Are Members Allowed to Give Support on the Forum?

@Anon435

Yes, this is allowed! And it's kind/generous of you to want to do this. 💜

The most common way of using the site is that most users have a listener account and member account linked together under the same e-mail. And then they'll use their listener account for offering support and their member account for receiving support. But there isn't anything in the forum guidelines prohibiting a member from using their account partially or even primarily for the purpose of supporting other members.

There are quite a few members who dedicate themselves to supporting others and find it personally beneficial. It's also very common for members to have mutually supportive relationships with other members. There are enough members that focus on supporting others that the 7 Cups community team actually offers forum leadership roles for members.

If you're responding to others' posts, here is something that might be useful as a reference point for providing helpful/effective responses.
https://www.7cups.com/forum/CommunityProjectsEvents_184/TheNeedsReplyTeamProject_781/TheNeedsReplyTeamGuide_185651/#forum-post-1833562

Just one note I'd add that I'm not seeing in this guide is that "advice" is something to be cautious about:

• It's okay to offer tentative suggestions, ideas, brainstorming, or options for consideration -- while holding and expressing the attitude that the other person is completely free to disagree, make up their own mind, disregard those ideas, and trust their own experience/ideas/instincts if they wish.
  
• It's not okay to tell people what they ought to do as if you know exactly what's right for them. (Listeners are trained not to do this, but it happens pretty often that I'll come across posts by members with good intentions but are telling other members in strong/authoritative/confident language what they ought to do, and I cringe a little bit when I see this. 😊)