Come and spread the Mumsnet love locally!

[KateMumsnet]

Hello everyone,

Have you found your new Local site yet? We've given all 170 of them a lick of paint, and we hope they'll really help to make parents lives easier (our mission, in case you didn't know )

But we need your help! We're asking every MNer to nip over to their Local talk board and help a local parent out. Share your hard-won local knowledge on a thread - or ask your own question about what's going on near you: local schools, clubs, businesses - anything and everything local! The more bustling the Talk boards, the more useful they'll be - prizes to be won (including our exclusive MNHQ mugs usually available only to slebs etc!)

We're also on the lookout for a number of Local editors to keep Mumsnetters up to date about what's on in their area, on an ad revenue-share basis. Sound interesting? Ping us a mail on [email protected] and we can send you more info.

If you're already signed up to a Local site, you can see threads about your area in the 'Local' tab at the top of Active Conversations. If not, find your local Talk board via your Local site.

Cheers all! As ever, it's a work in progress and we're keen to know what you think - let us know in the thread below.

MNHQ

[Wh0Kn0wsWhereTheTimeGoes]

I disconnected myself from mine a couple of years ago because all the threads were being stickied with big explanation marks in most active (or something like that) - has that changed now? To be honest, I pop in every now and then but it's a very big area and there's very rarely a thread I can help with even though I've lived in several parts of the county.

[LocalEditorMerton]

Waving from our part of SW London where's the tennis ball emoticon when you need it? Happy to help with any queries you may have. We'd love to hear from you on MN Merton & Wimbledon Local Talk, and to meet you at our Film and Book Clubs too, if you're interested?

At the moment our Merton Mumsnetters are discussing a proposed concrete works near schools and residential areas, living on the Colliers Wood/Mitcham borders, Wimbledon prep schools and we have a fantastic 9NINE (super seeds snacks) Box of Goodies competition ongoing.

Kate

[AlwaysOldBeforeMyTime]

Are local board available on the app? I can never seem to navigate to mine since I started using the app so don't tend to visit it anymore!

[AmyGMumsnet]

@Wh0Kn0wsWhereTheTimeGoes

I disconnected myself from mine a couple of years ago because all the threads were being stickied with big explanation marks in most active (or something like that) - has that changed now? To be honest, I pop in every now and then but it's a very big area and there's very rarely a thread I can help with even though I've lived in several parts of the county.

Hello there, thanks for posting! If you've got a Local site set as a 'home site' you may sometimes see active threads from your Local board on MN Active.

Do keep popping back, have a great weekend

[AmyGMumsnet]

@AlwaysOldBeforeMyTime

Are local board available on the app? I can never seem to navigate to mine since I started using the app so don't tend to visit it anymore!

Hi there, they're not on the app as yet, but we'll keep you posted if there's any changes on this front.

[TheCommoner]

Yay! Join us at our lovely book and film clubs, Merton MNers, as Kate says upthread...

[UserThenLotsOfNumbers]

That's a shame, I only use Mumsnet on the IPad.

[FeralBeryl]

Same - I hardly ever remember to check on the site as I'm on the phone app

[bubblesagain]

I'm going to be annoying and point out that the local site is really crappy for tabbing navigation (accessibility). On the mumsnet site, when you use tab to navigate, the element you have tabbed to becomes highlighted with a border blue box so you know what element or menu item you are clicked on.
When tabbing on the local site nothing is highlighted so you have no idea what you have tabbed across to as the focus css currently has outline none, which means for tab accessibility their is no indication when an element is selected.

www.outlinenone.com/ more info on why that css styling is important.

It's a 20 second fix and would be helpful.

[prettybird]

The reason I never rarely post on Mumsnet local (despite being one of the MN local ambassadors ) is because I can't access it on the app which is where I do all the majority of my MNing.

Until that is resolved, tumbleweed will continue to roll through the MN local boards, however "new and shiny" they might be.

[MrsHathaway]

No, I won't.

I'm stuck with a VERY old name change from when I set one up to post about events I used to run then but don't now. Furthermore I've significantly fallen out with the charity (long story but mismanagement, whistle blowing, etc) so absolutely can't be associated with it.

So no. Until and unless you sort out NC for Local, I'm going nowhere near.

[AnarchyKitty]

Hmmmm... I've just popped over to my local and it's dead.
I'm up for reviving it if possible, do you think becoming an editor for it would help get it moving?

[tankerdale]

My town/area sort of falls between 2 or 3 local Mumsnet groups so there's doesn't seem much current info that's relevant on there. The area trying to be covered seems too big. We also have a v good local facebook mums group which is well used and very localised so much more useful I'm afraid.

[onitlikeacarbonnet]

It's like a ghost town.

There's a few threads mainly looking for mum friends or local recommendations for days out etc.

I've posted a link to a Facebook post which I spotted earlier today and have already shared with friends which has a long (long) list of activity/day out ideas for the holidays.
Useful but I'm not sure how many will see it.
Shame really.

[Somerville]

Are there different rules for advertising on Local? From a peek at mine, all the posts are from spammers at this point. I wasn't sure whether to report or not.

[FruBayerischOla]

@LocalEditorMerton. Is this what you're looking for?!

[LocalEditorMerton]

@FruBayerischOla thank you! Yes, yes, yes .

[EvilDoctorBallerinaDuck]

Our local site seems very quiet. 😴

[Zoflorabore]

I still haven't met in person irl who's a MNer and I would be very happy to shake the Liverpool board up!
My dp's default question when he gets in from work is " you on Mumsnet again? "
I loves it.

[Creatureofthenight]

I had a look a few weeks ago and there was nothing going on on my local board - is there enough going on in a large city that people aren't bothering with MN local?
I agree with PPs that it's pretty pointless encouraging us to use local boards if they aren't accessible via the app as that's how so many people use MN.

[bookbook]

Just clicked on mine - tumbleweed ... only 3 threads this year

[Wh0Kn0wsWhereTheTimeGoes]

The areas are too big (maybe not in cities but in counties). You really need to live within about 5 miles of the OP to be able to answer the question in most cases. I have no idea about the answers to most of the questions in mine, some are about places 40+ miles away.

[PippaFawcett]

Mine is semi active but it is always the same handful of people who reply to threads. My city must be full of Mumsnetters so I'm surprised there isn't more activity.

[Nikitasol]

I still can't work out how to subscribe to a local site.

[NeverTwerkNaked]

I just clicked on the "local site" option in active convos and got a message "damn we can't find the page you were looking for"...
I like the idea of local sites but have two issues:

• my local areas are split in a bonkers way, I have three choices: Hampshire, Portsmojth and Southampton. But I live exactly in the middle between P and S so it's a weird choice to make! Why not just one Hampshire site
  
• other negative: nearly all the posts (at present) are about schools/where to live. So it's not very interesting (understatement)