Spanking: Punishment or Abuse?

Published February 4, 2010 The Moms' Eye View Leave a Comment

What is child abuse? There are many different ways of looking at it: are swats on the bottom considered abuse? How about spanking? Yelling? Name calling? And where do the moms of Circle of Moms – some 8 million strong – draw the line?

Almost a hundred responded to a recent thread posted in one of Circle of Moms’ largest and most diverse communities asking for a definition of child abuse. The vast majority agreed that spanking seems to lie in a grey area between abuse and punishment. Here’s what they said: Continue reading ‘Spanking: Punishment or Abuse?’

All About Child Space

Published November 5, 2009 New Features 1 Comment

We’ve recently made some huge strides in building out a fast-growing area of Circle of Moms called Child Space.

Last summer we noticed that moms were enthusiastically using a very skeletal, early version of this. So we watched for patterns, and in early September began adding features and functionality that seemed to follow from these patterns. By early November we were seeing a new Child Space update every 3 seconds. Clearly this is resonating.

To check it out, just go to the “Me & My Family” tab in your Circle of Moms profile. And here are the highlights:

Continue reading ‘All About Child Space’

Happy First Birthday Circle of Moms!

Published October 9, 2009 Company News , Uncategorized Leave a Comment
Tags: , ,
That's a lot of moms!

That's a lot of moms!

We celebrated our first birthday today in the office with cake and champagne…and also with the official launch of Child Space. Read all about it at Tech Crunch…and then start microblogging your kids!

What Do Moms Really Want?

Published June 16, 2009 New Features 5 Comments

We’ve been thinking a lot lately about how to improve exchanges on Circle of Moms. While the vast majority of our moms are helpful and supportive, we do see (and we get complaints about) unpleasant spats. Unless there’s a clear violation of our Community Guidelines, we like to let each community determine for itself what kind of behaviors are acceptable and encouraged. This does not mean we want communities to drum out unpopular contributors; rather we want to empower every community to stay on a productive track to begin with.

With this in mind, we’re wondering how you and your community members would feel about having more control over the kind of feedback you get when you post. Continue reading ‘What Do Moms Really Want?’

Past, Present, Future with Jamie Massie

Published April 27, 2009 Mom of the Week 1 Comment

jamie-massie2Last week’s mom in the spotlight, Emily C., tagged fellow member of the Young Moms aged 20-30 group, Jamie Massie, to play Past, Present, Future here on the blog. (Yes, we’ve changed the format, but the idea is still the same: to get to know some of our most active members a little bit better.)

Jamie’s a strong contributor in many of her communities, quick to post both questions and responses. Her favorite hang-out is the Young Moms community, in spite of the fact that it gets her behind at work. With almost 300,000 members and covering topics like whether to get your tubes tied as a young woman (that’s one of Jamie’s), it’s no wonder.

Here’s a little time travel with Jamie: Continue reading ‘Past, Present, Future with Jamie Massie’

Five Questions for Emily C.

Published April 16, 2009 Mom of the Week 3 Comments

emilycReally, me!?

That was Emily C.’s response when I told her we wanted to profile her on the Circle of Moms blog. She’s the only one who’ll be surprised though. This woman is the friend you wish you had in real life: generous, knowledgeable, and unassuming. Her savvy is felt all over Circle of Moms, in large communities (Young Moms aged 20 -30, Moms with School-aged Kids) and small (Atheist Parenting, Diaper Free Moms). I wanted to know more about Emily and so, taking a page from one of my favorite blogs, I asked her five questions:

1. Circle of Moms: Tell us a bit about your family. Continue reading ‘Five Questions for Emily C.’

Congratulations to Mandy Stevenson!

Published January 28, 2009 Mom of the Week Leave a Comment

Congratulations go out to Mandy for being chosen as our second mom of the week! She is an active part of many communities. She has contributed to 250 conversations!

Mandy Stevenson

Mandy Stevenson

Our first Mom of  Week, Winnie Stotts, says,

Mandy is very thoughtful and always takes the time to check in on people she has come in contact with through Circle of moms

Mandy has two boys ages eight & two. We appreciate her dedication to Circle of Moms & her friends there.

Community of the Week at Circle of Moms

Published January 23, 2009 Community of the Week Leave a Comment

The first Community of the Week has over 77,500 members! It’s a very active community led by Missy McCalllum. Young Moms Aged 20-30 has moms from all over discussing a variety of topics.

Missy McCallum

Missy McCallum

The description for the group is:

This is a fun site were all of us can get together and just talk about our kids, husbands, loved ones or just share a good story. We need to have other people our own age that can understand each other and were we come from.

These moms have two things in common: they have young children and are very active. It’s great that Missy has created a community where they can network, share ideas & provide support for each other!

Here’s what Miss had to say about her flourishing community for moms:

Well, first of all thanks so much! It is such a neat honor! I would have to say that I don’t really do much of anything to have such a large group. I think that it is such a great community because everyone can feel like they understand the situation. That’s exactly what I was going for. Young mothers can feel so alone sometimes and I wanted other people feeling the same to have a place to turn to. Again it is the mothers themselves that keep it so active. There are always so many questions and desperate for advice that everyone lends some personal information and that is the key. I myself would always ask my friends first for advice before going to seek advice from doctors or professionals and that is exactly what goes on here! I’m so proud of the group for doing that.

I don’t know what kind of advice I could give (on how to keep a community active). I would say just try to think about what you would want for your group and make it broad enough that other mothers would understand and want to be involved! Not sure how helpful that is, but that’s what I got. :) Thanks again and remember to stay positive and learn to laugh at yourself, it will get you through anything!!!

Definitely check out the Young Moms Aged 20-30 community!

What is your favorite community at Circle of Moms?

Recognizing our Active Users!

Published January 20, 2009 New Features 1 Comment

One of the comments that we get most frequently from our users is “I love the responses that I get from other Circle of Moms users.  How do I know which users are the experts and provide the most trustworthy feedback, though?”  This is a great question and we’ve taken it to heart.  Today, we released a couple of features that we think will help our users answer this question: user stats and badges!  We’re very excited about these new features and are eager to get your feedback on them.

User Stats

This feature is exactly what you’d expect it to be: users can see how frequently people contribute to the Circle of Moms community.  Right now we have five items that we measure: conversation posts, conversations started, questions answered, firsts and wall posts.

Circle of Moms Profile with User Statistics

Circle of Moms Profile with User Statistics

This makes it very easy to see who is active and who is just passing by.

Badges

Badges are a great way for us to reward and recognize our most passionate users.  They are a fun and easy way for us to let you know who stands out in the Circle of Moms community and why!

badge_smarty_pants SmartyPants – For moms that have helped other mothers in the past and proven themselves to be wise by giving valuable responses to conversations and questions, we have the SmartyPants badge.  These moms are very helpful.  If you come across one, feel free to reach out to her with your question; she has helped others in the past, and will most likely help you, too!

badge_social_butterflySocial Butterfly – For moms that are warm and welcoming to the other members of the Circle of Moms community, we have the Social Butterfly badge.  One of the aspects of Circle of Moms that we love most is that the community is warm and provides constructive and caring feedback to other moms.  The social butterflies create the friendly atmosphere that makes this all possible.  Thank you!

badge_administratorAdministrator – We have over 2,000 user-created communities and it was the community administrators that made this possible.  These women take the initiative to create a community in which moms can share advice, recommendations and empathy.  They keep the level of activity in Circle of Moms high and we love them for it.

badge_entrepreneur3Mom-trepreneur – We have a deep amount of respect for moms that run their own business and want to support them however we can.  The Mom-trepreneur badge identifies those moms who are also businesswomen and have registered their business with Circle of Moms.  Once you do this, we will promote your business to the Circle of Moms community and help drive traffic to your site.  If you are interested in registering your business, please go to http://www.circleofmoms.com/ad_create.php.

We hope you enjoy these new features.  Please let us know what you think of them in the comments!

Moms Discuss Food Allergies

Published January 13, 2009 The Moms' Eye View Leave a Comment

Circle of Moms is a great place to connect with other moms & share ideas & concerns.

A very popular topic is children with food allergies. The ages range from infants on up.

And the allergies to foods are varied.

Moms share how they’re coping with the challenges of dealing with food allergies. And they also share resources where they’ve gotten information & assistance. This can be really helpful when you’re seeking answers or if it’s a new diagnosis.

If you have a child with food allergies you may find one of these groups helpful. There are many conversations that are very helpful.

Kids with Food Allergies - 628 member

Kids/Babies with Food Allergies - 547 members

Raising Children with Food Allergies - 591 members

Moms of Food Allergic Kids

Moms of Kids with Food Allergies

And if you have experience with food allergies or questions, feel free to join the conversations there!

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