Kate's+Support+Group+Page

My project on support groups is going to focus on parenting websites. I've chosen to look at a variety of websites including Babycenter.com, MomsLikeMe.com, TheBlogFrog.com and different parenting blogs.

I joined Babycenter.com and the Babycenter Community. Babycenter is a website that offers information on a variety of topics concerning conception, pregnancy, babies, toddlers, preschoolers, kids, and parents. Articles on the website are written by parenting experts and physicians. In addition, parents can register to receive weekly newsletters for the specific week of their pregnancy or age of their child. Since I baby-sit a 7 month old, I put in her birthday and can now receive emails specific to her age.

This is an screenshot of information provided for the 4th week of a 7 month old's life:



The Babycenter Community lets parents view each other's profiles, journal, add photographs, and join groups and discussion forums about a wide range of topics. I created a profile on the Babycenter Community and joined some groups and left comments on some topics.

The website offers rules and guidelines for what is acceptable. As soon as I joined, a community manager left a note on my profile with the link to the help section of the website.

The following are the guidelines:

Community Guidelines
BabyCenter welcomes all, no matter what stage of the parenting journey you are on. From deciding to try, to taking the test; from babies loved and lost and babies learning to crawl and walk; from preschool to grade-school; from the tween years to the teen years and beyond, every member on BabyCenter has the right to share the story of his or her unique parenting journey. Our community is a place of personal free expression, where we value an honest and supportive exchange of ideas and experiences. We encourage celebration of the journey of parenting through sharing of photos, journals, kidisms, and group posts. Please remember that everything you read in our community areas comes from other members. Because our community is so large, BabyCenter doesn't monitor or verify the information posted by our members. We rely on you to keep us informed of violations. The information posted on our groups and journals, including advice and opinions related to medical matters, is the responsibility of the members who create the posts. To read more about responsibilities and potential harm to you and your children arising from user posts, [|click here]. Should you or someone you know have an adverse reaction to a medication or medical device, it's important that it be reported appropriately. For more information on how to responsibly report an adverse reaction, [|click here]. In order to keep this a place where differences in philosophies, beliefs, opinions, and parenting styles are welcomed please help us by following these simple rules.
 * Our Philosophy **
 * Safety First **
 * The Rules **
 * 1. Personal attacks are unacceptable. Read more. **
 * 2. Hate-speech is not permitted. Read more. **
 * 3. Do not deliberately disrupt the community. Read more. **
 * 4. Bullying or harassment will not be tolerated. **
 * 5. Illegal activity is not allowed on the site. **
 * 6. No XXX. **
 * 7. Don’t solicit or reveal personal information or private content – yours or theirs. Read more. **
 * 8. No soliciting or SPAM. Read more. **

Our [|Terms of Use] and [|Do's and Dont's for Users] apply to all of your participation in all areas, public and private, on our website. BabyCenter reserves the right to ban any member at any time for any reason, with or without warning. We have no obligation to delete content that you find personally objectionable or offensive. We reserve the right to modify these rules with or without notice at any time. By participating in our community you are agreeing to abide by the spirit and letter of our guidelines, and to submit to their interpretation and enforcement by our staff. BabyCenter staff will enforce our community guidelines. Violations of these rules or of our Terms of Use may result in your membership being blocked or banned from participating any or all areas of our community and/or your membership being closed and/or your content removed from our site. Group owners may place supplemental rules within their group; those rules do not override the community guidelines and BabyCenter Staff will not enforce those supplemental rules.
 * Please Note **

There is also a list of emoticons and abbreviations commonly used on the website. I have noticed some of these being used in discussion board postings, but, for the most part, they're not used so extensively that a newcomer cannot figure out what everything means.

One group on Babycenter I hope will be useful is the "Meet and Greet" group. Many people simply post that they're new to the website, where they're from, and that they're looking for friends/contacts. I added a new post on this site asking if anyone would be willing to share their experiences with me about Babycenter or any other parenting website to help with my project.

This is an example of what a profile looks like on the Babycenter Community: (This is one of the community manager's who is very active on the website.)



I also created a profile: This is an example of what a group may discuss:

In addition to asking for/receiving advice, many group posts are more of a comparison for users to see how they fit into the community. The question being asked here is "How old are the first time pregnant moms?" Seeing who is a similar age helps parents know whose profiles to check out or connect with and gives everyone a better idea of who uses the website.

MomsLikeMe.com is really similar to BabyCenter but is regionally based and is less focused on individual profiles. Profiled only include a simple "about me" section. Mostly, it is just discussion forums and groups for specific interests (like a neighborhood park). Here is an example of what the forums look like:



The website says this about the forums: "Ask questions, offer advice and swap stories with other local moms in our forums. No topic is off limits."

There are two Wisconsin MomsLikeMe regions but neither includes Madison (which seems rather unusual since it's the second largest city in the state). I joined the Twin Cities website because it's advertised on the radio a lot there.

Another aspect of parenting support groups that I've chosen to look at are parenting blogs. One rather popular parenting blog is kellyskorner.com which has had over 13 millions hits since January 2008. Her blog gained a following when her daughter was born in January 2009 with severe pneumonia, spending several weeks in the neonatal intensive care unit. Since her daughter's full recovery, Kelly Stamps has become an ordinary "mommy blogger" but with a substantial following. Although much of her blogging is to keep a record of the happenings in her family's life, her blog does function as a support group of sorts through the comments. For example, in her February 11, 2009 post she asks her readers for advice on helping babies who won't sleep:

The post received 527 comments offering tips and advice, serving as help for Kelly as well as other mothers who read through the comments.

Some blogs including Kelly's Korner are part of a community called TheBlogFrog. Blog Frog claims to "turn blogs into communities."

As the following screen shot says, Blog Frog allows bloggers to set up a "community" on this website and link to it with a widget on their blog. This goes beyond the community formed through blog comments and gives readers a place to go to connect with one another, ask questions, and interact with others who enjoy a particular blog.

Blog Frog has forums and links to the recent blog posts of anyone who is a member of the community.

This website makes blogs a lot more interactive than they would typically be because users can learn a lot more about individual through direct interaction here.

Here's the Blog Frog Community for Kelly's Korner: