Dear Valued Users,
It's with a heavy heart that we announce the permanent closure of StepTalk.org on August 31st, 2025.
This decision wasn't an easy one. For over twenty years, StepTalk has been a source of support for stepparents around the world! However, over the years, the costs associated with maintaining and upgrading the site to remain secure, meet current standards and maintain availability have become unsustainable.
We are incredibly grateful for your support, contributions and the community you've helped us build. Your engagement has made StepTalk.org a special place and we cherish the memories and connections made here.
We would especially like to thank Aniki for volunteering to be a moderator and for caring so much.
Thank you for being a part of our journey and we wish you all the best.
Sincerely,
Dawn and The StepTalk Team
Comments
My understanding is the same
My understanding is the same as we call "troll" in other contexts. Sometimes the posts read like a BM who is looking to start something; other times it appears to be another Steptalk member who chooses an alias to pick fights, right perceived wrongs, hurt posters who may have hurt their feelings; some are stepkids who pretend to be parents; some are random true internet trolls ..
In my limited experience, the best ones are the ones posted by the wine-drinking, tequila-shooting, looking-for-a-fight anonymous posters. Totally over-the-top.
BTW, I am not great a figuring out who is whom, so ...
Thanks Indigo. I won't be
Thanks Indigo. I won't be good at figuring out who's who either. I can't imagine having the time to do anything other than vent once in a while- don't have a lot of advice to give, as we are just fighting the fight every day to survive in a stepfamily. What this site was originally intended for!
There is one mean-ish person who has been nasty in my posts from long ago and is still on here from time to time- no one can convince me that (she?) is not an angry BM but I just don't have the time to sleuth it out or get bent out of shape about it.
Attention. Ever see the
Attention.
Ever see the Monty Python skit "Luxury"?
Each man sits in a comfy chair drinking a snifter of whiskey and brags about how tough they had it in their younger days. As each person tells their story, the next person comes out with an even greater "hard-luck" story. As each person spins the tale of their sad youth, the tales get more and more far fetched to the point where it is impossible to believe.
"When I was young I had to get up a half hour before I went to bed...."
So, in order to get some attention, a crew needs to spin a tale that may have some smidgen of truth but is really a full blown exagerration just to get attention.
Yuck. I wonder how people can
Yuck. I wonder how people can live with doing that kind of crap.
Back in my old RPG game/forum
Back in my old RPG game/forum humping days, a bunch of us had a theory.
Because they have never "Won" at anything in their real life (like competitive sports), some people have vested so much emotion and energy at "beating" someone on the forums. It is the only instance they feel like they have "won".
So when some people come on a forum for the sole sake of bashing others, I somehow get a mental image of that person back in elementary school always being picked last in a recess dodgeball pick-up game.
and wasn't her name "crew of
and wasn't her name "crew of 7" or something like that? and that's how we got the name for the pattern.