BT Forum

I don't particularly like the name, but then I don't like spammers either and we complain about those enough.

Something tells me no one will listen no mater how much we complain. Hitched makes it's money from brides-to-be, this is their next business adventure to keep raking in cash from those trying to conceive, are pregnant or those who have children. I think it's all been pre-planned and now implemented without discussion with their current users.

I have been occasionally posting on BT for a while now. Hate the new name. Some of the BTers are talking about setting up their own website which everyone can migrate over to. I would much rather have something like that that we have more control over.

Ducky, the point about no discussion with their users is the bit that baffles me. It's madness to start a new venture without conducting market research first.

Sapphire - I can see this happening. If someone is willing to take it on, great. I'm not sure I want to be part of the new hitched one if they are reluctant to utilise the wealth of knowledge of their existing client base.

The problem is, Hitched have a history of valuing the needs of their advertisers over those of their users. From a commercial point of view, this should be much more balanced. There is no website without users.

This is entirely different to the problems we've had on Hitched before. Hitched is an established website - there will always be new brides to fill the space of those that get disenchanted and leave. The new baby website is nowhere near established. They NEED the majority of the current BT users to migrate. So the fact they are going about this in their usual bullish way tells me they are worryingly low on business acumen.

I'm a bit gutted about it TBH. I've been lurking over there for a while but a bit scared to join in until I had something concrete to talk about. Me and H will be starting the long road to fertility treatment in a few months and I'm so sad BT wont be there to pop over to! I was looking forward to the support from those ladies. The name is awful.

I've been known to lurk too. Once the wedding and moving house are out of the way we will hopefully be in a position to start ttc and I felt a whole heap better about that knowing that not only is there a community of people there along the way, but unlike other baby/mum/family forums I'd actually 'know' some of the people from my wedding planning journey (and OT!!).

Re the change to a new website, it's not so much content that worries me as I'm not a BT user so I'm not used to how things are now really, it's more it being in a different place, will we lose that natural progression across the forums?

The name is not great, but then again I didn't join hitched because of the name! And I know some of the users have expressed concern at being isolated because they aren't mums yet but baby talk could be described as doing the same thing if you don't have a baby yet or if your kids are past the baby stage. But yes they could have tried harder and consulted.

Completely agree Flora.

I've never been on BT as I'm nowhere near ready to have kids, but Mumdrum is an effing awful name.

It really is a blummin awful name. Been on BT from my early Hitching days, so roughly 7 years and it feel like the end of an era *over dramatic*.

Mumdrum will be heavily linked to Hitched apparantly, to keep the "natural progression" from WP, OT over to BT.

I'm glad if this is true. I will definitely want a support group when/if we start ttc, as nobody I really know is at that point of their lives. I would find it natural to move from OT and WP over to BT and it would be nice to recognise avatars and usernames and so on.

But the name 'mumdrum' is ridiculous, not to mention insulting to mothers - their issues are 'humdrum'?. I am off to have a lurk over on BT and see what's going on.

I think the latest is that once they set up the panels (an online one and a face to face one) the name and the possibility of renaming will be top of the agenda. I must admit I thought there is no way they would change their minds now but I think the strength of opinion shown has really made them think of how successful or not this could be. They've certainly inferred that they may be open to changing it in the latest update.

Yes, it is a business venture and, ultimately, down to Hitched to handle it as they see fit.

However, they want to migrate a fully functional forum over to the new site in order to pull in advertising and new members. If the original posters aren't happy with the transition then this won't happen and they will need to start from scratch.

Regardless of how it happens, the forum will move. It's success remains to be seen but if it fails I can't see them keeping the BT forum here whilst it generates little to no income.

Surely if it fails then leaving the BT forum here wouldn't really be an issue. Hitched don't make any money off us here on OT.

I've been thinking about this, and i wonder if Hitched has missed a trick somewhere. The term Hitched is used to describe what an engaged couple do. Get hitched and become a married couple. What do married couples do? Live together, grow old, have kids if they want, socialise etc. The Hitched website could, if they wanted to, be a one stop shop for everything. I'm not business minded at all, and i'm sure there is a very good reason why they can't, but wouldn't they be better getting sponsorship from baby and childcare organisations and having them over on the BT forum like they do on the Wedding forum?

Hitched isn't just about getting married, its about the life you live after that too! Clearly the fact that there are so many of us still here suggest's that this is the case.

I have been lurking and was really disappointed to read that they were planning on moving BT to a whole new site. Throughout my planning I was looking forward to hopefully moving from WP to OT to BT/OT, along with all the *friends* I have made.

Don't like it.

As for the name... really?!

This. We're not TTC and won't be for a couple of years yet. But. I was looking forward to migrating over there when the time eventually comes. I do like to pop over very occasionally, just to see what's going on and get a feel for it.

The name is really sh!t! Makes it sound dull and monotonous!

I think that was taken, and would have been too easy for them, surely?

I loved their reasoning behind the name. Quite obvious not much thought went into it.

I just can't get over the name choice! If whoever dreamt that one up was on The Apprentice, they so would have been fired!

?

Well aparantly, there may be room for negotiation on the name front, which a panel of Hitchers will discuss.

Lets hope so because is fecking awful!

Hopefully they aren't too far along in the process as the company was only incorporated on 10th May: https://wck2.companieshouse.gov.uk:443/6abee80757bfd518a513e3728e8cb7f9/compdetails

I actually quite liked Hatched!!

BT scares me a lot but hopefully will be venturing over there at some point, if it's still around!

I think this was their original idea, but Hatched was already taken. It's an estate agent's website.