Complaint about thread removal on Red Bull regarding pregnancy

Do the mods have any actual strategy for opening up new discussion threads and actually encouraging people to have constructive conversations instead of just policing everything?

Right now, you guys have basically smothered RiD, and I’m really hoping there’s some sort of roadmap to bring it back to life, preferably in a way that actually works better than before.

I don't know what the long-term vision is here, but for me, RiD—even if you all think it was low-quality or "bad"—was honestly a lifeline during some incredibly brutal stretches of my life. It was everything from getting breastfeeding advice to finding a space to vent about how exhausting being a parent can be (stuff that would probably get flagged as "unnecessary" and deleted under today's rules, but it's what kept me sane after countless sleepless nights over several months).

Also, I have to give a massive thumbs down to moving the twins thread and the whole explanation about relocating it based on those "interest groups" logic.
It should be pretty obvious to anyone with common sense that moms dealing with twins don't have the luxury of scrolling through an endless stream of chatter just to find other twin moms; they basically have to ignore everyone else just to find the specific info they need.

👎

Can you believe it? Even my mom and her group of friends were posting all over there!!

Maybe try actually reading the threads you're shutting down before dropping those kinds of takes. Like, the idea that it's just Red Bull and pregnant women? Please. If it were all about vibrators and 😍, people would have stopped downloading PDFs ages ago. You’d be surprised how much regular parents can actually hold a conversation too 🙄

We’ve gone ahead and closed or moved some of those threads because, frankly, they had turned into nothing more than endless chat rooms. Some of them actually started out with great intentions and could have been genuinely useful if they hadn't spiraled, so we’ll likely reopen them down the road with much tighter rules and stricter enforcement. That said, we aren't about to let our support forums turn into a massive pile of spam where everyone just rambles about everything under the sun, so we won't be bringing back every single thread we took down.

hollowtrucker77 said:just imagine a mom trying to handle three kids at once!!
or, does anyone else feel like moms deal with some weirdly specific anxiety regarding their kids' hair color or if they're thinning out too much?
come on people, let's dial back the melodrama and bring this down to a reasonable level
this constant chatting and "vibing" really isn't what this forum is built for

hollowtrucker77, I think you're overreacting. We even have a separate thread for multiple pregnancies, and it isn't just a chat room or locked away. Raising twins, triplets, etc., is actually a very specific situation. The topic itself isn't the issue—it makes sense. The issue is the lack of moderation! Please don't lock threads that are genuinely needed; just moderate them more strictly instead.

hollowtrucker77 said:You can't exactly moderate a thread once it has spiraled completely out of control and gone straight to hell
The only real solution at that point is to just cut your losses, start a fresh thread, and try to moderate it properly from the jump
Of course, that obviously requires everyone to actually show some self-discipline and help out where they can

I agree! That basal measurement thread was probably going to hit 10k posts anyway if they hadn't locked it down. Let’s just start fresh—maybe we should clarify in the intro that any off-topic chatter will be sanctioned. It ought to work... and hopefully, the same goes for the twins over at Red Bull!

driftingbear10 said:Get rid of the only thread about pregnancy where people post photos—meanwhile, over in the fashion section (if I got the name right), there’s an endless stream of picture-dumping threads like: "fashion critiques for our brave ladies!", "challenges for our bold users," "shoe pics," "the big fashion critique mega-thread," or "what are you wearing today?"—where everyone just posts shots of random influencers... yet you guys make such a huge deal out of a topic where a bunch of moms were just sharing their memories... does anyone even get what I'm saying here?
And what's the deal with punishing people just for asking why someone got banned? 😕 Since when is asking about moderator overreach considered a crime? 🤔
I'm with you on one thing—this place needs a cleanup, but if you keep going down this path, you're just gonna end up clearing out the actual regulars who actually type stuff here. 👎

I'm totally on board with this. That pregnancy bump photo thread was one of my absolute favorites; I used to check it every single day. I'm not pregnant right now, but I was not too long ago, and I still love seeing those cute little bellies.😍 It would be awesome if they brought that thread back, and I bet a ton of other ladies on here feel the same way. Of course, there should be rules so people don't spam a million images and bloat the posts, but I'm all for it.

I guess if they’re going to start targeting pregnant women like this, they might as well just shut down the men’s and women’s sections entirely, since every single topic lately has been either mindless small talk or totally off-topic. 🙄

Look, if we have one dedicated thread for pregnancy, why can't people just use it to talk about what they bought? I don't get it. Even moms-to-be need to shop, and honestly, finding clothes that fit is a bigger headache for them than it is for the rest of us—especially with how crazy prices are right now. Or we could just start a fashion thread specifically for maternity wear where everyone posts pictures. I seriously don't follow the logic here. Same goes for cooking or talking about the weather. If we're worried about flooding the boards with posts, just set a page limit. Trim the excess and clear it from the server. Isn't that way easier than scattering ourselves across ten different sub-forums and cluttering everything up? 🤷

So, what exactly are the mods looking for in the MBT thread?
Just endless screenshots of charts—zero actual commentary? 🤷 🤷
As if you actually have a clue what any of this means.
I’ll admit we’ve been chatting a bit too much lately—but locking the whole thing down is just pointless.

Peter Doyle2 said:I agree! That basal measurement thread was probably going to hit 10k posts anyway if they hadn't locked it down. Let’s just start fresh—maybe we should clarify in the intro that any off-topic chatter will be sanctioned. It ought to work... and hopefully, the same goes for the twins over at Red Bull!

You don't actually mean we should put a warning about sanctions in the intro post of every single thread, do you?
That’s already covered in the general forum rules—chat isn't allowed unless it's explicitly permitted.

Another thing is that discipline on Red Bull had slipped a bit, so things became weirdly casual...

Jose White18 said:You don't actually mean we should put a warning about sanctions in the intro post of every single thread, do you?
That’s already covered in the general forum rules—chat isn't allowed unless it's explicitly permitted.

Another thing is that discipline on Red Bull had slipped a bit, so things became weirdly casual...

And honestly, that's all that matters.

This is like the fifth thread about basic hygiene here on RiD and the answer is always the same: The chat is moving. It's getting shut down or moved to Off-Topic.

The whole point of this forum isn't the chat; if people want to chat, there are plenty of other services for that, like Chatroulette and stuff like that.

So, we're treating weaning like it’s some kind of trending topic??

Honestly, so many of us have been through the ringer because of this subject—it's exhausting. It’s a real shame if you all think it doesn't deserve to be a top priority. 👎

Look, if a thread is actually trending and everyone's talking about it, it’s gonna stay at the top anyway. No point in forcing it to stay pinned there just to keep it visible.

The other thing with making everything a featured topic is that it totally kills the vibe. If you pin a thread about breastfeeding, then sure, why not pin a thread about daycare or car seats? You could basically pin every single thing on the board, and then the whole idea of having "top topics" becomes completely pointless.

Tyler Ruiz502 said:So, we're treating weaning like it’s some kind of trending topic??

Honestly, so many of us have been through the ringer because of this subject—it's exhausting. It’s a real shame if you all think it doesn't deserve to be a top priority. 👎

The whole breastfeeding debate isn't actually a "top tier" topic, and there's a pretty obvious reason for that. It’s just constantly hovering in our faces; it stays relevant because people never stop talking about it, making sure it’s always right there within reach—usually sitting on the first or second page of whatever digital document or feed you happen to be scrolling through.

hollowtrucker77 said:just imagine a mom trying to handle three kids at once!!
or, does anyone else feel like moms deal with some weirdly specific anxiety regarding their kids' hair color or if they're thinning out too much?
come on people, let's dial back the melodrama and bring this down to a reasonable level
this constant chatting and "vibing" really isn't what this forum is built for

I’m asking the frustrated moderators—you know, the ones without kids who spend their whole lives glued to a computer screen—to maybe show a little more respect to moms, especially those dealing with twins or triplets.
We aren't just some "INTERESTING GROUP," like the person quoted above said; we're moms in a super specific situation, and our chat is meant for that.
I mean, if you aren't going to make separate chats for every single "INTERESTING GROUP," why not just open one giant chat for the whole entire forum?! Why shouldn't moms, pregnant women, auto mechanics, night owls, and scammers all type together? Like, while some people are posting about how great they felt after watching the latest adult movie, we moms with twins can be over here talking about breastfeeding in tandem. And hey, if we get lucky, maybe some creep will chime in saying how much that turns him on while the foodies are busy commenting on how to cook salmon. Now THAT would be a chat!