What old chat forums do you remember/did you use?

[StolenTeapots]

Anyone remember some parenting forums from way back?

There was babyworld which was quite sensible and had a live chat room too.

The bounty forums which had DDD - discuss debate deliberate. The equivalent to aibu. That was a bit wild.

Then there were the msn forums. People would just upload their entire family albums to random forums and everyone would post "lovely pics hun xx"

And then nethuns which seems to be empty now. They had those ticker things "my baby is 4 months old sparkle sparkle" or "7 months until Disney MICKEY PICTURE "

I miss them sometimes. The utter lack of worry about digital footprint we had back then!!!

You and Your Wedding forum. I planned my wedding using inspiration from others on there. In the days before instagram was really a thing.

iVillage Am I pregnant and TTC forums in the late nineties.

Ah, my cousin and I used to use MSN messenger. We used to talk to Americans and we thought we were so cool! This was late 1990s. We befriended 2 guys from The Bronx and I actually kept in touch with one for many years.

Yes,we had profiles and people had their photos and family pics on them!

I used to use the mothercare forums back in early 2000s, then ukparents then babyworld.

Dotmusic

Gosh I miss the days of going onto forums/chat rooms and just chatting with whoever was online!

I used to go onto Yahoo and MSN I think as generic ones. One called “The Bronze” that was a Buffy the Vampire Slayer chat room. When pregnant, I was on a site called Babycentre. I remember we all used to have our own signatures on there, and a lady in one of my birth groups made some fantastic ones and she kindly offered to make them for anyone that wanted one. They tended to have a picture of you and your kids, your real name, DOB’s of your kids, or due date if pregnant. Absolutely wild to think that no one was worried if it was safe to do that! I did enjoy that site though, I went to a couple of meet ups with one of my birth groups, which was lovely, and I have most of them on my Facebook friends still.

The BBC used to have forums for TV, I spent a lot of time there debating shows with randoms. There were quite a few nutcases there

I used Handbag, and then Damsels. It was fun, but I knew everything about a few of the other users, so much so that I could've gone and knocked on their doors and found my way to their biscuit cupboard. Simpler times.

I used the Huggies chat forum. Remember chatting to a Leanne who had a baby called Shay. Was about 2004

They also had BBC Ouch! Which was their disability forums. Was gutted when it closed

I was on babycentre and met up with some of the women. I remember the ticker with your baby's name and age

Lonely Planet Thorntree Women Travellers. There was a real community on there with Secret Santa, book swaps and all sorts. Was on it for years and people really shared their lives. There were marriages, deaths, births, divorces etc. I often think of people I “met” on there and wonder how they are doing.

It was all so much friendlier back then ,wasn't it?

I remember reading posts by a Mumsnetter which had some info that made me think mmm I possibly know you, and she had a username that was a bit niche and linked to the job we did. Tons of photos of her, her husband and her kids here for everyone to see, then she started posting about her unhappy marriage and that she was planning to leave her husband - all this and more deeply personal stuff and I was literally sitting two desks away from her. The naivety was quite something, but I guess we didn't question it as much 20 years ago.

I belonged to a highly specific one called the Midlife Forum. It was set up by a lady in response to her husband's midlife crisis. I joined when my DH and I went through serious marital difficulties just after he turned forty and I genuinely believe it saved my sanity. My DH's behaviour was so unexpected and out of character that I thought he was going mad. There were some really kind and supportive posters on there with excellent advice about how to put your marriage on a shelf and look after yourself. Sometimes these men come back (mine did) but usually they don't and I needed to prepare myself for that. I read the site obsessively until relatively recently but when I last looked it had disappeared.

Yahoo groups
Handbag
Digital Spy

Then I found this crazy place around 2013 and never left!

I used babyworld forums a lot when pregnant with my first in 2003. Made some great friends who I’m still in contact with now.

Some of these ring a bell, but I was never really engaged or invested in them.
I do remember something called Baby Greenhouse, which was around when I was planning our wedding.
Weird set up. Founders got divorced because he wanted to trans. She met and married someone else, who also then wanted to trans. The story may even have made a national paper or magazine.
Did meet some like-minded people on there and even met up in person a few times.

yes Handbag but there seemed loads of others. i did use MSN and Yahoo chat rooms. being housebound now i wish there were more like it still but as people say they would probably be full of people making nasty comments, spam, trolls etc. such a shame could be a lifeline

Loved Handbag! I spent waaaaay too much time on there when I should have been working. Met up with a few other baggers in Dublin (I lived there then).

I loved GU Talk. Before I was a parent.

I remember there being a thread titled something like "Plane crash in Manhattan" which seemed irrelevant to me but kept reappearing at the top of my feed. Eventually I opened it and that was how I found out that 9/11 was happening.

They did indeed. Lots of them. I used to hang out on one.

ASL?

I also spent faaaaar too long on Handbag!

Not parenting ones but...
Handbag.com
Teenchat.com
Digichat
The yahoo chat rooms
There were so many but I was 12/new teen and would just go and wind people up on them.