Forum Changes under Consideration

[jsteele]

I am considering making the following changes to the DCUM Forums. I would appreciate feedback on the ideas.

1) Removing the DC Dads forum which has become a discussion between moms;
2) Creating an Adult/Explicit Discussion forum for topics that are not "child-safe" (e.g. most of the topics in the Dads forum);
3) Moving Expectant Moms higher on the menu since it is one of our most popular forums;
4) Adding a Food and Restaurant Discussion Forum;
5) Adding VA and MD public school forums;
6) Combining the Daycare and Pre-school forums into a single forum;
7) Expanding the Summer Camps forum to include classes for children and workshop for/about children

The Gay and Lesbian forum and the Adopted Children forum are not heavily used and I considered dropping them. However, for the time being I prefer to keep them and see if they develop further.

Please let me know your feelings about these ideas. Also, additional thoughts are welcome and appreciated.

[Anonymous]

I am down with all of it.

Curious though. . .would there be battles about what is considered "adult" and what isn't? And any risk of attracting a bunch of perves?

Again, all sounds great.

[Anonymous]

Hi Jeff

Funny, I was recently on the DCUM website when my husband walked in and saw multiple "explicit" posts and wanted to know what in the heck kind of website was DCUM. I told him that those came from the DC Dads forum. Funny that you say most of the discussion has been between moms. In any event, I agree with creating an adult/explicit forum for those sort of posts and deleting the DC Dads forum. I ususally view the "most recent" threads - I assume people would still view these explicit threads in that way - so I don't know that it would necessarily be "child-safe" in reality - but I'm on board with a new forum nonetheless.

I have no feelings one way or another as far as the order of the forums (re: Moving Expectant Moms higher on the menu since it is one of our most popular forums)

As far as adding a Food and Restaurant Discussion Forum - I'm sure you know better than I do, but my initial thoughs are that the forum won't get much use. I mostly post these sort of questions in "off-topic". How about considering expanding the Travel Forum to "Travel & Entertainment"? Or something along those lines?

Re: Adding VA and MD public school forums - I didn't even realize that there was a DC public school forum until just now. If you are going to keep that forum, then creating one for VA and one for MD might be good - but I wonder whether it would just be better to combine all of those into the "Schools General" forum that already exists? Do you think each will get enough traffic independantly? Or a totally different idea - what about combining the "Older Kids" forum with one of these somehow? Maybe combine all into: "Local Public Schools & School-Aged Kids"? Too much for one forum? Just a thought.

No thoughts one way or another on the other proposals.

[Anonymous]

i am also down with all of this.

i had advocated in the past for mandatory user registration. however, the anonymous posting is something i have come to love about DCUM.

stay weird, DCUMers!

[Anonymous]

How about making a marriage/relationship forum? That could be the place to put the majority of the Dads forum topics plus all the spouse rants from General Forum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

As far as adding a Food and Restaurant Discussion Forum - I'm sure you know better than I do, but my initial thoughs are that the forum won't get much use. I mostly post these sort of questions in "off-topic". How about considering expanding the Travel Forum to "Travel & Entertainment"? Or something along those lines?

I think this sounds like a great idea, especially since the Travel Forum appears to be pretty slow.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

As far as adding a Food and Restaurant Discussion Forum - I'm sure you know better than I do, but my initial thoughs are that the forum won't get much use. I mostly post these sort of questions in "off-topic". How about considering expanding the Travel Forum to "Travel & Entertainment"? Or something along those lines?

I think this sounds like a great idea, especially since the Travel Forum appears to be pretty slow.

I agree 100%. This makes great sense. "Travel and Entertainment" could be described as "travel, hotels, restaurants, bars, live entertainment." I think it would get LOTS of traffic.

oh. . .but we lose the "food" part. humm. . .

[Anonymous]

I was going to suggest a stepfamily forum, but in light of this comment:

The Gay and Lesbian forum and the Adopted Children forum are not heavily used and I considered dropping them. However, for the time being I prefer to keep them and see if they develop further.


what about a new category "Nontraditional families" to include GL issues, adoption, stepparenting, even single parenting?

Is that title offensive to people? In any case, I'd love to get stepparenting in there however you can.

Thanks for soliciting feedback.

[Anonymous]

I don't have an opinion about several of the proposals, but I do support creating separate forums for DC, VA and MD public schools. I look at the DCPS forum frequently, and it seems to be pretty active. But I also get the impression that a fair amount of VA/MD residents read/post to that forum if they have a general public school questions. I also think that the General Schools forum is a different type of discussion forum, and it would seem more unwieldy to lump everything into one general forum.

Definitely also support a forum/discussion on kid-friendly restaurants, etc. That could be a good resource.

[Anonymous]

You could also consider some breakouts of the general parenting - breastfeeding, illness, sleep.

[Anonymous]

I agree with all of this, but please keep the Gay/Lesbian and Adoption forums.
Also, can we please have a forum for those seeking Daycare. IE: Daycare Search? Instead of just Daycare General?

[Anonymous]

I would LOVE, LOVE, LOVE a food forum!!! YES YES YES!!!!! (Has nothing to do with travel or entertainment, BTW; I would love an easy place to look up past posts of recipes, weekly menus, etc.) And I am in the process of adopting one of my kids so I was just putting my big to in the Adoption Forum....

Also don't know what's wrong with women being in the DC Dads forum but I am all for giving it the ax specifically because of the attitude regarding that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would LOVE, LOVE, LOVE a food forum!!! YES YES YES!!!!! (Has nothing to do with travel or entertainment, BTW; I would love an easy place to look up past posts of recipes, weekly menus, etc.) And I am in the process of adopting one of my kids so I was just putting my big to in the Adoption Forum....

Also don't know what's wrong with women being in the DC Dads forum but I am all for giving it the ax specifically because of the attitude regarding that.

Meant 'big TOE'.

[Anonymous]

Please keep the adoption forum. I find the non-traditional family sentiment to be offensive in terminology.

[Anonymous]

I wouldn't join daycare with preschools. They are very different. Other than that, no opinion.