I tried out Seven Cups of Tea after reading this article, and I have a few points of feedback.<p>From what I make of it, it's apparent that the business model is that of "professional listeners" i.e. a few listeners charge for their service and essentially become an online version of therapists without being therapists. (although a few do appear to be trained as such and they charge their usual rates, most of the people on the roster don't appear to be professional psychologists)<p>This all fine and good, but the problem within the model though is that there's a tension between the positive side vs. the revenue side: we volunteer and help people who need a listener, but we try to nudge people towards paying for these sessions. This manifests itself through these constant popup windows while the listener is engaged in a heavy emotional conversation. Imagine you're pouring your heart out to someone and things are at an emotional juncture, and a sickly cheerful popup comes up on the screen cajoling you to sign up or rate the listener. It feels horridly out of context and it takes away the experience of the person within that moment. And this has happened to me 4 times so far in around 25 minutes.<p>Of course, the thing is that 7 Cups of Tea needs to convert its users and it needs to make that happen relentlessly, but the key over here is subtlety and I feel that this design iteration, sadly, misses that. However - from an outside perspective - it doesn't have to be this way. You see, anyone who visits this website and connects emotionally with a listener experiences the purest form of engagement - emotional engagement and a genuine empathic bond with someone. If the person or the bond is strong, then there is no reason why they won't sign up, after all the product has touched the very core of their being. Of course they will sign up, if there isn't any friction! They're hooked and they want to maintain that bond. They want to connect with this person again and they want to feel that sense of connectedness again and again. They want to feel okay again and again. So really the best thing 7 Cups of Tea could possibly do is get out of the way and let people connect with one another and let things flow from there.<p>In other words, this can be so much more. It has the ingredients of being so much more. It just needs the right touch. A light touch.
The success of this venture leaves me asking some questions.<p>Have we become so isolated in our tech-centered world that we no longer have friends/family/neighbors that we can talk to?<p>Does everything have to be done on the internet, where we can happily pull the plug if we just don't feel like continuing?<p>I'm speaking as an American, and don't pretend to know much about other cultures, so keep that context in mind. But it seems to me that over the past 20 years especially there has been a drastic increase in the isolation most Americans have from the outside world. Many of us could not even tell you the names of our next-door neighbors -- many not even the <i>last</i> names of the families.<p>Now, I'm a technical guy, and have been pretty much my whole life. Like most people who read Hacker News (I would presume) I make my living working with computers, and spend a great deal of my free time doing things with computers also. I was the first in my family to even know about the internet, and I'm the first one they call when they need help with anything computer-related.<p>I'm <i>not</i> saying that computers are bad. I'm also not saying that "7 Cups of Tea" is necessarily bad. I just think that a lot of us who spend so much of our time using these remarkable tools (computers and the internet) should take care to make sure we don't overuse them. Many things in life should be done in person. The internet provides a filter to many experiences which can be <i>very</i> useful, but I think in many cases it can also be a barrier to real interaction.<p>I'd be happy to hear what others think about the subject.
<i>Getting people to volunteer can be one of the most difficult challenges a community builder can face</i><p>The word "volunteer" appears in the first two paragraphs but not elsewhere, but I don't think it's the right word: most people in Internet communities don't think of themselves as "volunteers" per se.<p>In the context of nonprofit and public agencies, which is orthogonal to the main article but still important, many don't actually want volunteers—they want money: <a href="http://blog.seliger.com/2014/04/20/volunteers-nonprofits-really-want-their-money-not-their-bodies/" rel="nofollow">http://blog.seliger.com/2014/04/20/volunteers-nonprofits-rea...</a> .
I've been following the author (@caremjo) for a while now. She's got some really great insights on community that I think come very naturally.<p>She knows how to dissect and grow what your community needs. Definitely a resource people interested in this subject should follow and tap into.
Elated to see Glenn & team grow this amazing and much needed community to 17,000+. I definitely see this filling an important gap in our society for years to come.