January 6 - Making our community more inclusive - Monthly Animal Cohort Idea
Hello Community,
In the new year, we want to continue our focus on helping people and building community. Yay!
Specifically, when people come to 7 Cups we want them to feel included and to be able to find a group or multiple groups where they feel like they belong and have an identity. We are doing this with our subcommunities now and you all have done an amazing job supporting, welcoming and creating encouraging environments for our members to grow and thrive in these spaces.
Today, we are excited to share, and get your feedback on, another idea that would encourage this same sense of community building across our entire community.
One thing you all have taught us is that Cupversaries are an important milestone to celebrate. We havent done a great job up supporting your efforts and making sure everyone who has hit a Cupversary milestone is honored for their dedication and participation. So to better support our Cupversary efforts and make sure everyone feels like they are part of our global community with a team of people who have also joined around the same time as them, we will be launching a new cohort program.
Every member or listener who joins our site will receive a cohort animal badge. And these badges arent your average badge, they are real animal icons!! Your animal icon will travel with you around the site. Those who join around the same time will all have the same badge so they can easily recognize each other and connect on their journey. Every month of the year is assigned an animal (ex. January is a Deer). Everyone who joins our community in January will be assigned the Deer badge icon. When you hover over the animal icon it will provide the month and date that you joined 7 Cups. So if you joined this month, the hover text would read: January 2018.
This will make it very easy to find others who joined around the same time as you and easy to figure out when a Cupversary is on the horizon! We can use these cohort groups as a way to build community. There are many creative ways we can build community around these animal cohort groups! To start, we will create a forum area dedicated to your animal cohort group.
Here are the tentative animal assignments - **UPDATED**
Jan - Dolphin
Feb - Penguin
March - Horse
April - Camel
May - Elephant
June - Kangaroo
July - Star fish
August - fish
Sept - Bunny
Oct - Eagle
Nov - Butterfly
Dec - Turtle
Wed like to hear your thoughts and ideas for how to make this work with the ultimate goal of making 7 Cups a more welcoming place, especially for new folks, and a place where it is easy to find friends and support each other.
Here are a few specific things wed love your thoughts on, too:
-----> Where would you like your animal icon to show on the site? Forums? Feed? Youe Profiles? Connect Cards? Chatrooms?
-----> We will be auto-assigning these icon badges moving forward, but would old school 7 Cups people like us to retroactively assign them as well?
-----> Other ideas for how cohorts can connect and support each other?
Thank you all! We are excited to see some adorable animals around the community!
Big thank you to @krinkthemellowunicorn for helping with the creation of this post. :)
Wow I love this idea! It sounds so cool and fun! I get a cat but I am allergic to cats :'(
It's okay, they are still pretty :D
Who else is a cat here!? :D
@AnyaS
Meooooooooow!!
SO happy to be a cat!!
awww WOOOOOOO yayyy cat twinnies!!! @Joe2017
@Joe2017
I can't believe you got a cat XD this is the bestest!!!!
@summertimeSamness
I know right!!! It's actually made me SO happy xD
@Laura
I think this is an awesome idea!! I would love to see these retroactively assigned to those who joined before this as well 
1. I think the icon could look good in profiles.
2. Could it be possible for the ones who have been in 7cups since the last year or before to have an animal icon per year? (For instance, turtle for 2016, octopus for 2017) I think that could be cool.
This sounds like a cute idea^^
@Laura will our pets get allowed to have their own member account? is that your definition of more inclusive?
@vivelespatates
coco and I share a member acct 
I get a rhino!
And I love this idea! I would like it to show on profiles and chatrooms
I like cats more than people. Thoughts?
I love this idea!! I definitely find badges to be motivational, and I know many others do as well. This will as well allow Listeners and Members to connect to others that have joined in the same month, so that's pretty cool as well! I could see this being displayed on the user's profile, next to the Verified Listener check mark or where the Listener level icons appeared before those were deleted
Great News!!
I'd love to have my Penguin badge.
I *adore* penguins! 
@BridgetAileen .... Would you bring me the newspaper? ;) <3 Platy
@cyanPlatypus6370
LOL!!!!
@BridgetAileen
Hi Bridget, According to the suggested animals above, I would be an Eagle or a Butterfly ... So, I could fly the newspaper to you 
Slight problem though, even our week day papers here weigh much more than a Butterfly ... I could pretend to be a Bumblebee :)
Platy
(LOL I just pictured a platypus in a bumblebee costume!! :-O Ha ha ha! )
@cyanPlatypus6370, you crack me up! The dogs stopped eating breakfast to stare at me because I LOLed so hard.
Maybe we'll have to hire a Golden Retriever to fetch the paper for us. 
@BridgetAileen
Stopped mid-breakfast!???? 
This is serious! hehe. ~ Platy
((P.S. Do you know why I chose the Bumblebee? ))
@cyanPlatypus6370
Yes, mid-breakfast, quite serious indeed!
Well, I do know that based on physics, the bumblebee shoulsn't be able to fly; however, it does. Although they only make a small amount of honey, they're great pollinators and are gentle and non-agressive. They only live one season. They don't have hives, but live in underground burrows usually left by other small animals. (Sometimes it pays to have been an elementary school teacher...LOL). But as to exactly why you chose the bumblebee...hmmm.....
...puts on thinking cap...
@BridgetAileen
lol :) Good job, past elementary school teacher you! Yes, for the first reason - bumblebees should not be able to fly based on science - physics, body composition, etc. Nor should a butterfly be able to carry a newspaper ... but as you so wisely mentioned, no one told the Bumblebees they can't fly, so they just do
I think this time here (just after reading your post) has got to be at least the 5th or 6th time that I've checked your name - (L) or (M)? Some day I will remember, but in the mean time you could train for listening! I think you might do really well with it :) Platy
@moj - because I think you might enjoy this conversation :)
@kindday4067 - because I miss you and come back and talk with us, ok?
@korsbarella - you too! We miss you ... come back. SFO says hi. We have corn candy for you - if you want some. <3
@cyanPlatypus6370
Platy, I'm definitely an (M)...haven't entertained the idea of becomeing (L). It rather intimidates me to think about doing that.
@BridgetAileen
Awh. Yeah, it can be intimidating sometimes. But the 'older'? (L), veterans? I don't know how to say that ... they are usually pretty helpful if you get stuck in a conversation or feel triggered or something within or after the conversation. But hey, if you've no interest in (L)ing then, no problem :) You're doing a great job as is! We need good, role model kinds of (M) here too! <3 Platy
@cyanPlatypus6370..."older"...that's me. LOL!
I know that I could probably do it, but I worry about what I'd do if I got overwhelmed or was talking with someone who wanted some kind of help I couldn't give. I'm not on consistenly for the most part...it could be anytime of any day...and I may miss days or not check in a certain hours for days at a time. What if I couldn't help? 
Not meeting the expectations of the members who might seek me out is what worries me.
@BridgetAileen ... Yes, I hear you there. It's kind of something I just have to 'give up.' Sometimes the member is clearer at what they want/need. Sometimes they feel they don't even know themselves! and sometimes I'll be chatting with them and they are angry or upset but somehow don't want to talk with me .... yes, it is hard. Unfortunately I think, at least somewhat, that is the nature of the beast. (L) is hard. Rather active listening and actively listening well! that's hard. Takes a bunch of energy too (for me anyway). ~Platy
@Kate ideas? Just thought maybe you'll see this if I tag you. Happy Llama Day! okay so that's probably not a thing, or not a January 11th thing, but hey... :D
P.S. I didn't mean old like old - age, amount of days living on Earth. I meant like length of time as a listener - which season and year he/she signed up as (L).
P.P.S. But, secretly, I'm pretty sure that you knew that! :O Bridget, have you learned this invisible writing yet?
@cyanPlatypus6370
Platy...invisible writing!? Wow! I have no idea how to do it.
Platy, you are right...I have so enjoyed this conversation. Maybe together as butterflies we could deliver the paper to our little penguin friend.
@BridgetAileen, I have the same thoughts and feelings on being a listener...I did sign up, but really haven't been on as one very much because honestly...it kinda terrifies me. What if I can't help them? And plus, I am struggling so much with energy myself right now, I'm not on very consistantly, and can't commit to a certain time, so instead I'll enjoy being a member, and help and support people that way!
@Moj, exactly! I'm in that boat with you, my friend...except that I haven't even signed up.
@BridgetAileen
You just explained every reason I have not become a Listener. Glad I'm not the only one. Hugs!
@ladylazarus1971, definitely not the only one. I see I'm in good company. *hugs*
This is such an important discussion, buried here in a thread about something else entirely
Personally, as a listener I don't try to meet expectations, and I often fail to meet them. I come here inconsistently, and I avoid trying to solve people's problems for them. I just try to listen and to understand, for what it's worth to do that. Sometimes, I think, it can be worth a lot to people to be heard and understood.
I think I can do that best in 1-to-1 chats, and at 7 Cups that means conforming to the purely artificial "listener" role. Human beings are not really divided into people who need help and people who give help. At times when I need help myself, I shouldn't have to change my name, as if needing help myself is some kind of stain on my shiny white listenerness. But that's the way it is at 7 Cups.
For me, the only factor in deciding whether to be a listener is being able to chat with other members 1-to-1. Anyone who does, can only do what they can do. Certainly, no listener will meet all expectations, and if that worries you, then it is certainly good reason not to put yourself in that position.
But the fact that you have to make the choice is a design fault in 7 Cups, in my opinion. Wise and trusted members like you should be able to chat to anyone if you happen to feel like it, without having to change your name, jump through hoops, and create expectations.
@BridgetAileen
@RarelyCharlie, you bring up some really good points about not allowing expectations to be placed on you by either others or yourself. You reminded me that this action is indeed a choice we make ourselves. Not just in the role of 7 Cups Listener, but in so many other areas of life, too. So I thank you for bringing this up...I needed the reminder because it goes along with a book I'm currently reading for a book club. :)
@RarelyCharlie ... I really LOLed at your first sentence, for like 15 seconds I think!
And yet, as Bridgit says, you've made some very good points here, Charlie. Good things to think about and consider when debating to do training to be a Listener. Thank you for your input to this important discussion buried within a forum thread that has nothing to do with the topic - or nothing much! <3 Platy
@cyanPlatypus6370
MISS YOU TOO! AND SWEET SFO!!
Who would say no to corn candy? Not me haha
@Korsbarella!!!! Is it you? Is it really you? I do still have some, it's rather hard though....
SFO says hi too, I'm sure. He appears to be stretching at the moment. <3 <3 from our home to yours, Platy
@Laura would this have to be an actual badg like the ones we earn? or could it be something like in the corner of our profile picture that shows who we are? If the reason for animal badges would be so people could connect based off when they joined, what about every year though? eventually maybe types of animals could run out if it were based on year joined and month, but if its only based on the month... I think it makes less difference. then again, maybe people would have that as a topic to talk about with people who have the same badge, "what year?". Also, all we have to do is click on a persons profile and we can see when they joined and such right? so this would make that easier?// I'm not really sure ( tbh I havent been sleeping well so I'm super tired right now and only partially able to make sense of anything) Personally I think the idea sounds nice enough, but if improved upon and turned into something totally different (with more meaning and purpose) it could be an amazing thing. Maybe it could be tried and tested as this and then later improved upon or re-modeled to mean and be something more? I think if you think about it fr awhile you'll be able to see plenty of ideas, I already have lol. Goodluck and this does sound nice.
I wonder if our join date defines us and should be a point to feel more connected to others. But welp since it's month and not years it might be an icebreaker. I have mixed feelings about this.
