Online Forums

What kind of online forums do you visit? There are forums for everything! There are weight loss, blogging, crafting, knitting, health, wellness, depression forums, etc. I started out my forum addiction with the Weight Watchers forums when I was trying to lose weight back in 2004. I spent hours at work every day hanging out with my new weight loss friends sharing goals, failures, and just general life. We’d have “trolls” visit our boards here and there and totally change the flow of our day. From Wikipedia:

In Internet slang, a troll is someone who posts inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community, such as an online discussion forum, chat room, or blog, with the primary intent of provoking readers into an emotional response or of otherwise disrupting normal on-topic discussion.

I ended up getting pregnant after I lost a little over 30 pounds and eventually moved on from those forums. Next I was trying to find a new place for myself because I had a baby and lived in a place with no family and very few friends. I found a group online called the Lollipop League. It was an awesome group that brought moms together with same aged children so they can play together and you can get Mommy time. In that group I found a friend in Lee who turned me on to a new forum called BabyTalkBio (it has since changed to The Mamasphere.) That forum got me through my first few years with my babies. I met a ton of awesome women on those forums that I still consider friends. We had “IRL” in real life meetups with the kids and even had yearly meetups together. A few of my friends started blogging when I was on that forum and have been very successful, including Lee. She now has MySentimentExactlee and EntertainmentExactLee. My husband finally talked me into blogging at the end of 2009 and shortly after Lee told me about a blogging forum called MomDot. I belong to a few other blogging forums, but MomDot is where my heart is. I have learned so much from the women (and men) on that board. I have gotten awesome opportunities including going on three Brandcation trips. If you haven’t found a forum for yourself, I suggest you find one. It is a great way to meet like minded people and get information to help you out.