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What do you want from chat?
Former Member
Posts: 1,875,648 The Mix Honorary Guru
:wave:
So as part of the chat break we'd really like to hear from YOU and get some feedback.
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This thread is to share constructive ideas for improving your chat experience..you might like to think about what you enjoy about a good chat, when does it work best, what would you like to see more of?
You can also tell us if there are any topics that you'd like to see us do an expert chat on and we'll be sure to consider them in the schedule :yes:
Over to you...
So as part of the chat break we'd really like to hear from YOU and get some feedback.
Attachment not found.
This thread is to share constructive ideas for improving your chat experience..you might like to think about what you enjoy about a good chat, when does it work best, what would you like to see more of?
You can also tell us if there are any topics that you'd like to see us do an expert chat on and we'll be sure to consider them in the schedule :yes:
Over to you...
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Comments
I'm definitely for closing round question, as it's a nice way to brighten people's morale after discussing difficult/ challenging topics.
When I went to my first support chat, I was very confused by the opening/closing rounds. I was thinking- I thought this was supposed to be "support chat", so why are they generally chatting, am I in the right place? I don't think I was/ won't be the only person to feel that way. My suggestion is that you advertise the structure of chat more clearly on the "live chat" section.
I think support chat is a great idea but it can be difficult to keep up when it's busy. Also, it might be difficult for some people to be heard by others. I don't have any suggestions on how to improve this, but maybe it's something to look into?
I was just about to put this before i realised you've put it. I want to be able to get support, Sometimes I feel unable to because Certain mods are spending the whole time fixed on one or two people, I'm not mod bashing here and I know it's a 'peer led support' rather than supposed to be recieving support from moderators. but I do feel that if Bob is getting support from Fred. John and William. about a problem with his...Girlfriend, and then Alex has a problem, I don't feel like the Mod should be focusing on Bob, when Alex is speaking, If someone is already reciving support then the moderator should move onto someone else. Give everybody a chance. if someone is monopolizing the chat they should be asked if we could focus on someone else now? I don't know...Plus i think chat should be back to two hours..if you're going to do the opening closing round :P
The point is that people are doing this and people are still being ignored? There's only so much you can do. People try so hard to get support but it always goes to the same usual people
I also want to assure you that all of our mods are trained to be impartial and to do their best to include everyone in the room. I'm sorry to hear you feel in practice this doesn't always work out - sometimes it is just too busy for us to read every single comment but we never intentionally ignore anyone. You are all important.
I will feed back your concerns to the mod team though, in particular about air time and perhaps if someone has had it for a while just adding a gentle suggestion to the room to ask if anyone else is waiting to share something. I'm sure if we all work together we can help everyone to feel heard :thumb:
Ultimately it's a team effort - mods are there to oversee the whole group and keep it safe - they won't always be able to reply to every single person but you guys can really help each other to feel heard too :yes:
Thanks for this apandav - we'll definitely think about how we can make this clearer for new members
Okay but if it's our responsibility to help each other out and get each other heard, Surely mods should stick to just watching and making sure it all runs smoothly and then get involved when things get out of hand? Idk it seems like a lot of mods just pick and choose who they listen to/offer support to and it's always the same few individuals.
Also, on another note, with the chat rules/guidelines, it's almost like they pick and choose when to enforce them depending on who the individual is. For example; we all know that chat isn't a place when you're in crisis, some people come in and say they want to die and they get signposted to somewhere else but then other people come in and say the same or worse and they get support and nothing mentioned to them?? or when someone gets kicked for swearing at an individual, but then another person starts swearing at someone else and being completely rude to them and they just get frozen or get a warning? Surely it should be one rule for everyone not just having the rules in place when the mod feels like it
Surelyit should be one rule for everyone not just having the rules in place when the mod feels like it
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In business studies we learn about quality and quality control . It's about setting the same standards in all departments and all areas. I feel like we need to ensure this is in chat. So like if someone says "f***k off" directly to another member you need to decide weather this is a freeze and warning or if it's straight to a ban. I know all situations can be different weather it's out of the blue or if it's been built up but I dunno it might help.
Also I know it is about peer support but there are a lot of people that give loads of support to others and struggle to get even a little bit of support back for themselfs. Likewise there are also members that have support all the time in almost every chat and they NEVER give support back. I'm not directing this at anyone but I think it should work both ways. If you have an off day and need support and simply can only think about yourself , why not come back another day when your better and support. I'm not saying this should be a rule or anything but I think it would be a lot fairer.
I think this is a valid point, thanks for pointing that out Jo.
Personally, I tend not to say anything if I don't know how to support someone but I will take this on board!
Good point Louisa. But I think maybe it would be difficult for some newbies to start giving support straight away, yet they shouldn't feel unwelcome because of this. Perhaps with time though they will feel that they can give support.
:yes:
Hey Hiccup - I really take what you're saying on board and again, we will pass on a summary of all of this feedback to the mod team. Mods all go through the same training but they are all also unique individuals with their own styles and strengths and weaknesses, that's something we want to embrace rather than having us all be like robots
I do get what you're saying though and clear breaking of the guidelines should result in a freeze, kick or ban depending on the severity and the situation - there are a lot of variables so it's tricky to have really strict rules as sometimes people swear and it's not aimed at anyone in particular. Our main aim with any conflict is to only kick people out as a last resort and to encourage everyone to move on quickly and to help people stay in the group if they can.
I appreciate what you're saying about suicidal feelings - judging whether someone is in crisis or just needs to express the pain they are in is also an art rather than a science! It's not always clear straight away so sometimes we may give someone a bit more time to explore what's going on. However, we agree, chat isn't a place for crisis support or intense suicidal feelings and mods should be signposting to relevant services in these clear cases.
Mods ideally should be sitting back and letting you guys support one another, however, we also need to step in to fill in the gaps and our role is a supportive one too - as apandav says, people don't always know how to respond and mods are trained to be able handle most things!
Really appreciate your feedback everyone, I hope it helps to get it off your chests. I'll be gathering it all up at the end of the break and we'll be refreshing mods on any key areas that are coming up as well as talking about things as a team.
Keep it coming :thumb:
And literal shit occasionally
I just wanted to summarise your feedback to let you know the points we have taken on board and also some immediate changes we have made since the break.
It's also worth noting the next chat break is in January 2016 (3rd - 7th).
Here are the key points we'll be taking away and sharing with our volunteer mods too:
- Clear info on opening and closing rounds for newbies would be helpful
- Would like mods to make more effort to make sure everyone gets heard, picking up on quieter members and encouraging give and take
- You feel there is inconsistency on how conflict is dealt with at times depending on the mod
- Concern about people being kicked from one room and going in to another and talking about it
- Make sure support topics are kept out of GC
Immediate changes as a result of your feedback and feedback from volunteers:Thanks for all your feedback - we'll keep working on responding to the longer term suggestions! :yes:
Nice ideas
I'll pass them on to the GC mods
I'm someone who doesn't really 'fit' into General chat, so, I avoid it at most costs, but when I have been it, the conversations have been active and interesting, it's fitted around communication from our peers. I'm aware that I don't actually feel comfortable with General chat. I prefer the aspect of general banter in the support chat, as long as it isn't overflowing, etc.
But if you were to go with the idea of General chat, including Pop Quiz, and all that m'larky, you could do one every two months or so, and rather than consuming the time of moderators, (I'm sure they have a life to live) - Get users to try and come up with something in there spare time and let users have a go at hosting that specific part of chat, obviously, with the moderator at hand.
If this does become a thing, it needs to be optional because some of us go to General chat to just chat and ldk about others but I'm not comfortable with quiz's and games sometimes, but even if this does happen I'll still use GC as GC and hope people don't get crappy when me and others carry on having conversations rather than participating
I agree with Hiccup here, I like to use GC as GC...Mucking around random crap type thing, Quizes and stuff become too heated and thats not what GC is all about, Maybe a monthly 'Quiz/Games Night' could run along one of the SC's....
Or if there's enough mods they can do it on Tuesday when there's only SC running, just a thought
If we (as users I mean here, to make it clear I'm not speaking with my mod hat on!) were to take it in turns to write quizzes on, say, a monthly basis it could be quite fun?!
I agree with this, a bit like how we do with the Summer quiz and Christmas quiz when people run a round, that would be a great idea.
Hiccup - we're hoping to have GC on Tuesdays in the future, just not enough mods/volunteers at the mo! We're working on it