SUPPORT LEADERS (e-help ideas) -- LiveWire Teen Forums

i know this is going to sound really stupid, and maybe it is, it wouldnt be the first time i have made a bad suggestion, but i think that we need to define precisely what is the E-help system for? As far as i understood it, the E-help system is meant to address emergencies, hence of course the idea of emergency help. Then the important question of what is an emergency arises? Now of course we all have a general idea, but it needs to be precisely defined. right now, the E-help system has a large diversity of topics. the most recent five including, a person who was sexually abused at age 7 and wants to know whether she is a virgin, a person grieving over the deaths of their Brother and Friend, a person who was kicked out of their home and is 17, a person who feels their family hates them, and a person who wants help with their acne. Are all of these really emergencies? By the way, im sorry this is a bit outdated of a list as i started writing this a while ago and then got sidetracked by responding to ehelps. The thing is, as many have raised before, emergencies are very subjective because different people value different things differently. This i think kind of obligates us to allow any emergency there. This also seems to defeat the purpose of the Serious Forum. The Serious Forum to me seems to only serve the purpose of avoiding spam. Other than that, it seems to be a replica of the E-help system. That being said, the Serious Forum can still be useful in seperating emergencies from non-emergencies. What that really means though is that anything posted in the Serious Forum should be considered secondary to those things in the E-help, because they are not emergencies. If this is the distinction we wish to make, i think this is adequate.

i also wanted to discuss the many suggestions that were raised. One suggestion was to eliminate ratings in the system. i think i agree more with Just Waiting Heres point though that there should be an option for whether one desires a numerical rating or not, as the numerical rating motivates some people but not others. The written feedback, should not be optional to receive. If a person decides to give written feedback, i think we should be forced to receive that. Numerical ratings should be there for those who want themthough because many people do not write feedback and so the numbers is the only feedback that you can get in that case, if you want it.

Another suggestion was to allow the original poster to respond within an E-help. This currently is one of the advantages that the Serious Forum offers. i think this should be kept in the Serious Forum. This would otherwise complicate the E-help counter too and make it difficult for us to keep track of it if it became long. i think though that when written feedback is given, there should be an option that allows the person to send that feedback to all the Support Leaders that responded to their topic. Furthermore, as was suggested, there should be a way for Support Leaders to respond to feedback, without compromising the posters identity if they wished to be anonymous. Thsi would allow follow up to occur without confusing the E-help counter and making it more difficult to track E-helps.

It was also suggested that we have specialized Support Leaders. i do not think we can have these, simply for the reason that we are not supposed to be qualified professionals. We cannot claim specialization really unless we have qualifications. Also, some Support Leaders may not specialize in anything. However, what i do thing can be good is allowing Support Leaders to put down things they have experience in, which is similar to specialization, but it does not claim qualifications and it is not something all Support Leaders have to put. Then, When submitting an E-Help, there can be a set of side links for the topics one of the prvious posters suggested that says above it message someone experienced in this area, and then the online Support Leaders who are experienced in that area pop-up, and they can select one.

It was also suggested that we get rid of guest submissions. i understand that guest submissions certainly add to the system, but i think we need to keep them. Part of what makes Livewire great as iwashere85 said, is that guests can also come here and get help. The site says it is, "For teens, by teens." This means that all teens should be able to get help here, with or without an account. That being said, i agree with greatescape11 that members who contribute here should have a higher priority. Maybe, we can have a red dot next to ehelps from members and a green one next to ehelps from guests, just like high priority messages get a red dot, while normal ones get a green dot. This would tell Support Leaders to prioritize the members first. i still think it should be held at discretion of the Support Leader, but it would be a helpful guide. Also, to ensure guests are more likely to return, when they submit their E-ehlp, a link of where it is should be provided to them and it can say, please keep this carefully to receive your responses. Also, to avoid the titles problem the front page should just have a link saying click here to submit a post, but should not allow them to start typing till they have the full submission form. i also think that prompting the guests to start an account is a good idea. It should not be mandatory, but it should be recommended.

Another suggestion was to allow a maximum of 2 submissions to the ehelp system in 48 hours. While this would reduce our load, i dont think this is a good idea, because we never know how many emergencies and what kind of situation a person may be in. They could quite possibly need mroe than 2 in 48 hours, so such a limit i think would be against the purpose and intent of the system. It was further recommended that we implement a minimum word requirement, i also feel that this is also wrong because it says that emergencies must be at least a certain size, and again, we cannot make sure a determination.

It was also suggested that we bump up the minimum replies to 3. i think that many ehelps merit at least 3 replies, and the same time, some of the ones that ask about sexual things, like "can fingering cause me to bleed" can be answered with just one well written reply as the current ehelp of this is. i think that the default should be three, but that just as we have Moderators for each forum, we should have some for the ehelp system who can change the minimum replies needed based on the topic and the responses received. Otherwise, the replying can become excessive in some topics, and time that could have been put elsewhere will be diverted to a topic that already has been adequately answered.

A Report E-help button was also suggested. i think this button can be helpful as long as it is manged by the moderators, but really it should only be for when someone submits a questions like, "how do i put a photo in my image basket," in which case, the question can be moved to an appropriate forum or answered by the moderator and removed from the ehelp system.

Implementing a Reply Quota was also suggested. i dont not think this is a good idea, because it will either force people to reply and possibly lead to less Suppport Leaders and lower quality responses or it will lead to needing a quality measuring standard, which again is very subjective. Furthermore, sometimes people end up in situations where they are gone for a long time and cannot reply, like last summer i was sent off for 3 months and had no computer access. i do think though that a point scale based on time should be implemented so that the more days you wait the less points a response gets. Its affect will be minimal, but that is better than nothing.

i also like the idea of having E-help Support Leaders and Forum Support Leaders. This can be helpful in dividing the work that Support Leaders must cover. Also, this would allow us to create a counter for the Serious Forum too that would only be on the Forum Support Leaders accounts. i think though that either should be able to respond to things in the domain of the other, but that they will just be expected to stay mostly with one or the other.

i also think that if we do put moderators for the ehelp system, then another thing can be done to the ehelp and Serious Forum. i have heard people complaining that the ratio is just too high aganst us, but there are supportive people who are not Support Leaders. i think that the ehelp and Serious Forum should be able to have posts from anyone; however, when a non Support Leader responds, their response remains hidden, until it is approved by a moderator or voted approved by 2 Support Leaders. This would help keep only good quality replies in and would allow Supportive members that are not Support Leaders more ability to help others. This would also help us even out the odds a bit. i know this last idea would e quite controversial, so i would like to hear your guys thoughts on it.

Anyways, that is just my feedback on the whole thing.

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