What SINGLE thing would make Mumsnet better for you?

id like a troll emoticon and i also love the idea of a marker to show a thread is kicking off.

ravelry.com has a great threaded response system that looks linear. At the top of each post (which is also numbered for ease) you can see if it is a response to the whole thread or to a particular post and if you click on that, you get a copy of the post it is a response to within the post box. So you can read the whole thead from start to finish without worrying that you are missing anything, but you can also keep tabs on who is replying to who, and avoid the sort of posts where someone swears and then follows it with a post saying 'sorry, not swearing at you', sort of thing.

THAT would be the single thing that would improve mn for me.

Said it before but a "ten strikes and you're out of here" button we can all press for irritating people who take over threads with their own arguments!

Also agree with getting rid of AIBU as they are usually either attention seeking, pointless or better placed in WWYD?..

Mine is about the troll policy. Unfortunately, trolls can and do cause harm - and at the very least waste people's time. As someone who followed the policy and was thanked by MNHQ for alerting them to someone who was a troll, the only action taken was to delete the offending troll's most recent threads.

In such instances, I would like MNHQ to start a thread in whichever board the troll has previously been active, stating that "XXXX" poster has been found to be a troll and then lock the thread.

MNHQ apparently don't want threads started as it will encourage unnecessary debate and further "troll feeding". An announcement and a threadlock would solve this problem.

Finally, while I understand the name change facility is helpful for people who want to be anonymous about a particular issue - I do get really frustrated by people who name change and then post about the same issues time after time. It just wastes everybody's time - and it can get a little fractious too if those posters deny they have namechanged, even when it is patently obvious that they are one and the same person.

Debinewberry that was a brilliant post

Er

Quote function- is fine, until people double up on the quoting, so there are boxes within boxes within boxes and very quickly we will become the dark side

Edit function- NO I think this is a very bad idea as people can completely change/hide what they have said and they could post abusive remarks and then re-write it, for example, which is very dodgy territory. I agree, however, that you should be able to delete your own posts

I think there should be a bookmark thingy you can place by your last post on a thread, and then when you have got on with more timewasting online looking after your kids/working/etc in RL, you can instantly go back and see what happened after your genius comment and how the rest of the thread is full of agreement without having to guess which page your last remark was on and spend 10 mins finding it to catch up

I'm still in two minds about the quote function. On other forums I've seen it used perniciously, with people breaking arguments up into individual statements, rebutting each one and then claiming to have "addressed" or "refuted" the argument. I am reminded of Monty Python - "that's not an argument, that's just contradiction."

for MNHQ to remove obviously fake posts which the poster is putting up just to get off on everyones responses.

Some kind of icon that shows when a thread's kicking off so we can all join in.

Red, it's not often I disagree with you but a Quote function does not look messy at all. phpBB boards have one and it makes life SO MUCH EASIER - you can just hit 'Quote' and respond directly to a particular point without everyone then having to scroll back or read carefully to see who posted the original thing and when.

I agree with DumbledoresGirl

Yes to foxinsocks' bat sign, but no to a quote function. It looks messy and the person who posted first would just weigh in requoting everything the second poster left out. No.

As a compromise, we could run classes on 'Paraphrasing for Beginners.'

showofhands we are clearly brilliant!

It would also be a good idea to number each post, so posters could respond to each other more easily without having to copy and paste text and put it into quotes. E.g: 'MamaLazarou made a good point in #125, I agree with her wholeheartedly'.

It would help if a thread could open at the last post you looked at, instead of having to scroll through all the posts to find the one you were on the last time you were on the thread. I have explained that very badly. Does that make any sense?

shit
this therad is a DOD

i like that too!
you can vote YABU or YANBU, but still have room for discussion.

then we can all see at a glance if the op IBU or not!

Nymph...

"Add message | Report | Contact poster By ShowOfHands Fri 19-Mar-10 20:29:58
Oooh I know.

3 buttons on each aibu thread. YABU, YANBU and 4.

And we can vote."

You're clearly brilliant. I agree with everything you say.

All aibu should have a poll or a vote at the side of new posts. Yes, no, you don't make sense explain more NOW or I'll lose interest

POLLS

i bring out this old chestnt every few months and HQ ignore me

but I'd like to be able to add ap oll

but DEFINITELY with thread for discussion rnning underneath the poll if that makes sense

Vote now:

Lady and bibbity -- re: refreshing the page with cmd-R:

use your thumb for the cmd key and forefinger for R! (for either hand) voila! one-handed refresh.

there's also a refresh link at the top of threads and usually (if you haven't removed it) one at the top of the web browser ?

If it's a technical thing, I agree with being able to bookmark last post so that you jump to the next post. That'd be excellent.

You lot are funny.

If my one change was a change in posting habits, I agree with the OP - read the damn thread before responding. You'll avoid making a tit of yourself. You'll miss the 'reverse AIBU' trap. And really, why do you think what you have to say is so much more important than everyone else, so that you don't have to bother reading theirs? Do you interrupt people when they're speaking too?

...and breathe

A bit of a peripheral thing, but some thought for those of us without fast broadband. Get rid of those blardy video adverts that kill my computer!! Please.

Id like to be able to bookmark where you have read up to on a thread.

It drives me potty trying to find out where I last posted or where I read up to. Especially on long or ongoing threads.

to be able to search for 'exact phrase' and not end up with every post with those words in.

The example I use over and over (I've been harping on for years about this...) is 'christmas pudding' if you search for that you end up with a zillion posts with christmas in and a million more for pudding.