Baby Board

Because I currently have something growing inside of me and will for the next several months, I have been following a message board on a popular baby website for women due in July 2010. I never post; I'm strictly a lurker. But I have to say, there are some days that this board provides the best entertainment EVER! For some reason, women, even complete and total strangers, can't get together without reverting back to junior high. Women on this board are constantly getting offended because someone gave their opinion to their post/question/life story. Then the person who provided the supposedly offensive opinion howls back something along the lines of, "If you didn't want an honest opinion, why did you ask? Get some big girl panties and deal with it."


A huge debate ensues, of course, with all the women taking sides.

You shouldn't be so mean. Having an opinion isn't being mean. If you can't say anything nice... I'm not going to sugar coat it. I'm reporting you to the board administrator. Blah, blah, blah.

The first drama began as positive pregnancy tests were just coming in for July. One woman asked why so many women - who had yet to even ovulate - were hanging around the board. They should be on the TTC (trying to conceive) board. This resulted in an offshoot board: just for women who had already confirmed pregnancy.

Since then, plenty of other threads have followed this same pattern. A few were even closed because of "personal attacks." A few women have actually posted I'M LEAVING posts because of the meanness, which just fostered more posts about getting tougher skin, it's the hormones, etc., etc. (Can't we all just get along???) But the real impetus for my blogging today comes from the offshoot board JULY UNCUT.

This board has nothing to do with circumcision, which I'm sure will provide a lively debate in the coming months along with breast feeding. No. This board is like the uncut version of a movie. The women who pride themselves most on speaking their minds, tactfully or not, have formed their own board so they can "tell it like it is." They warn you to get your "big girl panties" before entering because they are an uncensored group of women and won't hold back opinions for the sake of your feelings.

Now, this is fine and dandy. Apparently, they weren't receiving the satisfaction they'd hoped they would with the main group and being told they weren't exactly tactful in how they expressed their opinion, even though that itself was someone's opinion, offended them enough to pout on a board all their own.

What gets me, though, it that on the thread they posted announcing the formation of this group, the last couple responses have been discussion on why people have been booted from the board (it requires a request to join). This is the reason they gave:

We had some issues w/ some people being kind of rude and creating problems.

Are you kidding me? Isn't this why they created the group? So they could be as rude as they wanted and could voice any and all opinions? And now they're booting people for exactly what people didn't like about them in the first place? I wonder if they see the irony here?!?