Right. Hi all. I used to post as TheTruth but I deregged last Weds because I was really unhappy with the tech situation and had a bad feeling about it (never thought I'd be proved right quite so spectacularly).
I've reregged with a new username and email address etc because I wanted to add my voice to this thread.
The Heartbleed thing was a bit worrying but fair enough, a lot of sites got caught out by that. But in recent months I've been getting repeated security warnings when browsing MN on my phone. I posted a thread about it a while back (www.mumsnet.com/Talk/site_stuff/2384659-Continual-security-warnings?messages=100&pg=1) which was inconclusive. Nobody from tech came on to engage with us directly and so it felt a bit like a game of Chinese whispers, with the mods passing messages back and forth to tech and asking for more screenshots and that was about it.
So I had a niggling feeling something wasn't right. I've used other forums before and never had any of this kind of thing.
The "upgrade" to the mobile site happened, with really poor communication and troubleshooting. That made me wonder quite what the tech strategy was, because there was clearly either a lack of experience on the tech side or a poorly thought out communications approach - it was hard to tell which.
Then came the "improvement" to Watched Threads earlier this month which again was handled really badly. At the time I posted this, all of which still stands in my opinion:
(www.mumsnet.com/Talk/site_stuff/2441116-Heads-up-Improvements-to-watched-threads-coming)
Hi MNHQ, I see you're still getting a pasting for this. The AIBU thread has just died because it's full.
There are a lot of seriously skilled professional women on here who work in comms and user experience so I won't pretend to be the best expert you can find on how to handle this. I'm sure there are plenty of site users who would be all too willing to advise you on both your tech and user strategies. But...
Here's what I'd suggest as a v basic starting point:
- hold your hands up and admit this was a bad move. Preferably someone as senior as possible. Get them online to talk to everyone and make them feel like you care what they think.
- deal with the immediate issue. Whether you keep the current set up or revert to the old one or do something new. Make an effort to have Mn people ok one talking to users about what they would like, then announce your decision well in advance of implementation and then be around to pick up issues and queries when it is implemented. And when a small minority of people are inevitable dissatisfied with some aspect of it, be gracious and engaged with them and make them feel like you're talking to them and not just ignoring them.
- get whoever is doing your tech to start a thread setting out what their general approach is, what their priorities are at the moment and what that means in practice, in terms of aspects of the site which might change in the coming months.
Invite contributions and views, both on your plans and on the wider question of what Mn users would like to change.
- before you start a particular part of that work, start at least one thread giving people notice of the change - at least a couple of weeks - and asking for views on it. If you're going to use people's email addresses for anything then use it for this - send them an email telling them of the change and giving them the chance to comment.
Thee are other things I could suggest but those would be a good start and and a lot of other collaborational vibes would flow from them in my personal opinion.
(nobody from MNHQ replied to that post btw).
The Census happened, and in my response I said I was very worried about the tech side of the site and I urged MNHQ to get expertise in to help them.
Then last week came the DDOS attack. I saw the shenanigans on Weds and felt really, really worried (www.mumsnet.com/Talk/site_stuff/2446968-Site-outage-update).
So I asked MNHQ to dereg me.
I've been watching the events of the last couple of days unfold with great concern.
It gives me no pleasure at all to come back on the site to say this, but I wanted to do so because I feel really strongly that this is just the latest and most spectacular of a long series of tech/communication issues which all add up to a big problem for MNHQ. To date it has felt from this user's perspective that site changes and communication thereof are treated like a necessary but minor issue - when actually they should be absolutely primary. If you don't have trustworthy tech and you aren't communicating effectively with your users, you don't have a site.
Once this is all over and the site is properly locked down, I would urge MNHQ to get the absolute best security advice they can, and to get a proper communication plan in place.
This is not a hobbyists' site; this is a multimillion-pound business and it needs to act like it because it has a duty to its posters and to its advertisers not to be so complacent in future.