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MNHQ

Coo-eeh! Come tell us what you think of the New (hopefully much better) Mumsnet Local

184 replies

EmmaMumsnet · 17/10/2012 12:07

Hello. We've been aware for a while now that MN Local isn't all it could be and we've been beavering away for several months now to make it much, much better.

And today's the Grand Unveiling of the all-new, all-singing, all-dancing (well, OK, not quite singing and dancing just yet) Mumsnet Local

We've reorganised the Local sites a bit (they were a bit random, geographically speaking, before). And, if you go to your nearest Mumsnet Local site, you'll see there's much more to it and it's much easier to find your way about. There are loads more categories for listings and space for reviews, and you'll find nearly new inside an expanded Classifieds section - which should make your Mumsnet Local an altogether more helpful place to hang out. Don't worry, we haven't lost the talk threads from old Local. They'll be reappearing in the new sites very soon.

Some Mumsnet Local sites are still a bit light on listings and info (we're working on that right now) but, if you'd like a look at what we're hoping all Mumsnet Locals will look like pretty darn soon, do have a butcher's at Bath. If you want to share something with other Mumsnetters on any of the sites, just click on Add a Listing (the pink button on the right just under the navigation bar).

Sites that are not far behind include Bedford, Bedfordshire, Berkshire, Bolton & Bury, Manchester & Trafford, Bournemouth & Poole, Brighton & Hove, Bristol, Buckinghamshire, Cheshire, Exeter, Hampshire, Hertfordshire, Kent, Milton Keynes, Oxford, Portsmouth, Southampton, Surrey, and in London? Barnet, Lambeth, Hackney, Haringey, Hillingdon, Islington, Southwark, Tower Hamlets, Wandsworth and Waltham Forest boroughs.

And we're hoping all the other Local sites, including those in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, will be hot on their tails. We're looking to entice people to look after these sites, but more on that soon.

We've designed an easy-to-use Meet Ups page. If you want to volunteer to organise a regular meet-up in your area, just email [email protected] . There are more bits and pieces and snazzy new features to come, too. Once --Tech's had a bit of a lie down

We do hope you like what you see. Do let us know what you think - as ever, all feedback is most welcome.

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MNHQ

HelenMumsnet · 08/11/2012 13:06

@kellestar

EmmaMumsnet I see the links are working on local for talk/skills swap/friendship bench... does this mean it's working now?

Almost!

MNHQ

EmmaMumsnet · 01/11/2012 20:43

@SarkyWench

Am I the only one wondering why MN can't test stuff before they release it? If I set up a web area that was this bad for my work I'd be in serious amounts of poo. But on here it seems to be the norm for them to expect us to do all the debugging.

It's not quite how we envisaged the Local launch either to be honest Blush but the Talk threads from old local have been a bugger big pain to migrate. We're nearly there.

MNHQ

EmmaMumsnet · 01/11/2012 20:40

@kellestar

If the friendship bench isn't up yet, is it the same for skills swap? I made a listing for this when it all went live and it seems to have disappeared recently.

The Friendship Bench and Skills Swaps will be talk threads Kellestar, so until Talk arrives, neither are working

MNHQ

EmmaMumsnet · 01/11/2012 20:38

@SlightlySeethrough

Agree it's a PITA to come up with another name.

SlightlySeethrough is my ropey Halloween nc, I am ususally SlightlyJaded. I was thinking of being SlightlyJadedLOCAL to make the point....

But right now, my board isn't even working so it's all academic anyway

I'm afraid you can't use the words 'Local' or 'Editor' in your nickname Slightly

MNHQ

EmmaMumsnet · 01/11/2012 20:37

@SlightlySeethrough

Thanks Emma

By listing I mean that I managed to post on the friendship bench the other day, but when I went back it was gone and I could no longer post. Maybe ongoing tech startup stuff that I am too un-techy to comprehend

I know it's for a one to one thing - I was one of the posters who nagged suggested it would be a nice thing to have, and I was posting myself on it so that if anyone in my area was feeling like they needed someone to talk to in RL, they would find someone sat there (hence me nagging all the other posters on the original 'can we have a friendship bench' thread to go and register a presence on their local bench)

But no worries, I'll just wait till it's up and running and nag everyone all over again Grin

Ah, I think I saw that listing. I don't know how you managed to do that

MNHQ

EmmaMumsnet · 29/10/2012 12:09

@SlightlySeethrough

Hello

I have just nagged asked about 4 trillion MNers (who posted on my sticky thread/friendship bench) request thingy to go and sit on the bloody benches, now that you have kindly provided them Grin

BUT, not only has my listing disappeared, i can't seem to 're-sit' as it won't let me post in local. Quel horror MN!

Also, I'm sure this has been mentioned upthread (lazy) but can we have the option to post in our regular name rather than invent a local one if we aren't arsed about anonymity ?

Thanks muchly

Hi Slightly,
The Friendship Bench isn't working yet ? It will be a talk thread for people to meet one-to-one if that's what they're after. The Group Meet-ups pages are there in New Local, although there will be more functions on those pages soon too. The best thing to do at the moment is volunteer to run a meet-up (email local.mumsnet.com), then we can create a meet-ups page for you.

When you say 'listing', could you describe exactly what you mean and which site you were posting it on and we'll look into it.

If anonymity doesn't bother you, just make your Local nickname as close to your existing MN nickname as possible. SlightlySeeingThrough? AlmostSeeThrough? You can probably think of a better one yourself Grin

MNHQ

HelenMumsnet · 29/10/2012 11:45

@exexpat

Please, please, please can you sort it out so that there is at least one working link to local talk somewhere?

I just realised I was in danger of missing my local MN bookgroup next week because the book group thread had fallen off my 'threads I'm on' and the usual method of re-finding it by clicking the link to 'local' now leads me nowhere.

I had to do a search of my own past posts to find the thread. Not exactly user-friendly...

Sorry about the delay in getting Local Talk working properly. We are doing all we can. (Tis unforseeably tricky)

MNHQ

HelenMumsnet · 24/10/2012 17:23

@ouryve

And sorry Emmamumsnet - that glare may have been meant for Helenmumsnet

I did apologise and sit in the norty corner...

MNHQ

EmmaMumsnet · 22/10/2012 16:04

@DameMargotFountain

i know it's a bit late to say, but i think it's shame that SN support is hidden in the 'meet-ups' section

i only found it by accident, is it too late to have it moved to a more prominent part of the local boards?

Once the Talk Boards in Local are functioning, we will take a look at this.

MNHQ

EmmaMumsnet · 22/10/2012 14:51

@kellestar

I've just added a few listings to Bath whats on, sales and they're not appearing.

I've also added listings for Somerset, Pregnacy and Post-natal, Antenatal Classes local.mumsnet.com/somerset/pregnancy-post-natal/show-all and they aren't appearing even on show all.

Tech says you may have previewed, but not posted. I'm pm-ing you with the links

MNHQ

HelenMumsnet · 22/10/2012 14:07

@kellestar

I've just added a few listings to Bath whats on, sales and they're not appearing.

I've also added listings for Somerset, Pregnacy and Post-natal, Antenatal Classes local.mumsnet.com/somerset/pregnancy-post-natal/show-all and they aren't appearing even on show all.

That's odd, kellestar. We'll let EmmaMumsnet know.

MNHQ

HelenMumsnet · 22/10/2012 14:03

@addictedisback

I'm confused and this is probably going to make no sence, so please bear with me.

I'm just looking at somerset local's page (not my local, but moving there soon so having a nosey Blush) and under 'somerset latest' on the right hand side of the screen (under the local talk button) there are lots of 'whats on' things liek zumba classes, jo jingles for children in need etc. but when I go to the whats on section and click all, nothng comes up? so I clicked back on the right to the zumba class and it said it was in local>somerset>services>fitness and wellbeing>other but when I clicked through thoes buttons, there was nothing there? on any of the sections.

Are you looking at local.mumsnet.com/somerset, addictedisback?

Doesn't sound like it, from your description...

MNHQ

EmmaMumsnet · 22/10/2012 12:48

@InElectricDreams

Right, have just clicked on my area and got three local sites listed: Merseyside, Liverpool & Wirral and St Helens, Knowsley and Sefton. THIS MAKES NO SENSE. There will be massive overlap between Merseyside and Liverpool & Wirral, and probably with ST H K S, come to that. Why on earth have all three? Either go for a Merseyside area with broad coverage, or split into Liverpool on its own, Wirral, Sefton etc.

Plus the latter doesn't really make sense as it's specific local authority areas that often get linked together, but someone in St Helens might be geographically closer to an event/place in south Liverpool than they would to a Sefton one in, say, Southport.

I would be willing to add content (L&W is empty at the mo) but not while there are parallel sites running as with my luck, everyone else who comes along will use the one I don't, and I'm not loading it all in twice.

Having looked at other comments, I think people have very different expectations of what 'local' should be, having seen someone say they were looking at Brent but only wanted to know about specific bits of Brent(!) Personally I am happy with a broader approach and willing to travel across the Merseyside area. As it is, though, the areas in my neck of the woods don't make sense. MNHQ?

You're absolutely right Electric, Merseyside should not have appeared as a separate site ? that was an inputting error on our part. This has been fixed now. Once the My Local Sites function is up and running, you'll be able to switch easily between the two remaining sites.

MNHQ

EmmaMumsnet · 21/10/2012 15:59

@Viperidae

Using an HP laptop with some sort of Windows Internet Explorer thingy that has Google and stuff on. Can you tell I know a lot about computers?!

you need your own personal tech Grin
I've reported this to ours.

MNHQ

EmmaMumsnet · 21/10/2012 10:41

@Viperidae

How can you all see this? When I click the link I get 2 sets of headings printed over each other on the left hand side and anything I click on gives me a pop-up that says "This feature is comin soon" and when I close that the screen goes blank with just the word "false" in the top left corner! Confused

What device and browser are you using Vip?

MNHQ

EmmaMumsnet · 21/10/2012 10:39

@ItsAllGoingToBeFine

I have a question :)

If you live in a city, is it acceptable to put in day trips that are outside city boundaries and in another area. Eg if you were on the Stirling site, could you put in Edinburgh zoo?

Or is tech going to do something really really clever whereby you can search by distance from current location and that will pull in results from other local areas?

It seems to me there is going to be an awful lot of crossover and duplication of areas.

Or or or, if you were adding something, perhaps you could have check boxes whereby you could choose to have that listing appear in other nearby local sites?

Stick to putting stuff within the specific local site for now, but this is something that has crossed our minds. You'll only be two clicks away from your neighbouring (or other favourite sites) once My Local Sites is working , so you'll be able to switch really easily between.

MNHQ

EmmaMumsnet · 21/10/2012 10:34

@swampster

OK, I really NEED to be able to edit listings I add - I make errors!

And the start date/end date thing is nonsense for ongoing things.

If you preview it first, you can change any errors before you post.

MNHQ

EmmaMumsnet · 21/10/2012 10:33

@swampster

Ah - just clicked on 'Primary Schools in Lambeth' and I could happily add those in - but what's the point of that? Surely for accuracy you just suck those in from a directory somewhere?

You're right swampster, don't add school listings, we have a grand plan Wink

MNHQ

EmmaMumsnet · 21/10/2012 10:30

@BrianCoxIsEatingBrains

Oh, I think Tech has sorted the character limit thing Grin

Next question please:

Do I have to delete (or get deleted) my previous reviews and re-review so the full spiel shows? Or can Tech twiddle things so it shows?

TIA.

I asked Tech about this. Unfortunately, your words haven't been saved anywhere. Blush. Because you've shown true pioneering spirit Bert, if you email the title of the review, what category it's in and your full review to [email protected], we'll make sure the full text goes in.

MNHQ

EmmaMumsnet · 21/10/2012 10:18

@BrianCoxIsEatingBrains

I am making it my mission to add stuff. There is nothing worse than stumbling across something on Google, thinking it is exactly what you were looking for and then realising there is actually no content.

I just want the character limit thing to be sorted - hurry up Tech!! Wink

Thanks Bert,
The character limit is sorted now.

MNHQ

EmmaMumsnet · 21/10/2012 10:17

@swampster

Still waiting for a bit more than: "This feature is coming soon".

I'm in Lambeth, south London but that is still so general. I'd prefer something a bit more specific - Brixton, Herne Hill... There's a load of the South Bank in Lambeth but it isn't that local to me, it is a proper day out!

Lambeth has a Local Editor, so if you click on Baby & Toddler Groups from the Lambeth Homepage, you'll see each listing has an area label in the top right hand corner. So if, say, you live in Brixton, you can scan down and just look at the Brixton listings. When there are a few more listings on all the sites, you'll be able to filter these listings so all you see are the listings for your immediate area.

MNHQ

OliviaMumsnet · 20/10/2012 23:01

Hey Electric dreams (i will be singing Phil Oakley all night now)
Thanks for your feedback - we will have a look at this.

MNHQ

OliviaMumsnet · 20/10/2012 21:08

Yay BRIAN

MNHQ

EmmaMumsnet · 20/10/2012 16:11

@ZombTEE

Drunk again, is he, Emma?

Grin

It's all the gin you've been sending us. What's a boy (and girl) to do? don't answer that

MNHQ

EmmaMumsnet · 20/10/2012 16:07

@JaquelineHyde

I am on internet explorer and can't understand why I can't use any of the click through links on MN to get to MN local!

I can open a new window and type in the url and that brings something up but still the text is all overlapping and anything I can click on either goes to a new page and just has the word fail in the left hand corner or just doesn't do anything.

Sorry MN but this is a big fat fail from me and I will no longer be using Mumsnet Local Angry

Sorry you're having problems JaquelineHyde, I thought we'd sorted the Internet Explorer problem. I'll get back onto it. Don't say we've lost you forever Sad

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