What you would like to see in MN Local?

[EmmaMumsnet]

We are redesigning Local and want to hear what you think. What would you like to see on there? How could we make it better?

The plans are to make it easier to navigate and make your local talk threads visible when you use the main talk boards. We will also be adding lots more listings. There will be all the existing stuff, toddler groups, afterschool classes etc, but we're thinking of expanding. Would you be more comfortable buying a car from other MNers than from a second hand car dealer, for example?

Let us know all your thoughts on function and content.

Thanks,
MNHQ

If it is not too technically difficult, a section about local schools with a cross-reference (or active links ) to the education boards.
Activities listings that can be sorted by type.
Ability to customise how local your board is, e.g. By miles from your postcode. Those of us who live in London and walk everywhere might prefer a 2-mike radius, people in rural areas who drive might find 20 miles more useful...

Second name for the local pages that kicks in automatically would be great. Otherwise any might be deterred to, say, review a nursery, knowing that anybody could read about their post-childbirth physical troubles or whatever.

Perhaps you could offer some motivation/incentive for Mumsnetters to post locally....

Somewhere down the line you would really expect the 'local' section to eclipse the main bit on day-to-day issues - such as party venues, ideas, activities etc.....

Maybe you need to 'trial' a couple of revamped 'local' areas to see what's what....

I imagine that some of the Yummy Mummy localities are well resourced/used but maybe most are defecting to NetMums for the local bits instead?

Yes, and for London-based Mumsnetters maybe the ability to 'merge' localities - if you live on one area but are very close to others you probably would like info relating to all that is available without having to 'switch' localities....

A 'moving to...' guide so general overview with info on schools, areas, activities etc written by mums in that area.

And some more people posting would be good. Obviously.

Sort the local events, the top one in Kent is 12 Jun 11 - 31 Aug 12 Over Night Baby Sitter so pretty crap as an event!!

Really dont agree with the two username suggestion, if someone is an evil argumentative git on the mn board I would pretty horrified if they posed as a nice twee "mum of one" on the local meet other mums board!!!

why can't they be both? it's only the internet, and MN deals very well with evil gobshites.

i'm very pro the two names, it's the only way i'd want to use the boards tbh.

Can I suggest if your local events aren't very good you post a couple yourself? If we all wait for someone else nothing will happen.

Oh, and Richmond local is good relative to other MN local boards. Our tsarina Kewcumber is very good and lots of different people post.

Gincognito makes a good point -- I am wary of MN Local because I feel it has the potential to really undermine any efforts at anonymity.

Can the Wirral have it's own board please? The closest you've got are Chester and Liverpool, neither of which are particularly local to me. Similarly, listing by county still wouldn't be much use unless I could see both Merseyside and Cheshire, as the Wirral is split between both counties.

I'm sure there must be other places in similar situations too.

In agreement on the anon side - I would happily point out groups etc that I use and recommend but I want to stay anonymous - doesn't work. I am/would be worried about outing myself if I posted about local schools and areas to live in my area.

Tumbleweed in my local section too.

I knew there was a For Sale section - but no-one's even pm'd a question about the buggy I put there for the three weeks that it's been on. (Double OutnAbout, Edinburgh, just saying...)

I like the idea of better local reviewing - but that's probably another function of a faster moving local board.

HelenMumsnet "Hello. We do have have Meet-ups section in Local already (if you go to your Local and look to the right of the Local Directory, you'll see it) but clearly we need to make that more obvious!"

Helen I think you've slightly misunderstood what people are asking for ...

The way netmums meet-a-mum works is different to mumsnet meetups.
It's also the only thing I use netmums for.

I use the meet-ups section on mumsnet, but they're generally group-meets. I regularly go to the group mumsnet meet in my nearest city (which is a child-free event). I've been trying to arrange a group meet via mumsnet in my smallish town, and gave up in the end as so few people ever came. (Usually just me and two mum mates I know anyway!)

The netmum boards are completely different. They're like mum-dating, and this is what you need when you're trying to make new mum friends.

The way it works it this:

Either ... you write an ad with a profile about yourself (very much like a lonely hearts ad, but about you as a mum and your DCs!) and then people contact you and you choose to meet them - or not.

Or if you're to shy to post an ad, you simply browse the meet-a-mum ads and contact the ones you think you'll get on with / have similar interests / DCs / of a similar age.

It's just like dating, only with no expectation of romance and more coffee and cake IME

Having moved to a new town it's been a great way to make friends, in a much easier way than the mumsnet meets, which although fun aren't as personal as meeting one other mum at a time for a chat and to let the DCs play.

It's this that people are asking for, not for the existing area to be more prominent (although that wouldn't hurt I guess).

HTH

Would it hurt to have the local threads come up in active? I think a big part of the problem is that they have to be actively sought out.

Oops I was trying to be helpful, but on reading it back my (long!) post sounds more like I'm complaining - I really didn't intend to winge at you Helen, honest!

@migratingsouth

Oops I was trying to be helpful, but on reading it back my (long!) post sounds more like I'm complaining - I really didn't intend to winge at you Helen, honest!

No that's fine, migratingsouth - we did ask for feedback and we can take it!

Completely get what you're saying about Netmums meet-a-mum set up (we've peeked) and about the Meet-ups Topic in Mumsnet Talk.

But there is a separate Local meet-ups doodah on each Local that was set up to put MNers who live locally in touch with each other. It's obviously not doing the job, though, cos no one can see it!

Not read the thread, sorry, but we are looking at converting our loft so it would be good to have local recommendations for tradespeople for work others have had done.

"But there is a separate Local meet-ups doodah on each Local that was set up to put MNers who live locally in touch with each other. It's obviously not doing the job, though, cos no one can see it!"

I've seen it. Visibility isn't the issue at all.

It's not the same thing as the netmums boards. To find out about the people on that mumsnet local list, you'd need to stalk their mumsnet posts / profile which feels - well, a little stalkerish! and not everyone has filled in their profile anyway.

Also, how actively are they actually looking to meet people? To appear on that list you just tick a box.

I have used it to invite mums to group meets but I wouldn't use it to invite mums to meet just me for coffee. It would feel a too forward.

The lonely hearts / dating style boards, where mums post an ad about themselves, specifically inviting people to get in contact works much better for meeting people individually.

"Not read the thread, sorry, but we are looking at converting our loft so it would be good to have local recommendations for tradespeople for work others have had done." There's a great website which does that already (I forget what's it called but it wasn't hard to find).

Perhaps a partnership might work?

Back to the meet-a-mum thing, you appear on the mumsnet local list forever from when you tick the box. So you have no idea if people on the list joined ages ago and have forgotten all about it.

Much less nerve-wracking to contact someone who has actually posted something recently (on netmums the ads are listed with the most recent first) so you know you're contacting someone who's actively looking for other mums to meet. and - importantly - you know should be pleased to hear from you not surprised / think you're a loon!

What I would really like MN to do is publicise the site a bit more in Northern Ireland. It's potentially such a great resource but there are very few people who know anything about it here - I knew about it from living in England. It would be great if more people here joined as I've moved to the north coast of Ireland and don't know very many people at all. So please plug it in NI!!!

Having read some posts about Netmums I'm going to go and have a snoop and see if there are more NI peeps on it!

Thanks so much for all your comments and feedback. There are some really great suggestions here and we'll be keeping a close eye on them while redesigning Local.

Do keep posting local recommendations when you can.

Sorry mumsnet, having had a look at netmums there seems to be more going on in NI on it. In fairness, that is partly due to one very highly motivated member who organises stuff but there just seem to be more members from NI on it. Please plug mumsnet over here - I think it's great. It really does suck here sometimes - NCT has nothing outside Belfast so any way to meet people / buy secondhand baby goods etc would be great!