to think it's no wonder that a huge proportion of threads in _Chat & AIBU are off topic when there are about 175 topics to choose from?

[FerminaUrbinoDaza]

'cause it's a bloody nightmare to find the topic that's actually appropriate for the post? Much easier just to chuck it in Chat or vaguely AIBU it.

'tis virtually impossible to find stuff. yy there's advanced search but that doesn't always work help.

Also, AIBU to think that while a cull of topics probably isn't possible or practical a bit of a reshuffle would probably really help?

Oh, and that's +/- 175 'proper' MN talk topics. MN Local and the For Sale / Wanted ones were granted temporary independent republic status for counting.

I agree. I can never remember where topics are. e.g. arts and crafts. Off the beaten track.

Actually i dont find it that hard to find the right topic. And if you go to the topics area and look at all topics they are easily listed. It doesnt take that long.

I don't find it difficult to find the right topic either, but obviously loads of people do.

Actually there seems to have been an influx for newish people who only ever post in one topic. like they have to stay within that topic else they will combust. It has been pointed out to several that it is worth using active conversations and to investigate the rest of the mn. But surely it would be easier to point this out when people are creating an account that they are encouraged to use all of the topics and to post in correct topics. Thus all can benefit from this. So many newbies are missing out on so much because they cba to have a proper look around.

i think we have to remember that most people who post on mn are parents,
so this means in the day they are day they are juggling kds/jobs/lunch and chocolate, in the evening getting kids to bed/sex and drink,
so they post quickly, without spell check and with no time to check which topic they are in.

There are too many separate things. For example pets just needs to be pets, there is no need for a seperate topic all for fish etc infact, an it not be called "All creatures great and small" and then ALL animals can go in there and just .........start a thread for your cat/chicken/horse/rat/skunk.

SN confuses me too because there are so many subsections that i don't know where to post so i just don't.

Same with holidays - why have separate long and short haul, why not just a holidays topic?

sorry, i went a bit ranty there

I think I search occasionnally for the geeky stuff topic and can nver work out where to find it, so I think you might have a point.

Know your point is fair. TBH i have stopped posting anything in sn these days as i get no responses and will get very irrate if told to post there when i am asking for generaly advice because there are sidelining sn issues. There are too many topics in some respects but i also thing that the lack of responses is related to people not being bothered to find the right topic. I aways use the active board to help locate a topic i want. Makes it much easier.

SN support dried up after the DM thing and it is near on impoosible to get support there. Suspicion is very high and a lot of users defected or just dont use it anymore.

Sorry and tired and pissed off from other things. will go have a cold drink or something.

I think it depends on the SN and who is around. The SN board gets quite a thrashing from trolls.

I think it could be condensed a bit tbh.

I mean, Fishnet?! Stockings...

oooh no I LOVE all the zillions of mn topics. Makes it so much easier to ignore all the stuff I have no desire to read about.

The new dog house topic is ace. No more threads about cats or hamsters appearing in my lovely pristine active convos.

I's love to some topics scrapped but I reckon it'd be a nightmare for the Tech team to do that without deleting threads. MNHQ are always keen to keep the archive intact. A regrouping would definitely help, even without deleting stuff.

Port - Geeky Stuff is a good example, also Tech Stuff or whatever it's called (not Site stuff)

Slubber - The thing is, it's not working any more. It used to, but it doesn't ATM. Take a look at chat.

I will raise this in the office tomorrow but generally a new topic will only appear if one has been asked for.

DancingIceReindeer there is lots of support on sn, but the "new" topics are under used.

Meh. The policy on new topics seems to be somewhat more lax of late. Remember the fuss it took to get a Music topic, anyone?

I do
we had to beg, really beg

2shoes IME there is only support in SN if you are known in SN. It seems to be very low traffic these days and as it has been pointed out there has been horrific trolling in this area in the past. It has closed ranks to protect itself and it is very difficult to gain access.

YANBU, it took me forever to track down the Shred thread - I had to Google it in the end (on mobile phone so only seem to get restricted list of topics?)

I'm probably going to sound depressingly like the librarian I used to be here, but think it would help a lot if the alphabetical list of topics were to be (a) reorganized a bit and (b) made the default format, or at least fixed so that you could customise it to always show the a-z list.

At the moment for example, if you are looking for, say, discussions on clothes and shoes, if you change the list to a-z and look down the list you find 'Clothes and Shoes' then 'Clothes and Shoes - children's' and 'Clothes and shoes- adults'

You want to talk about adult clothes, so you click on that but find it's actually for selling. So you go back to the topics list, only to discover it's reverted to the category list. So you go back to the top, click on a-z again and try 'Clothes and Shoes' and that's OK - except that a newbie may be completely unaware that the real stuff is actually going on under 'Style and Beauty'

All the For Sale topics are just listed in the main a-z index under their sub-headings, with no indication they are For Sale topics at all - would it be possible to have one For Sale entry in the main index, which you click on to get a sub index of all the various items.
Another topic that would benefit from this is Mumsnet Local - as it's a real pain to have to scroll down past all those to get to the second half of the alphabet. I think For Sale and Mumsnet Local are places that you only go to if you actually want to go there iyswim, so a second click to get there shouldn't be too much of a pain.

I have just realised the time- I'm going to be late for work...

How can chat and AIBU threads be off topic when, really, they have no specific topic?

People post in AIBU and Chat because they get more responses.

But a sensitie topic like someone's risk of HIV from an ex is not something that should be in AIBU. Chat could have been understood. But it was commented on by iirc a couple of posters and I must admit that i concurred with that centiment.