Friday's Most Active Threads

The leading thread in number of replies yesterday was titled, "If you had the money, would you raise your kids in NYC?" and posted in the "General Parenting Discussion" forum. The original post is succinct, simply asking whether if you could afford a suitable apartment, good schools, activities, and travel you would raise your family in New York City. I didn't know about this thread until just now and I'm not convinced that it is posted in the correct forum. Nevertheless, scanning through replies there are a lot of posters who would not raise their children in NYC. There also appear to be a few posters who are already doing it. I noticed more than one post in which the author declared animosity towards NYC based on experiences during college with a New Yorker. It's probably time to let those grudges go and to consider whether a single person is really reflective of the entire 8 million NYC residents.

I constantly remind myself that "different" does not mean "better or worse". Different is just different. With that in mind, the posters who frequent our "College and University Discussion" forum are different. I have one son in college and another going through the application process, so colleges and universities are very much on my mind. Still, I am constantly surprised at the near-fanatical approach taken by many of the forum's posters. A thread in that forum titled, "What are your kid’s top three schools?" was second in number of replies yesterday. However, the thread didn't break into the top 10 in views, suggesting that interest in the topic might be deep, but narrow. Admittedly, this thread seems to have stayed saner than many, but there was still some criticism of other's choices. Moreover, as one poster mentioned, DCUM college applicants only seem to apply to top schools. Where are the average kids applying?

Yesterday's thread with the third highest number of replies was posted in the "Pets" forum. Titled, "What type of dog to get?", the thread was also among the highest in views. I've said before that threads in the Pets forum tend to be dominated by debates about breeders and arguments about pit bulls. This thread appears to have been at least partially highjacked by both topics. However, there were still quite a few recommendations so maybe the thread is still useful.

The thread with the second highest number of views yesterday was posted in the "Tweens and Teens" forum. Titled, "High School Horror", the thread was also among the top in number of replies. I am fairly certain that this is a troll thread. The poster says that her child's friend has spread rumors about her child that have caused "Everyone my child knows" to hate him, spit on him, and throw garbage on their lawn. In a later post, the original poster writes, "When we walk down the street, teens we don't know yell, 'you need to die.'" This story is hard to believe on the face of it, but looking at other threads from the same poster it is clear that — at a minimum — what might be politely described as "artistic license" is frequently employed. Given the possibility that I am wrong about this being a troll, I am leaving the thread for now. But, I may remove it later.