Were you ever on a site with a strong community feel

[Liz1tummypain]

Just interested to know what people have to say about this. I was on a questions and answers site, not that I imparted much knowledge, it was mainly the music and chat areas I liked. But there were a lot of friendly regulars who I was friends with over tinternet. Mostly Americans, and I think about them now and then. No particular single other user but I miss the community, the atmosphere, if that's the word. I suppose my kids were no longer needing me and it filled a bit of space in my head, my life. Killed odd bits of time and was nice seeing a side of other users lives.

Plenty to be dealing with now and even if it came back I've moved on from that kind of site, I think.

Can other people relate to this ?

Do YouTube chats count? BigJetTV has a great group of subscribers who post during the live streams. Many pilots, engineers, airport ground staff etc who have some fascinating insights into the world of aviation. As someone who is a bit of a nervous flyer it really helps me to understand (well try anyway) the technical details. And some of them are very funny.

Also Rick Beato's subscribers. He's a musician and music theory teacher and some of the discussions go way over my head but the passion and knowledge from both him and his followers is awesome.

ABE Books forum. The UK one was a bit dead but the main US one had a world-wide community. The Brits had regular meet ups and I still see a couple of people from there from time-to-time.

Yes, usenet was pretty good back then.

Long ago Mumsnet.

I was thinking the same! Used to be tea_leaf or Vivienne Westwood back in the day 😂

Another TT exile! Hello!

Yes I was, in the early 2000s. Quite a niche interest site and the interest provided a lot of opportunity for users to meet in real life. About a dozen or so of us are still in touch and have the occasional get together, 4 or 5 of the dozen are very close and meet regularly.

Early 2000’s- Cosmopolitan website had a busy forum section with loads of different topics for young women.
Also Gurl.com

2010/2011- Babyandbump.com. Absolutely loved this forum, had a real community feel. I feel like people were more oblivious to online safety back then so lots of photos and real names used, but you got to know who different users were. It seems like there were quite a few of these sorts of communities in the 2000s. One of the ‘due date groups’ I was in moved over to Facebook but it’s not the same.

Lovely to see iVillage mentioned several times! I was on various boards there - especially Coping with Infidelity - and made friends IRL with several people, whom I am still in touch with.

yes I was on a few, I’m still Facebook friends with them now and look back and cherish those times. But I don’t think I’d join one now

I actually searched my emails for mentions of TT (I never delete any 😳) and I organised the Secret Santa in 2007!!

Early 2000's, Guardian Antenatal and Parenting threads in the Haven. We had a couple of good meet ups, too. DH is the social one - our youngest has a middle name from a very special friend of his in that forum, who sadly died when I was pregnant with her. We met up with two of them a few years ago, in London.

And the Trade Me parenting message board - some great friends, and some good enemies too, lol. We were known as the lactating hyenas by the rest of the forums, and a dangerous place to go, if you weren't careful how you stepped, a bit like the nest of vipers that AIBU is perceived to be here and now!

Lonely Planet....thorn tree forum.
Fantastic for sharing and researching travel plans. Fantastic open hearted and helpful people from all over the world.
I miss it.

handbag, and then there was a spin off/replacement forum TMT.

I remember that on you&your wedding!

I was on babyandbump in 2011 too! They helped me through a really difficult time with my ex, was a really kind community.

Yes,it was completely different back then.

BMC too.

I made some RL friends on here in the mid 2000s as well. Met up a few times but I have moved so we lost touch.

Have made quite a few RL friends through football Twitter and a football forum that I pay £10 a year for. The fact that a lot of us are match going fans helps because we are regularly in the same physical place at the same time.

We moved seats last season and now have one of the online friends sitting a few seats away from me. It’s lovely.

Awesome! A number of WTTT exiles carried it on through another forum - I've barely been on it this year though so it feels very cheeky to pop up at the time of year and ask to join it 😂

I remember the heartbreak when they announced the closure of TT. Bloody BBC, complaining about our swearing apparently. Wimps.

I was on the Hitched forums when getting married. Moved onto the baby section of that forum. Which they broke off and moved and it was shit so a new breakaway forum started called “TheDeadwood” because that’s what we were (the people who didn’t follow to the new bit).

It was amazing for a long time and we did some brilliant things for our people in tricky spots. So much support and understanding.

Eventually moved to Facebook and it lost it for me. Super cliquey and very controlling mods.

Pig2twig. Early low carb site. Run by India Knight and someone else. Amazing cookbook came out of it. Such a laugh.

Yes, I remember the carnage fall out following the outing of the trisomy 18 poster. I think she was uncovered via fake scan pictures in the end? It was pretty disgusting. Lots of people felt betrayed as they had shared their personal stories and become very emotionally invested over a long period of time.

There was also the lady from Garstang, who claimed to have an opulent lifestyle, who was, in the end, outed as a troll also (but this particular troll was actually quite fun to engage with as the lifestyle claims were so outlandish!)

Also, EmmaLampard (I think it was) with her divisive makeup tips!

But there were also meet ups and great amounts of support . Was a great forum in its day.

hello @IHaveRunOutOfIdeas <waves to hello BM>

Yep. Bad Mothers Club. I still miss it now. I’m in the Facebook group which is still very supportive but so quiet.

Oh I’m so glad to see so many people from BMC here. I met my best friend irl on there!

I was on Damsels, found it eventually when everyone moved from Handbag and I was left talking to myself! There was a damsel scarf that was a bit of a trend on there, doesmybumlook40 was a prolific poster and I was heavily involved in the pregnancy chat in 2009/2010.

There was another site similar to Tattle but it was to slag off other forums but I can’t remember the name 😩