OK - a few of my thoughts, truthful.
Yes, Netmums and mumsnet are different - but different doesn't have to mean better or worse - just different. It would be very boring indeed if all parenting websites were the same. And I don't think there is anything inherently wrong in telling someone that one or other will suit them better - I know that mumsnet suits me better than netmums, and wouldn't be offended if someone over there told me so. It's like saying that one cafe is really pretty, vintage, retro and does a lovely range of teas, and another is all big squashy leather chairs and specialises in different coffees. If I walk into the vintage-y one and complain that I don't like retro chic or tea, and another patron points me to the other cafe up the road and says I might like that one better, that's a good thing, in my book - it means I can find the place that suits me and where I fit in.
As someone else said, this isn't like a 1-to-1 conversation, it is mroe like a big group discussion, and there will be meanderings and side topics, and people who know eachother and throw in conversational spanners. If you go with the flow, and carry on posting and enjoying the conversation, even if it has strayed away from where it started, you might enjoy it, and you will get to know people better, and they will get to know you too. Basically that's what I did when I joined this site - I joined in the conversations and went with the flow, and I got to know and be known.
And I have found mumsnet to be an incredibly caring and supportive place (with firmness and an ability to tell you to cut the crap if that's what you need to be told) - tough love, I guess. I have made some wonderful friends here (and fwiw, we do have our own threads for our in jokes - but they are open to anyone who wants to come in and join our fun). I have met actual mumsnetters - at christmas dos, and individually, and that has enriched my life. There are others I long to meet, and intend to meet sometime. And others who will be friends on the interweb and who I will never meet, but appreciate just as much.
I've also been part of some of the ways that mumsnetters reach out in very practical ways to other mumsnetters in need. Each christmas there's a mumsnet secret santa - where you can suggest someone who might be going through a rough time, and another mumsnetter will send a little secret santa gift - which is a wonderful thing for both giver and receiver. I have also knitted squares for several of the mumsnet blankets - if you look at the Woolly Hugs website it will tell you more, and you can see pictures of the blankets - but basically they grew from a single mumsnetter who sadly lost her little boy following surgery for a brain tumour. People wanted to do something tangible to offer comfort, so it was decided we'd make a quilt and a blanket - some people made quilt squares, which were made up into a quilt by another mumsnetter's mum; and others of us knitted squares which were made up into a blanket - we saw it as a way of offering tangible comfort, when we were all widely spread and unable to go in person to offer a hug or some practical help. The response was amazing, and nearly twice as many squares as were needed, turned up - and then another blanket was needed when another mumsnetter lost a spouse. It has gone on from there, and we are currently knitting for two blankets. This, to me, epitomises the absolute best of mumsnet. I don't know if netmums does anything similar - I wouldn't be at all surprised if they do, because when people get together, in a caring supporting community, stuff like this happens.
Anyhow - end of essay - and all I want to leave you with is one thought. Give it another try - join in some threads, have some fun, make some friends, and maybe you will find we aren't all that bad after all.
xx