duplicate threads.

@Heather225 Like everyone else, I'm glad to see the forum/thread issues fixed. But I've been thinking about something & feel like I should bring it up:

Are there future plans to deal with the population increase here?

It is my understanding that the threads went on the fritz because the then-current platform structure couldn't handle the transmission load from the amount of members in Cups. This solution is great but, assuming new people continue to join & use the forums & chat rooms at current rates, it is only going to work for so long. A very few members left & maybe a couple bad apples were banned in the time I've been here (> 2 yrs); meanwhile there has been a steady trickle of new people, particularly teenagers. Net increase overall. At some point, 7Cups will have to build another housing development & roads to connect it all, so to speak. Have Glen & the other leaders discussed this at all? Do they have any future plans?

@Heather225

Thank you for implementing and conveying the changes!

I appreciate that it's now possible once again to manually expand posts that have been auto-hidden, but I'd like to see the auto-hiding of posts completely removed:

1) Low accuracy

Almost all of the posts I've come across that are auto-hidden are harmless. Some examples:

Posts offering support:
Example #1
Example #2

Posts seeking support:
Example #3
Example #4
Example #5
Example #6

2) Targets especially vulnerable or empathetic users

The auto-hiding affects posts containing negative tone, but it's not able to differentiate between:
a) Inflammatory or unsupportive posts that may be violating forum rules
b) Posts that are expressing "I had a really bad day"
c) Posts that are expressing "It sounds like you had a really bad day"

The people who are most affected by the auto-hiding are those who are using the 7 Cups forums for their intended purpose: sharing difficult feelings or validating others' difficult feelings.

When a post is hidden, the message that it sends is: "this post is bad/wrong and not welcome on this site". This is especially true for newer users who might not know that this system exists or haven't yet realized that it's error-prone.

@Heather225

Eexcellent 🤩🤩

Thank you 🌷

Thank you for your input, everyone. It's encouraging to know how passionate you are about the forum space. All feedback shared here has been noted down to be taken on board. The collapsing posts we will be working on. We do have active plans to continue to strengthen things as the community grows so there won't be any big recurring issues like the recent one we solved. And lastly, all foreseeable changes will be communicated in advance! You all have big hearts and love the community as much as we do and I can't express how much I appreciate you for helping us keep making 7 Cups better. 💙 

@Heather225 Hey, I'm sorry I'm so late in responding to this. But I figured I need to take time to thank you for fixing things, even if I'm late, especially since I expressed quite a lot of frustration about the change and I don't want to be only complaining and not appreciating the fixes.

Thanks for coming up with this new version. I am incredibly happy to see things now being similar to how they used to be. It's also good to know that this format works with why it all had to be changed in the first place. I've taken time to explore it and it's nice.

But I do agree with what people have said on this thread about the minimising issue. I don't like it, and I too would like it to be removed completely. It's good to hear that it'll be worked on. I'm guessing something could have been changed about it, but it's not completely removed as yet.

And I agree with what's been said on this thread about the profile pictures too. For anyone who hasn't uploaded a profile pic, I think it's nice to have the first two letters of their username show up on the forums because with so many people having the same Cups logo profile pic, it looks confusing for me sometimes.

Either way, I'm happy to hear that 7 Cups will do its best to stay on top of communication and I really hope changes will henceforth be communicated beforehand. Thank you for understanding and listening to our concerns, I appreciate it. 💙