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Original poster

"X number of people viewing "

105 replies

QueenClinomania · 18/11/2025 16:50

Is this a new thing you're testing out?
It appears on active convos but only one thread, not all the threads. Does this mean nobody else is reading those threads at this moment or are you only testing it out on a few threads?

OP posts:
DontMowMyMeadow · 19/11/2025 20:01

It's all visually messy and totally unnecessary.

Whinge · 19/11/2025 20:00

Luxio · 19/11/2025 17:53

It does seem recently they've introduced a lot of features which seem unnecessary. The my post label, the floating watch button and now this new viewing count.

I must say it's also showing just how quiet the site is these days even compared to a few months ago. Most of the threads on active showing viewers have less than 100 people viewing.

I agree with your second point. There are a few threads showing 20 - 25 viewing. I assume there's a minimum number in place to trigger the viewing notification, so if the threads without the ridiculous tag have less than 20 people viewing it really highlights just how few people are on the site.

DontMowMyMeadow · 19/11/2025 19:58

What's the other figure showing now? Is that the number of replies?

DontMowMyMeadow · 19/11/2025 19:56

It's horrible. So retro, and not in a good way.

Holluschickie · 19/11/2025 19:41

It's really annoying.

PiccadillyPurple · 19/11/2025 19:39

I think it needs to be on all threads or none. At the moment it looks as though the majority of threads are being ignored, which can't be accurate as I'm viewing by most recently active.

Luxio · 19/11/2025 17:53

It does seem recently they've introduced a lot of features which seem unnecessary. The my post label, the floating watch button and now this new viewing count.

I must say it's also showing just how quiet the site is these days even compared to a few months ago. Most of the threads on active showing viewers have less than 100 people viewing.

Cosywintervibes · 19/11/2025 17:19

I think this feature isn't needed, surely if one post has lots of views and another post has no views. The poster with no views is going to end up feeling like shit. In a world where tech teams are trying to limit social media emotional harms etc I think mumsnet have dropped the ball on this one.

HarmonyBeckons · 19/11/2025 16:40

I don't understand why MNHQ keep introducing features that nobody wants. I'm still irritated by the "Original Poster" and "My Posts" tags. Totally unnecessary when they're already different colours from the other posts.

RescueMeFromThisSilliness · 19/11/2025 15:22

Honestly, I go off to work for a few hours and come back to this. 😂

NotLookedYet · 19/11/2025 13:44

Improving moderation of misinformation, including deletion would help to encourage engagement across the boards.

Even when hard evidence (government stats, legal definitions etc ) are provided with a report to MNHQ, the answer is invariably ‘useful for discussion’.

This just perpetuates lies and incites division.

CutlaSquid · 19/11/2025 13:17

I think it's misleading - I often click on a thread and then click off straightaway as it's of no interest absolute lalaland bollocks Would that count as "viewing"?

IAxolotlQuestions · 19/11/2025 12:54

I don’t like it. I don’t need to know that. And view counts don’t equal engagement m.

Yabbayabba · 19/11/2025 12:52

I mean, you’ve got Trending, Active, and Post count. I think it’s already quite easy to spot the popular threads?

Luxio · 19/11/2025 12:39

So despite recieving negative feedback it's now appearing on almost every thread on active.

JaneJeffer · 19/11/2025 11:59

TappaMcFeety · 18/11/2025 19:39

Many years ago, I’m pretty sure it use to tell you how many posters had viewed a thread - does anybody else remember that?

Yeah and sometimes someone would start a thread asking posters to go and reply to the unanswered threads so that they didn’t get ignored. I can’t imagine that happening these days.

GarlicHound · 19/11/2025 11:43

I'm not sure what value it has? It does seem like pointless clutter.

PocketsAndSedition · 19/11/2025 11:35

I don't like it just from a visual clutter point of view. Is it possible to deactivate it in Active, at least?

DallasMajor · 19/11/2025 11:23

So driving traffic away from posters who really require support/info and towards deliberately inflammatory threads?

TappaMcFeety · 18/11/2025 20:52

LittleGreenDragons · 18/11/2025 20:16

Yes Tappa, and it used to be awful to see 120 views but 0 replies on a new thread. I hope they never implement that here.

Yes it was brutal!

LittleGreenDragons · 18/11/2025 20:16

Yes Tappa, and it used to be awful to see 120 views but 0 replies on a new thread. I hope they never implement that here.

TappaMcFeety · 18/11/2025 19:39

Many years ago, I’m pretty sure it use to tell you how many posters had viewed a thread - does anybody else remember that?

Original poster
QueenClinomania · 18/11/2025 19:10

Thanks for replying, Lily.
Isn't that what active convos does? Shows you what's being talked about right now?

My thoughts are - doesnt matter to me either way, I was just curious.

OP posts:
Luxio · 18/11/2025 19:07

This seems like an odd and unnecessary feature. Posters can see if a thread has been busy by how many posts it has it's not necessarily going to be any busier just because lots of people are viewing it?

MNHQ
LilyMumsnet · 18/11/2025 18:46

Hi OP,

This is a new feature we’ve introduced. It's not on all discussions right now.

The viewing count is designed to give users a sense of how busy a thread is in real time and to help highlight where conversations are most active. We hope it will make it easier to spot lively discussions and encourage engagement across the boards.

As ever, we’re very open to feedback, so do let us know if you have thoughts or suggestions as you use it.

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