Board Organization Brainstorming

rgn12

Hey ladies! I thought I’d start a thread for us to discuss what would be important to everyone as far as board organization. I’ve been scrolling through some of the recent BMBs and they all seem to be doing it differently. Some have multiple daily threads, while others do one thread per day, and more general discussion.

Here are some discussion topics I’ve come across on other boards:

Pregnant after loss 
Pregnant after infertility
First time mom

Second(+) time mom
Weekly check-ins

Weekly symptoms
Weekly random
Hump day bump day
TW spotting/bleeding/threatened loss
High risk pregnancies
Ultrasounds
Upcoming appointments
COVID/COVID vaccine
WTF Wednesday 
TTGP check-in
Ten things Tuesday
Thankful Thursday
Flame free Friday confession
Unpopular opinion

I’m sure there are countless others, but I just thought I would get the conversation started about this to see what the group would like to see and what threads would be important to everyone here! 

mbradfo2

Food! What crazy things are we eating/craving? I know that 1st tri is usually crappy with nausea, but despite that, I did get some cravings in between the bouts of food aversion  
And maybe a get to know you thread?
Later on, maybe some discussion of baby gear at some point -- I know it's super early for that but I feel like I actually know what I need this time around and would love to help others get prepared! 

kaitcrystalline

I vote for Weekly checkin and Pregnant after loss for sure but pretty much everything you listed was in my last BBM. I'm open to anything! 

blueowl08

These all sound good to me too. What about threads for pregnancy announcements or babymoons? I certainly won’t have any great baby announcements, but I love admiring the creativity of others Also I’d selfishly like some babymoon ideas if we can manage to get one of our parents to watch DD for a weekend away. After going a whole year without a baby sitter it sounds really lavish!

nz113

I remember flame free Friday confessions was really funny in my last BMB. Also we did a “tell us how you feel in a gif” and those threads always made me laugh. 

mommaduck2490

Possible Unpopular Opinion: TB message boards got me thru my 1st pregnancy & I'm still friends with some of the ladies IRL. Granted, this was 12-13 years ago. Being pregnant a 2nd time, I've been searching for that same 'tribe' mentality so naturally I've come here. As far as style of board topics are concerned - the way we did it back then was a daily theme & then more of a free for all. For instance, FFF & then anything else was discussed however the members of the board wanted to discuss it. Frankly, I'm not sure I'd remember every little topic there is already a thread for and reading through 50+ comments isn't really engaging. Reading through the list of topics read a bit as if the board would become over organized to a point of being inefficient. The board has a search feature & depending who's active will depend who will respond. When someone is looking for a topic, they can search & read multiple different perspectives, depending on who's style jumps out at them.

rgn12

@mommaduck2490 I totally get that, honestly this is only SOME of the topics that I found when looking at other 2021 BMBs. 😳

It seems like most of the BMBs are super organized. They seem to really discourage one-off posts and such. I just came from TTGP, so that board is a bit different of course.

I’ll be honest, board organization is not my strength but no one else has initiated it so I thought I’d at least get the ball rolling with ideas from other BMBs. I am super flexible, and don’t have strong opinions about this either way! 

ETA - typo

mommaduck2490

I can only imagine!! Well I vote we all go with the flow and until someone really wants to step out there, take charge, & actually be a voice for the group. Until then, we can all just live our best lives!!

mbradfo2

I think organization is good but I like to give everyone space to breathe as well! I can understand the difficulty if a board gets cluttered with all sorts of one-off posts -- but at the same time some things (birth story comes to mind) are best done in one off's. Or TW posts re: loss, etc. I like the idea of having regular major topics for the big things (Symptoms, Ultrasounds, PAIF/PGAL/etc, Cravings, Baby gear, etc) but then giving people some latitude to pose their own questions if it's not addressed within one of the bigger topics. The major issue with allowing one-offs is that we can't really moderate the board ourselves so you -could- end up with tons of posts just cluttering everything up. So I think other boards take the stance of "avoid one-off posts" in order to lower the risk of that (if we could moderate and remove duplicates or close threads, it would be very different). 

Long and short: I like organizing big topics but I also like to see people comfortable to ask questions or share stories in individual posts. I find some of the other month boards a little overwhelming as far as organization goes...but then again, with my daughter, I was on another forum's month board that had basically ZERO organization and it was just crazy. I hope we can find a happy median. 

rgn12

@mbradfo2 I agree with you as well. I was overwhelmed looking at the organization for some others, where they’d have like 4+ daily threads, then others had like 1. It was kind of intense. I would love a happy median too.

mommaduck2490

On this topic... I did a little browsing through some of the other BMB's & I noticed they have a Google Docs spreadsheet with everyone's info just organized & pinned. As people join, anyone can jump in and add their info, kind of like a roll call sheet. Thoughts? @rgn12 @mbradfo2

therealfrizzle

Ask a STM was so amazing for me my first time around. The information was invaluable. Also love UOs and FFFC. Is there anything similar to Monday b*tchfest? It can be called something else, but I personally feel a safe place to vent and complain about all things pregnancy related is a good idea. Like how unexcited my friends have been.

mommaduck2490

@therealfrizzle SAME! We haven't told too many people, so my SIL is catching all the vents from me, lol. 

mbradfo2

@therealfrizzle
I agree - a google doc would be awesome! I'll look to see how the other boards set it up and I can work on one later. 

I also like a monday vents/b*tchfest -- I am one of only 2 people in my friend group with any kids [ and the one with kids moved out to California] so no one really cares what I have to complain about haha! I probably need more mom friends IRL...

mbradfo2

Can anyone point me to one of the google docs? I'm just not seeing it, but I'm awful at searching for things!

rgn12

@mbradfo2 I am not sure, I don’t think we had that in my last BMB

@mommaduck2490 do you remember where you found it? 

mommaduck2490

 @rgn12 @mbradfo2
 I think it was in July's maybe.. definitely a birth month well into 2nd or 3rd tri. I'm sorry, I don't remember off the top of my head, but I will look, too!!

mbradfo2

@mommaduck2490
No worries! It's super rainy here so I'm stuck inside and DD is enjoying her precious screentime haha. I'll probably take a look around for the doc this afternoon as well.

blueowl08

I just remembered my January 2019 BMB (which I started participating in at the beginning and then got overwhelmed and kinda dropped off) had a google doc. It’s stickied at the top. Not sure how to link to it but you should be able to see it there!

mbradfo2

@blueowl08
OK! thanks!

PYLWhammy

My daughter's BMB group was super organized and I loved it. 5+ years later many of us are still very close. I think the board organization fosters a close community - it is one of the things I like about TB over other pregnancy message boards. As for which threads to have, I'm cool with pretty much anything, but one thing I will suggest is an "ask a second time+ mom" thread. I found that topic helpful during my first pregnancy and now would like to help others .

mommaduck2490

@PYLWhammy I love that idea!! 

mbradfo2

Okay, this is what I found [and copied for our use] -- set it up to public and allowed viewers to edit it.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1e1ua48udrmW5gN4E6Sx7yRIm6Q8XcTPzXYS6fA1ziX0/edit?usp=sharing

scaredunprepared

I definitely love the idea of an ask a 2nd+ time mom thread.  Also maybe an advanced maternal age thread, or that can be included in the high risk thread.  Maybe a random questions thread?  

bumphi

scaredunprepared said:

I definitely love the idea of an ask a 2nd+ time mom thread.  Also maybe an advanced maternal age thread, or that can be included in the high risk thread.  Maybe a random questions thread?  

Ask the experts!

mbradfo2

oH, so I had a random thought, probably thanks to preggo brain -- we should have a thread 'Furbaby Fridays!' and see pictures of everyone's pets (or random cat memes if you don't have one!). Just purely so I can see all the cute puppies and kitties, and show of my very handsome but very butt-faced Shiba, Hamlet, and his sisfur, Jules (chow mix).

Puppy face in spoiler...and if you think he looks smug, well, he is smug.

PYLWhammy

@mbradfo2 I like that idea, and what a sweet and handsome pup!

PYLWhammy

One more thing we should have - GTKY threads!