RID Remodel

So, this new "Playground" sub-forum—where we all just pretend to be parents now—what’s the actual goal there? How is this even supposed to work? I mean, if we’re all busy roleplaying domestic life, what's actually left for the rest of the forum to discuss?
🤷

As we’ve laid out in the rules, we designed the Playroom to be a space for casual everyday stuff—you know, things like sharing quick advice or swapping recommendations for daily life. On the other hand, the Root is intended for those more serious, deep-dive discussions. We haven't finished migrating all the threads over just yet because there's honestly a mountain of them, but I really think we'll have the whole process wrapped up pretty soon.

In my humble opinion, it’s a solid idea—the main forum will finally feel like it can breathe again—but the choice of title for the PDF is just as bad as the concept is good.

It wasn't just that I had no clue what was actually inside that PDF when I first saw the title; even now, I'm struggling to wrap my head around why on earth they chose "Playroom" 😕.

Honestly, we couldn't come up with anything more brilliant than this. To be fair, this specific proposal ended up pulling the most votes. 😁 Besides, it just felt right to us—the Playroom should be a happy, upbeat space. We aren't saying there won't be serious stuff discussed there, but the vibe is meant to be much more "lighthearted."

Anyway, we’ll probably be doing a bit of a makeover for RID in a few months and opening up at least one more PDF, and I have a feeling the Playroom will evolve into something else entirely by then. It might even outgrow its current name! This split is really just our way of helping us filter through topics as we prep for those future changes, because we want to make sure we do this right. It might seem a little clunky, but since this is our first time handling something like this, we just wanted to be extra careful about how we move forward. We didn't want to rush into a massive overhaul all at once; this approach lets the actual needs of the PDF crystallize more clearly over time.

I’ve always found it pretty weird that this forum doesn't actually involve its own members in certain decisions. 🤔
Take picking a name for the new PDF project, for example. 😳
Now that you've already moved the threads around, the users here actually have an idea of what kind of PDF you're aiming for. They’re going to chime in, and they’ll keep chiming in—so why shouldn't they have a say? I mean... if you guys aren't even sure what to call it yourselves, 😁

just start a thread on that PDF page and ask the community for some help! 😁

To just seemed like the right call to us at the time. We put a couple of options on the table, one of them clearly struck a chord and got the biggest round of applause from everyone, so we just rolled with it. If we’d been sitting there feeling totally lost or unsure, we definitely would have stopped to ask for advice, but honestly? We felt pretty solid about it. 😁

To put it bluntly, RID is a mess right now.
About 99% of the discussions here revolve around infants, baby gear, and endless questions regarding feeding or handling babies and toddlers.
Serious topics—discussions on parenting styles or issues involving teenagers—tend to sink almost immediately; they just get lost or left without answers.
Ideally, RID should be a subforum catering to all age groups and various developmental stages, but it isn't. It basically turned into a Playroom long before we even launched that PDF. And honestly, that’s driving people away.
Which is a shame. We live in an era where parenting is incredibly complex and fraught with challenges. We definitely need a space where we can meaningfully discuss these things. RID wasn't providing that.
As rustydrifter10 already mentioned, the Playroom is just the first step toward dismantling and reorganizing the entire RID structure.
Once we wrap this up, everything should make much more sense. It'll be organized, and it will be crystal clear where every topic belongs.
But folks, this won't happen overnight. RID is massive!
So, I'd ask you to please bear with us.

Even though the rules state where we announced these changes prior to the split, I'll reiterate them here just to help you navigate when searching for or starting a new thread:
The main RID root is for parenting discussions, general topics, "heavy" subjects, and threads meant to spark deep debate.
The Playroom is for questions about nutrition, gear, clothing, or those list-style threads—the "lighter" stuff, if you catch my drift.
(The working title for the Playroom was actually RID Light 😁)

It feels to me like RID is starting to resemble something specific. 👋

The Parenting thread, however, remains a total mystery to me. I get the impression that every single parenting dilemma imaginable is dumped into that one thread. If you actually want a subforum dedicated to high-quality discussions on child-rearing, isn't it counterproductive to limit everything to just one single topic?

You've got sibling rivalry, kids throwing sand at each other, the old thread about how daughters can be defiant, how to handle a three-year-old who tantrums all day long, and the stubbornness of a two-and-a-half-year-old—all crammed into the last two pages (and I’m looking at pages with 60 posts each). To me, it’s like the USDA trying to establish itself as a serious professional subforum, while everyone's individual marriage problems are all shoved into one giant thread called "marriage problem."

Now, I certainly agree there should be one thread for dealing with unbearable grandparents and similar issues, but for almost every parenting question to land in one spot, it would only make sense if those dilemmas were solved with answers like, "Look them dead in the eye and tell them to stop. Source: (ed.) Omniscient, M. (2011)." 1000 Questions 1000 Answers. Washington, D.C.: Education.

Not everything is going to be moved over there. I honestly think most people on this forum just instinctively dump their uncertainty into that one thread, but everyone is more than welcome to start a brand-new topic if they're dealing with something else entirely.

Well, since the PDF only recognizes parenting methods backed by RODA, and the moderators are either active members or former RODA folks, it’s pretty obvious why there’s only one single thread on Parenting... 🤷

brightpuma said:Well, since the PDF only recognizes parenting methods backed by RODA, and the moderators are either active members or former RODA folks, it’s pretty obvious why there’s only one single thread on Parenting... 🤷

To be honest, I don't even know which specific parenting styles RODA actually endorses! I think I’ve only ever clicked over to this forum when a link popped up on RID, mostly because I always want to check where a link is taking me, and I tend to follow my gut. We actually have several different threads about parenting going on right now, and if you take a look at the post just above yours, you'll see that new perspectives are definitely welcome here.

rustydrifter10 said:To be honest, I don't even know which specific parenting styles RODA actually endorses! I think I’ve only ever clicked over to this forum when a link popped up on RID, mostly because I always want to check where a link is taking me, and I tend to follow my gut. We actually have several different threads about parenting going on right now, and if you take a look at the post just above yours, you'll see that new perspectives are definitely welcome here.

Look, I don't want to start a whole debate here—this isn't the place for it. But I'll tell you, about six months to a year ago, I really wanted to join the discussions on that PDF. Instead, the way they moderated that thing stuck in my mind, specifically because of that issue mentioned earlier. 🤷
The amount of insults I dealt with there? Never experienced anything like it on any other PDF. And the moderators didn't do a thing about it because they actually agreed with the behavior.

brightpuma said:Well, since the PDF only recognizes parenting methods backed by RODA, and the moderators are either active members or former RODA folks, it’s pretty obvious why there’s only one single thread on Parenting... 🤷

I see where you're coming from, but I honestly think your impressions are a bit "outdated."

Aside from the fact that the moderation team has shifted somewhat, RID has undergone exactly the kind of evolution it needed: through a combination of redefined moderation policies and the separation of the "Toddler & Diapers" sub-forum—pardon me, the "Playroom" 😬—this PDF is gradually transforming from a place of constant agitation—where anyone daring to suggest something different was branded a liar or faced the wrath of RODA's terror—into an actual space for discussion.

Nicholas King said:I see where you're coming from, but I honestly think your impressions are a bit "outdated."

Aside from the fact that the moderation team has shifted somewhat, RID has undergone exactly the kind of evolution it needed: through a combination of redefined moderation policies and the separation of the "Toddler & Diapers" sub-forum—pardon me, the "Playroom" 😬—this PDF is gradually transforming from a place of constant agitation—where anyone daring to suggest something different was branded a liar or faced the wrath of RODA's terror—into an actual space for discussion.

Maybe... I haven't spent much time over there lately. Mostly because of two women who were posting here before me... 😉 one got special treatment, while the other basically acted as her loyal sidekick.

brightpuma said:Maybe... I haven't spent much time over there lately. Mostly because of two women who were posting here before me... 😉 one got special treatment, while the other basically acted as her loyal sidekick.

Are you talking about me and that other woman I've shut down so many times I've actually lost count? 😁

rustydrifter10 said:Are you talking about me and that other woman I've shut down so many times I've actually lost count? 😁

You weren't even around the last time I posted on this thread. Honestly, since you two shared the exact same perspective on the whole issue, she basically got away with anything. But let's not get sidetracked. If Nicholas King says things are looking up, I'll take his word for it.

brightpuma said:You weren't even around the last time I posted on this thread. Honestly, since you two shared the exact same perspective on the whole issue, she basically got away with anything. But let's not get sidetracked. If Nicholas King says things are looking up, I'll take his word for it.

I think I know which thread you're talking about. 😬 From what I recall, you both got flagged. It's just that your accumulated strikes led straight to a ban, whereas she didn't have enough prior points for that new strike to actually trigger one. So, you assumed you were the only one punished and claimed she wasn't flagged—but you can't really know that, since flagged posts are deleted and there's no way for you to see who actually got hit.
Maybe stick to accusations that are actually easy to verify. 😁

brightpuma said:You weren't even around the last time I posted on this thread. Honestly, since you two shared the exact same perspective on the whole issue, she basically got away with anything. But let's not get sidetracked. If Nicholas King says things are looking up, I'll take his word for it.

I just checked, and honestly? You both were completely clueless.

Joshua Jones13 said:I think I know which thread you're talking about. 😬 From what I recall, you both got flagged. It's just that your accumulated strikes led straight to a ban, whereas she didn't have enough prior points for that new strike to actually trigger one. So, you assumed you were the only one punished and claimed she wasn't flagged—but you can't really know that, since flagged posts are deleted and there's no way for you to see who actually got hit.
Maybe stick to accusations that are actually easy to verify. 😁

No, that's just not true. She got one strike, just like me. Honestly? She deserved two or three. Look, I really don't feel like digging through the archives again to pull out unsanctioned posts from her and a few other people.

brightpuma said:No, that's just not true. She got one strike, just like me. Honestly? She deserved two or three. Look, I really don't feel like digging through the archives again to pull out unsanctioned posts from her and a few other people.

Basically, I issue cumulative warnings when it's the same violation. So, if you're trolling across several posts within a single discussion, I'll hand out one warning. But, if someone goes a step further and starts being insulting, that’s an entirely separate warning because it's a different offense altogether. I noticed there was a lot of deleting happening; I took a look at a few, and truthfully, the post you were warned for wasn't the only trolling comment you made. By that logic, you actually earned more than one, but that's just not how I handle moderation.

I really don't think there's any point in dwelling on this now, and besides, this isn't even the intended topic for this thread.