Adoption UK Forums Closure from 5 September

[onlytherain]

I am speechless. First Adoption UK kept changing the forum without consulting its users. After each change, users complained. However, AUK kept changing the forum. Then they moved the forum over to Linkmaker (again without consultation), where, even though it was a public forum, everyone did not just have to re-register but also to get their adoption agency to confirm their identity. As a result, they lost several highly experienced adopters. Since then, the forum has pretty much been dead. And now they are claiming people are looking for other ways to connect.

The Adoption UK forum was the best online resource. It is not dead because people are looking for other ways to connect, but because of mismanagement. 60+ year old women, ie. experienced adopters, are not looking to connect via Snapchat. Of course, you can find lots of 30 and 40 year old adopters with children aged 2 to 4 on Youtube and elsewhere, but they don't have much expertise to share and that wasn't what was special about the AUK forum.

This is what happens when you don't listen to your users and try to force things upon them.

@onlytherain
I was very sad to see this too but not really surprised.
The old forum that I joined was amazing, I made some fabulous friends there who became real life friends.
The wisdom of the 'old timers' was invaluable. Not always what you wanted to hear but you always got honesty.
But a lot of people didn't like that honesty.

I see people around on other forums but there are one or two people I really wish I knew if they are ok or wonder how things turned out for them.
A great loss.

It's very sad but it hadn't been what it was for a long time now. Yes they messed it up. The original forum was the best.

I also miss the old crowd and wonder how they are doing now.

Sad to hear, but not surprised.
I found MN when AUK went all blue bubbles.
I often wonder how Shadow and Shadette are doing.

@UnderTheNameOfSanders

I forgot about the blue bubbles!!

Shadow and Shadette are doing OK.

I was steps on the old forum. And one of the 60+ women Helped organize Adoption uk weekends at Sandy Balls 8 years running. All those teenagers who went ( there was over 60 families the last time it happened) would now be 30-40! .many of us have grandchildren. I actually joined MN to get support for my son and D I L who have a son who is non verbal and has Asd.
It is a shame that the old boards were lost and the wisdom of those who went before who were the first adopters to adopter older hard to place children

That's such a shame, but hardly surprising.

I am a fairly recent adopter and tried numerous times to join in the last 5+ years. Never got any response.

The 'old's forum was incredibly useful for showing the reality of Adoption. I spent about 3 years going through it all before my LO came home.

As I got no luck in that forum I joined this one.

I only occasionally look/post here now. Tend to use FB more.

They should never have messed around with the forum. Doing so k%ll/d it.

What I found so frustrating was they kept saying they were improving the background infrastructure with no hint at all they were planning to mess wholescale with the user interface. And then they released an awful UI and totally ignored the users. I have no idea what they were thinking of. They killed things nearly stone dead.

I started out before the blue bubbles, I owe so much to the advice I got there. They destroyed the community by refusing to listen to feedback.

Agree. What I never understood was why ?

Corporate group think about 'branding ' I expect, and then it got to a point when they had spent so much on it they couldn't admit anything was wrong.

The boards became quite controversial I think.
I used to do the 'adopter spot' at training and came across lots of prospective adopters who had been warned off the forum because it was full of doom merchants with nothing positive to say about adoption.

I can see that, but where else were people meant to try to get help?
Adopters that don't need help go skipping into the sunset after all.

@UnderTheNameOfSanders

Exactly
I was on that forum for several years before my son came home
It was much better training than the actual prep group. I'd have been lost without it at times
And I seen to recall several "fun ' and good news threads

I was also on that forum before it imploded ( wizzywoo). I recognised a few people from there on here once I found this forum and like many I found it invaluable when going through the process. It was a big loss to me.

Prospective Adopters being warned against hearing the reality of Adoption ???!!!

They need to know that the reality of Adoption is VERY different to what is in the Training. My Agency's advertising only contained Adopters who had sailed through the Assessment and were experiencing a fantastic family life.

Studies consistently show that only 1/3 of adoptive families are living life with minimal issues. The rest of us are either experiencing significant challenges but we can just about manage or are in Crisis/Disruption.

I was CatLady on the forum and used to
post on the Adoptive Revolutionary Front about my granddaughter KitKat. The ARF was led by the lovely Pear Tree. I also posted on the F thread alphabetical game. But seriously, I learned such a lot from the forum and it helped me to be a supportive grandmother in the early years of placement. I do miss it!

The ARF was fabulous !

I wonder if any of you have considered joining the Potato Group? It stands for Parents of Traumatised Adopted Teens. It was set up by old AUK forum users who felt that AUK didn't support parents of older children properly. A lot of the old names are members. www.thepotatogroup.org.uk

I had a pretty bad experience with the potato group, I think.it depends whether your face fits.

I could really do with the teen adopters board
and Donatella and Partridge
I really need that resource right now

Lots of us from the old AUK boards are on Potato. If you have tricky teens it is a great resource.

I can't remember my name on thr old AUK boards but I was there, starting 20 years ago more or less. I think it's really bad that all that accumulated knowledge has been lost. I remember thr names mentioned here and others. I didn't always agree with everything but it was people going what we would be going through.

I've never posted on here before so hoping I'm posting in the chat I'm reading and not creating a new one 🙈
I was on the old AUK forums and remember a lot of the names mentioned. I have been on the newer ones but not for some time. So long that I don't even remember where to find them now that I need to. I am trying to find a post that I made to get some information from it to help my teenage son. I have logged in to linkmaker where I thought the forum was but can't see anything so have no idea where else to look. Could anyone post a link to them? Thanks

Sorry, I've just noticed the title of this thread and see the forum has closed. I was directed here from doing a Google search which took me straight to comments 🤭

Maybe ask your question again here. Or consider joining the Potato Group