Feedback please!

Nevyn

It's been an intresting year for the parenting forum, unregistered posting was enabled and there as been the addition of the two subforums and of a new mod. The forum seems to get busier each month with more people contributing then before.

So at this stage after consultation with the other parenting mods I am going to open a thread for feedback on the forum.

This thread will hopeful be helpful to us all, suggestions and ideas are welcome as is constructive criticism, but specific issues with moderation are not included, as there is a process for dealing with that, but general discussions are.

So lets have your feedback please!

Grawns

Well I think you're all doing a great job. Keep it up

hairyfairy00

I'm so grateful for the parenting forum, it helped me get through a tough pregnancy and when i didn't know who to turn to about having a preemie baby it was good to come on here and read about other parents in the same situation.

Deliverance

Very good forum for any parent to visit for advice. The nature of the posters and their issues or entertaining input for me has been great. I imagine that is because parents that want to ask for advice are the type that are concerned and experienced parents.

I have struggled to find anything bad to say about this forum but for the life of me I cannot find anything bad to say in that sense.

The moderation has been mostly excellent by keeping things on track and offering advice as well. Ok the mod said that we cannot discuss this: but I think a positive note would do no harm... the mods rare intervention on this forum has been efficient and thought out. When issues did arise... The issues were dealt with eloquently and nicely via PM in my experience.

One thing that I would like to see on this forum as a sticky in the hard economic times is a kind of parenting bargain alerts. It worked well at xmas and got lots of feedback at that time.

As a suggestion...A more specific bargain alert specifically aimed at parents, single parents, single dads etc? I think this would benifit parents and the forum. I find lots of activities and bargains generally and feel that lots of other parents would benefit as such.

metrovelvet

Great idea deliverance!

Khannie

Deliverance wrote: »

One thing that I would like to see on this forum as a sticky in the hard economic times is a kind of parenting bargain alerts.

I had actually considered this and I think it's a really good idea. Definitely worth a lash anyway. I thought a freecycle thread might be good too. Maybe the two could be combined (maybe not).

Another idea I had was a ladies only section for ladies to talk about lady specific things. I'd be happy to stay out of such a section (even as a mod, unless some of the female mods weren't responding). Sometimes I'll dip into threads that I'm not intersted in to make sure there's no medical advice being dished out etc. but people might talk more freely about things knowing there weren't any men about. It's just an idea.

Nevyn

Khannie wrote: »

I had actually considered this and I think it's a really good idea. Definitely worth a lash anyway. I thought a freecycle thread might be good too. Maybe the two could be combined (maybe not).

It's certainly something to consider.

Khannie wrote: »

Another idea I had was a ladies only section for ladies to talk about lady specific things. I'd be happy to stay out of such a section (even as a mod, unless some of the female mods weren't responding). Sometimes I'll dip into threads that I'm not intersted in to make sure there's no medical advice being dished out etc. but people might talk more freely about things knowing there weren't any men about. It's just an idea.

In terms of what the pregnancy subforum?
The pregnancy chat chat has plenty of women sharing as it is.

Khannie

Thaedydal wrote: »

In terms of what the pregnancy subforum?
The pregnancy chat chat has plenty of women sharing as it is.

Fair enough. I tend to keep out of it.

Nevyn

I don't, it's nice to ready how people are doing an offer advice if I can same as the Dad's thread in that forum.

Khannie

Slightly different (as I've discovered ). Women have more bodily function issues during pregnancy and parenthood than men do. I would rather the ladies feel they can discuss these things in comfort.

Nevyn

Do you know people who have been put of posting but would do so if a thread was marked ladies only? I've seen a lot of fairly graphic enough posts in there and there is the option of unregstered posting.

Sleepy

+1 for the Freecycle / Bargain Alerts sticky...

and well done on the modding guys, it's hardly noticeable which is always the best indication of good modding to me.

silja

I like the idea of a bargain alert too, not that it would do me personally any good (not living in Ireland right now). Probably best as a sub forum than a stick thread, asstickies get long and laborious to get through.

I don't think a "ladies only" thread is needed, couldn't be policed anyways.

It may be worth having more sub forums (such as babies toddlers school questions and issues teenagers), as for example I have no interest in the questions about how to get into good schools and school policies etc. But then again, that may fracture the cohesiveness of the forum too much.

m5ex9oqjawdg2i

Sleepy wrote: »

+1 for the Freecycle / Bargain Alerts sticky...

and well done on the modding guys, it's hardly noticeable which is always the best indication of good modding to me.

Careful, we are not allowed to discuss the modding issues, of this forum... lol I wonder why? :rolleyes:

Thaedydal wrote: »

but specific issues with moderation are not included

Sleepy

A general compliment != a specific issue Iamxavier.

A specific issue would be 'I shouldn't be banned for telling people to read posts before commenting on them'...

Nevyn

We asked for constructive feedback and general comments on moderation are allowed but picking over certain specifics won't be permitted, if you have an issue or a complaint with the moderation of the forum then here is a link to how raise it.

Anyone who can't play nice will be told they can't post in the forum any more.

littlebug

I can't think of anything negative

I do like the bargain idea but maybe with a caution about people advertising their own bargains/ businesses? Not that that's necessarily a bad thing but maybe there would need to be some limits and rules?

Great to have an equal measure of female/ male mods. I imagine it encourages the daddys to contribute and post more.

m5ex9oqjawdg2i

Thaedydal wrote: »

We asked for constructive feedback and general comments on moderation are allowed but picking over certain specifics won't be permitted, if you have an issue or a complaint with the moderation of the forum then here is a link to how raise it.

Anyone who can't play nice will be told they can't post in the forum any more.

I apologise. I do find the forum to be very informative. Good job all.

pickarooney

I think it's a great forum and am surprised there's not more traffic, to be honest. I can't think of any suggested improvements off-hand, which is more than likely a good thing.

Nevyn

Well a certain professional parenting site with initials RC advertises in all health clinics and gps offices all over the country, and there are some other specific yummy mummy sites as well which are more like socail networking sites then parenting sites with locked forums.

The RC one does tend to get my goat when posters don't contribute to a thread other then to point people to there, if a person wanted to they could read and post there but they chose here to post and ask thier question.

Both www.boards.ie/parenting and parenting.boards.ie redirect to here, I asked for that to happen cos it makes it easier to tell people about the forum, it's a lot easier to remember and brings people directly here.

parsi

I think this forum is quite good.

It veers well away from the "other" forum style which seems to be very (or so I'm told by herself) "there, there love - of course you're right and the big bad X is wrong". These also seem to be predominantly female based.

In some ways boards is perceived as a male place or a nerdy place so it may not always be the first port of call for these topics but surely there will be crossover as the males / nerds grow up and become parents

Nevyn

I have seen people sign up just for this forum and find it, well, refreshing compared to some of the other sites out there, hopefully it will stay that way.

simu

Just one thing that annoys me a bit - why is the pregnancy forum called "pregnant"? "Pregnancy" would make more sense tbh.

Overall though, I would have to say that my name is simu and I approve of this forum (and its subforum).

Nevyn

I think it was labels that way due to the TTC forum, so that people move from being
trying to conceive to being pregnant to parenting.

stovelid

No complaints here.

caprilicious

silja wrote: »

It may be worth having more sub forums (such as babies toddlers school questions and issues teenagers), as for example I have no interest in the questions about how to get into good schools and school policies etc. But then again, that may fracture the cohesiveness of the forum too much.

I would +1 the above suggestion, I loved the pregnancy forum and the support was fantastic.
Plus I suppose because we were all on our little 9 month journey, there was always a reason to dip in and out of the forum, whereas I find in parenting there's such a large expanse of topics relative to older children that I don't always find threads relative to my current situation.

It is a fantastic resource though regardless and I found it brilliant even in these early days to get advice.
The format is also a lot more user friendly than any of the other pregnancy/parenting specific websites.

Modding excellent also as ye both are very active in the forum and offer excellent advice. Its supportive moderating rather than dictatorial.
Plus you can't really get more qualified for the job than a mod that's delivered his own lil one

Thumbs up from me

Khannie

Not sure about more sub-forums...just as a user rather than as a mod. It's not that it's a bad idea, I'm just not sure that there's enough traffic for it.

I had another idea the other day: What about a "little questions" thread? I have little questions all the time that I wouldn't mind getting feedback on but wouldn't be arsed starting a new thread about (too dramatic for such trivial things). Are other people like this too?

My own feedback: I think the place has come on in leaps and bounds over the last while. There's a real sense of community here that has grown a lot over the last while. It's nice to hear that people don't have a problem with my modding, but I wouldn't want people to hold back if they did.

Nevyn

Well maybe a tag system can be put in place on threads like in some of the other forums.
Have a 0-2 years, 3-7 years, 8-12years and teens ?

silja

Thaedydal wrote: »

Well maybe a tag system can be put in place on threads like in some of the other forums. Have a 0-2 years, 3-7 years, 8-12years and teens ?

Not really familiar with the tag system, but sounds like an idea. I'd suggest 0-1 year (=baby), 1-4 years (=toddler), 5-12 years (kids) and teens.

we'llallhavetea_old

just another +1 on the bargain thread, think its a great idea

Ludo

Khannie wrote: »

Not sure about more sub-forums...just as a user rather than as a mod. It's not that it's a bad idea, I'm just not sure that there's enough traffic for it.

Sorry for bringing up this thread again, but I agree with Khannie here regarding forum traffic.

Personally, I feel the sub-forum for newborns/toddlers idea is/was not a good idea. I know it is early days yet but it seems to have fractured the flow of the forum. If you want to have a quick scan for threads relating to young children you now have to read 2 forums as they are all over the place.
Also parents of toddlers will be parents of slightly older children soon so those threads may be of interest to them soon. The split seems artificial and unnecessary and has lessened the usefulness of the forum IMHO.