@romanigypsyeyes – Your dissertation sounds fascinating to me. Love to hear more!
I’m sure it was hard to focus on just one aspect (time period, place) of such a broad subject. How did you ever rein it in? What is your ultimate goal? (okay we have a new thread! Or is this now our open discussion thread?)
And about the young one! It’s been a long time since my first one. What do you find hardest now? Is it the same stuff we all went through (sleeping, teething, etc.) or are there new challenges we might not know about?
My kid threw her bottle on the floor once at an historic site and the older lady next to me had a huge fit–before she realized it was just plastic (not glass) and no harm was done. I knew in her brain she just saw shattered glass everywhere.
Reddit-- in addition to r/aww check out r/Eyebleach. There is so much cute animal video here to lift anyone’s spirits. I log in just to clear my soul once in a while!
@Creekland – Curiosity killed the cat.
Satisfaction brought him back.
(we don’t hear the second part as often!)
@momocarly – r/quilting on reddit is full of posted pix of quilts. (60K members)
r/scrapbooking (over 6K members) --not like quilting but 6K is good.
I’m sounding like an ad for reddit but I stayed away from it for SO long because of its bad rap (some deservedly so) but there ARE some (a lot actually) great forums on there run by great moderators in topics that simply can not be covered on CC especially when it comes to posting photos So it’s mainly a PSA for someone looking for a “fix” for a hobby that isn’t filled here.
CC has a mission for college coverage and now I’m basically timed out in that regard so this is where I hang out. With my many year friends!
This sounds really interesting to me, so if you could pm me the site, I’d love to follow.
Having encountered a lot of kids working the past twenty years in school, I know the answer to “what to do when there are problems” rarely has an easy answer. I’m always proud of kids who overcome shortcomings of all sorts. They often make great adults. I wish all could overcome their obstacles. Unfortunately, many don’t.
For years well-meaning adults have been trying, though a fair bit is also adults who merely want to sweep some out of the way too.
I’d love to read what you’ve found through history in MI.
I do get that the parent cafe is open topic. And I do value the advice/opinions threads, generally. I’ve learned about all sorts of things via other users.
And especially lately, I respect the perspective of certain posters, some i didn’t “know” well before.
But I was referring to the many survey-type threads. The sort that just asks, do you do this or that? Do you prefer this or that? Stir your coffee to the left or right?
Someone will say, I don’t see that, LF. Or even, *I like those. * But imo, we’ve got a lot of that. I like to be engaged a little differently.
And since we started with the reduced traffic on CC, I mentioned the proliferation of these survey posts. That’s all.
I’ve been visiting fewer times a day for a while, mostly just first thing in the morning (after email but before the Washington Post). I follow lots of topics, although usually pass up fashion and decorating threads (I’m minimalist in both). However, given a strong interest in politics, I find I’ve substituted FB vists for CC visits during the day.
I appreciate the civility and knowledge of CC folks, so have let Facebook satisfy my politics jones. Before the pandemic, I checked FB once or twice a week (I missed many Birthdays) but now I go on at least that many times a day. Most of my friends are simpatico with my positions, but occasionally hearing the other side is probably a good thing.
I’ve started few threads here, but have thought about asking how people plan to vote and what their state is doing. I’m afraid that could quickly turn political, though, so I guess I won’t.
Okay @lookingforward – You’re on! What do you want to discuss?
I totally agree we need “something deeper” than a mundane question but it seems anything more gets shut down too soon. Either through moderators or privacy issues.
But the world is large. And our personal social circles lately have shrunk way too much.
Honestly I go home to visit my dad and he says “what’s up?”. Um…nothing, nada. Not a single thing that takes over two seconds. Weather–good or bad. Personal news? Not much. Two minutes.
Politics? We’re on! For or against. Covid shut downs? For or against? Why? Where?
All topics shut down on CC. I want news outside my bubble and the local news. From people I think I’ve grown to know over the years. All over the country. I’d love to know the opinion of CC people on so many topics. Heck, I already know you’re a liberal or a conservative-- but I know people think differently and have legit concerns. I want to hear it from people who I think I “get”.
I’m an infrequent poster and lately infrequent visitor. I like to come here and read all the interesting (to me) threads but not much is happening in threads that pique my interest. And Kai is irritating.
I have kids in college, as D is in a PhD. program now and S is a senior. But I haven’t had the need to seek college advice from CC (graduate studies forum was pretty much useless when she was applying) and S doesn’t follow my advice anyway so why seek out good advice that is likely to be disregarded. I also feel my college related advice is now outdated and therefore don’t contribute in the college forums.
The cafe has been slow and many posters whose posts I enjoyed reading aren’t active anymore. I’m not a great thread starter but I do enjoy talking/reading about different things. But this is my contribution to making the cafe feel lively again.
@abasket asked for 5 topics of interest, I’m adding 5 of mine.
Books — always and in any context.
Clothes, shoes and fashion
Cooking (only sometimes since I’m a very grumpy cook). I don’t care about what to make for dinner or if I even make it but the more exotic recipes I’m all for. ISO a good homemade wine recipe, by the way.
Grammar, writing and language evolution
Gardening, outdoor spaces and design
My (not so) secret vices are to religiously read the ‘Say it here’, ‘Dressing Young’ and ‘Wedding planning’ threads.
Also like the personal story/opinion threads — I followed romanigypsyeyes thread daily.
I really appreciate the advice that is given when a question is posed. By the time I read the OP, enough people have chimed in with great advice that there’s no reason to reiterate.
I would really enjoy reading politics and/or COVID discussion threads. I don’t participate but very much like the healthy debating (meanness aside) that happens in such threads.
IRL, I’m quite the argumentative, pig-headed, contributor to such topics but I’d rather not have that aspect spill over here.
You can have (within rules) topic threads like global warming, immigration, etc. I think - but you can’t make it about the candidates or parties?? Maybe a moderator will confirm this.
Same with the virus. You can discuss a subject that involves your life with it…but when references get political in how it’s handled or debating about the science of it then it’s not ok?
It’s all about the approach. And then it’s all about keeping a cool head and being “polite”.
Someone’s point above that so many are so much more isolated now…if you know your limits it can be therapeutic to hear/see/express some viewpoints.
I’m trying to be careful here and hope I’m not overstepping rule boundaries.
“IRL, I’m quite the argumentative, pig-headed, contributor to such topics but I’d rather not have that aspect spill over here.”
Me too but I’m always open to “re-direction”. Open discussion always makes me open to different aspects of real life. The USA may not be huge in size necessarily but it is certainly diverse. We all have different problems.
Right now I can’t even find how to post a new thread. I see the “Ask a Question” but there isn’t an indication of where the post goes. Ugh.
I was never interested in being at the mean or cool girls table. Either with a small group of nice people, or alone. I don’t like hostility, reporting others, or confrontation. I feel that one can talk about anything, even if you’re on completely different sides as long as you’re not confrontational and rude. It seems to be difficult to do that anywhere these days.
@gouf78 whatever board you are on when you click ASK A QUESTION (like now I’m in the cafe) is where it will post. It’s easy, just maybe awkward phrasing.
@Nrdsb4 – The AITA forum on reddit gets the most flack. But it’s like reality TV–you can’t really tell if half of what is said is true. Try r/bridezillas. Entertaining but hard to sift fact from fiction.
I definitely don’t want to hijack this thread but it also feels weird to start yet another of my “own” threads to talk about my research. Anyone have suggestions? Is there a “random” thread I can put it in? Or should I just start a new thread? ?
My perspective: This site has evolved over the years.
Since the beginning it has attracted very intelligent, highly educated posters, and since my hope was always to be allowed to sit and listen at the smart kids’ table, it was incredibly appealing to me when I happened upon it in 2003, after our own college searching was already over.
Early on some posters used it kind of like Open Salon, which I also loved as long as it lasted.
Then for a decade or so, a handful of posters, with time on their hands, posted really thought provoking topics, in which they had a personal interest, and subtly guided a sort of Socratic dialogue for months, and frequently even years, on that topic. During that time they had a real impact changing the world view of some of those who followed their threads. I have no real idea how to judge the number of posters participating during that time, but it was many more than now and the participation was global. If I had insomnia, posts kept appearing all night long. Lots of folks, lots of places, were always posting.
Losing the political cafe lost the site some exceptional thread starters. Changing the format repeatedly lost others. It’s possible a few probably just had their attention directed elsewhere, but I do miss them very much and all the time and energy they spent here.
I think parent cafe is a very nice place, but it is a very different place than earlier.
It kind of breaks my heart a little, every single time another longtime poster is banned. And even though I keep trying to dismiss Kai forever, Kai keeps coming back.
As far as I can tell, Kai is the CC bot. I do not really understand what a bot is or how it works. On my computer, Kai appears every time I log in. Then there is an option to dismiss Kai forever. It doesn’t seem to work.