The fun thing about their show is not only do the moms get to speak their minds about relevant topics but also answer questions that are sent in directly from viewers.

“Physically, it’s only us five on the couch, but spiritually all of our viewers are there too, and we’re engaging in something with them that goes beyond a ‘topic of the day.’”

How do you find the time to relax during your busy schedule?

We all lead such different lifestyles, but one thing we have in common is our busy schedules! There is always something going on when you have children, whether it be school, sports, homework, doctors appointments, or anything else in between. Usually we get a sitter if we want date nights, girl-time, or evenings away. Sometimes we watch each others kids to give the other Mom a break. Though, being a mom is something we do whether we’re busy, eating, sleeping, filming, or working out, the emotions, and happiness of having children never leave us and at even the most chaotic of times – that is when we really find the balance of relaxation and being a mother.

What do you do to prepare and celebrate Mother’s Day?

This is probably our favorite holiday to sit down and put our hearts into crafts and letters! The preparation time is just as fun as celebrating if you get very into it! A collage frame of photos is a good one because Moms love memories, or a personal letter written with a lot of love telling her why she is such an exceptional Mother and Woman is another. For celebrating, this year was a little bit different for all of us. We brought all of our Moms to Los Angeles for a special Mother’s Day surprise and episode. We all video recorded special messages directed towards them, sat them down with us, and hit the Play button! Sharing that experience with our Mothers was the most memorable Mother’s Day thus far – There were lots of tears, hugs, and laughs! Note: The episode airs on Sunday, but we are uploading special tribute videos until then.

We’re so thankful and blessed to be doing The Moms View! We feel so fortunate to be able to engage with all of our viewers through social media and letting them get to know us, as well as really getting to know them. Thank you to everyone who has let us into their homes via YouTube, and allowed us to share our lives with them!

Smiled questions work pretty much the same as response smiles but with one important twist. The twist is you’ll see (and be able to respond to) each and every public question that your friends smile. These questions will show up in your inbox under a new section called “Smiled by Friends,” which will be constantly filled with new questions hand-picked by your friends. It’s also an excellent way to discover new people to follow.

Smiled questions also open up new possibilities for the creative community who compose funny and interesting questions. Great public questions can now travel lightening fast to more people to get more smiles and more responses. There’s no limit how far an expertly crafted question can go with smiles.

Some FAQs after the jump:

What happens when I smile a question that’s not public?
The asker will still get the positive feedback for the smile, but it won’t get broadcast to “Smiled by Friends.” For example, if Walter goes to Jesse’s profile and asks “How’s your day going, Jesse?” that question is not public. If Hank smiles Walter’s question, he will still get that feedback, but it won’t get sent to “Smiled by Friends.” The positive feedback for the question is great for Walter to get, but the question was just for Jesse.

Can you smile questions on the Formspring mobile website, iOS app or Android app?
Not yet. Stay tuned.

Do smiled questions count toward weekly and total smile counts?
Of course

What happens if you un-smile a question?
Your face will be removed from the smiled list, but un-smiling doesn’t retract the broadcast or the question’s presence in the “Smiled by Friends” list.

What got you interested in Formspring?

“We loved the idea that anyone, regardless of where they are in the world, could ask us whatever they liked. The idea that you can choose to be anonymous or reveal your identity is definitely something we all find interesting and special and regardless of where they are in the world, could ask us whatever they liked.”

Has direct communication with your fans influenced The Never Ever?

“We’ve always stayed connected to fans. It’s important to retain a close connection to people on both a personal and professional level, especially when trying to market a product like our music.”

What advice can you give to your fans?

“Never feel like you need to be somebody you aren’t. If being in this band has taught me anything, it’s definitely to be comfortable with being myself regardless of whatever situation i’m in. Also, remember you’re never alone. We have such a strong family connection within our band and fans, i’d never want anyone to forget that.

We’d love to thank everyone behind the scenes of this band, we wouldn’t be where we are without their support. Also, to everyone who taken the time to listen to our music, and support us, you are the reason we keep doing this!”

Wanna know more about the members? Each member has their own Formspring! Ask them anything:

Lanii (synth)

Pat (bass)

Dylan (vocals)

Bradlee (guitar)

Jess (drums)

The inspiration for the project was personal. Lee Hirsch, Bully’s director, experienced bullying when he was a student, which helped motivated him to make this important film. “I carried this experience [of being bullied] with me and when I became a filmmaker, I knew bullying was a subject I wanted to address—but I didn’t know how to process it and turn it into the right story,” Hirsch recalled. “Then, around the time when a lot of high profile bullying suicides made national headlines, I knew this film had to be made.”

Hirsch hopes that his film and the accompanying website will help those being bullied – either online or off – to get help. “[I would tell them] that they are not alone, that they have a voice, and don’t have to endure this. By engaging with the tools on the website they can build a strategy to get support they need.” In addition to the film, Hirsch has also created a website with resources for students, parents and educators who are dealing with issues around bullying.

If Hirsch has one message for Formspring members, it’s a plea to support the film in theaters this weekend; showtimes and more information about the film are available on The Bully Project’s website. On Formspring, there are a variety of safety resources available to our community in the event they’re receiving unwanted or negative attention from other Formspringers. And to ask questions about the film and the work being done to combat bullying, send Lee Hirsch a question on his Formspring.

Introducing the Formspring Ask Around widget. It’s a simple way to add your public Formspring questions — and some of the most recent responses to that question — to your website or blog. Visitors to your website can respond straight from the widget, adding their voice to the conversation you’re building. And, for visitors to your website who aren’t already Formspring members, it’s super simple to sign up (with either an email address or Facebook Connect) and respond straight from the widget.

You can grab code for your own widget straight from your profile page by clicking the “Grab Widget” button. From there, simply add the HTML to your website like you would any other widget.

If you add it to your site, let us know what you think! We want to make the Ask Around widget a great tool for you and your website’s visitors; feedback will help us make the Ask Around widget a success!

We’re thrilled to be heading to Austin next week for the annual SXSW Interactive conference. What’s SXSW? It’s five days of nonstop panels, discussions, concerts, parties, late-night conversations, early morning coffees, and much, much more.

We’ll be rocking SXSWi in three ways this year:

First, our CEO Ade will be speaking on a featured panel, “Why Happiness Is the New Currency,” on Friday, March 9 at 5 p.m. He’ll be chatting with Dave Morin, the founder of Path (and one of our angel investors) and Brian Wong, CEO of Kiip. Their talk will focus on how Formspring, Path and Kiip have all used “the currency of happiness” to drive their businesses.

Second, I’ll be moderating a panel on public transportation and smart cities featuring none other than the CUMD bus, the first (and only) bus with its own Formspring account. The panel, “Sexy Data Solutions for Public Transit Systems,” is on Monday, March 12 at 11 a.m., and will focus on ways regular citizens have used data and community to help disseminate information when transit agencies aren’t necessarily able to so themselves.

Last, but certainly not least, we’ll be throwing a party with our friends at Root Music on Monday, March 12 at 8 p.m. The party features some of our favorite bands, including Austin natives Electric Touch and I Fight Dragons (ask them a question about why they’re pumped to play our show when you get a chance! ). They’ll be joining a bunch of other awesome up and coming bands and musicians who’ll be taking to two different stages (think music going non-stop from 8 p.m. until the wee hours of the morning.)

If you’ll be around we’d love to see you!

Once you respond to our question, let your friends know and tell them to smile at your response. Why push for the smiles? Five Formspringers behind the top smiled responses to tomorrow’s Formspring question will get a promise from Anthony that he’ll respond to their questions directly from his Formspring account next week.

We’ll post the question from our Formspring account tomorrow around 9 a.m, PST and we’ll announce the top smiled responses early next week. You know what they say — Smile early, Smile often for the best chance to win!

UPDATE:

We just asked the question. Click through here to respond to the question “What’s something that’s beautiful to you?”

Across social networking sites, there are a variety of ways relationships and actions are structured. From “liking” to “following” to “reblogging” to “smiling”, you can choose how to interact with your friends and followers on your own terms. As one of the few social networking sites that gives its members the choice of whether they want to use anonymity as part of their experience, we thought it would be interesting to provide some background info on where and how Formspringers use anonymity on the site.

As we’ve grown as a company, we’ve added new features, new ways of asking questions, and new settings that make questions with names attached to them an ever-increasing part of our site. In the past two years, the percentage of responses on Formspring that are to anonymous questions has dropped by almost 75 percent.

Much of this has to do with our site’s growth over the past 2+ years. When we launched in late 2009, many of the questions being asked were from people who weren’t signed in and thus couldn’t send questions with their names. Since then, more than 28 million users have signed up and joined the Formspring community. With becoming a member on Formspring also comes the ability to send a question and keep your name attached. When you consider this, along with new questions coming from celebrities, favorite publications, new friends and others, it’s no surprise that more and more questions on Formspring are sent with a name. We still believe there’s value in anonymous questions, whether you’re a rabbi responding to questions from a congregant or a personal finance expert responding to inquiries about job performance.

Of course we know not everyone wants to ask — or receive — anonymous questions. That’s why we’ve added settings so you can choose if you’d like to receive these questions or not. It’s totally up to you. And if you ever receive an anonymous question you don’t like, we’ve added in a host of safety features that make it easy for you manage and control your experience.

Our team is hard at work building a great service for discovering more about your friends and people you care about. In the past few months alone we’ve introduced the Formspring directory, topic pages where you can ask questions of other Formspringers with similar interests, added public follow and just recently, added comments.

We’ll continue to add new features and update existing ones in 2012, so stay tuned — we’ve got some great projects in the works.

You’re in control
You’re in control of how you get questions and what’s on your profile, so it makes sense that you’re in control over who can comment. By default, only people you publicly follow and the person you responded to can comment on your responses. This approach ensures that everyone who is part of your conversation is someone you’re already familiar with.

If you want comments from your friends, but haven’t made who you follow public, now is a good time to do that. There are two other setting choices for people who want to open the floodgates a bit more or don’t want comments at all. However, we will not allow comments with hidden names.

Because we know conversations can go on, and on, and on, we’re also giving you control over the most valuable part of a conversation: the last word. On any of your responses, you can leave a final comment and then end the conversation.

Notifications & Smiles
Conversations are constantly happening on Formspring, so keeping track in an intuitive way is key. Not too long ago, we introduced a notification alert to let you know when something important to you happened on the site. You can use the notification alert to keep track of comments, and we’ll also send an email when you get comments on your responses.

Smiles are a popular way to give feedback, so we definitely wanted to make them part of comments. Like responses, anyone can smile any comment. For those constantly checking the smile count on their profile, comment smiles will count toward your weekly and all-time smiles.