10/24/18: Guest Accounts Update
Hello Community!
Throughout the past year, we have taken measures to improve the safety of 7 Cups by requiring email verification for any member or listener to participate in the forums or in the group support rooms.
In an effort to continue to make 7 Cups as safe as possible, we would like to discuss the removal of guest accounts from the site. We have many guests using the site in hurtful and unsupportive ways and moving forward we would like everyone to verify their emails in order to participate in any area of 7 Cups.
We need to tighten this last piece of the puzzle up to ensure the safety of our listeners and members in 1-1 chats. The timeline for this update is TBA. But we wanted to share this update with you now to give you the chance to share feedback.
Thank you!
@Laura @jill7cups @Power @Heather225
Are there technical issues happening now on the site with the guest accounts? I can't find a member a member who I talk with regularlly who had a guest account. I find this bizar because she said hello to me several hours ago. But now her account is no where. We had agreed to talk to day. What's going on?
@SensitiveAndMore guest accounts are still active. Maybe your guest became a member and changed their username? I don't know.
@kindSoul10
ok thanks
@Kate I am in favor to erase those guest accounts, as usually after the first chat, you have a binary choice, you stay or you go. If you are a guest for ainfinite time, you are just wasting your time and the listeners time, as your motivation is not self growth, is bullying or harrassing
@MarcelK
I don't think this is correct, being a guest doesn't necessarily mean they are wasting anyone's time. Not all guests bully or harrass. I have spoken to some who could hardly get any computer time due to their situation and were not able to create accounts.
@sereneSoul23
The guests i am complaining about were not friendly
Don't wanna say a lot, but I think guests should be given AT LEAST a minimum usage trial so that they can experience how this site is before being a member. And hey, pls let us DELETE COMMENTS OURSELVES instantly on these forum threads if we want.
@Kate
I personally pick up quite a few chats from members and guests that try to use the website in inappropriate ways. We can block and report users when they are abusing the site. Requiring email verification is adding a step that people who really need this, especially young teenagers who might have parents checking up on their email don't need. I believe that this might just deter the people who really need this the most.
@theBlackSheep11
"especially young teenagers who might have parents checking up on their email"
I can relate to this so so so much. Couple this with the stigma around therapy and seeking help and I have enough reason to not share my email with the site.
(Don't tell me that I can delete the emails because I cannot take the risk of not missing an email to delete and my parents finding it in my inbox.)
@theBlackSheep11 the solution to the problem of "trolls" (human beings who are being difficult and acting inappropriately and/or annoying) is absolutely to train listeners in dealing with these difficult situations and find a way to ban guest IPs as well as member IPs for chronic abusers of the system as a last resort after attempts by well trained listeners have been tried and have failed after warnings that they will be banned . 7 cups must find a way to ban IP addresses if there is even going to be a dent in fixing this problem of people as long as IPs cannot be blocked there will always be a problem with all sorts of people who have the wrong intentions just getting on here with a new guest account .
There is both a serious problem with requiring everyone to give an email to create an account and also a serious problem with people who have the wrong intentions creating multiple guest accounts and thats by working on the ability to not block the temporary easily changed guest account but the persons IP i know there are ways around this and those issues will also have to be tackled in the future as anyone in law enforcement knows staying one step ahead is a constant battle but shutting down all banks so that people wont rob them is not the solution right?
@jennysunrise8 @Kate
As far as I knew, IP Ban already exists, however it doesn't work since people just use other techniques to dodge 'em that I'm not gonna state but knowing my luck has already been mentioned on this thread anyway.
But now that Cups is actually employing and paying staff to work on the site, I've always been an advocate for employing someone specifically for dealing with trolls and IP issues. When theres an adament problem, the person speaks to that staff member and gives in names of the multiple accounts. The staff member should be able to review a history of IP log on those accounts and look for patterns. From there, action can be taken and possibly further IP Bans. In the long-term, this could evolve into an algorithm and someone employed to modify, tweak an update this as necessary and also to take requests from people where there've been bugs or accidental messes with it, to restore faith etc.
I can still see holes in this solution that people will be able to exploit and get through however it is one way of tightening the screws on persistent abuse of it and will make things that one step tougher and that one bit more deterrable.
Alternatively we could also have "good cop, bad cop" scenario where someone is employed to essentially mediate and resolve issues on an emotional level before things explode into a tyrannical tyrade.
More ideas to follow. Actually I remember stating this idea about a year ago to a couple of the mods that were failing to help me at the time during problems, but, ironically enough, due to the loopholes cascading these problems, the mods at the time were too apathetic to really be bothered bout it. Nice that I can bring this up again now.
Thanks,
RedMeeko x
@Kate
This is a wonderful idea!!! I am always getting Guests that are only here to waste my time. When will this be going into effect?
@kylerj78 Not sure yet! We're just reviewing all your feedback for now and will keep everyone updated.
@Kate I can see both sides of this but for the safety of the site I am for this initiative. It will not solve everything but it will be another step towards making things better. There may be some technical solutions like have been suggested by others to help preserve anonymity in other ways besides guest accounts that still prevent disposable access with no accountability.
Thank you for taking this difficult step and I hope the admins/leaders will keep brainstorming ideas of how to satisfy the need that guest accounts filled while minimizing the negatives that are clearly associated with those accounts.
@PenguinPower31 there are some good reasons why its not safe for a lot of people to give out an email address to a website that provides emotional support and help there might be someone monitoring that persons email who does not want that person who is seeking help here to get emotional support or help from family or anyone else so there should at least be some way for people to have an alternate way to sign up besides email for people who are in dangerous situations who dont feel safe signing up to a help site with their email because their email isnt secure we cant allow these people who abuse the system to take away from so many i think everyone on 7cups i definately agree needs to be held accountable and banned if necessary if there is really no way for a guest user to be ip banned or if 7cups wont do that for some reason i hope at least they give people an alternative way to create an account if theyre afraid to give an email
This site just seems to be drifting further away from it's mission whenever I log in.
The one thing that drew me to this site when I was in need was the fact that I didn't need to create an account. There's a people who don't have the convenience of signing up for things due to multiple factors and that anonymous feature is what drew a lot of people to this site. If I'm being honest, if it wasn't for that, I wouldn't have bothered. I was in an emotionally stressed mood and I wanted something quick, and this fit the bill. If I had to go now and make an account just to talk to someone about my problems, I would have found an alternative.
I really don't know what management does me thinking sometimes. Yes, it would help curb the trolling situation but what's stopping them from just creating an account and doing the exact same thing? It's not that difficult to create an email address, and there are numerous providers out there to choose from so that excuse doesn't cut it. Honestly, I feel that they're just trying to increase their member count no offense.
I don't even know what's the point of giving my opinion or "feedback" because y'all really not going to listen to it anyway. It's not hard to see that you keep replying to posts that agree with your decision (that has already been made and nothing's going to change it like most things around here). Like, you don't even acknowledge the others replies here.
Sigh, I'm tired, moody, and stressed and this is just made it worse. So much so that I don't even feeling like sticking around to talk to anyone today so I'm just going back to bad and sleep it off. At the rate we're going at, we're going to be a online therapist office where we have to be screened before we can get help.
"100% CONFIDENTIAL: Remain 100% anonymous. No one will ever know who you are—not even your listeners or therapists."
That should be the most important thing for those you want to help, right?
Maybe it is not best idea to remove the guest accounts altogether when the abuse issue can probably be solved by providing further training to listeners regarding trolling and how to spot and what to do if a guest account is being abusive. I can see this more as a training and systems issue than a "guest account" issue