Who would have thought a group for women on Squidoo would be controversial and provoke discussion and argument? That’s what has happened over the last couple of weeks.

Lens of the Day (LOTD) on Squidoo has recently been featuring Rocket Moms lenses for a fixed period (I think it was ten days). Of course, this means people who aren’t RM members stood no chance of making LOTD with any of their lenses.

In one way, I can see their point, particularly as this is the only group on the network that is officially recognised by management.  Maybe we could all say, “fair enough, maybe that isn’t right” but it seems that this was just the tip of an iceberg of resentment against RM. Women with no children argue they can’t join although they are assured they can.

Men obviously can’t join and many argue vociferously that RM provides a platform to present lenses and the RM community are so supportive that visits follow announcements in the forum of new lenses. They are also convinced that members give each other five stars, so helping to improve lens rank, regardless of quality.

All I can say about the last point is that I’ve never given a fellow Rocket Mom five stars if the lens didn’t deserve it. I’ve never given any lens an undeserved number of stars and I use the full range from one to five stars on lenses depending on their quality. I also don’t give any stars at all to some lenses including those made by RMs.

There are plenty of opportunities for Squids to join groups even if these aren’t officially recognised by Squidoo. Many of them are supportive, though, and provide a place to put links to new lenses. Many members of these groups also visit the lenses and give stars and leave comments, if they deserve them.

Megan Casey of Squidoo has announced that Rocket Moms was set up as an experiment and its great success means they intend to start more official groups. When that happens, we shall have to see if the people who shouted the loudest are prepared to join them and play active roles in the groups.

Squidoo's Rocket Moms

Session 3 of Squidoo’s Rocket Moms ended yesterday and, as far as I know, everybody managed to do the eight lenses to graduate and earn their Rocket Moms graduation badge.

The session lasted for eight weeks and the requirement for graduation was to make eight lenses that fitted the weekly assignment. The assignment was only disclosed on Sunday of each week so that gave us seven days to complete it. Of course, Squidoo is a part time activity for most people and things happen in their lives which sometimes mean they don’t have the time to finish a lens in a week but a member can still graduate as long as she has completed eight lenses by the end of the session.

I found most of the assignments challenging because they took me out of my comfort zone.  The very first assignment, to write about a favourite toy, nearly made me give up immediately. I couldn’t imagine writing about a toy. It took me several days to come up with an idea and the lens, Meccano – One of my Favourite Toys. I really did love playing with my brother’s Meccano set but it was a long time ago so I found it difficult to write.  I must have done OK, though, because it was given a Purple Star.

Crazy Quilts with a Difference

Another assignment that took me a while to decide upon a topic was Your Favourite Decade. The good news was it didn’t have to be a decade we had lived through so I did the 1940s concentrating on Make Do and Mend. That got a Purple Star too as did Crazy Quilts with a Difference in response to the Arts and Crafts assignment.

The funny thing is that these were all the assignments I found most difficult and least wanted to write. Perhaps the fact that I had to work harder on them is what made the difference. I also spent more time thinking about them before I wrote anything at all.

The Rocket Moms experience has been totally positive in spite of my occasional panics each time a new assignment was put in the RM forum. The tutorials put in the forum each week have been enormously helpful too by introducing me to ideas and ways of working I’d never come across before.

I would heartily recommend Rocket Moms to anybody who qualifies – the basic requirements are that you are a Mom (or Mum if you’re English like me) and you’re a member of Squidoo. If you want to learn more about building lenses (web pages) in a supportive environment with a great community, I’d suggest you check it out.

Rocket Moms on Squidoo

I must be crazy joining the Squidoo group, Rocket Moms, right now when I’m so busy. It involves writing a new lens every week on some aspect of a certain subject, which is posted on Mondays. This week it was A Favourite Toy so I chose Meccano.

At the same time, I had to write a lens about Using Pictures Effectively for the Wiwon Challenge Group by next Monday.  I was only asked to do it on Wednesday so it didn’t give me a lot of time especially as I’d just started one for the Senior Squids weekly challenge on bugs. That one has had to go on the back burner. I might have time to work on it tomorrow.

The good news is that I’m not one of those retired people who is bored out of her mind. I never expected to retire. I thought, as I worked for myself, I’d just carry on working forever. I’ve always been so healthy it didn’t occur to me that my health would mean I’d have to give up.

Squidoo is so good for people like me who can’t work. It gives us a purpose, goals and even deadlines sometimes. On top of that, there’s also a great sense of community which has been enhanced by the smaller groups that have been set up over the last few months like Rocket Moms, Senior Squids and the Wiwon Challenge Team. I’d recommend it to anyone who likes writing and making web pages.