I would like a reply to the "Reply" issue

Can we have an update on this?

It’s completely reasonable for posters to think ‘Reply’ means reply to a specific post. But then their answers often make no sense out of context. This is not good UX.

How big a job would it be to simply move Quote into the list of visible options and hide Reply in the three dot menu (if you even need to keep Reply)?

The most annoying thing is the OP answering people's posts seemingly out of synchronisation.

They clearly think they're replying to particular people but their posts make the thread incomprehensible

Yes there's a lot of that on the forum. Not reading the OP properly or failing to read updates.
It has to be made easier I suppose.

It does cause a lot of comprehension problems, that's for sure.

It is indeed a small issue in the grand scheme of things but it becomes a more frustrating and much larger issue when the person who started the thread naturally thinks reply means to this specific post and you get thread upon thread that makes zero sense because the replies are incoherent.

It's also an issue which is so bloody easy to fix by MNHQ if they wanted to which makes it all the more frustrating.

I tend to think reply refers to reply to the original thread, but i guess you're right. It's just such a small thing to get worked up about is all I was saying really

Because the far more useful quote function is hidden under … and the useless reply/add message function is front and centre.

the ‘reply’ function is just extremely confusing, bad design. Users shouldn’t have to learn the absurdities of the site design for it to be usable.

Theres also the fact that MN works differently on different devices. You can’t just learn how it works because MNHQ do not provide a consistent user experience across channels.

This is basic UX design stuff.

Is it really so difficult for posters to just learn how the site works rather than expected MN to change every tiny thing? What's so hard about using the quote or tag function instead?

Thanks Hebe - I do think that a temporary fix, as suggested by others, would be a really sensible interim solution while you look at longer term options. Will you feed this into your testing/considerations please?

@HebeMumsnet @LilyMumsnet

Please can MNHQ sort this out?

I just despair. Why does MN look different and offer different functionality depending on which device or browser you’re using.

This isn’t ‘responsive design’. It’s completely inconsistent and confusing design.

This is what I see. Android Tablet, Opera.

Lack of proper service design.

That is just greedy on your part. I don't have the Add Post from your blue section. Mine is labelled Add Messsge on the post, not Reply.

Why are there so many different options??

I agree with all of this! The reply button is useless and misleading, what people want there is the quote function (and yes to condensing all quotes to a few lines that can be expanded).
I have no idea why mumsnet are claiming that there are users that don't want this to happen as I haven't seen anybody say that anywhere and have only seen lots of confusion on lots of threads as to why their reply to someone didn't work.

Each post has a button under it that is replicated at the bottom of the thread anyway.

Just seems completely random. At least swap the one at the bottom of each post for the quote button, to make it make sense.

I may add this to my pile of ‘examples of really bad UX design in MN’ that I use in my professional life. Usually I find myself talking about the absurdity of the way the app is treated as if it has no relation to the website, and how this manifests in frustrated users trying to figure out why the functionality is completely different between the two all over the place. It’s usually a don’t be like MN, actually look at the app as part of a coherent ecosystem of channels for users story.

There have been vague messages of "we're looking into it" but I've not seen any recognition of the fact it is actually a problem.

Yep, it's very telling that there's been no update from MNHQ since the 8 / 11. Not even an update to say they're still working on it. Just complete silence. Why bother updating users on something they don't see as a problem. I suspect we could come back to this thread in a year and still nothing will have changed.

Labelling it accurately as ‘add post’ would just create two identical buttons that very often are one above the other on the page.

Thats just pointless clutter.

Yes. It's ridiculous.
I'm on mobile and have the blue bar that says active, watching, ADD POST, I'm on and search.

Then below every post there's save, thanks, REPLY (which is just add post. Again. ) Report and bookmark

While we're at it - what's the difference between bookmark and save? It feels like those two do the same thing and could certainly be made into a single button that adds the thread to your watch list at the post you've read up to. If you've already saved/bookmarked it then pressing it later updates the bookmark / save. Combine those buttons functions. There's no need for two.