What's your ideal Blogging Baby?

I don't know if this appeal for what we like has anything to do with the situation with Adrienne Backus, but I appreciate the information to contribute my opinion. I really enjoy the postings on current events and parents in unique situations - adoptive parents, single parents, and the like. Postings that link to news articles. I would be inclined to agree with Adrienne - I think sometimes there are too many postings where a poster wants opinions on raising children and "what would you do in this situation?"(I tend to skip those because I am not a parent.) I am also inclined to skip the overly political ones that have been popping up within the last month, where the poster's opinion is blatantly stated right off the bat. This isn't a political blog.

Overall, though, the quality of content at Blogging Baby has been overwhelmingly fantastic. And this is why I keep coming back.

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I agree that the content of Blogging Baby is fantastic...but since u asked, I really could do without all the medical studies posts.

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Usually I love the site - a few issues/questions:

What's up with the "stars" for contributors? It seems to have fizzled out, or something.

I dislike the 20-comment limit on displaying - it makes it difficult to read threads when they get long.

Some posts are a real stretch to the topic of "babies".

I'd like to see commenters who are obviously trolling repeatedly for an argument to be promptly shut out of particular threads, without shutting down the entire thread.

Thanks for all you do!

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Also, I get confimation emails with each comment that say:

P.S.: For future reference, you may avoid these confirmations by using your e-mail and password:
E-mail: myname@email.com
Password: xxxxyyyy

But I've never seen where exactly to use this information??

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Nancy, the stars are kind of the bane of our existence. Supposedly they were implemented to encourage commenters and interaction, but honestly it's a little difficult to go into the system and award them. I tried to do it yesterday and it wouldn't work.

Also, the "system" is actually totally arbitrary and meaningless to anyone except the top twenty "starred" commenters. We're looking at ways to make it a more efficient system.

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You're never going to please all of us all the time.

I usually skip past the celebrity posts and the product recommendations unless they apply to something else that interests me.

I'm most apt to chime in on the political (or the most controversial) posts. I'm a political animal, I'm mouthy, and that probably won't change.

Overall, I like the balance. There's something for everybody and nobody is forcing me to read anything I'd rather not. Different strokes.

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Good point about the confirmation email, Nancy. I even posted that question under the "Problems" tab to no avail.

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I think there is a nice balance. I think every person you asked would say "I don't like X because it doesn't appeal to me" but the nice thing about BB is that there are so *many* posts in one day that you hardly have to wait two minutes for something new and different. What I would hate to see are fewer posts.

My one request, which has nothing to do with the topics... redesign the site. Great content, ugly design! I know all the adds ugly it up but a new banner would be a sight for sore eyes. Probably sore from reading this blog too much. I need to get a life!

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Thanks for asking! I really enjoy the site and I really don't have any suggestions for improvement with regard to content. There is a little something for everyone. I do like all the medical studies (different strokes....) and I'm always interested in reading/commenting on food and nutrition but that is sort of my niche.

I do agree there are some things that could make the site more user like explaining the star rating, making the comments easier to read (more than 20 on a page or able to jump on the threads with lots of comments), and commenting without e-mail confirmation.

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"Also, the "system" is actually totally arbitrary and meaningless to anyone except the top twenty "starred" commenters. We're looking at ways to make it a more efficient system."

Agreed. I figured the system had just frozen somehow. I said once I could say something like "what she just said" and my comment would still show the same number of stars.

And I too would like a solution to the "password" question.

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While I dissent from the popular opinion quite a bit I really enjoy the site. Keep up the good work and don't take it too personally when people disagree, it's fun to have intelligent banter on the comments section.

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There has been some comment on the political posts. I am often frustrated that those posts lean in almost always the same direction. Any thought to hiring some bloggers that lean the other way? At least for a little balance. And then the posts where bloggers refer to other bloggers ... well here is where the real bias of this site shows up. Those you send us to turn, are more left, more attachment parents. I know they represent the writers' favorite posts, but it would be nice to see some other inclusion. I have a hard time with the "you scratch my back and I'll scratch your back" mentality of the blogging world. One reason I enjoy Dooce so much (despite my deep distaste for her politics/nonreligion) is that she doesn't play into that blogging game. She is just a good writer.

Too many stories on "crazy parent does something that makes the news" not helpful and I've usually already read about it before I hit this site. But the what's new in blogs and on the web posts as it relates to parenting are great.

I like the personal posts. I miss Sarah and her posts about her children. I've really liked the struggle between working and not working. The personal approach is terrific.

All this said, I still check the site daily -- thanks to newsgator! keep up the good work. And I know most of us bloggers are middle-class white women, but think about diversity. You've done a great job on diversity in geographic regions, which I think is important. Parenting in Tennessee is so different than it was parenting in Portland

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I would definitely like to post without the e-mail confirmation. I enjoy the personal posts where people get to post suggestions or their own experiences. Actually, I'd like to see more posts that do end with a question, because some posts really don't encourage any interaction at all (and have no comments). Some posts like that are fine, but on some days those are all the posts.

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The celebrity posts always seem to degenerate into 240 comments with trolls yelling at each other-if I want the celebrity news, I prefer going to other sites for it.

I enjoy most the posts asking what other people do in certain situations-even if the info isn't always immediately useful, I love having the different perspectives. And since it is a site focused on parenting, I'd like to see more.

And while I tend to agree with the "political" perspective on this site, it does seem like we only get one view point. Even if I disagree, I like to see the other side. You learn more that way. :)

I miss some of the cooking/recipie posts geared towards kids. Those were helpful.

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I really enjoy this site most of the thing posted; I think you're doing a great job!

The only thing I would like is to be able to post questions I have in hopes of getting a variety of intelligent feedback. Not sure how this would work with the current set-up and without creating lots more work for you writers, but that'd be helpful to me.

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Along the same line as Courtney, I think it is frustrating that the bloggers are mostly white, middle class women who stay at home or work at home. I would like more diversity in the writers and the opportunity to hear from other parents.

But that said, this is a good site and most times very informative. It is one I check every day, and have since the minute I found out I was pregnant. Keep up the good work

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My # one would be to redesign the comments so that the most recent ones are at the top. It is maddening to have to click and scroll through 75+ comments.

I agree that maybe a voice from the right could be a welcome change. I won't agree with the perspective, but that doesn't mean it's not valuable.

I'm on the fence over my next point, but I want to point out that there's been a repetitive nature to some of the posts lately, productwise. Things that were blogged about months ago seem to cycle back again. Identical things. I understand that it's the nature of the beast--there are really only so many parenting topics, and a great product is a great product, and new readers would probably appreciate hearing about it...but it's still a little jarring.

The spelling/grammar errors lately seem to have been on the upswing, too. As an English teacher, I feel compelled to point that out.

And about the cliquish nature of the blog recommendations...It seems like the same 15 blogs are always mentioned. And it's the always the popular ones. Does anyone really need to be sent to dooce? Why not feature the blogs of the commenters on a more regular basis?

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For the most part, I love the blog. I love that it is an open conversation, as a blog should be.

I love that, in theory, you reward frequent commenters, but really think the star system needs to either be maintained regularly or dropped.

I think you need to seriously overhaul the site. It is one of the slowest loading sites I've ever been on.

You need to make it easy for people to choose which page of the comments they'd like to read, and not make them wait for each pae to load, scroll down to the bottom of the comments and then choose "next 20 comments" and repeat, ad nauseum. Because sometime I want to see what the nutters are yelling about on the last 20 comments of a post like "Is Elmo Dumb?"

I hate celebrity sycophantism. I see no relevance in celebrities unless they actually do something newsworthy, in terms of parenting.

I think, taking a page from Dooce, if someone writes a damning comment on your post you should ignore it or give a proper rebuttal. You should definitely not act petty and "out" an author who would prefer to stay anonymous. (Because, while Adrienne may not have been kind or measured in her comments, the comments themselves weren't without merit.

In terms of having a commenters ability to post questions thing, perhaps y'all could start a "You asked us" feature to tackle such things. I know how desperate y'all can get for story ideas some days!

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I would be happier with fewer celebrity posts.
I like the personal posts. I like the links to other blogs and family-oriented websites.

I could do without the somewhat fear-mongering medical studies.

But most of all I ask you again to please please please lay of the horrible "baby put in the dryer" sort of posts. Please.

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BloggingBaby could use more cowbell.

I'm just saying.

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