Quality Update: July 2020
Quality consists of a number of different parts or variables. At the highest level, we think of quality as the person receiving what they were hoping to receive. When a person has quality experiences, they are more likely to feel safe, valued, and experience personal growth.
Here are a couple of examples of quality experiences. If I am a member struggling with anxiety, then a really high quality experience would be for me to connect with an excellent listener who understands me and how anxiety works. I would feel better after the chat. If I connect with a listener and it is not a good experience, then I do not feel heard or understood. That is not a quality experience for me.
Now, lets turn to the listener side. As a listener, I want to provide support to a person genuinely seeking help, and further develop my listening skills. When I have that opportunity, I feel great. I was able to show compassion and help another person. This is a quality experience for me as a listener. If a member is trolling me, then that is not a quality listening experience for me.
We also have to keep in mind that 7 Cups is a system (more on 7 cups as a system here) meaning that it is more than just a collection of individuals operating on a Website and apps. Think about the weather. There are a lot of variables that influence the weather, even small things not obviously related to the weather can impact a weather system.The key point to keep in mind here is that one change can have unexpected changes in another area that are not immediately obvious.
Another key piece to understand here is that we cannot disclose all that we do on 7 Cups to increase quality because a) we are testing something and we need a natural environment to test it in; b) what we test may or may not work so we do not want to announce a change until we know it will work; c) If we announce a change, then people with negative intentions will learn of the change and work around it to harass people. I understand that it can be frustrating to see a minor change here or there that is not announced. The above is context for why that happens. The vast majority of these changes should only impact new members or new listeners.
A related process here is that sometimes people have good ideas on 7 Cups and they help us a lot. Other times people have ideas that they think are really good, but they end up not really holding up as either weve tested them in the past, or we know from prior experiences that they likely will not work. Related here is the idea of engineering time. That is how much time we spend on something to make a change. If we can test a smaller version of the idea to see if it has any results, then it takes less time and gives us a lot of data. If we spend a lot of time on a solution and it doesnt yield results, then that can be difficult. It is good that we learned, but not so good that we invested a lot of time into a solution that didnt make things better.
One last thing to consider, and then we can talk through specifics. Many of us have a bias towards action - that is doing more. And doing more can be helpful, but sometimes taking away can be helpful too. E.g., with some types of addictive behavior (food, drugs, alcohol, games), simply doing less of the behavior can be healing. When we think of quality behaviors, we need to think of things we can do more of (better and more personalized training for listeners), but also what we can bracket and or remove (people with negative intentions) to enable our community to grow stronger.
With that foundation in place, lets begin to think of things we have done and can iterate on, things we should remove or make more challenging for people with negative intentions, and things we should proactively do to better address quality. Below is a list of actions we have taken, but remember that this list is not comprehensive as we cannot share all we are doing (see above explanation). Please also feel free to share your ideas in this thread.
Members:
Block/Remove New Members that are Trolling - We have made gains and we are working hard to get better at predicting people that are trolling so that they cannot tax our community. We believe that these are often smart and creative people and we want to find ways to help them develop other parts of their personality so that they can find life more meaningful and fulfilling. The hope is that someday people with these intentions will use their resources to help others in unique and smart ways.
Better Matching - We want members to get connected with the best listeners that can provide them the best support. Right now we do this by people selecting topics (anxiety, depression), but this can evolve and get smarter. Ill share more on this later.
Member Email Verification - We require this for group support right now and will explore it for 1:1s as well. We tested this in the past and the results were inconclusive so we need to test again to see if it, along with other changes, may have a more amplified impact. We do strive to make it as easy and as non-threatening as possible for people to get help so we want to preserve this approach as much as we can.
Listeners:
Additional Training - at present, new listeners need to complete our active listening course, pass a test, pass a test with a chatbot that acts like a student with depression, and then make an oath to treat people with dignity and respect. As some of you have pointed out, the most significant challenges - as with all fields - emerges from new listeners with less experience. Helping new listeners learn more is one key area we will be focusing on and ideas are welcome here!
Listener Support Room (LSR) - We recently added a new button next to the chat window that says need help with this chat to help prompt new listeners to get support in the LSR. We found many more clicks on that button than we have in the past. However, we did not see more messages in that room. This suggested that there were more new listeners going to the room, but they were not engaging as much. We have since implemented a new protocol to increase support for new listeners. Look for more on this front soon. We have a lot of ideas on how we can provide new listeners increased support and guidance.
Mock Chat Videos - Obs is working with the quality team to create a catalog of mock chat videos so that listeners can watch how to handle different scenarios.
AI Chatbot that Acts as Different Members - We are working with researchers to develop different member scenarios/mock chats for listeners to practice active listening. If the initial results are positive, then in October listeners will be able to choose different scenarios (new member, member with depression etc.) from Noni. The listener will then be able to see what they did well and what they can improve upon.
AI Chatbot Coach - If the above results are positive, then in November Noni will have a mentor/coach option where she will provide feedback on what steps to take to best help a member. E.g., You can imagine her highlighting an emotion that a member is sharing or prompting the listener to ask an open ended question. When I was training to be a psychologist, I would have a supervisor behind a one-way mirror and a little bug in my ear where she would coach me on things to say or questions to ask. This is the same idea here.
We are making quality a primary focus this quarter. The above provides context to the work we are doing and also highlights our initial list of changes and experiments. If you have other ideas, then please share them below.
Thank you!
@GlenM The problem with testing this type of thing without announcing it is that you have many volunteers explaining to people how 7cups works. You have us answering questions, helping others connect to the support or resource they are looking for.
Today a post was made by a CM that states:
"When you share or pass a story or info about anyone or anything that may not be true, you are acting similar to a bully."
So when I tell a member they can pick out their listener from browse listeners but you're testing out things and this member can't actually do that because that's part of the test, I have given wrong information. You're now indirectly labelling me a bully because of that. Multiple people who have been trying their best to help out, who have put time and effort into 7 Cups are being referred to as bullies. (ETA - sorry, more accurate here would be acting similar to bullies - when we're trying to help but we're not updated with current information that's seen as acting similar to a bully).
If that's where things are going with this site I am leaving. I would imagine I'm not the only one.
@AffyAvo
I can see what you mean Affy, I just think they were both coincidentally posted around the same time and are not related. @ASilentObserver was addressing gossip and triangulation vs. noting a change in a usual procedure. I think they are different things and he was not meaning to imply that those who share accidental wrong information are bullies.
@EvelyneRose Yes, both are different and not related anyhow!
As for the quality front - what about the ratings issue? I do see this as a way to both gauge listener quality, as well as a way to show which listeners either need more support in how to be an active listener or just shouldn't be here as listeners as they have no desire to be in that role. When the low ratings are filtered out you're losing one metric that could be quite beneficial.
@AffyAvo agree with you a lot on this, maybe there could be a better way to offer support to those getting low reviews? Coaching emails sometimes aren't too specific or some issues don't fall into one of the categories. This is a very easy way of identifying and issue or lack of skills in a listener (if used properly), it could be also a great way to send support their way if we know they're struggling
@GlenM
In regards to the general requests i personally think it will be better for both listeners and members if members have to choose their topic before being entered into the queue - i have been around 5 years nearly and every time i enter the queue before i get a chance to pick the topic a listener will pick up the request. This then leads to them saying they cant support you - I am aware we have the browse listener feature to avoid this however i have found even that way can be difficult especially if you are just needing someone there and then. Also from a listeners perspective it will reduce the rist of picking up a member you cant assist. I dont know if this is possible but i just wanted to suggest it and share my viewpoint 
(In summary)
When a person enters the queue Noni chats and we can choose a topic but most of the time a listener picks up the chat before you get a chance! And it is really frustraighting and i know im not the only member who experiences this! - i just wanted to be a voice for the issue!
Kind regards, Joy 
@JoyIntoDarkness I would also like this from both a listener and member side :) the requirement to have selected a topic before being entered into the queue, even if "general support" was an option for those not having a specific need, I think would be useful for members to not have to go back in the queue when a listener doesn't match, and for listeners to get an idea of what they'll discuss.
@TaranWanderer
I aggree it is definitly - It is an issue which effects both sides of the site!
Thankyou so much for sharing your view point to!
It was just a suggestion and something i know has affected me and other members
-Joy <3
@JoyIntoDarkness
Great suggestion Joy!
@EvelyneRose
Thankyou 
-Joy <3
Quality suggestion - stop sending notifications to threads that people cannot access. This was something that was put into place a while ago but the problem has come up again. 2 were sent to adult members today that cannot be accessed.
@AffyAvo yes i receive full notifications for teens that i cant access, or threads i am tagged in but i cant see..
@AffyAvo
Im sorry for randomly posting here , i dont know how to go back to previously where i asked a question about browsing listeners, could you please tell me how to get there ?
@Cottontree29871 Click on your profile picture in the top right hand corner and pick my forum threads. You're subscribed automatically to threads that you have posted to. My Threads are the ones that you started yourself. You can put in a keyword to narrow it down, but if you leave that blank you can see all of the subscribed/my threads.
@Cottontree29871 Your thread about it is Can't Browse Listeners? and mine is New members messaging listeners.
Charlie
if your tests are just to censor more and more things, while im already censored for no reason....
@GlenM I'm personally really excited to see this post. It checks all of the boxes for me:
1) Expression of what quality is (for both members and listeners) and why it matters
2) Explanation of some of the nuances, complications, and thought process involved in trying to create/improve a system or implement changes
3) Sharing of some specific improvements that are in the works, with the disclaimer that it isn't a complete list and other things are happening behind the scenes (and an explanation of the rationale for that)
4) Invitation for the community to share feedback--and an indication of where we can do this (i.e. in this thread) and have the best chance of those ideas/concerns being heard and understood
***
Something I've been thinking about is possible improvements to the "Browse Listeners" page that might facilitate better matching. I noticed "better matching" was one of the items in the original post.
Context: "Browse Listeners" as a listener queue
In the past, I've seen some suggestions to have a listener queue either instead of or in addition to the current general request member queue. The rationale for this is that it would let members hand-pick listeners who they feel are trustworthy, competent, and compatible--as an alternative to gambling in "General Requests" and hoping they roll a listener that works well for them.
One critique of this idea that I find persuasive is to say that we already have "Browse Listeners" for this purpose, so it's more efficient to make tweaks to that feature rather than trying to create a completely new feature from scratch. So my next thought becomes, "How do we improve the Browse Listeners feature so that it works effectively as a listener queue?"
1) Listener responsiveness
In practice, my experience (as a member) while trying to use "Browse Listeners" has been that most listeners I message don't respond. So, although I'm going to "Browse Listeners" to try to avoid the dice roll of listener quality in the "General Request" queue, I end up playing a different dice game of whether any of the amazing listeners I've selected from "Browse Listeners" and am eager to talk to will actually chat with me. :) This has sometimes left me with the feeling that I'm doing something wrong by messaging them and hoping for a response.
One possible way of addressing this might be to create a new listener status that basically indicates "I'm online, I want to appear in the listener queue, and I will accept any personal chat requests that come my way". That way, if someone shows up in the Browse Listeners queue, a member can feel confident that they are available and want members to chat with them. Another possibility might be to train (or reinforce) that listeners ought to interpret their green "online" status as communicating this.
2) Expanded listener profile displays
Another suggestion I have for "Browse Listeners" is to modify the page design so that listener profile descriptions are not truncated at 15-20 words. As a member, I've found it helpful to read listeners' profiles to get a sense of their values, personality, and listening style and gauge compatibility.
As a listener, I'm completely okay with some truncation so that I don't destroy the UI for everybody else if I decide I want to write War and Peace or create a photo collage in my listener bio. But, at the time of writing this post, my profile consists of just a single-sentence Carl Rogers quote, and the Browse Listeners page is only able to display about half of that sentence.
If space is an issue, I'm not sure if something similar to the "Find a Mentor" page might work, i.e. listing profiles vertically rather than in a 3x3 grid.
@QuietMagic
Currently lots of people are having problems with browse listener with a message pop up saying you have to earn trust but no one seems to know what the criteria is to earn that trust. This leaves people stuck in the chat queue and getting listeners who aren't able to help.
@Everythingisbetterinyourpyjamas For some more information about that, see: New members messaging listeners
I understand that the message about earning trust was a mistake, and it was quickly corrected. However, you're right that no one seems to know what the criteria are to be able to use the Browse Listeners page to contact listeners directly.
If you get a listener who isn't able to help, you can discuss with that listener what your needs are. Then that listener can try to find a better listener for you. If you get a listener who isn't able to do that, then all you can do is report them so they get help from a mentor to improve their skills.
Charlie
@GlenM
In regards to the browse listeners section i i feel listeners should be made to check and update their bios and the topics they talk about and have experience in etc as i know personally ive ive sear for a topic that the listeners have listed and then msg them and their reply is ' i no longer take this topic' or 'i have no experience with this topic' when on the profile it is listed (through the tick boxes in settings). I just feel they need to be kept upto date for both a listeners and a members experience. This again saves the issue of turning members away or being turned away.
Kind regards
-Joy <3
@JoyIntoDarkness
I agree with you on this. Members can find it difficult if it is not up to date.
@lyricalAngel70
Thankyou!
I think this won't solve known problems as listeners that aren't here for help nor members that aren't here to be listened, this will actually increase the amount of fake profiles, increase the amount of trolls. I've sent an e-mail to 7cups, it's been more than 48h and no answer, and the last time I had to send an e-mail the answer was a generic one, that doesn't help, doesn't say anything and up to that it was copied and pasted (when the font color in an e-mail is purple like this, it means I'm reusing this message from a previous e-mail or countless previous ones), so it's like they are not even reading what we send to them? I think treating the symptoms won't solve the root cause.
@GlenM Thanks so much for posting this interesting update!
I wanted to comment on this point please:-
We found many more clicks on that button than we have in the past. However, we did not see more messages in that room. This suggested that there were more new listeners going to the room, but they were not engaging as much.
As a Chatroom Mentor Leader I spend a lot of time in LSR, LCR and TL, not always active, but watching the rooms when I can and participating giving chat support and moderating as needs be. I have noticed the increase in new Listeners entering too. They are welcomed by lots of the regular Listeners in the room and we try and make sure they are included. Often they may be timid and blurt out the reason for their visit, other times they jump in and join the chatter.
Mostly though they will have a difficult or serious problem and the Chat Support Mentors will take them aside and give the support in pm, this allows us to give dedicated support that is focused on that Listener's situation - exactly why they clicked for help in the first place.
When I am 'on duty' in LSR and TL I spend most of my time in pm's!
Also we do try and move any long discussions or chat to LCR so that LSR is kept freer for light hearted chat and support.
I just wanted this to be taken into consideration, but I am sure that @Mel will already have briefed you.
Listening - One Step At A Time!
@MistyMagic thank you Misty for your comments! That's a very valid point indeed.
@MistyMagic Thank you for your service! And thank you for that very important clarification. I appreciate it! Only thing to consider here is that sometimes vicarious learning can be helpful. For example, if I'm struggling with an issue and I share it and you help me, then other people can learn from observing you helping me. I'll sync with Obs on this other front to make sure we are tracking things more accurately. Thank you again!!!
@GlenM you are absolutely right, sometimes the help is best provided in the room for all to see and learn from. That way everyone can learn how to correctly deal with simple issues. Recently the room has been busy and with many complicated and unique situations that benefit from the personal touch. Pm can be useful to ensure the listener needing help is supported through a sometimes shocking chat.
@GlenM just complementing what I was saying, your "quality update" shows the be even more useless when you also set a limit to general requests. So basically this is what you do to the member: you take away from him the possibility of sending direct requests, and if he hasn't any luck finding someone that really cares about anything he says in general requests he has a limit of requests he can send in a day. I really hope members actually have a voice in here and not only the "important people": how is this helpful? You say "quality" update, the only thing I can see is a drop in quality!
@M3gauge i haven't encountered a limit like that before, but if that's something that's being tested we need to get way better listeners picking up the GRs. It's not unusual to go through 4 in a row who will randomly block, not respond at all, drop the chat after sending a few messages or send useless responses like ok and hmmm without adding anything of substance.
@GlenM
@MistyMagic
@MistyMagic
@MistyMagic Great Comment on this !! All very true and it is hard to do eveything in the room with so many in the room we do have more and more joining everyday in the LSR..
It can be so challenging to help in the room and be in Pm's and then you will have people needing rooms opened or needing a mod in Lcr or another room and having to also share with them what needs to be done and feeling like we are pulled in 50 directions at once..
The room does get glogged up and also I have issues with Lagging so it does make it harder. Also we have many who jump in before chat support or peer support ..
@GlenM I know it's useless saying anything here because only a few people get to have a voice in here, and new members have NO voice, meaning you don't care about them, and removing the feature of sending direct requests to listeners that were fit to what the member need without making him go through general requests until he finds someone suit for what he needs it's making him waste his time when he could solve this by simply going to "browse listeners" and select who would be more likely to listen to him. I really wanted to be heard on this, because I used to be a member here and it's really disappointing that now I can't send direct requests, this was so helpful, it would spare me so much time, now I have to try in general requests based on luck! I really want to know, I really want to hear from you what's the point of doing that, I really want an answer on how that is even helpful! I really hope this post doesn't stay here like a clown speaking alone!
@M3gauge your voice does matter, yes it was a change that was made, but it doesn't necessarily mean it's permanent, changes can always be undone or modified. But, my assumption for the change is this: to reduce the amount of trolling/abuse for listeners. As you know, it's very easy to create a member account. If someone wanted to come on here and continually attack a listener by creating new accounts, the listener blocks them, then they just create another account and message that listener again, etc. This new system is very effective in ending that (and it was mentioned elsewhere, this could also be a helpful safety feature for members too if used on new listener accounts). But as we're seeing, it's also creating a different issue, of members not being able to utilize an important feature, being able to reach out to someone they think is a great match directly. It's a tough balance, how do we keep the site safe but also keep it useful. I personally don't know of a good alternative right now to suggest. I'm hoping, if this feature is kept, that an overall increase in quality of listeners would balance it out a bit: the help you get from the general request should be just as quality as what you'd get from browsing (or, at least still helpful)
@TaranWanderer Meanwhile a user who has had numerous accounts with multiple reports gets to stay on, harassing people. It's frustrating to see this testing being done that limits to support to people when the safety tools that do exist are ignored.
@TaranWanderer I think this kind of change has the exact contrary effect rather than making the site safer from those trolls. If you want to concentrate listener requests in one place, you need to get your development team to make the feature of topics that is already available in the general requests to actually work! Right now, you can select depression or relationship stress, or adhd topics in general requests, it doesn't do any filtering! A random listener picks the request. If you prevent now members with bad intentions from direct-requesting listeners, they will do their mess in general requests, meaning new listeners will have an additional percentage of waste-time chats with trolls! I'm sorry for being plain, but that's the stupidest idea I've ever seen, it's kind of obvious it won't bring the desired effect at all, it will just complicate the life of both the member and listener and won't protect members nor listeners at all!
@M3gauge while I'm by no means on the side that could make any changes (just someone who has been here too long :P), I do think it has promise as a solution to a very specific issue, even if it doesn't solve a variety of other safety concerns. For someone trying to harass a certain listener, I would imagine that in that particular case, the person isn't interested in just random harassment, and so this would be a fairly good deterrent. But I agree, maybe it could lead to an increase of non-genuine requests in the general queue, in which case a different solution might need to be found. And I agree about making the topic selection more effective, and this is something that Glen did mention in the original post, so I look forward to seeing what they're working on in that regard.
@M3gauge
i understand what you are saying. It does seem to have shifted the target so to speak. That being said, I think if we went off Taran's theory, companies have to do some trial and error to see what works and what doesn't. It may seem like the obvious conclusion would happen, but maybe they have to test just so they can say they did and got the expected result. I think @TaranWanderer had a good point that it could decrease specific listeners from being targeted. Changes aren't permanent though luckily, so I'm sure they will look at what works and what doesn't.
@TaranWanderer I really appreciate the way you've managed to express this and acknowledge/empathize with both sides of the issue. It's horrible to have individual listeners bombarded with endless abuse/bullying/harassment to the point that the site becomes unsafe/unusable/traumatizing for them, and it's critical to address that. At the same time, it's unfortunate to have a helpful feature potentially disappear for the 99% of members who are doing nothing wrong.
Then as @M3gauge and @AffyAvo have pointed out, this becomes pretty problematic if there are GR quality issues and GR request limits. New members are between a rock and a hard place if they can't hand-pick good listeners, GR quality is such that they have to try a lot of listeners before they find someone that fits, but GR puts a limit on how many GR listeners they're able to try out.
It's really humbling to see how many moving/intersecting parts there are and how sensitive the whole system is.
@QuietMagic Very true, so many parts are intertwined, and I can imagine there's many effects/consequences that you might not think about until the change is being tested out. And that's plain to see here, what (and this is essentially still just my own assumptions) would have been created as a solution to harassment (which really does sound like a good solution on paper), is also having drawbacks for members who are missing the chance to connect with a listener directly, and also with having an apparent limit on how many request can be made, which is well known that sometimes it takes many requests to find a good match/someone who actually sticks around. I would think, after the quality projects get underway with better training, the limit might not be as much an issue, because all listeners should be providing better quality chats, so that even in the GR queue, a member would have a good experience. We know that's not always the case now, but maybe after all these new things are developed and put in place, I can imagine it being a lot better.
The issues of quality and safety are so huge and complicated...I can always understand the reasoning behind changes done, and can still see the gaps where some things are falling or being under-used. There's never going to be a one-size solution that can tackle everything, but it is nice to see the things being done and tried out, and I'm hopeful for the future of the site.