May 25, 2007
Mother Talk Blog Tour: Mamasource.com
We moved to Oklahoma City in May of 2000; three weeks later, a FULL six weeks ahead of schedule, I had Henry. I was still trying to figure out where the grocery store was and now I had this wee tiny baby, who wasn’t nursing and wouldn’t sleep and had terrible reflux, to take care of.
The summer of 2000 was the hottest, driest summer Oklahoma had seen since the Dust Bowl. And only one of our cars had working A/C. I didn’t leave the house much, honestly.
We had an internet connection (dial up! really!), but beyond e-mailing people, which was hard because I was so damn tired, and Googling “pediatric reflux,” which always ended with an announcement that I was NEVER EVER Googling a medical condition EVER AGAIN, I didn’t have any idea how to make the ‘net work for me. I didn’t know about message boards or blogs; I didn’t have any idea that there might be other moms out there who understood what I was going through and were also up at three am doing laundry and worrying.
I really could have used a site like Mamasource. Mamsource includes the usual features of a community message board–once you are registered, you can ask for and offer advice on pretty much anything–but that’s not all. Mamasource connects you to other moms in your community (when I log in, the site knows that I am in Oklahoma City, for example), which means that the information other moms are sharing is location-specific. Mamasource members offer their recommendations for pediatricians and restaurants and hair salons, among other things.
I love that; I would probably have married it seven years ago. The responses to requests for advice are kind and helpful, and the local business recommendations are terrific (found cheery recommendations for both my pediatric practice and the funky salon where I get my hair cut, which made me feel like I was In the Know). I like that Mamasource is designed both for moms who are looking for an on-line community AND for moms who are looking to get out in their real community. And because the site is arranged by location, there’s always the possibility that someone you meet through the Mamasource boards will be someone you can hang with at the park or playground.
If you’re wondering what to do with your kids this summer, or you’re looking for a great hamburger, or you just want to see what other moms in your city are saying about being a mom in your city, check out Mamasource. Because it’s always good to know what’s going on around you, even if you never leave the house.
This post is part of the Mother Talk blog tour.
Posted by Susan @ 7:58 am • Uncategorized
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February 6th, 2008 at 8:20 pm, Kate Says:
Plant a Tree, Spam a Friend!
I received an email from Mamasource two weeks ago and stupidly I clicked the link so I could send a tree to one of my girlfriends. I’ve still been getting email from people in my address book, some have been saying thanks for the tree and others have been pretty mad that they got an email like that from me. I did not get a chance to select the one person I wanted to send the email to, instead every single one of my addresses were harvested from my gmail account. What B.S! This is totally illegal and unethical.
When I went to unsubscribe from the email, there was no way to unsubscribe. The “unsubscribe link” went to an email preferences page, not to an unsubscribe link, another direct violation of the CAN-SPAM act, which regulates commercial email. I wrote to support@mamasource.com and got an auto-generated response saying:
Dear Sucker - This is Anne at Mamasource Member Support. Thanks for your message and we are very sorry for any inconvenience. Contacts from your email address book that are checked and highlighted in bright yellow are only contacted during the registration process if you click the button to “Select Moms and Invite”. In this case, those highlighted contacts receive an invitation to join Mamasource. Just so you know, although the invitations have already gone out, from now on your contacts will not receive any additional Mamasource invitation emails from you. Again, we are very sorry for any inconvenience. Please let me know if you need any assistance and I will be happy to help you. Warmly, Anne Mamasource Member Support
What a blatant lie, there were never any highlighted contacts, once I hit send, everyone, and I mean everyone got that stupid invite, even my 10 year old nephew…how embarrasing!
How do I know the reply was auto-generated? Because I’ve received the same email from them every single time I wrote to them to ask them about this situation, all with different Support names. Try it yourself!
If this is such a great site, how come they are resorting to such unethical practices? A lot of women like Mamasource, and if you are one of them, please email (because there is no phone number) them at support@mamasource.com and tell them to stop this unethical practice immediately!
I highly recommend reporting all emails to the FTC. Simply forward the email, in its entirety to spam@uce.gov
Please get more information and read my story at http://mamasource.blogspot.com/