Weaving the Web |
thoughtful discussion about families and parenting.
What could be lonelier than fifty thousand homesteads and nowhere to meet for a good heart to heart talk? No matter, the cure is just a clickable link away, on one of the many discussion forums on the web. Even Geocities now offers a fledgeling set of forums! Wherever you live, someone who will share your interests and issues is as nearby as your modem on one of these outstanding online message boards. The Heartland Herald recommends the following boards as especially good places to meet other parents and to discuss common concerns about parenting.
Note: You'll need to register a unique member name and password with most services to join discussion. In all cases it takes only a minute or two, and is free. All services assure your privacy. Registration is to protect you from someone posting messages in your name.
Enter a keyword for the discussion topic that interests you:
FEN (Family Education Network) discussion conferences went online at
about the same time Geocities put up the first ad for Community Leaders, and Geocitizens have been meeting and swapping ideas with each other in the FEN forums ever since.
Heartland Herald founder and first editor Dennis Randall, now moderator of the Family Education Network Conferences "in real life," says "One of the beauties of the Web is its ability to put us in touch with ideas and people we might never otherwise encounter. Some of the many discussions which might be of special interest to our fellow Heartlanders are listed below. Check them out and feel free to add your own thoughts to the threads."
FEN "rules of the infohighway" encourage conversation that's lively and family-friendly. In other words, free speech - and good manners. :-)
Parent to Parent Open Forum- exchange ideas and experiences with other parents about everything from great movies to the challenges of a blended
family. Heartland homesteader Stephanie hosts.
Share safety concerns about sports, trees, life on the farm and on city streets too in discussion forum Safe@Home with host Theresa Goebel, a stay-at-home mom who is also a Heartland Community Leader.
Does your family have a Special Needs member? Here are people who are reaching out to each other with questions, kindness, support, and just good information. All children with special needs have a right to a free appropriate public education. For thorough information and an opportunity to ask questions or share experiences, check out the Learning Disabilities Conference.
There are many more parenting and education related conferences at Family Education Network. Navigation tip: from the front page choose Discussions, pick a category from the list of Current Discussions and explore that area.
Every imaginable family and parenting related topic is under discussion on the highly active Discussion boards at Parent Soup.
From the Parent Soup home page, choose "Discussions." A list of all topics is displayed on that page.For the America Online graduate (aren't we all?) navigation looks like the familiar threaded board - Each topic has "Conversations" and Messages" which correspond to "Messages" and "Replies." At the end of each message is a link back to a list of all messages in the topic- but you can read them all just by clicking on the "next" arrows. For fast checking, list favorite Discussion Groups on your own "Quick List."
Check out AGES & STAGES for ideas on everything from breast feeding to grown children. Adoptive families, military families, even single-child families have their own discussions in FAMILY TYPES & STYLES. Parents share insights into their own problems and issues in RELATIONSHIPS and in HELPING OURSELVES.
A full complement of easy-to-navigate monitored message boards are tucked away on that Queen of Chat sites, TalkCity. Best entry is via the Communities page.
Not much history on these boards - they're brand new, and just waiting for us to make of them what we will!
Check out The TalkCity Educenter, and for ages 13-18, The InSite.
Educenter's Parent Chat is off to a good start with Special Needs and Home School Education discussions opened. A variety of education topics are set up in the Educenter section.
From Me, Myself, and I to Spaceship Earth, The InSite offers teens a spot to share their personal doubts and triumphs, and their hopes for the world they are building for the future. The Insite "is about discovering how to make the planet, and your personal corner of it, a saner, cleaner, more equitable place to live." Best bet: Hey, Terra!
We would be remiss if we didn't remind you that Talk City is known primarily for Chat. Chatrooms can be entered via IRC software or right from the "Chat" web page at Talk City. If you're using IRC software with AOL as your provider, set the port to 7000. All others should use the default setting.
Cafe Utne
|
In the list of Pathfinder Bulletin Boards is the Family and Parenting site maintained by ParentTime. The boards don't appear to be extremely active, but as we browsed through we found interesting posts and excellent commentary by moderators. Board navigation is a bit confusing- for example, the threads run from bottom to top. Connections are speedy. There are two entrances to the boards, one from the Pathfinder side and the other from ParentTime.
Among the active threads are Discipline and Working Moms. One board, On Our Minds..., includes the range of miscellaneous topics from Finding a Nanny to Empty Nest Syndrome.
Not to be outdone, computer information giant Ziff Davis now sports its own Community Center and Discussion Forum. Browsing through the topics we found Family Chatter Forum, with a number of messages about good software for children. Back to School '97 includes discussion of computers in the schools and what computer to take to college. The section with the most topics is Computer Gaming. When family computing grows old, MacUser and PC Magazine are only a click away.
Message Board Hints & Helps |
capture attention
I think that when communicating on a message board the first thing you should do is write a catchy title. Many message boards look very generic and boring, and a good title will jump out and catch the reader's eye and cause them to look closer.
Next, make sure the message is short, clear and provocative. You want to interest the reader and not lose them before they finish reading the posting.
invite response
It is important to try not to state a personal fixed opinion. Leave an opening for the poster to try and convince you otherwise. Give them something to post about!
stay cool
Never be drawn into an argument and lose control. Always keep a cool posting manner. It IS okay to become excited and enthused, but never show anger. This may spark a rash of postings but usually these are not in the form of a discussion and nothing is accomplished except for flamatory remarks that lose posters in the long run.
a gentle tone
Lastly, careful wording of posts on delicate subjects can save heartache later. It is hard for some to convey feelings and expression with text, so it is important that you carefully review what you are posting before committing it.
wait a bit
If you become angry about a post that has been left, don't answer it immediately. Save a copy of it and reread it later in the day. You might be surprised at how differently you may take it, or something you may have missed earlier might give the post a different meaning than you originally thought.
Theresa M. Goebel
Heartland Community Leader Block 2500 - 2749
Family Education
Network Discussion Host
Get your own Free Home Page
Meet
or even
new friends
on the web via
established September 7, 1996
