7 Cups

I am both a "listener" and a "member". I will be offering a review respective of each account.

Member: overall, not very good at all. Once, a listener literally replied with "lol" when I gave them my reasoning for reaching out. Additionally, they all offer horrible advice (when this is not okay and is against the rules) which they then get offended if you don't take it or listen to them. I have only ever had 1 or 2 good listeners out of the whole year I've been a member.

Listener: I'm conflicted. Many of the listeners are nice, whereas others are rude, disrespectful and impertinent. I rarely get greeted into a room unless I say hello to someone else first. I was turned down for getting support in regards to my confidence, which of course made my confidence a lot worse.

HOWEVER. I have had a good learning experience, and 7 Cups has taught me ways on how to truly listen to a person - for this, I am forever thankful.

7 Cups works to connect teens to trained and caring listeners that not only provide helpful resources and comfort but also a new bonding friendship. There are many great assets about this free platform. Such as being able to connect to a listener from the same timezone as yours through the specified search menu or joining group support chats to connect with multiple people on this lovely platform. Listeners and members on 7 cups work together in improving their livelihoods and overall enjoyment of life. Join this platform if you would like to meet many new caring friends and check out the self-help guides (available to listeners) as well as the community paths to better your everyday.

I started as a listener (volunteer) and was in love with the site until I tried it from a client perspective and found there are extremely harmful and hateful people who are there strictly to hurt people who are already hurting. When this was brought up to management with suggestions on improving quality by implementing mandatory training to be completed prior to "helping" others, I was banned from the website. This is a common practice of the owner/paid staff as I read on Reddit. As well as tricking people into subscriptions by saying it is $x. Xx per month and taking the whole year up front and refusing refunds.
Obviously money motivated and not meant in any way to help others.

I became a quality mentor on the site. After witnessing an excess of chats that were beyond abusive and bringing them to the attention of admin only to find indifference, I must warn others to stay away. The paid staff doesn't do any actual work on the site nor do they care for quality. They ride on the backs of free volunteers who are never properly trained nor monitored.

If you want to tell someone about your problem and walk away feeling x10 worse, this is the right place for you.

Most people on here are from India and have very limited English speaking ability and even less compassion. Be sure to match with someone from your country or it will be an utter waste of your time.

They stole my everything. They took what was left of my sanity, my dignity, even my appetite. If you suffer five minutes on this website, you become more sympathetic to why mass shootings are a common occurrence in the US.

I spoke to a listener on here and I had a friend who was very suicidal and depressed and is currently saying suicidal things online. The listener told me "just let it be and their partner will take care of it even though their relationship is unstable". This listener also didn't listen to a thing I said they kept telling me there is nothing I can do and let it be. They proceeded to keep giving advice or making assumptions instead of listening. Suprisingly they were a high ranked listener.

I used 7cups since I was like 16, helped a lot with anxiety. Now though? Everything is confusing and disorganized. Nobody has good grammar or follows the listener training (I was a listener for a couple years so I should know). Nothing happens when I click chat now with listeners, so it's impossible to tell when someone is actually chatting with you. The censorship has also gone haywire as well, even the word hell is censored now (not even capitalized) and anything extremely vaguely relating to sex. That makes it difficult when you're trying to talk about your throat tightness during a panic attack for example. As an adult talking to adult listeners I feel there should at least be an option to turn off censorship on my end if I want to.
So yeah... would not recommend.

Been a listener for three years and there are members who will connect and start sexual conversations, you calmly turn down and they block and instead of the admins following up, they suspend your account

As a member. The worst ever. One time I got connected to a listener and we talk about my issue which was bullying at work and she was like "am thirteen and I have never been bullied. How dumb are you" what annoyed me most was the fact that I was chatting with a 13 year old. I can't go back to 7 cups

I guess the mods like to ban people for no reason. I went on my L account after being gone for a very long time, and it wasnt so busy so I chatted in the common room for maybe an hour max. Ive never said or done anything that was against the rules. Next day, I try to log in and my account is banned without reason or any heads-up or whatever. 7Cups needs to seriously work on their communication.

Most people say 7 cups was able to help them. I wish it was able to help me too. I guess I really was just a horrible person that even the listener got sick of me. Why should I be surprised. The people I know are sick of hearing it from me, it shouldn't be a wonder that a stranger of 7 cups just let me ramble on and asked me "what's the worst that could happen", "what the best that could happen" "is it perfectionist thoughts" and "why are you scared" > oh yes. I feel much better and understood. I wonder why other people seemed to have gotten so uplifted. I don't know what I expected. But I wish the listener i got could've shown a little more empathy or at least pretended that they cared.

I have been both a member and a listener for almost two years and 7 Cups has serious quality issues. If you are lucky you find the sweetest and kindest listener as a member, but unfortunately many listeners have low quality and are not well enough educated. Becoming a listener is way too easy. Only thing you have to have is an e-mail address and then do a simple test and then you are set to go.
As a listener you have the opportunity to grow and help out with many things. However there is a clique of listeners that stick together and watch each other's back. If you by any chance report one of them it will come back to you. The admin team probably do their best, but they have way too much on their plate and sit in different parts of the world which complicates things. Another thing I've noticed is the fact it's very American in how it's constructed with titles and hierarchies and it's tricky to figure everything. Also the website is almost impossible to manage when it comes to finding things again. And there are many old outdated posts. The rules are constantly changed which is very confusing for many members and listeners. Finally, 7 Cups is highly addictive, so if you want to become a listener on the site, make sure to set boundaries on how many and how much time you want to spend there and stick to it.

I am a listener with some counseling experience, joined the platform because I really want to make a difference and help people. I am female.
But what annoys me are these users, who join to start sexy chats, harassment or violence towards female listeners. Many times I've blocked the user and he came back again soon under a different username.
Many members with fake stories, absolutely bizarre and unrealistic, just waste of my time and time of the members who really need help and support.
If you politely turn down a request, you can get a warning from a platform that someone has reported you for being not enough kind or empathic, which is nonsense! Considering listener's work and the fact that they're doing all of this free of charge in their spar time. This is very unfair.

I think it would be great to provide some kind of benefits ( if no money, then vouchers, gift card, etc) for long term listeners, that would make us feel more appreciated...

Maybe just because I've never had anyone close that I've been able to talk through my difficult issues with, but my experience so far has been amazing! Being able to dump out all the bottled up emotions and worries has left me feeling clear headed and a sense of purposeful direction. The platform is really great and I think it can be very helpful for anyone going through life stresses. There are too many things now a days to stress about and too few healthy outlets for your emotions. Would definitely recommend trying out!