random snark

Over the summer, when Sid and I were talking about having a baby, I joined an online community called BabyCenter. It seemed like a friendly place, and it had lots of helpful information, and lots of helpful, supportive people. I had thought that when/if I got pregnant, it would be something like my support group; seeing as I don't have many friends with children, and my parents (my mother especially) are not the kinds of people you can just ask advice from, I thought it would be a good place to ask questions and talk to women going through some of the same things.

Seemingly overnight, this friendly, supportive community has been literally split. The powers that be have decided to beta-test a new forum, and not everyone was invited. A few people were invited, and those people were allowed to invite others. Well, the ones who never received invites (like me) are understandably pissed. The forums are dead! Everyone's posting on the "new site" and suddenly the place seems like some elitist junior high clique.

Anyway, I don't like the direction the site is taking. I think the beta-testing was very poorly handled (deliberately excluding half of a tight knit community usually is!) and from what I understand, it's got a very "MySpace" feel. I hate MySpace.

Another site I loved did the same thing. Bolt. Bolt decided to make all these great changes, and start a new site with forums and it was just like MySpace. The old, original Bolt was left to fester and was finally shut down. The new Bolt wasn't very popular, and it, too, was shut down. I see BabyCenter headed in the same direction.

I don't think I'll be going back.