August 8: Keep Calm & Safety On - A new Subcommunity Coming your way this August!
What does being safe on the internet mean to you? What does being safe at 7 Cups mean to you?
Both of these questions have many answers. 7 Cups is a growing city and like all cities, we need to create a more dedicated space to training and sharing resources related to safe interactions on 7 Cups (and more generally on the internet). This will be a NEW sub-community space called ….
Keep Calm & Safety On!
The sub-community will be dedicated to building a culture around safety and safe interactions on 7 Cups (and more broadly safe internet practices). We will have content and helpful information on how to keep yourself safe on 7 Cups. Within the subcommunity, there will be ongoing discussions, new threads, new resources, and guides and information related to safety. Like all Sub-Communities, we will have folks plugged in to help in the following areas: forum, feed, and projects/ special events. Additionally, we will have some folks plugged in to help flag inappropriate profiles, I will be working out the specifics of how this will work stay tuned!
Sub-forums (ideas):
Practice Situations - What to do when!
Internet Bullying Support & information
7 Cups Safety Tools, Report Forms & More!
Topic Guide Library!
Conflict Resolution - Questions, how-to's and more!
Boundary setting
Open Communication tips!
When to block another user
Leaving a listener a review - best practices
Over the next few weeks, I will start to pull this forum area together. It will be a combination of new content and possibly old content (if relevant and appropriate to move over). If you love satefy topics, want to help write some guides, want to join the subcommunity or want to help in way, please post to this thread, or keep a look out for the subcommunity and join in!!!
This will be a work in progress, I will be learning along side you all to help make this the best it can be. Feedback, ideas, suggestions welcome! I know we can continue to spread the word about how to have safe interactions on 7 Cups!
@Laura
WOWZERS Laura another great idea for 7cups community to grow, and be safe together as we keep getting bigger and BIGGER
I'm all in this team for the forums as you start to gather information on this. I too, would like this area to reamian helpful and benificail to many here including all the new comers
Laura
@Laura Thanks for the announcement. Safety has always been number one on 7 Cups and I am sure this subcommunity will be a great way pf reinforcing adn building out further the saefty initiatives. Glad to see 7 Cups growing as a supportive and safe space!
@Laura
Awesome idea, I can't wait to contribute to it
@Laura - Safety is definitely an important topic here, but I think there's a bit more thought that needs to be done around this
1. Will users adequately find this subforum with that title? It's cute, but not super intuitive - I think we need to be really careful around naming (I've already mentioned elsewhere that I have the same concern with The Kitchen not making sense)
2. Which of these topics are truly broad enough for subforums and which are actually threads within one? For instance, I think 'When to block a listener' and 'Leaving a listener a review' would both make more sense as official threads within a subforum (e.g., 7 Cups Policies and Best Practices as the subforum with threads for each of those, as well as policies on how reviews work, etc.)
3. Does this fully need to be its own subcommunity, or is it actually a better fit within an existing area such as Welcome? When a new user comes to the site, are they likely to check out multiple different forums all meant to be seen early in their time here, or will they go to the more intuitive Welcome and then move right on to topic-based communities and miss this altogether?
@Anomalia
Yeah I agree with this and we already have a thread that I wrote about staying safe on the internet from online predators. There is also a bullying forum. We don't want to create an excess about of categories because then we will have too much again and it will be confusing for users. The forums are already a confusing mess sometimes
@Anomalia
@Laura - Safety is definitely an important topic here, but I think there's a bit more thought that needs to be done around this
1. I am very open minded to changing the name. If you/anyone have name ideas, please post/ share them. Some I had some up with include - Knowledge & Safety, Safety on 7 Cups & the internet, Keep Calm & Safety On, Safety is Cool, Safety First, Dont Be Scared - Be Safe
2. Re: subforums - yes, i see your point. I should have more clearly stated that these are work in process topics. I know id like to have have topics related to bullying, practice situations, guides/ training information and policies.
3. This is meant for new users, but also all users. I will check out Newbie hub and see if can be combined. I am thinking about this sort of like like the information and learning center to the police department. A place for people to gather and learn more specifically how to manage different types of situations, gather more information, participate in practice situations.... etc. I think many of these activites extend beyond the needs of the welcome area forums. Keeping is separate allows for a more dedicated space for these activities. But I'll circle back and check it out. Good feedback
Lastly, we want to deliberatly build up a culture around safe interactions. Our goal is to create a culture around safe interactions is the goal.
@Anomalia
I couldn't agree more Ano!
@Anomalia I agree, When I read the heading I thought at first it was related to anxiety/mental crises, etc.
I do think something like this deserves it's own section separate from the welcoming section as that area is pretty busy.
More like a 7cups FAQ. I think the QFIF could be split up (as I think this was a plan anyway?) and parts of this be included in that.
Online safety in general wouldn't fit within it though, so there's a downside.
That sounds like a sub community that I would be interested in contributing to. Thanks for making it happen!
I'm really excited for this! I think it's a super important aspect for 7 cups and I'd love to get involved in any way possible
Bullying is a topic I'm all too familiar with I'd love to help with that subject as well
This is an interesting topic.im sure I want to get involved
@Laura Fantastic idea~ Sign me up to contribute :D
Many of the topics included are necessary and needed, but some exist already (such as bullying) and I think it's important to prioritise where there are gaps. I've been a victim of some of the safety violations/chat room guidelines and it took days to recover, mainly because I was not mentally prepared for it (despite given the knowledge on what to do) and so I think community support would be great, but erhaps this sub-community can be made a bit easier to come across? It's really important to know there are coping resources available when or if listeners feel somewhat violated after a chat that is considered as harassment, I know there is support available already (such as peer support), but because all chats are confidential and cannot be shared unless to a person with permission, the best support would come from those who have had similar experiences, or want to somewhat guide and reach out to the listeners who feel this way, or and even from community members who want to increase cyber security and can gain an insight into the problem areas.
