Call it a ‘Web 2.Oh, no…’ application.
PMSBuddy.com is a Web site where men can register to have reminder e-mails sent to them, warning of the onset of their beloved partner’s monthly difficult days.
The site was created by 28-year-old Jordan Eisenberg, an Aussie who got tired of his married and attached buddies complaining about their problems dealing with their PMS-afflicted significant others.
PMSbuddy.com’s slogan — ‘Saving relationships one month at a time’ — clearly conveys the impression that the whole thing is at least partly tongue-in-cheek. So do the site’s ‘National Alert Level’, showing how many of the partners registered on the site are estimated to be suffering each day, and the Overall Threat Index, measured on a scale of one to four, rather like the fire risk indicator at the entrance of every national park.
But the reminder service is also backed up with resources for men who suffer not from, but because of, PMS.
The PMS Stories discussion board gives men a place to vent their PMS-related frustrations. It’s basically an online analogue of the classic men’s locker room. And, as the late Douglas Adams might have observed, it’s ‘mostly harmless’.
The PMS Tips page has great potential but disappoints, both in its briefness and it’s emphasis on ‘Do something special for her’ advertising links. The the notion that a guy can simply buy his way out of the PMS spatter zone will grate on some women.
Of course, there are women who resent their private business being tracked, even if only quasi-publicly. But Eisenberg insists, “the majority do feel it is helpful and the remainder at least get a kick and a laugh out of it.”