How/Has DCUM shaped your impression of local private schools?

[Anonymous]

What I have learned from reading DCUM is how petty and mean a lot of moms are. Live and let live.

[Anonymous]

Really reconsidering public.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Really reconsidering public.

You have to take everything you read here with a grain of salt and a sense of humor. People on this board purposefully push buttons -- leaning outrageous more than reality. This is classic infotainment. Without it, there would be far fewer readers.

[Anonymous]

It seems to me that I used to find much more useful or thought-provoking discussions on DCUM. Now it is really a timewaster that I use when I am procrastinating about doing something else. This probably in part due to my child now being past the admissions stage (which was stressful for me) and happily ensconced in his school. When high school admissions rolls around, perhaps I will again find more useful posts again. But I tend to check in for a few minutes every few days ... wish I could break that habit!

[Anonymous]

It seems to me that I used to find much more useful or thought-provoking discussions on DCUM

Old-timer here. This is totally true, and I think a major reason why is that participation used to be more limited to a smaller group of, frankly, more focused participants.

Now it is clear that a lot of the drama and ridiculous commentary on the Private Schools forum is fueled by kids themselves, posing as adults. ("I would never send my kids to GDS because all GDS girls have oral sex in the Safeway parking lot by the time they are 13. And they sell drugs. Their drama department is good.")

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

It seems to me that I used to find much more useful or thought-provoking discussions on DCUM

Now it is clear that a lot of the drama and ridiculous commentary on the Private Schools forum is fueled by kids themselves, posing as adults. ("I would never send my kids to GDS because all GDS girls have oral sex in the Safeway parking lot by the time they are 13. And they sell drugs. Their drama department is good.")

Nuh uh! No way their drama department is as good as [insert school here]!

[Anonymous]

Although I understand the benefits of anonymous posting, much of the silly input not to mention sock puppeting could be done away with if folks had to login with at least a stable pseudonym.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Although I understand the benefits of anonymous posting, much of the silly input not to mention sock puppeting could be done away with if folks had to login with at least a stable pseudonym.

Doing that would grind activity and participation to a halt. Sure, it might scare off some of the trolls, but it would also deter a lot of legit posters from contributing.

[SAM2]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Although I understand the benefits of anonymous posting, much of the silly input not to mention sock puppeting could be done away with if folks had to login with at least a stable pseudonym.

Doing that would grind activity and participation to a halt. Sure, it might scare off some of the trolls, but it would also deter a lot of legit posters from contributing.

I disagree. Most other message boards require logins, and many with logins have very healthy participation. In fact, I think DCUM might be the only message board I know of that does not require logins.

[Anonymous]

I had never heard of Beauvoir (although I had heard of STA and NCS) or the Potomac School before finding this board.

[Anonymous]

This website has little credibility as its 100% anonymous. You don't even have to register for screen-name. Any poster who has lots of time on their hands could post multiple posts in one day. Its pretty aparent to me, that current HS students to adults post on this anonymous forum based on the inside scoop you find across the threads.

[Anonymous]

I love how kids are blamed for so many of the outrageous posts. Sure, many posts are childish, but generally the fixations and the attitudes don't seem to belong to teens.

[Anonymous]

I would be interested in hearing form Jeff about his views of a posts by members only rule for the site and the impact it would likely have on hits and ad revenue. Do the ad sources differntiate between anonymous and restricted access sites in setting compensation levels, or is it simply a function of hits (or some other metric)?

[Anonymous]

I love how kids are blamed for so many of the outrageous posts. Sure, many posts are childish, but generally the fixations and the attitudes don't seem to belong to teens.

Are you kidding? It is exactly the fixations that are the work of teens.

Just about any -obsessive- 347-comment thread having to do with 1. teen sex 2. teen oral sex 3. Landon varsity lax or 4. college admissions from 2009/2010 is guaranteed to be the product of bickering teens and tweens.

Look, there just are not that many parents on DCUM who have teens. That's a fact. Want to test this? Post a straight-forward, non-loaded question having to do specifically with teens in General Parenting. Maybe ask for BTDT advice concerning adolescent pediatrics or advice on 'opening a savings account my teenager'. You'll get 35 views and a whopping 4 answers. That's because no one on DCUM has actually been there, done that with teens, because we all have toddlers and preschoolers. A few of us have school age kids.

Now post a fake question in Private Schools asking innocently about "Does your child's private high school dispense birth control?" and you'll get suddenly get 128 answers from DCUM "parents" about how Potomac girls are sluttier than Holton girls so of COURSE they hand out diaphragms in the hall. Or Landon boys start having sex on average at age 14. Or a million other answers from these brand new DCUM subscribers with "teens."

[Anonymous]

PP here. Except for Beauvoir. Beauvoir is in a class by itself and I believe that those 445 comment threads probably are the work of insane mothers.