The Most Active Threads over the Last Week

Today I'll look back at the most active threads throughout the past week. Most of the top threads have been covered in the daily updates so I'll skip those. What's left are threads from the top ten in numbers of replies or views, but not at the very top of the lists.

Sixth in number of replies for the week was a thread titled, "Reading Groups" which was posted in the "Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS)" forum. The original post is pretty basic and straight forward, simply asking if individual reading groups are still used in 2nd grade. But, as DCUM threads — especially those in the education forums — are wont to do — the thread quickly veered off to different, albeit related, topics. In this case the thread became a discussion of the entire philosophy of teaching reading in FCPS. The DCUM education forums give the impression that schools no longer teach students anything beyond anti-racism and gender studies. I know from my own children's experiences that this isn't the case. But, parents who apparently walked 8 miles to school in the snow, uphill both ways, are having a difficult time adjusting to the newfangled — and dare I say hifalutin — teaching methods being used in schools these days. This thread demonstrates this phenomenon in the case of reading.

Dedicated readers of these posts will know that bicycle-related topics have been very active in the past few weeks. One such thread that did not top the daily lists but was among the top 10 in replies for the week was titled, "Why are there no safety rules regarding children on bikes?". Posted in the "Metropolitan DC Local Politics" forum, the thread appears to be a response to another thread that praised the increased use of cargo bikes around town. This highlights a practice that sometimes occurs on DCUM. Posters start threads in reaction to other threads, often to counter the viewpoint of the other topic. For instance, a thread on the topic of "I like X" might provoke a thread with the subject, "I hate X". The bike discussions have attracted a number of people who just seem to hate bikes and in this thread a bike opponent wraps his anti-bike positon in the guise of a safety concern. Of course the thread ends up going all over the place including posts about vaccine requirements and a discussion of helmet safety.

A thread that wasn't in the top 10 for replies but was for views was titled, "Hilary Swank pregnant with twins" and posted in the "Entertainment and Pop Culture". This thread combines two DCUM hot button issues: a pregnant celebrity and advanced maternal age. The thread quickly devolves into a debate over whether Swank could naturally conceive children at her age or whether donor eggs were involved. The fact that twins are involved plays a major role in either proving or disproving the matter depending on the poster's viewpoint. The obsession with celebrity pregnancies among some DCUM posters has sometimes been problematic. I've basically banned discussions of Hilaria Baldwin because the topic attracts absoute nutjobs.

The last thread I'll touch on today is titled, "parents invited sister to a fall weekend- boundaries crossed" and posted in the "Family Relationships". I haven't read this thread and the original post is pretty lengthy so I'm not going to read it either. I don't know anything about this thread and I'm not commenting on it specifically, but I will say that lately the "Family Relationships" has probably had the biggest ratio of trolls per thread of any forum on DCUM. It is also the case that reality is often so unbelievable that most readers think it must be a troll attempt even when it isn't. So, I get almost daily, if not even more frequent, reports of threads in this forum.