Tell MNHQ how you find out about things in your local area - £200 to be won!

[KateMumsnet]

Survey now closed
Thanks to everyone who has taken it.
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Hello all

We'd like to know how you find out about things in your local area, and the kind of local things you are interested in.

Fill in the whole survey, give us your email address, and we'll put you in the prize draw for a £200 Love2Shop voucher.

Thanks very much!

[BlueEyeshadow]

Q 19 says it requires an answer, but it's tick all that apply with no "none of the above" option.

[ouryve]

Question 19 says it requires an answer, but I can't say yes to any of them. I'm going to have to tick something even though it's not true.

[ouryve]

Hah!

[friendofsadgirl]

After looking at the survey, I thought I should really take another look at my local site as its been a while. I clicked on 21st June on the events calendar and guess what it shows??
Santa's Grotto
Think it might need updated?

[DoILookLikeIGiveAFuck]

Bloody hell that's a crap survey. Not enough room to say 'your local sites are shite'.

[Butteredparsnips]

As mentioned above q19 doesn't work. And the question about where do you go for classified adds didn't have an "I don't" option

[FeelingSmurfy]

19 didn't require an answer for me so it must have been updated

[Orangeisthenewbanana]

Done. I also had a look at my local page after doing the survey. Minimal info in lots of the sections, and FAR to many ads!

[TelephoneIgnoringMachine]

Question 19 doesn't work. I want to say " no/ not applicable" but there's no option to? I've just put an arbitrary tick in a box but it's not reflective of the truth as it wouldn't let me proceed otherwise. Please change the options. Have filled the rest of the questions though.

[JazzAnnNonMouse]

I can't answer q 19 properly

[TelephoneIgnoringMachine]

Since doing the survey, I've looked at my local chat board. It has an average of 1 post per week, mostly unanswered.

[domesticslattern]

Still experiencing problems with forced answer at Q19 here

[funchum8am]

Done

[afussyphase]

I did it too. Totally agree mumsnet local needs to be more up to date with fewer ads. I particularly noticed them in the nanny section where it's mostly agencies.

[IAmAPaleontologist]

I can't get past question 19 either. I have never used MN local to look anything up but there is no option for that.

[AnneEyhtMeyer]

I had to lie on Q19 too.

As I said in the survey, MN are flogging a dead horse with MN local. I think they should pull the plug.

[TelephoneIgnoringMachine]

I actually like the idea of MN local, I just don't think it's promoted enough, & it's mostly full of advertising. Not appealing. I'd also like the option to use my regular MN name or a different name in MN local instead of an old one & I'm not sure how to do that.

I have reported this as MNHQ obviously haven't been back & seen the issue with Q19.

[IAmAPaleontologist]

thing with mn local is that on ours at least nobody puts anything on it. now of course i could put stuff on, but funnily enough i don't think "oh i must put that on mn local" every time i find out about something. we do get amn local newsletter from our local person but it is just generic stuff really which begs the question how well informed they are. what you need is someone with the time and dedication to go break it down village by village and spend time finding out where all the toddler groups are and putting them on the map, then the pay for groups, the nurseries, the childminders, finding out which villages have regular events and making sure they stay aware of when they are on.....it is a big undertaking and I'm not sure that it will ever work too well without a paid position. the map thing to add events is too fiddly in comparison to the mums in fb group which just has a sticky post for what's on this week/summer hols etc and you can chuck a comment on. the mn one means you need to look up the postcode and stuff to do it properly. i know the idea was that members would add stuff and so collectively build the site and then the editor would just need to keep on top of it but they hasn't happened yet for ours and i really don't think it ever will. sorry.

[PlainHunting]

MN local only seems to have value if you're in a big city and/or have very young children.

The events and places mentioned on my 2 local sites have no interest or relevance to me, amd they're usually at least an hour's drive away (we're half way between two cities, but not really part of either).

[wigglylines]

I looked at local after doing the survey and I see you now do list meet ups by town, not county as I remembered (I think you used to do this) however you still list schools by county.

Catchment areas being what they are, why would I want to know about schools 30 miles away or more?

In general there is too much irrelevant info.

I see you've got rid of skills swap and the friendship bench. You should remove the links and text on them too, too much clutter.

It needs a total overhaul, and simplifying, but I expect you know that!

[PlainHunting]

Just had a look on my local site and our school isn't even listed as one of the schools in the county (nor any of the ones nearby) and thee haven't been any posts for over a month.

[DawnMumsnet]

Hi there,

Thanks for flagging the problem with Q19!

We'll get our Tech folk to sort it as soon as possible.

[98percentchocolate]

Done, I'd actually like to feedback on the price of advertising too whilst I'm here. I'm really interested in advertising on my local site, but £60 for a small ad in one area for one month, on a site that seems to have low traffic is very high. Contrast this with Netmums (I know, I know, but I need to earn) who charge £42 for a larger ad in a more prominent placement, on a site with very high traffic, and I think you may be doing yourselves out of business.
Personally, as someone with a limited budget, although I much prefer Mumsnet as a website, I just can't see the advantage of placing an ad here instead of there. I think that if you lowered the price until the sites have more traffic and content, then it may encourage smaller businesses to advertise more and could help build the site.

[MajorClanger63]

It seems to me a very tough job as a local editor in some areas. The really affluent areas such as Kingston, Richmond, Wandsworth do a lot better than their surrounding areas in getting in advertising which is what actually pays the local editors so that is why some sites have lots of advertising and some not so much It's a tough sale getting advertising on a site with a small footfall albeit with a national brand as advertisers want results. My local one, Merton, has plenty of stuff on the site as well as some advertising plus competitions of which I have won quite a few, I also enter competitions in nearby areas too and have done well out of them as the take up isn't that high so you have a very good chance of winning.

In theory the sites should grow and become more active over time but this takes a hell of a lot of effort for little return from what I hear. I think there should be more co-operation between neighbouring areas, particularly London as the transport links are so good if there is an event on within an hours travel then I'd more than likely go to it but not if it isn't tweeted to me or put on my Local site.