Verification
We recently placed more restrictions on guest accounts. At the time of writing they can't communicate with anyone at 7 Cups or use the app, although they can still read most of the pages on the website (including this one).
Not everyone supports the latest restrictions. Demanding to verify everyone's identity before we will agree to talk to them seems to go against the founding principles of 7 Cups. Yet there has been a perception, and possibly it's an accurate one, that people using guest accounts tend to be the people who cause trouble.
The problem
The problem, as I currently see it, is that there are some people who cause trouble for some of us, but we can't identify in advance who is likely to cause trouble and who isn't.
Our solution has been to stigmatize those of our users who haven't provided e-mail addresses. But this goes against our principles, and in any case people who really want to cause trouble can easily make fake e-mail addresses.
We have confused these two quite different questions: "Do we trust this person not to cause trouble?" and "Has this person come up with an e-mail address?"
A solution
I think a solution can be to extend the idea of "verified" that we currently apply to listeners. To become verified, a listener has to meet some criteria for activity at 7 Cups, and also be approved by another listener (one who is already verified).
We can extend this to members and guests. By doing so we will untangle the questions, "Do we trust this person not to cause trouble?" and "Has this person come up with an e-mail address?" We will avoid stigma, and we will return to our original principles.
I propose that to become verified, a member or guest will have to meet some criteria for activity at 7 Cups, and also be approved by a verified listener they have chatted with for the usual minimum 30 messages. Becoming verified means, "We trust this person not to cause trouble."
To become a member, a guest will have to provide an e-mail address where they can be contacted. Becoming a member means, "This person came up with an e-mail address."
Unverified listeners will only be able to chat to verified members and guests. This will prevent most of the problems now being caused by people who want to cause trouble targeting inexperienced listeners.
Unverified guests (and members) will be able to chat with verified listeners.
@RarelyCharlie i actually think this is a great idea not just for members and guests but also for listeners and would actually be a quick reward/punishment system for anyone with any type of account as we all know trouble makers can just as easily have a listener account as they can have a member or guest account and now that the trolls have been forced to make member and listener accounts in order to talk to people they can no longer do this as guests it would only make sense they they would have 2 accounts one of each to harass people in fact they might prefer a listener account to harass people assuming probabally accurately that having the status of a listener would be more intimidating to new members or very young people who might be more nieve and go along with their behavior because of their listener status
currently a listener who is "verified" is just someone who completes one chat and they are verified for life i dont think thats helpful or indicative of anything at all instead "verified" for all three account types should mean the exact same thing guests members and listeners who are verified means that " this individual on this account can be trusted ive checked him/her out " and a listener or member or guest can have their status changed from verified to unverified with each different person they chat with (their can be a "verify or unverify this individual" in each chat) to make it an active learning process good behavior is immediately rewarded and bad behavior immediately punished regardless of the account the "troll" uses it would be a learning tool and would also warn people who would rather not deal with such behavior and those who would like to help teach that individual and give them another chance to be good can choose to take a chat with them and give them the verified status if they can behave
im not sure about only certain people being able to chat with a verified account (verified can only talk to unverified) it seems unnecessarily complicated but those are just a few of my thoughts about this right now i think verification is a great idea instead removing gueast accounts and it should be extended to all accounts if not they will all just simply use listener accounts to avoid it
@jennysunrise8 I think the criteria has changed over time, and I can't seem to be able to access anything that lays it out, but I thought to be a verified listener the requirements were greater than just 1 chat?
@AffyAvo no its just completing one chat with someone on the verifying team (i dont think its 30 messages though if i remember correctly the chat was for a certain time he told me at the begiining although i dont remember the time it was a while ago) but its definately just based on one chat with one individual judging if your using all the active listening skills in that chat and theres really a lot of confusion it seems to me from members that thats all that verified means i think many members would assume verified means that they have had a background check or verified their email or something and not just completed one chat where they were successful at showing all the active listening skills in a chat
I'm surprised that Verified Listener comes before the Active Listening tests and connecting with a Quality Mentor, @jennysunrise8
It's a bit like becoming an accredited gas service engineer without doing much more than looking at a gas boiler, and then wondering why the house exploded from a gas leak due to faulty installation.
@jennysunrise8 VL requirements are the listener must have 50 chats 1100 cheers and 1 positive review before they can appluy to be verifed
someone on the VL team will then reach out to them and schedule a mock chat it lasts for about 15-20 mins some 30 to givbe more time to fairly see how welcoming they are do they set expectations professionalism empathy reflection validation open ended questions open minded etc theirs criteria the verifier marks and grades just because its 1 chat does not mean they are instantly verified they need to get certain grading to pass for example all 3/3 for most of the areas we look at with a 10/10 overall mock = pass someone with a very low grading isnt ready and is told to improve in whichever area for many it could take more than one mock to pass
@AffyAvo
Yes, the criteria for activity that I referred to above to be verified as a listener are currently: 50+ chats (of 30+ messages each, I assume), 1100+ cheers and 1+ positive written reviews. The there's a mock chat, which is marked according to a set of criteria, which I can't find just now, but it's like a dozen things.
@AffyAvo
@RarelyCharlie oh i forgot about that your right there are a few basic requirements besides just a chat but those requirements are very easy to make and i think most listeners still in newbie status would pass those requirements ... and ive changed my mind about people who have an unverified account verifying or unverifying accounts that could cause a problem it could create a situation where unverifieds can just easily go around agreeing to verify eachother so your right only verified account holders should be able to verify ;)
@RarelyCharlie Thanks! That's what I was referring to, not sure why that criteria isn't visible to members, it's on the wiki as it comes up in google but I can't read the page.
@RarelyCharlie ... and as an additional behavior incentive for individuals no matter what type of account they have to not only achieve a verified status on their account but to maintain it it could indicate under verified that its been consistently maintained chat after chat for a period of 1 week 1 month 3 months 6 months exc.(perhaps a badge displayed under their verified status?)
@RarelyCharlie I like it, will respond later when I have more time.
@RarelyCharlie i think its important to also having a clear and universally (or as universally as possible) understood definition of what " causing trouble " is exactly certain behaviors that is consistently applied and everyone understands listeners guests and members so it doesnt just vary from person to person what each person considers a trouble maker what i consider to just be a person venting another listener might consider that abusive or trolling behavior so specifically what defines something as venting when does it stop being venting and should be classified as trolling behavior same with all categories or trolling behavior it shouldnt be left up to each individuals feelings or noone will know what they can or cannot do at any given time if each person defines it in their own way so there must be consistency
@RarelyCharlie Putting your points in red.
I propose that to become verified, a member or guest will have to meet some criteria for activity at 7 Cups, and also be approved by a verified listener they have chatted with for the usual minimum 30 messages. Becoming verified means, "We trust this person not to cause trouble."
Ok, this sounds reasonable. The only concern I have with this is the potential for someone to have a chat with themself. I don't know if IP monitoring or something like that can prevent it, but if it can't be prevented, I think it's still something reasonable to try. I don't know how this could be maintained for guests, unless they are giving a signin/password with an email address. I don't think the loss of a verified status is that major for a guest though.
To become a member, a guest will have to provide an e-mail address where they can be contacted. Becoming a member means, "This person came up with an e-mail address."
Seems reasonable, and is already being done. Providing an email is typical for getting an account quite often.
Unverified listeners will only be able to chat to verified members and guests. This will prevent most of the problems now being caused by people who want to cause trouble targeting inexperienced listeners.
Unverified guests (and members) will be able to chat with verified listeners.
This sounds reasonable. I think it would also be good to ensure that verified listeners know how to handle users who are acting in a problematic way (a skill that all listeners should have IMO, but clearly it's not being done currently, so starting with the verified listeners is a starting place). I do wonder though if we should also give those who are verified the option to state they only want verified listeners to pick up their chats? If we did do this though, would non-verified listeners get a chance to take many chats at all? Just brainstorming a bit.
@RarelyCharlie its a good idea but only those on the verified listener team who have recieved the training verify listeners plus they need to meet reqs to join the team so just because they are a verified listener does not give them access to verify other listeners
@CaringBrit he is saying that verified listeners should verify guest accounts not listener accounts so that listeners will know what guests can be trusted