What Do YOU Love About Mamapedia?

What do I love about Mamapedia? I've met some AWESOME people here...some who are no longer on the site but we are friends outside of here.

What do I NOT like? The trolls. I've stayed away for the past several weeks because it's Christmas vacation and that's when the trolls come out and it just gets INSANE....

I would love an easier way to delete flowers instead of right clicking on them and opening them in a new window.

I'd love to have a better search engine on the site.

I'd love to be able to sort my flowers and friends...if that makes sense...there are times I'm looking for a specific person or a message and it takes me a LONG time to find it.

Here is a suggestion...

When I view my flowers...it would be nice to see the title of the question for which I received a flower. Now you have to click on the "contribution" link to take you to the question.

Welcome aboard!!

I've been here since Mamasource days about 10 years ago.

I love the different perspectives of so many moms (and dads)

I've formed many personal friendships which go beyond this site.

I've personally received an overflowing amount of support from members I don't know personally and that is very appreciated.

I come back because some members are like family to me and I truly care about them.

I love the flowers! :) Wish there was less nastiness-it's not often thank God but when it happens it's ugly. Tired of peoples advertising and having to report it. Love the general idea of Mamapedia! Very helpful. Most people on this site are beyond awesome.

I love all the helpful answers people give and I love getting a variety of different opinions on things. It helps me to try to see things from a new angle. I'm curious...how many hours a week does your job take? Is it 10% of your time and then you also work on other things at your place of business? I was feeling curious. No offense, but I keep thinking it should be Moms who are running the site! But I guess more men than women go into computer jobs at this point in time. Really, I mean no offense. I'm sure you are great at your job. I like the Questions and Answers best. My only concern is that we are able to stay anonymous in case family members ever join this site. It's a place where I can vent to strangers and I don't ever want someone close to me to see that I complained about them.

I love the help here.I love the fact that I might need to know something and so many people write almost immediately. I love being able to help people from whatever I have been through. And it feels great seeing those flowers when I might have helped not one but a couple of people! Most of all, with the exception of a few, people are very non judgemental and do offer wonderful advice. I never grow tired of seeing the same kind of question rephrased and written by someone who has never gone through this.So in my opinion keep em coming. We are like a little village and as the saying goes 'it takes a village to raise a child.' Good luck on your position and know we are all behind you M.!

Well I have been on here since it was Mama-source (or something like that) and have enjoyed interacting with other parents.

It would be nice to be able to delete very old questions and flowers. It would also be nice to respond to other peoples responses to a question.

You guys really need to lay off of the creepy web cam profile pictures! :)

You don't have a cool name like Jake, from Mamapedia.

I guess we can go M. M. M. M. M. and act like camels. :)

Oh and leave up the count chocula trolls, they make me laugh.....

hi M.!
i love the community. i love the way we've made connections and kept them over the years. i love sending flowers. so much more fun than an ol' 'like' button. :) i keep coming back for the interest, the support, the wisdom.
the stuff that doesn't work would probably be very hard to 'fix' without fundamentally changing the whole system, which as a whole i like. i don't know how to deal with spammers other than to remove them as soon as they're reported, which you guys are doing pretty efficiently these days, or to encourage new people to add enough info to their questions to make it more substantial than a tweet.
i think the new management has done a great job of cleaning up most of what made MP almost unbearable for a while. i look forward to seeing what else y'all get up to in the new year.
:) khairete
S.

I sincerely appreciate the helpful information, insight, advice, support and wisdom I've received on here! There are many thoughtful people willing to lend a virtual hand.

I almost never read those blog things on the front page. I like the personal questions and answers.

I WISH WISH WISH I could delete the hundreds of flowers that have piled up over time. I sincerely appreciate receiving flowers, but there's no way to clean them up.

Sometimes I wonder if there could be a way, for a person posting their very first question, to sort of approve that question prior to its being posted. That way, if a person writes "Help. My child has a fever" with no other information, a moderator could respond by saying "other parents will want to know details, such as the age of your child, how high the fever is, whether you have contacted a health care professional, etc. Please don't limit your question to a brief non-descriptive sentence." There could even be a stock statement that applies to many situations, such as "please rephrase your question so that more details are included in order to receive helpful advice". Or, if the person posts a stupid troll question, or a link to advertising, the post would never make it to the question and answer page. Once a person establishes himself or herself as reliable, even if we don't always agree with the viewpoint, that supervision wouldn't be needed.

Over the years (probably 8) that I've been on, I've learned a lot of things.
I've learned to let go of 'one right way' thinking.
I've learned that a lot of kids we worry about turn out okay.
I've learned that, while there is a huge spectrum of parenting philosophies, we all want the same thing for the most part: to grow happy, healthy, solid future citizens.

I've learned that developing a thick skin about my own opinions and feelings is a good thing. People on this site have challenged me, as I'm sure I've challenged a few. I've learned that being honest is better in the long run. I'm also learning the skill of selectively ignoring some things that bother me and not getting hooked in.

Still working on all of those things. We are all a work in progress.
And so this doesn't sound purely theoretical, I've met some neat women on this site who continue to provide camaraderie and inspiration and support.

My only problem is that shockwave tends to flub up my browser, making it lag. So I have to close and restart everything from time to time. :(

I love having differing opinions. Sometimes we need that opposing opinion to shake us out of our rut or line of thinking. If things are said in a respectful way, even BLUNTLY, it's okay. I find many of us have different opinions on things and when others post their comments I can see more options.

I don't want Yes men/woman giving me the answers they think I want, that's not what this place is for. It's for enlightenment and education and learning more about other's lives.

What I don't like is that we don't have a "Get rid of flowers" button on our account because I have nearly 26K messages and although most of them are flowers there are a few that aren't hate mail that I might like to read. Other than that I love mamapedia and although it's not my home page, FB is because I manage business pages for several businesses in my town, it is the site I visit most often.

I have also been around since Mama-source. I like being able to get a different perspective or just hear how people are doing things differently in different areas of the country. Being down in South Florida, I often feel isolated but am aware enough to know that life here is an outlier. I lived in Alexandria, VA - also an outlier - previously as well as many other places.

I hate the trolls and I do not like the amount of animosity that has been here lately. Why can't we feel safe to ask questions, even if they are political? No one is forced to answer a question. Also - it would be nice if basic manners were enforced.

Thank you and welcome!
C.

Hi, M.. I have been here quite a while and appreciate all the questions/answers from moms, dads, and grandparents. I really like getting the opinions of such a wide range of people – from different locations, backgrounds, areas of expertise, experiences. I love the support we give each other.

I have never been lucky enough to meet any of the others in person, but so many feel like family. I do like the friend option that many don’t use. I do, so I can quickly go to a “friends” questions/answers because I respect their opinions.

I love to send/receive flowers but I do wish it was easier to see at least a portion of the question when receiving a flower.

Things I don’t like – I have been getting a lot of “Mamapedia is not responding” and need to click on “recover webpage.” After a couple of times I get frustrated & leave for a couple of days. I really don’t know if it’s your website or my computer, but I don’t get this message from any other website.

I also don’t like that apparently some of our questions are added to the Mamapedia Facebook page. I think we all agree that the two should be separate, not duplicated.

I hate that many of the regulars have left this site. I wish there was a way for you to “invite” them back!

That’s it for now..if I think of more, I’ll add later. PS..thanks for asking :) 

ETA I hate the search engine..it is almost impossible to search for a specific question and actually locate it! That's one reason I like the "friend" section, I can at least locate a question/answer from one of my friends.

Hello M., I love the great advice I've received here....especially when my kids were little and I was a
new mom. Those tips were invaluable. I love the diversity, the interesting backgrounds that help contribute to
a well-rounded community, the specific advice is immesurable, the fun thing? Well, they just make your day
in an other-wise long and hard-working day. The only thing I dislike (with a vengance) is the new format.
It's not as easy to read nor it is it as user-friendly. Other than that.....I love the website and reading the
comments!

Welcome M.!
I've been around for about 9 years. A lot of care, wisdom, and support is shared on this forum.

Ditto to Doris Day's concerns about posts being linked to Facebook and also members being slammed in posts and the negative content not being removed quickly enough.

Maybe you've already asked this--forgive me if so, but why not ask what we DON'T like?
Isn't that how you improve things?
Need to be able to actually delete bazillions of flowers etc. in a time effective way.
MP needs to actually enforce its own rules on trolls, flaming, etc. you know, walk the walk?
Otherwise I like it--not as much as the old format but....😕
The trolls are just annoying and all it would take would be a little vigilance and they could be removed.