PEGGY-on-swingsmall.jpg


Welcome to a More Beautiful MDC

I know that change can be unsettling, but I've learned that it is a fact of life and essential in business. What you see here is our new community software platform designed by Huddler.

As you may know, in 2008 we undertook the redesign of the website and completed it in mid-2009. At that time we began to want a design for MDC that was more visually compatible with the new site design, and more beautiful in general.

Huddler first approached us in 2009 and we were excited about their clean design and about the ability their platform offered to bring product reviews into prominence and to begin wikis. At that time, however, they didn't have the back-end functionality we required for administration and we thought that we could duplicate what they offered us. To that end, we had a design made for a new homepage for MDC that incorporated many of the features we liked from Huddler.

We had this page designed in anticipation of vBulletin 4.0. We were looking forward to the upgrade because we knew we were losing active members to social media and we wanted new features that would keep our community fresh. In early 2010, however, we began to lose confidence in vBulletin 4.0.

In the spring of 2010, Alejandro of Huddler emailed to say he was coming to Santa Fe for a wedding, and we met for lunch. We talked about the possibility of working with Huddler again and made a plan to show the platform to our web staff.

At the meeting with our web staff, we were surprised to find that since our initial conversations, Huddler had added nearly all of the functionality we had originally requested. In addition, we like their model of platform partnership and appreciate the fact that, like Mothering, they are a family business. And, bottom line, we feel compatible with the folks we have been working with at Huddler.

We decided to enter into a two year agreement with Huddler to host and help administer MDC. They will continue to develop their platform and add new features, many at our suggestion. Huddler will also help to support the growth and development of our site. We're excited at the possibilities of working together to enhance your experience on our discussion boards and hope you let us know what features you would like to see. Please have fun putting all of your great resources into wikis and letting others know what are the best products out there for natural parents. I hope you will like the new MDC as much as I do.

Peggy O'Mara
Editor and Publisher
Mothering