Well this is a strange request: my mum wants me to recommend her an internet forum she can post on. She's not very tech savvy, but I think she's intrigued by a lot of the things that I get up to online and wants to learn about them. It'd be easier if she could define one particular interest that she's most passionate about, then I could do some research and find something associated with that, but unforunately not.
I do know
some of her interests though: travel and foreign countries, books, current affairs, art, textiles and sewing, health, teaching English (she's studying teaching English as a second language at the moment). She also says that she doesn't want somewhere that's 'populated with old farts', or at least not exclusively, but it still needs to be somewhere that would be accepting of a middle-aged to late-middle-aged woman. And of course it needs to have a decent community so to not scare her off or let her get bored.
I have no clue what to suggest. Anyone got any ideas?
Posts
SewingForum seems nice, though not very active.
http://www.mumsnet.com
It seems very new-user friendly, they have a discussion area.
UK-based though.
@Liiya: I'm pretty sure she's sick of being a parent by now, but I'll give it a shot. :P
Thanks guys, keep em coming.
https://twitter.com/Hooraydiation
Usagi has great ideas as usual!
Hah, I was going to recommend this too when I got to the end of the thread. It's a big popular community and I've known several women to get very involved there and make solid friendships, etc.
Just ask Lewie P how well that turned out for him...
I wonder why I stopped going there...?
PSN: Wstfgl | GamerTag: An Evil Plan | Battle.net: FallenIdle#1970
Hit me up on BoardGameArena! User: Loaded D1
@ihmmy: I suggested it to her, but although she comes from a hippy generation she doesn't really want to identify herself so much as one any more.
@Usagi: That looks pretty good! I can't actually get in to the forums without registering though; I'll probably do that so she can have a look around. She's a bit reluctant to join a knitting community though, and she can't actually knit any more because of arthritis anyhow.
@Robos: I'm not actually sure about her sense of humor, but she's generally pretty progressive.
@Bursar: She actually seemed kind of interested in that one when I said it was a more general message board, based around political debates.
She seemed to react well when a forum had a dedicated book/literature subforum too, so I'm going to go ahead and add that to her list of interests.
Thanks everyone! Keep up the suggestions.
Or Phalla!
Or, you could ask me! - Its brilliant here, I've made some amazing friends, been to PAX twice, planning the third trip once LewieP's Daddy has got another job, have found an extra husband in LewieP's Stepdad, just in case the first one doesn't work out ...
I'm biased though, I've only been treated with kindness, love and support here, the only time someone was slightly mean, they were jumped on severely by other forumers before I even had the chance to reply.
The only possible downside I could see for your mum is becoming more geeky, playing games - Portal 2 is sooo stressing me, I can only play it for a while, so its taking ages - taking you to PAX (oh, wait, that's an advantage!).
Mums.net is boring.
For paintings in progress, check out canvas and paints
"The power of the weirdness compels me."
It sounds like the Cafe Society sub-forum would be a good place for her to start - "Our salon for art, drama, literature, movies, music, comics, cuisine -- all the artistic disciplines -- if it's about creativity, entertainment, or leisure, it goes here.". Then once she's comfortable maybe she could check out the other sections; there are areas for debates, factual questions and general chit-chat amongst others.
Joking aside, a lot of the subforums are pretty habitable (although definitely not in the Health arena). But for the situation in the OP I'd have to agree that it might not be the right choice.
I don't really understand how your mom would learn about "what YOU get up to on the internet" by going to a sewing forum? (for eg). If she's interested in things like viral video, citizen news journalism, new/cool technology research and etc, posting on some forum you found is probably not going to satiate that desire and she'll probably give it up. I'd be more likely to suggest getting her a Google Reader account and subscribing her to some RSS feeds, like popular YouTube subscriptions for her interests, good blogs on internet stuff and that kind of thing. Let her decide where and how to jump into the conversation. After all, a bit of internet lurking is never a bad thing before jumping in.
PSN Hypacia
Xbox HypaciaMinnow
Discord Hypacia#0391
Well, you've got to install the 4 AOL floppies, select a local telephone number for your modem, make sure no one else is using the phone.
It can be a little overwhelming at first.
you knew what i meant
But then where would I go when I need to rant? :P
The idea did actually come up, but I don't think she wants to intrude on to my turf. She's also quite un-geeky (which is a shame) so I'd have some difficulty selling forums based around a gaming webcomic. Still, I think it was the times I referred to the forums in casual conversation that got her interested in the topic in the first place, so maybe she would be interested. I certainly wouldn't stop her if she did want to join, but I can't say it wouldn't be a little awkward.
I'll talk to her about it, see what she thinks. It's really helpful to hear your perspective though, thanks!
I had considered something awful... I be wary of turning her off the whole idea if she strays in to the wrong subforum (at least while she's getting acclimatised), but I'll bring it up.
You make some good points, but it's not so much my interests that she wants to get in to, more the chance to join a new community and talk to people (I think). My thinking was that a forum would expose her to a lot of content like this, condensed through other people's posts, but maybe there are some other avenues she'd like to explore. Again, I'll bring this up with her.
I've never been to reddit, and I hadn't even thought of it. I'll check it out!
Neither had I. I've been using the internet so long it's as natural as breathing, it's difficult to comprehend when someone doesn't know what right-clicking does.
I laughed because I was around for this and it brought back memories of yelling at people to stop picking up the damn phone, or having trouble connecting and so attempting one of the other two numbers I had for the service.
Also pre-aol BBS's and LORD marathons.
Those were the days.
Oh, I almost forgot COMM ports. Always fun having when the modem keeps your printer from working.
As for the OP - another suggestion is the PriceScope Forums. I used them extensively for engagement ring shopping, but they've got some general interest boards as well. Seems pretty decent folk - they actually have a Good News sticky.