Thoughts on tweaking MN

No - this is indenting:

Line 1 of conversation
..........Line 2 of conversation
....................Line 3 of conversation
..............................Line 4 of conversation

(Just imagine it without the dots)

Oh bollocks. It lost it during posting

This
Is
Indenting
Gamerchick

What the hell is indenting when it's at home?

If you design a website, you should be ensuring that people who come to it for the first time CAN navigate it. It should be intuitive, not quirky to use. Otherwise they lose interest and leave.

That doesn't seem to be the case, I don't believe members are leaving in their droves. Everyone finds their way around it in the end and probably embraces the quirkiness.

I just don't understand why people want MN to be the same as all other sites really.

I use MN on a desk top, tablet, laptop and phone I don't have any problems with the site. I'm not tech savvy either and i love MN as it is thanks. It's a place online with a massive gathering of (mainly) women of all ages from all across the globe and it's the best site there is, in my humble opinion.

I don't like indenting as you end up having to read
One
Word
Lines
At
The
Edge
Of the
Page!

Wow, I thought I was over invested 😂

Other than the crap search function I like how it works, simple and easy to use. I also find it very clear. I’m not a fan of how it goes down regularly though.

I can’t actually believe someone took th time to come up with basically a whole site redesign.

I like Mumsnet as it is, I really don't want changes. Please don't change it HQ!

Quoting posts ruins a conversation imo. If you're talking to people you don't play back a recording of chunks of the conversation before you reply. Quoting feels like that. Just c&p the salient point like you might do in a conversation.
If you're on a phone you end up scrolling through reams of quotes to get to the comment. Tedious.
MN was always less sparkly and simpler than other sites. Homogenising the site might attract new traffic but companies shouldn't neglect their longstanding cheap to retain customers.

If it isn't then there is a little box you can tick when replying.

Hmmm

What a strange post! Why would you come on to a forum you don't normally use and then write pages in criticism? Didn't bother to read most of it - but what I did read - those things are different if you use the app anyway- and surely more people use that nowadays?

I like the way mumsnet is set up. I find Reddit with its nested posts and up down likes very cold.

The only feature I would like is one you haven't mentioned OP.

I am always bookmarking threads on my phone and then losing them as I haven't scrolled back to the top of the page in order to click on 'watch this thread'. I would like bookmarking a thread to automatically also add it to your 'watch' list the same way commenting on a thread does.

I really dislike nested replies. It's such a pain going back and forth reading them. It's one of MN's huge plusses that it doesn't have them.

Not wanting changes doesn't mean we don't want new members. What a bizarre conclusion.

But why do people come here and say "you should make it do xyz like reddit" or "netmums does abc its so much better". If you like the way Reddit works then use reddit. If you like the way netmums works then use net mums. If all chat forums were the same format then those of us who don't like them won't have anywhere to go.

Personally I use Mumsnet, in part, because of how it works. It's simple, it's not full of nested replies. (Plus it's full of witty and intelligent women.)

And you don't want anyone new to join it?

That's a bit of a leap. Clearly it isn't a problem given how many do manage to join and contribute. They aren't all Mensa members or top university graduates either so it can't be that difficult.

@saraclara I am more than happy for new people to join, that's not what I was implying! I was talking about the actual site.

I too would like an edit button but other than that I'm so used to MN as it is at all those changes would surely make a different site. Am very surprised that you OP would go to great lengths to suggest all those changes yet you still use a site which you consider needs so many changes and you've been using it for 8 years so I'm wondering what your game is as surely not many can be arsed to write the manual that you have unless they have a vested interest

In terms of the way thr forum operates have a look at Money Saving Expert, the ability to properly quote people, the ability to quote people who have already quoted (and the nested quoting) as well as just the general flow of their forums.

[quote Heruka]@toastofthetown (going to tag you rather than quote long post!) Totally agree with improving quote function in the way you’ve described. It’s a ballache if you’ve made a point you want to check for responses for and have to scroll through lots to find, when it could be alerted.

I disagree about archiving though!! I will be that only poster. Sometimes there are threads where people come back more than a year later to update. Or people call on the OP to ask how they got on, and occasionally they come back. I think the lovely one in classics with the lovely Y chromosome grandad who loves his grandson, could conceivably be updated more than annually. Recently a poster came back to an old thread asking for help for her sister experiencing domestic abuse, to update that she had left and advice had helped.

Op I apologise but I didn’t feel able to read through your whole post but can see the thought and work and that’s to be commended. I am another against the like button.[/quote]
There is a flip side to the archiving threads, but I don't see why if an OP wants to update after it had archived they couldn't start a new thread with a link to the old. In a way that's better as it's obvious to everyone from start its an update. Even when a thread is bumped by the OP there are still several messages at the bottom just replying to the first post not realising that it was several years ago and the baby the post is about is now at school. I disagree with the point on other posters asking OP for an update. That's just annoying to me, if the OP wanted to update they can and if you want an update then you can message them privately. I'd be interested to see stats on who is bumping threads though. My experience is that it's most people from Google or spam / marketing accounts rather than someone providing an update three years down the line.

But it goes to show (as does this whole thread) that people have different views on how Mumsnet should operate as a forum with some wanting modernisation and some wanting it to stay as it is. Mumsnet have posted saying that they have plans for 'improving usability' but without any more information that's kind of meaningless and I have no idea if their idea of improved usability is in line with mine.

@Tofu35 you can hide threads. I’m sorry for your loss. 💐

I'd like the option to unfollow posts I've previously posted in. I posted in a lot of pregnancy threads until my miscarriage, and then the "I'm on" section became a horrible reminder of what could/should have been. I ended up trying to post on other threads in the hope of burying the pregnancy threads further down.

Or maybe that's already a feature and I just haven't pressed the right button yet!

Use the preview button before pressing post. Use the bookmark button. It is easy.

A definite NO to indenting
Ditto 'like' feature
And a ban on quoting ops! So tedious
I'd ditch AIBU and the silly forced titles so posters have to post in 'proper' subjects (mainly Relationships and Education) or Chat so they will thankfully disappear at some point.