Hello fellow NY'ers, Is this where we are going to be meeting now that Urban Baby is being shut down?

I found DCUM through UB, and just this week recommended UB to someone relocating to NYC. I hadn't been in awhile so went last night and was surprised to learn UB is shutting down.

I love the format here because topics come back to the top if they have a lot of responses, which I promotes discussion. And so many topics! Love that. I have only wished that there was more activity on the NYC forum here. So I am super excited that it could take off now. A definite win-win for me.

Anonymous wrote:
I get how lost you feel. A board I used to frequent on reddit was banned in the recent purge, and it broke my heart.

Oh no. Where can you spread hate speech now?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCUM is not well moderated. They delete posts that make liberals look bad. I used to think it was well moderated pre-Covid.

NP - I don’t find this to be true at all. Racist, hurtful junk gets deleted, yes, but I’ve found that thoughtful posts remain regardless of political orientation.

I’m a crazy right-wing Trumper, and I totally agree. It’s candidly pretty amazing how light a hand Jeff uses here, and I’m not 100% sure that his good nature on the moderation point isn’t going to come back to get him cancelled someday, so I try to be measured in my nuttier posts, just out of politeness.

On the thread topic, I think this is a more informative place and a much nicer place than UB, but a little more staid in keeping with the more buttoned-up DC culture (relative to NYC where UB has its roots). If you miss the high-speed snark of UB—and let’s face it, who doesn’t enjoy that from time to time?—YBM can give you that fix as a supplement to DCUM. The format likely drives this difference to some extent, since you have to click on each topic to see posts, it’s less conversational and more like a traditional message board. It’s more thoughtful here, but much less witty, and it doesn’t have the same kind of insider culture. No monikers, for instance.

Why are they closing? I visit often! I like that here you don’t have to have an account to comment.

Anonymous wrote:Will there be a thread for child free readers? i am a professional woman, married, mid 40s and due to health issues, have no children but many of the issues that kept me posting on UB was career, fashion, entertainment, cooking topics and very few boards have all that.

Plenty of childfree folks here. Check the Forum Index for all those subjects. Welcome!

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/forums/list.page

Hello New Yorkers. Moved here from UrbanBaby.

We really need "you sound fat" mom to be here too.

Will there be a thread for child free readers? i am a professional woman, married, mid 40s and due to health issues, have no children but many of the issues that kept me posting on UB was career, fashion, entertainment, cooking topics and very few boards have all that.

Anonymous wrote:DCUM is not well moderated. They delete posts that make liberals look bad. I used to think it was well moderated pre-Covid.

NP - I don’t find this to be true at all. Racist, hurtful junk gets deleted, yes, but I’ve found that thoughtful posts remain regardless of political orientation.

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote: Personal attacks are not allowed here.

Jeff if we have threads here not related specifically to NYC will you move them or let them stay here on this NYC area board? I live in CA but have been on here and on urbanbaby for 5 years now. I know you sometimes move threads from one board to another that is a better fit.

I liked the community on urbanbaby but the moderating was badly done. You run much, much better boards.

My practice is to be responsive to the users. So, I would let other UB refugees (I hope that is an acceptable name for you folks) state their preference and then I would adhere to that. If most users want all the NYC topics to be in this forum regardless whether they are political, about schools, about restaurants, or whatever, that is fine with me. You obviously still retain the option of posting in our other forums. If you want more subforms created for NYC, I can do that as well. Consider this your forum rather than my forum and tell me how you want it to be operated.

I think NYC sub-forums are a great idea, especially if there was one for NYC school admissions as that was one of the big draws of UrbanBaby.

We first need to determine whether there is an overall preference for one forum or separate forums. If it looks like most of you would be interested in multiple forums, we should think of three or four. Off the top of my head I think NYC Metro Schools, Real Estate, and maybe Politics. Also maybe just an NYC General Parenting or something like that. Whatever ideas you have.

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote: Personal attacks are not allowed here.

Jeff if we have threads here not related specifically to NYC will you move them or let them stay here on this NYC area board? I live in CA but have been on here and on urbanbaby for 5 years now. I know you sometimes move threads from one board to another that is a better fit.

I liked the community on urbanbaby but the moderating was badly done. You run much, much better boards.

My practice is to be responsive to the users. So, I would let other UB refugees (I hope that is an acceptable name for you folks) state their preference and then I would adhere to that. If most users want all the NYC topics to be in this forum regardless whether they are political, about schools, about restaurants, or whatever, that is fine with me. You obviously still retain the option of posting in our other forums. If you want more subforms created for NYC, I can do that as well. Consider this your forum rather than my forum and tell me how you want it to be operated.

I think NYC sub-forums are a great idea, especially if there was one for NYC school admissions as that was one of the big draws of UrbanBaby.

DCUM is not well moderated. They delete posts that make liberals look bad. I used to think it was well moderated pre-Covid.

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote: Personal attacks are not allowed here.

Jeff if we have threads here not related specifically to NYC will you move them or let them stay here on this NYC area board? I live in CA but have been on here and on urbanbaby for 5 years now. I know you sometimes move threads from one board to another that is a better fit.

I liked the community on urbanbaby but the moderating was badly done. You run much, much better boards.

My practice is to be responsive to the users. So, I would let other UB refugees (I hope that is an acceptable name for you folks) state their preference and then I would adhere to that. If most users want all the NYC topics to be in this forum regardless whether they are political, about schools, about restaurants, or whatever, that is fine with me. You obviously still retain the option of posting in our other forums. If you want more subforms created for NYC, I can do that as well. Consider this your forum rather than my forum and tell me how you want it to be operated.

Jeff, that's incredibly generous. Thank you.

Anonymous wrote:Jeff - thanks so much for the clear explanation!

are there any "rules of the road" of which one should be aware before posting on here? UB was basically a free-for-all where touchy subjects like race and sexuality could be discussed candidly. is this a similar nabe?

In the Entertainment forum, Jeff is pretty strict about one thread per subject. So if you're following the Kristen Cavalleri/Jay Cutler split for example, any relevant posts should be confined to a single thread. We have some posters from London/UK who are obsessed with the royal family who have in the past tried to post new threads about every inane move, but lately they've been confined pretty well.

There's a tendency here for the first post on any thread to be especially nasty. It's like a phenomena. I chalk it up to a sort of "dance, jester, dance" syndrome. Some people camp out here all day, and if a new post doesn't resonate with them, they throw out a nasty first response. Which can end up derailing the thread. Best practice is to report these (using the report button on the post), and Jeff is very good about deleting them.

On politics, stick to the subject and avoid name-calling, and you'll find all viewpoints are welcome.

Posts about politician's children are not allowed and will be deleted.

I'm sure there are others, but this is what comes to mind now.

I get how lost you feel. A board I used to frequent on reddit was banned in the recent purge, and it broke my heart. I hope you guys can regroup, and I think you'll find this a pretty cool place. Good luck to you all.