Reply to What happened to the babysitter thread?

Forum Index » Website Feedback

Reply to "What happened to the babysitter thread?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=jsteele][quote=Anonymous][quote=jsteele]We have a specific babysitting forum in the nanny section. We are pretty hardline about this topic. You can choose not to use the nanny forums, but if you post here, it will likely be deleted. [/quote]

But why?

Most people who are posting about babysitting issues want to hear from other parents and maybe parents of teens, not nannies.

And very few parents and certainly not parents of teens are interested in the nanny forums.

This seems like a strange issue to be hardline about.  Would you possibly consider poling your audience in the parenting forums to see what they actually want? Babysitting, and ESPECIALLY questions like OPs with the teen sitter sneaking in boys and hiding them in the garage are an issue where someone needs feedback from parents and not nannies. Wouldn't letting the posters choose where topics such as these need to be based off who they want input from make much more sense tuan deleting every thread that happens to mention the word "babysitter"?

To me that is the equivalent of moving the thread titled "My inlaws won't shut up about Donald Trump and it's driving me to drink until Christmas with the inlaws is over" to the politics board simply because it mentions Donald Trump, when the real issue/question is about relationships with the inlaws and should stay in the family relationship forum where the OP posted.

If my memory serves me correctly (and it might not) you started the separate nanny site based on suggestions and input mostly from the nannies. Why not consider input from the parents on this issue so they can get the most valuable feedback from the people whose experience and input they are seeking (other parents)?[/quote]

The issue with babysitting posts is their relationship with nanny posts. While some people make very clear distinctions between the terms "babysitter", "nanny", "au pair", etc., many others tend to use "babysitter" to describe any type of hired caregiver. As a result, it is very difficult to allow "babysitting" posts while prohibiting "nanny" posts. We prohibit nanny posts here as a result of moving the "nanny search" and "nanny available" forums to a separate area. There are nine nanny search/available forums plus two housekeeper forums that used to be in this section. In order to be able to create more interesting forums without the list of forums getting out of control, we moved those 11 forums to their own area. It was almost everyone's opinion at that time that those forums would not be successful if the "nanny discussion" forum were not also moved. So, that was moved also. Due to requests from users, I also created an au pair forum and the babysitting forum.

With any product, there has to be trade-offs. Many of you might be familiar with the options of Fast, Good, and Cheap of which you are allowed to pick two. You can't have all three. DCUM is the same in that we can't meet every desire and always have to make trade-offs. Some of the trade-offs might seem questionable to you, and in reality may actually have been poor trade-offs. But, I'm happy with our track record. One trade off I am willing to make is babysitter posts. In fact, there isn't much interest here in babysitting posts and most of the interest that does exist is in regard to how to find a babysitter. I know this because I know how relatively rare it is for me to remove a babysitter post. Therefore, the bottom line is that we've chosen to prioritize other topics above babysitter posts. Again, there is no doubt that many will disagree with my priorities and you may, in fact, be correct. But, also again, I am happy with my track record.

There is an argument that can be made that some discussions that involve babysitting fit well in the tween/teen forum. I am not oblivious to that argument and have in the past actually ignored some babysitting posts in that forum. I don't value consistency in moderating the forum as much as some might hope and always reserve the right to make an exception. You are always free to make a post that may not be allowed and risk its deletion. Given the fact that I probably won't see the post for quite some time, you will likely get some answers before I get around to removing it.

Finally, in response to other posts that describe a heightened "police state" on DCUM, I can only say that I have not been actively moving or deleting threads in greater numbers than previously. If anything, since I have been on vacation, I have done it less. Posters only seem to get bothered by these things when it happens to their posts and then, suddenly, it is a crisis. I don't claim to always get things right, but as I've mentioned twice already, I'm happy with my track record. 
[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics