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Hi Bhavani,

My thoughts:

1. We can have an Events calendar. Moms who visit the website will generally like to see what's planned in chennaimoms in the near future and they may be interested in joining. I remember Sudha and others were discussing about some fixed weekend for meetup every month.

Also Events summary: Like what events happened in this year. A summary (already blogs are there, so link to these blogs) and photos

2. Whenever a new event/contest is planned send a mail to everybody (just thought of it). Currently the cmoms who manage it send a mail but I think it'll only go to the moms in the friends list (I'm not sure). But a mail to all cmoms will be helpful and if they agree you can send an email.

3. Have a feedback page where they can send you the feedback.

4. Have articles written by your panelists from time to time.

 i like ur ideas sshanthi

i think bavani will take up steps according to ur suggestions

HI,

   I came back to this site twice after a hiatus.moreover, the main reason was lack of time. the first time i came was for the most exciting topic on earth-ROMANCE(sweet nothings)_ and the second time it was  to discuss issues  which were irritating me.

i usually keep off the site `cos it takes away a lot of my time and my hubby doesn`t like that.

but i always check my mobile messages as it hardly takes time--so, what i wud suggest is to use SMS to update "vanished" moms with blog names, contests and event details. they might feel the urge to get back when something of their choice interests them.

So, do u all say moms will keep coming to the site only if we have the events/contests in chennaimoms? We do have all these monthly contests and others... but still, is that the only thing that attracts moms to cmoms?

I shall do whatever is suggested (it'll take sometime for sms intimation etc). But if moms come back only to check on the event, how will the new moms who posted questions will get answers? Who will encourage the moms who blog with their comments and votes?

How to improve the friendship between the moms?

Moms, please think and give me solution to this.... I've been breaking up my head and I dont have an answer. Thats why i titled it as heart to heart where I've put forth this question to you... hoping to get solutions!

I think the time factor plays a key role. Like I told my hubby that its been so long since I went for a meetup. I couldn't even login for a long time (except to see my son's school website for which I have to be on the net). I think there are times when one is less busy compared to times when there are many things to attend to. So events/contests pull you back.

Bhavani .. wen i was reading sudha's hot seat i felt th same thing .. for a min i thot there may be some day where even i will vanish from th site ..

neways .. time factor and may be some spice need to be added to th site

as i ve suggested before .. jus add a pointer which says "Mom's views on site " and link all our blogs "chennai moms effects on me .. so tht people who look at th site may get good reviews about th site

secondly .. as we all know there re many moms who log in th site only wen there is a contest wid monetary benefits .. pl forget bout them as we cannot retain them

otherwise, bhavani ask some one to assist u and keep th home page fresh .. like keep changing the blogs in editor's pic and latest ..

 

if there is a segregation of Fwded blogs and own written .. thts also an added advantage .. pl who ve ample of time can look in for fwded blogs

we can also add "baby's names", house names .. which wud attract ppl .. atleat 100 ppl in india will search for baby names and we can easily attract them

like the treasure hunt .. u used to before .. we can hunt for old moms ..

n friendship .. we ve so many friends here like th ones we ve in college .. so tht u don worry :)

u can also advertise .. like most happening site .. n we give opportunity to all aspiring moms to participate in various TV programmes

wen ever i get some point will add them up

Hi Bhavani,

      My humble feeling is that, the quality of content should be improved. Forwards and meaningless blogs should be filtered. Some of them are being posted only to increase the karma points. Whenever there are contests please make sure you have judges from expert panel and make sure a meaningful and quality content gets recognized.  Asking the moms to vote or judge I feel would result in favoritism and bias. Not all the comments are genuine. There are people who simply praise everything for the sake of commenting.

The idea about Q&A and blogs are good ones. Organizing it according to month or day wise would be better and a special column for posting forwarded contents which can attract set of people who love to read it would be much appreciated instead of mixing it with good thoughts arising out of one’s own mind.

Inspirational thoughts could be posted with one’s own views about them. A thought per week could make the column more interesting. There could be discussion about a book per month, a hobby or craft idea per week/month, views about movies, and dramas, information about latest fashion around Chennai could make the site more interesting. These could be made as front page buzz so that people would visit, check and comment often.

Secondly I would like to share my view on the meeting I had with three of you in the school during the drawing competition. I was just talking with few of the moms present there and enjoyed my time there. I felt all three of you were way too formal. You all were so serious and it was like an examination hall. Friendliness was missing there! The very reason, I was nervous about meeting new people. Such promotional events should be a fun filled rather than a serious one. So people would approach without any hesitation.

Keep up the good work! Cheers!!!

Poornima good thought and bold comments ..

just like discussing bout a book .. we can also discuss bout new releases movies

Wonderful comments and my two bits would be to include a link to the photos of the meet ups conducted. Homepage and the content can definitely be improved.

Maybe when we have blog contests, we can restrict it to a fixed number of words within which it has to be written.

Shall come up with more...can;t think of anything else.

Probably if we can get the expert panel to post some useful blogs.. it would be more interesting..

Also Probably i can borrow an idea from my office service desk here.. Every week we get a publication of what is happening in chennai like the movies, dramas, discount sales, eat outs, when, what, where and how in chennai.. it even includes services like housekeeping, maintenance, rental, sale etc., we always rely upon that and wait for that publication to come in, so that we can plan our weekend or other activities.

Keep the website changed based on the season.. for eg., google.. you can refer to the igoogle homepage which can be customized based on our login.. (Am I being too farfetched!!!) I see that that the left handside the website is completely empty, it could be used more effectively. There could be an index of categories…

Also there could be innovative online competitions apart from the blogs and picture profile contests.. where the moms can be involved as a panel… so there need not be an event or posting of comments..

Will keep posted if I can think of some more!!

 Wow great ideas...!!  Liked all.. especially these three...

liked Sangita's idea of baby names etc... yes.. thats a most common search and we can attract people for sure!

Purnima... well researched comments and feedback..! Kudos!

Vai's i dea of photo links (which cannot be copied)...

What about online games which can be introduced....:) Supera irukkum. Maybe games that involve two or more players.

 Vai.. ingeyum Farmville?

hi bhavani,

your message hit the bull' s eye..meaning..i personally felt it was meant for me

i know i have not been very active on the site these days but then i do make it a point to visit the site everyday...

unfortunately, this time, i was unable to make it for the event as jeetu and me were down with severe cough and cold..as a matter of fact, am yet to recover completely...i was sitting at home, all the while thinking abt how the event went on

though i may not be the rite person to give suggestion, here are my two cents on how to make the site better..

as somebody rightly said, forwards and other emails should be screened and then accepted.i completely agree that there are some wonderful forwards(like the pencil art)  that should be shared with others but we could probably do some restriction on the content..not sure how...

also, i feel some feature like latest happening in the city, upcoming events etc would be interesting..i know that we already a bit of that..but something like courses/ classes happening around the city..something like tat might attract new members and hopefully retain old ones..

cheers

aish

hi bhavani,

yes unwanted blogs should be filtered and as vai said,i dont like lenghty blogs its very boring to read such blogs,so ask d moms to post d short and meaningful blogs,no ramayanam,

and u keep in touch with d old moms by msg them(i know its difficult for u bcoz of ur busy schedule,but one or two msgs in a month,

Like Blog of the Month contest, you can also have a 'Debate of the month' contest.

Hey bhavani!!

Now I understand what Heart to heart meant!

All the suggestions are great!

I know its a tough job to keep all of them hooked to site always but I feel realy bad when those precious gems of cmoms are lost. Thats the reason I made the comment.

I have given my suggestions long time back but still would like to repeat.

A fixed date for meet up is must. Though it can be changed when completly required.

And to keep the old cmoms motivated. give them the responsiblity of fixing up the venue and arranging the meet up. And every meeting should be organised by one old mom who will try to get in touch with the new ppl and finalise thing.

Like suppose I take up responsiblity for the month of september, I get in touch with those moms who are interested plus i would also get in touch with the lost friends and drag them to meet up too. Then I work on poornimas point and think how to make the meeting more imformal with some fun activities and talks. Also find a place which would be attractive to all, where we can hear eachother loud and clear and can let the kids free.

The next month another old cmom plans up takes up responsiblity and drags in her set of friends who do not visit the site much now and also build rapport with the new ones by calling them for the meet.

I sincerely feel that  if the old cmoms are given some job where they can be active they will have to keep coming back.

I have tons of ideas but lets start with something first.

Sudha

Hi ,

Already we have few in c.moms which u all have suggested ...

Baby names , games ...

Check this : http://www.chennaimoms.com/tools 

and we have many more in tools tab ...check it out

gayathri till now i ve not come across this tools at al .. may it shud be on th home page, more attractive and mom's can add up names n meanings

Hi Bhavani,

As many mentioned, i feel only 2 factors can play role in this regard  - "Time & Interests"

a) moms may not find time/they are lazy..

--> only newsletters, events/meet ups may get them back

--> SMS looks a very great option to share quick info

--> make them responsible for a meet up or a daily activity or event

b) site has become a little routine....need changes...(i feel still many old moms log in to check the happenings but may not be active. To drag in - only way is bringing new ideas and every now and then too !!! )

--> we got loads of suggestion from all our friends above....very good ones..event calendar, panelists article now and then, debate of the month, photo links, monthly meetups, segregation of blogs...

--> i sincerely believe - we have to start from Home page & categorizing content in home page. There will be people with varied needs,  varied strengths (good bloggers with own interesting content, few may like to share content they read, everyone cannot be precise, sometimes lengthy blogs come up....i liked Jaysvimals big blog on Niagara with relevant pics- why not!!) But, if we categorize rightly, i think we can cater to all needs to good extent - seperate windows in home page for Blogs/Q&A, higly viewed/commonly creted categories in Cmoms - E.g. Share my thoughts(some catchy  name of category - for e.g), counselling corner (suggestions to people's problem), Beauty etc. we already have tags in cmom site itself - we have to use them for easy picking at the front page

otherwise the site has the right atmosphere - great blend of moms and interesting topics..

--> Feedback or Idea junction

--> Ideas like Hot seat will naturally draw people to ask questions (namellam 'tharumi' type aache!!) and know about other people (very nature of women :). We can come up with more kundaka mandaka ideas too in seperate blog which people may eagerly look for....

--> I could see lot of groups created but many are inactive i believe - atha enna pannalam?  THe most active and accomplished group will be recognized and rewarded in every cmoms events ???

--> Is there an option to check on trends in cmoms during various quarters - if we get some details, we can check if any changing trend in blogging, what categories often discussed upon - we may end up with some clue for improvement ??

--> if we can volunteer or a group can volunteer for a daily blog - daily kural, daily thought, daily hot news etc

Great going Bhavani......

Its about time and interest...

Time factor of individual varies with persons...

Intersets depends on bonding with the people here,contents in the site which can be improved over with the ideas pourd by our moms...

I dont think there is old or new moms which would bring gap between moms....its abt open mindedness ....who si old and who si going to be new moms!!!!?????

Blogs can be posted catagarically...that would motivate good bloggers in this site...

Moms trying to give valuable answers will improve the quality of the site which is the essence of the site..

About contests nothing wrong in having the contests and judgements must be from the exper panel not from the member(if people take it seriously).....

Hi Bhavani,

I hope this retaining and other stuff is fully dependant on one's own decision.U cannot enforce them..Actually there should not be terms coined as old moms and new moms...wat separates them...the date when they have logged in..that's it..

Also it the time constraint...initially they would have been free and were searching for any info and have been active in this site..later on there is less scope for that..I cud see many moms who are silent spectators ...

Also I totally disagree with the points like - Home page needs further enhancement in design and so on...at initial stages when the site was developed there wouldn't have been such things that we have today...in that case..if they were active on those time and not now...it means that something else is wrong somewhere else.

In this case,u can have a open discussion with some of the moms ...and ask them instead and ask them wat else is needed out of this site.

I have been reading all the suggestions and thinking of ways to implement them...

I would like to make something clear about our expert panel members.

Members in our expert panel are busy people and thats why there is some delay in getting answers from them... Above that they are doing it as a service to our moms. I cannot really burden them to judge every monthly contests too... And our monthly contests on blogs, profile pics do not really need an expert's judgement. Does it?

So I would suggest a panel of judges for every contest than just one judge. If many moms still feel that the results have been partial - we can revisit on the judges. What do you say?

As I dont feel the judgement is biased but jus to eradicate the doubts from fellow moms...

I personally take contests as fun and i really didnt want to be a part of contest at any point of time in this site since workwise Im already in the race..so for me contests are big no...jus a fun...but for other moms it may improve their skills ...

And Bhavani..if u think ..u can give an unbiased judgement to these contests..do spend time and give judgement...

Hope moms will agree for this...

Vel nowadays in this competitive world , to make the site live we need alterations to happen and as u said we can have an open discussion with them but neverthless,  change is always required to make the site attractive and to get in new moms..

I am sure we will be able to regain the old moms with such activities.

Am sure  for the moms who had left  or silent-there may be other persoanl reasons, that we need to check with them personlly might be through  tele calling ...( so that there will be a personal touch and they will be able to express their problems)

These all are marketing tactics to hold our customers and there is nothing harm in doing such activities...

As far as i knew abt c moms all r good and people may disappear like me due to other work load.. its not cos of the site features.

U r doing good bhavani, keep it up..Innovative things work out good.

Taking Sudha's suggestion of fixed meetup dates further, we can fix say second Sunday of the month (just a suggestion)

Some thoughts on meetup

Moms have suggested that it should be totally informal.

So a first round introduction and some sentences about the person, what they've been doing currently, or some quiz (guessing the moms). Can change everytime.

Venue - change from place to place to cover more cmoms and we can get to see more places. For e.g. I don't remember any meetup in Velachery

Have one theme in a meetup like a movies discussion theme/ books theme / songs session/ dance. for some time. We can even have a dress code for some fun.

Any comunity problems we can discuss and share the experience like bad roads or any such thing. Or any service that people are interested in like teaching the poor/orphanage help.

Then fooooood....

Decide next venue and next theme

Few items could be done right away...

Second sunday for meet ups sounds good. Actually we had monthly meet ups, but if I was unable to participate, the meet up got postponed and I din't want that to happen. Also there were many meet ups happening among chennaimoms members - more than one meet up in a month in fact - which also should be encouraged! Why should e'one wait for this one meet up? They could meet apart from these regular meet ups right? Bcoz of these, the monthly meet ups didn't happen 'properly' for the last few months.

So we can easily bring it back! But could someone open up a group for meet ups and lets have that on editor's pick like hot seat and others! It'd be great if someones takes charge of the meet ups like sshanthi, habi taking care of profile picture contest and anu4nivedh on blog of the month contests...

About many cmoms going off the radar..i too agree with the views of others:

And i hv a suggestion reg - too many copied blogs posted..

I just ran thru the blogs posted since Aug1 till date, and roughly 130 blogs hv been posted, out of which, hardly 30 are original, written-by-moms blogs. And most of the fwded mails blogs have already been read by most of us.

Though this is very irritating, we must also understand that most of us, during the initial days of joining in the site, must ve done this. Mostly, it is just for the sheer pleasure of seeing our name on the homepage..!! Earlier, there used to be karma points for posting any blog, copied or otherwise, that was also a reason, though not anymore !

But then, this also puts many of us off. New emails fwds that we ve not read before are welcome, like the 'passport' blog Vel had posted.

My suggestn is, now that the group for 'email forwards' has been created, ALL fwded blogs should come only from that group.

Admin, maybe u can do something by which, the name of the mom who s posted this blog under the group also appears. That is, the blog posted under this group (or any group) should be linked to the mom posting it, as any regular blog. This could revive groups.

Coming back to the copied blogs, it completely takes the charm out of the homepage.

Just my opinion..

(I also hv a little opinion about meet-ups & events..cant find the words now..)

 taking charge  for the meetups....i think...instead of one mom...two is better...

so they both moms make sure...meetup happens...everymonth....

(i can volunteer...any one else is interested to join with me)

and one more suggestion 

once in two...or three month...we can visit....old age homes.(orphanage)...too..

Jayshree.....I dont mind joining hands with you in organizing meetups......

Admin, can you remove scrapbook notifications from latest buzz?.. as anyway.. scrapbook is each mom's privacy, why should it be announced in public?  secondly, all these birthday wishes... if two moms wish all, one page of latest buzz is full!  total traffic jam...

Please consider

Hi people!!!

Active discussion. Great going!

Ok! first let me clear one thing. When I gave the terms "Old moms" and "new moms" I was not trying to sagregate them. they were just terms to point out the previously active moms and the recently active moms!!! So please dont feel offended.

And I know that with time things change. or interests change. But the point here is.........

why are those moms not seen at all?

Leave apart bloging and questioning. they may not have time for all that but they can still join us for meet ups or event. ITs like you leave your moms place and then slowly loose contact with your friends there!!!!

For me Chennaimoms is not just a site. Its place where i get togather with my friends, like a college canteen or something. so I would always want my gang to be there and I am sure its the same for you all too!!!!

You can say that with time you get busy, with time you lose interest and do not log into the site but why lose the bonding that you had with chennaimoms???

I would always want to see today's active moms at site, active at some event or meet ups of chennaimoms a few years later too!!! I hope to! but  i see it happening very less.

Bhavani!!

As such the site is wonderful and attractive and very very user friendly compared to the other sites I have been. Our concentration here should be on getting new members alone.

But to maintain and grow in our strength we must ensure that we retain our old moms(again just a term!!!) Which can be done only outside the site.

otherwise we will always have a registration count of thousands and lacks but active members count only in 100s

My dream for Chennaimom is beyond the pink screen. ITs a pink castel!!!!! I want people to turn around and say "Oh Chennaimom!!!!" and I know it will happen some day!

I know its not just my dream and most of you here want the same too!!! And its not possible with just a bunch of people thats the reason I insisted that old moms and new moms get to interact with each other atleast while arranging for meet ups! That way we can make sure that they spend atleast one day completly for us and that too because they are interested and not because they are being forced or something.

and to make this attractive, new themes, new places as Shylaja suggested is a great idea.

this is purely my opinion. I am sorry if I sounded imposing. ITs just that I am very excited.

Sudha

Hey Sudha....Most of us will agree meet ups will improve bonding with the site, but, i feel that alone is not suffice....

we can't be complacent and happy with the site and assume it will grow with the friendship and bonding alone....

@ Sangitha , Tools tab is always there as  a tab in top of every  page ...Check it out ..

Home ,, Profile ,,Q@A ,, Blogs ,, groups ,, messages ,, Tools ,,News.

What i feel is : U people are all talking about Meetups and events ....for Moms like us who are outside Chennai and for moms who can't come for meetups and events ....they should also not feel bored with this site ....

see I agree , conducting a small meet up also needs lot of time ,work to organise each and everything ...

ana , oru meetup nu announce panitta ...gone till it gets over ...U all are full time busy with that and all blogs , Q&A , messages everything is only about meetups / events ....

and we are able to participate in those only in very few things ...and end up giving usual dialougues " yengalakkum idula yellam kalandukka mudiyalaye nu vartham " u all enjoy girls ....and we r eagerly wiaitng for photos link ....

Konjam yenga nalamayum yosichu parunga please .....Def. we will feel bored . c.moms open panale yedo oru meetup , events ippadi dan irrukku .....

I am not saying that there is no useful / good things apart from this happening here ... It is there ...still need lot of participations ..

 see there are lot of groups created  like activity corner , recipes , hungry kya , music , kids group , etc., etc.,

each group arambicha konja naalaikku it is in top then that's all vanishes ...

few ex: Nisha and few other moms were giving a ingredient each week ...and we all were posting recps. yena aachu?? almost every recp. were copied and slowly when started to report those ...that's it ...it  was stopped ..not much participation was there ...ecept very few ...nangale yeppo paaru recps. kuduthuttu irrunda so boring  aa than irrukku ...

wherease when it comes out as a recipe contest how many of u are posting the recps. ?? competition nu onnu irrunda dan seiranga...and again there also lot of copied one ....inda prechanai kkagave idu yellam vendam nu stopped ...

Kids activites : i was very much eager with that group ...instead of we alone taking part in c.moms we can surely make our kids take part online itself ....every week we can share based on one topic : ask them to write a story , drawing ,craft works and share it here online ...by the encouragement they get from others sure they will also improve a lot ...

Personnaly I have seen this : when i posted about a trip , what my son wrote : Hasina and few others gave very good comments and they personnaly told him how to write , what to be changed ...namba pasangalukku idu thappu nu sonna they will not be ready to accept ...wherease someone else says them in polite or diff. way they are getting encouraged and doing it more better ....

see these r just 2 examples i am giving...here there are many talented moms who can ring out lot of activites and make everyone engaged ...I am not saying NO to meetups and events ...yengalathan mudiyala atleast u all enjoy well ...but there should be more that that ...

everything / every group is very active in begining stages then sudden drop ...back to boring days in c.moms which should not be there ....Hope i am not wrong in what i meant ..

definately Subha and Gayathri!!!

Your points are right!!

Yessubha here we can happily agree to disagree since we have no strings attached at this site.

And there have to be a lot of activities on the site too. probably Bhavani alone is not able to do that!

and thats when I feel the need of others to interact with each other not just in this virtual site but also personaly!!!

My point is that we need a team to keep the site going and not just having meet up or events. We need a strong ground right??

and as far as I can see Bhavani manages the show all alone, ofcourse a few of us have volunteered to help her with some features but then management is totaly thrusted on her.

And yes Gayathri!!! iknow how it feels to see all the blogs on meet up and events when you are not able to join us

but then I have noticed that even when there are blogs on events and meet up there are other things being active too. like the profile pic, blog of the month everything were going on in a good way!!!!! So it was not like the site was showing only the meet up blogs.

What I want to say is, share the work among us all!!! Like one person takes charge of the pr and works on popularising the site. the other one takes charge on special monthly contests. and even in this contest. let the winners be awarded in person, so that people get to see them in real.and there are so many such responsiblities which can be shared among us to lessen the burden.

And I know the next question could be- how will we find time for all that?

there are working moms who have to take care of home and office? and there are homemakers who are completly into taking care of family and are busy through out?

But if we organise everything properly, I am sure that those who take up responsibilities will not have to spend more than 15- 20 mins a day to help us out.

and I know that we all like to have fun in whatever little time we meet here on site. So this is going to be a work again!!

But if we really want the site to grow I think its high time to start doing something for it.

And yes subha!!!! i agree

but I think we have to have to form a team to do it all!!!

I think "the event and meet up" thing is getting tagged with me now, maybe because i am active only when such things happen. My focus is not on that at all(Infact i am the kind who can be more friendly online.)!!! I just feel being virtual is just not enough in long run!!! so lets get chennaimoms into the real world.

Hey Bhavani,

  This site is your brain child. So am sure you know better than any of us. There is no real problem with the site.

If the moms have friends then they will visit the site often to read their blogs and answer their queries. Some kind of friendship bonding is neccessary. Mutual appreciations are must without which the bonding is impossible. This readers should develop.

Quality wise it would be better only if original thoughts are accepted. By rejecting the forwarded mails the member is encouraged to write and think what could be written. Let them not worry about the little grammatical mistakes.

It would be interesting to see change in the website design like the sets which keep changing in popular shows. This is just a suggestion....for someone who logs in after long time to feel there is so much progress going on.

About the competitions, its not fun for those who participate with winning motto. I don't mean to say these days the judging was biased. Instead of winners being selected based on votes or a single person choosing the best why not randomly pick a minimum of 10 moms every month to be judges and consolidate the best one based on their decision instead of asking them to volunteer? It would be exciting for them and lot of moms who go out of sight might feel good to be back!

"Understanding is a function of the heart, not of the intellect"....Please check in as a regular member like us for a day forgetting that you administer the site .....may be you will end up in a permanent solution which no body else thinks of!

Very practicalr reply poornima!!!!!

Poornima, there are moms who made friends and they are contented with the few friends they get and they continue their friendship away from chennaimoms. There are moms who have quit chennaimoms for reasons that is not even known to others or me! And there are few moms who are just bored of the site or their personal life became too hectic for any hobbies or relaxation! I have asked suggestions to retain the moms who sign up and not to retain just the moms who have disappeared! If some mom signs up, what will make her stick on to the site. If she makes atleast few activities, I am sure she'd get lots of friends and there is a chance she'd continue to visit the site. But how to make her glue on to the site? Similarly how to know the reason(if its not a personal one) for the moms who have been active before but not now?

I do login and use the site as a member and not just an admin. I do this not just in cmoms, but in other sites too... So there is little time I could spend on cmoms. I have done whatever striked me... thats why I have put forth the questions to you for new suggestions to implement.

Volunteers for judges: Since it's monthly contests, even those who volunteer to be judges forget about it by the end of the month and I've to ping them to judge and announce the results! But if we make it as a weekly contest, we would get very few entries for the contest! If I have to choose a group of judges for each of the contest... it'll add one more item to my admin activities :) Could you take up this responsibility of choosing the judges for all the contest ? See... I need volunteers for this task too!

Changing the look and feel does not only involve cost, but also the time to develop! I am working on the new UI as I replied in my hot seat blog... Hopefully that will resolve some of the issues stated above.

Allow only original content - I would love to do this as it's bringing the page rank of this site down due to the copied stuff (leave behind the harsh emails I get from the owners of those blogs/recipes!). But how to educate the new moms who signup and would like to do some activity? And what if someone wants to share some fun or useful stuff with other moms?

I am loving this post... lot of suggestions and we all are thinking aloud... I have debated on these topics within me. Now it's good to see the solutions!

Hi Bhavani, I think this question is making us do lot of thinking like when I'm cooking or folding clothes or something, I keep thinking about this question.

I think this site is a very nice platform for moms and its been doing really well.

I like GayathriAnand's suggestion of a kids site. Within the mom's login if there is a link for a kid's website, then lots of older children will really enjoy. And add to that if they can meet from time to time, they'll build a good rapport. So they can showcase their creativity. Have some simple debates.

To keep the site hooked, typically there should be something in that, that the person is passionate about. Like I check sites on AR Rehman or carnatic music or books. Everybody has their own interests like I see the photography clubs or the car websites are so popular that the members are so active.

Hello bhavani,

I get your point...Is it possible for some online meet on a particular day/time during which all active ppl can interact on some blog on a weekly basis? People who for various reasons cannot come in person might meet all online same time

For selecting few moms for being judge , I can take the responsibility. But I need some one else also to do this successfully as most of the times my internet would be down or cable theft would cause me to be away. The recent has been close to 25 days I guess.

Everyone would appreciate if considerable responsibility is given. Even the person responsible for the blog of the month, profile pic etc could be rotated. First the list of moms active should be taken. Then we can inform them about the responsibility. I am sure they would devote half hour atleast in doing the necessary.

Those ppl selected for judges will not be responsible for the selection of theme for blog/pic,,,this way things could be sorted. Should try maximum possible ways to create some or the other responsibility. Co-ordination is a must , for which am sure lot would be ready.

Please do not include children program as a competetive one in the future fiestas.......Children and their moms would definitely be hurt though out side they may seem too outspoken and give a sportive look. This is my second request after the first one at drawing competition.......This is my humblest request.

Every other child should be given some small gift or certificate....

Another addition when it comes to children is plz arrange or ask moms to bring some juice or chips whenever they come for such programmes. If they play and be happy moms would psychologically be charged.

On selecting winners for children's contest, I was also of the same opinion that there shouldn't be winners or all kids are winners. This was some years back. But if you see in chennai, everywhere there are competitions and there are winners declared (Pre-kg onwards).

Every school proudly announces these out-of school achievements. So its not a new thing in chennai (I know only about chennai). Children accept the fact slowly. Its up to the parents how they encourage the kids and not make it a big issue. I've seen parents also making it a big issue. Like one of my son's classmates' mother rightly said 'They (the kids) have to be prepared for the ups and downs of life'.

Hi Moms,

We have a small change on the home page.. How is it? Do you think it's more clear for the new visitors of the site? I've removed the latest buzz as it confused many moms! Included more of questions and blogs so that many blogs and questions will stay on home page for sometime instead of just 1 latest that was displayed before. Since editor's pick was mostly used for my announcements, I renamed it.

Could someone collect and give me all the blogs (not just the blogs posted for the last month contest...) that were posted by our moms on their liking on chennaimoms? As sangita said, I shall find a place to put up on home page...

As sshathi said we've give schools, play schools on top... During summer camp season, I'll change it to after-school and summer camps.

Also I need some volunteer for polls... to take suggestion and to post them. For practical and technical reasons I cannot allow all chennaimoms members to post their poll. So they can suggest to the responsible person and the mom who is responsible could check if that poll was not posted on cmoms yet and post it for the coming weeks...

And another volunteer to help poornima is selecting the judges...

How about we list the moms who are interested to volunteer? I'll post another blog for the same.

 "when you love something , set it free ... if it comes back to you it is yours.. if it doesnt it was never meant to be " .. right .. this (our cmoms - may be born to our sweet admin , but now belongs to all of us ) is a very good place to share our feeling & get to know new things .. If a mom is quitting due to her own views why break your head for that .. when she understands us she will be back by herself .. ok ... 

about judges : i find things are being judged real honestly only .. if we could get adhoc judges from time to time to relax the regular judges that itself should be fine ...

one suggestion to admin : donot add points for forward mails & stories ( i myself do that some times) for that will cutdown the bloggers from doing so - just for the points sake ...

i wud volunteer to help poornima in selecting the judges.

I like the new look, Bhavani :)

Hi Bhavani - I noticed the change in home page today morning and scrapped you...It is nice....

In administrator's section - Can we also do more segregations, if it is easy to do ? - All contests, results, event related, new announcements in different sections !!

Bhavani... good!!! covering most topics on the home page.. and a link for newcomers.. and yes, add a TESTIMONIAL  tab too.. where in all of us can post testimonials and you can give a synopsis of the "chennaimom effect" blogs with a read more button..!

Now.. on the layout... though the homepage covers so many topics, dont you think it look is not much appealing?.. it rather looks like a +2 student's record note index!.. for those titles why not u give your usual bubble appearance? like this one below..

with some small graphics like this?

I mean lots of colors and images on the home page... 

I fell in love with the site at first due to its color combinations... that header bar with beautiful image.. the signup popup with a unique design... that zing thing is missing in the new appearance.. please do something on it!

Cool look bhavani .. good to see u took all our points into consideration .. action speaks more than words .. kudos to u

I thought of one more thing - A question a day (or a week) about chennaimoms. It can be posted anytime and the first person with the correct answer is the winner.

Hey Bhavani,

 Lot of relief looking at the organized home page.

I think popular blogs /questions can have link to "More".....

More colours on the site would be fabulous..I don't know about your implementation problems !!!!!! Just felt it would be a great change!

Moms,

So here are our volunteers:

We need volunteers for checking on duplicate groups that new moms create... For eg, few moms who signup go ahead and create a group on their location, their kid's school etc before they search for any such existing groups. So this results in duplication. If someone could volunteer for checking on such groups on regular basis, it'd be great!