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MNHQ

Mumsnet local sites - have you checked out yours yet? What do you think?

23 replies

JustineMumsnet · 19/04/2013 11:07

Hi all,
It's been a wee while since we our launched our new, improved Mumsnet local sites. Some of you will have already found yours and are hopefully finding it useful, others have yet have that particular pleasure - if so please do have a butchers now.

Aside from listings, local Talk and information there many Local Ambassadors organising regular group meet-ups, so do have a look to see if there's an active group Meet-up near you and join up to get news of the latest get togethers.

Most of all we'd like to know what you think of it so far. Nb it's still a work in progress

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MNHQ

EmmaMumsnet · 19/04/2013 14:34

@GiraffeAHolic

I can't view the local topic at all Sad I click on 'topics' on the app, select 'local' and a list of places starts to appear but it just continually tries to load until it crashes the app (and sometimes freezes my phone Angry )

Hi Giraffe,
Can you tell me which device you're using to view the app and I'll report that to tech??

MNHQ

EmmaMumsnet · 19/04/2013 19:10

@afussyphase

I wish it were used more. I check periodically and there is never much of anything listed in my areas (Islington, Camden). And on the childcare boards people post about having had problems getting their listings up!

I like the idea of having all the things there. I'd check it more if I didn't have to click through to the various sub-topics and sub-locations only to see that there aren't any listings -- that gets boring really quickly. For example, for meet-ups, you get a whole list of neighbourhoods, each of which you have to click on, only to see the message that there are no meet-ups planned there. Why not simply list active meet-ups for the whole "Local" instead? Similarly, if you hover over 'Services', a list pops up, but you have to click through and wait for it to load to find out that there are no veg box schemes. Similarly for childcare - great that it is sub-divided, but with each set (babysitters, nannies, childminders etc) having only 1-10 entries with most having only 1 or 2, why not group them together so we can read them quickly? And allow colour-coding or some quick at-a-glance distinction between those looking for childcare and offering it?

Conclusion: just like babsmam, I like the idea, prefer never to have to look at NM again if I can help it (which I currently do for local childcare stuff), but it needs heavier use, and easier at-a-glance viewing might help with that.

Have you been on Islington or Camden recently Fussy? There are tonnes of listings on Islington and lots on Camden too. If you're looking at childcare listings, you can choose to 'see all' and scroll down through all of them in one go. Most have 'nanny' or 'childminder' in the title so it's easy to scan.

MNHQ

EmmaMumsnet · 19/04/2013 20:41

@GiraffeAHolic

I'm using the Android app on a Samsung Galaxy S2

Thanks Giraffe, I've passed that onto Tech

MNHQ

EmmaMumsnet · 19/04/2013 20:52

@NanBullen

I've posted a few times on local and met up with other mums once but it doesn't seem very organised. I think because it's new there's no existing meetups group to join.

actually i've just looked at netmums and joined my local group there because there are meetups every week,they are all organised, i can just turn up.

on the local board on mumsnet I post and then maybe don't get a reply for a couple of weeks if at all.

I am trying!

We've got lots of groups or people wanting to start groups listed here:
www.mumsnet.com/things-to-do/local-meet-ups

If there isn't one near you, you could always start one yourself Smile. Now that the groups have meet-up pages where everyone gets notified of updates, it's easier to arrange regular meets.

MNHQ

EmmaMumsnet · 19/04/2013 20:52

Some lovely ideas here, keep them coming, we've got the notepad out.

MNHQ

EmmaMumsnet · 20/04/2013 19:18

@AwkwardAnnie

Is there any way to highlight errors on the pages? There are some glaring errors on our local page, the town I live is spelt wrong and quite a few towns local to me are too in a lot of listings. I've just realised DD's school is on but the information is a few years out of date.

I'm confused too, on the education pages under schools it says there's 7, but it looks like there's all the schools in the area listed.

My local page is quiet but I can see new things are being added, I keep adding things myself too when I remember.

Hi Annie
Can you pm me with the spelling errors Blush. Tech know about the schools listings not registering and are working on that but if you also told me what was wrong in the school listing, I can get that changed. If you'd rather email, it's [email protected]
Flowers

MNHQ

EmmaMumsnet · 20/04/2013 19:22

@mummymccar

For some reason there doesn't seem to be an option to start a new topic on the talk message boards for Southampton. Managed to do it once but can't for the life of me figure out how I did it!

Just click on whichever topic you want on the active talk board (discussions is the most popular) and click on 'start a new thread':
local.mumsnet.com/Talk/southampton/local-active

MNHQ

EmmaMumsnet · 20/04/2013 19:24

@K8Middleton

One of them was pushing my luck (but would totally have been allowed pre switch over) but the other one was fine. It just seemed a bit heavy handed.

I posted a talk thread to give some useful local information of the kind that would go on the Nethuns noticeboard (ie short-term but interesting) and it got zapped. I could have added it as a listing but it wasn't quite right for a local listing because it was just a temporary thing.

I thought I was being helpful posting about local events and news Confused

K8, if it's a temporary thing, then just put a listing in What's On next time, it's the top of the options on the Home Page so lots of people see it.

MNHQ

EmmaMumsnet · 20/04/2013 19:38

@AwkwardAnnie

Is there any way to find out if my area Stockport & Tameside had a LE?

I asked about being an ambassador for the old style Local boards but I think they were looking at changing it then so nothing came of it.

Hi Annie,
We've just had an LE start in Stockport & Tameside so the site should start growing. If you want to be a Local Ambassador (they organise the meet-ups and just help out LEs when they have time) pm me and I'll put you in touch with the Local Ed.

MNHQ

EmmaMumsnet · 20/04/2013 19:42

@Nonotthatagain

Ok did a search and found it but not listed in the North Yorkshire bit so took a bit of finding!

We haven't got a Local Editor in York and no-one's volunteered to organise meet-ups either. Do you fancy giving it a go? Wink

MNHQ

EmmaMumsnet · 21/04/2013 20:34

@K8Middleton

Emma they are not suitable for What's On because they are not events. I have posted some examples of what I mean up thread.

Ah, ok, I see. I'll have a word with Community and see why they were zapped. Thanks for giving the details, it's really helpful to have those examples.

MNHQ

EmmaMumsnet · 21/04/2013 20:34

@JiltedJohnsJulie

I've tried to upload events a couple of times. Found it difficult to match the event with a description, find netmums idea of just listing events by month and then having things like playgroups separately far easier.

Both times uploading the event hasn't worked and now I've just given up.

What happened when you tried to upload the event Jilted?

MNHQ

EmmaMumsnet · 21/04/2013 20:36

@wonderstuff

How do I change my nname on the local site?

I am a Local Ambassador in Hampshire and the Hampshire site is quiet. I think that threads showing up on the main site would be good - than used to happen, and would occasionally spark a flurry of interest in the local talk boards.

I have been over to the Hampshire site and there is a lot more there than there was a month ago, it is moving in the right direction but I think it's a bit, no ones going there because there isn't anything going on, not much going on because no ones going there... Slow burn but I think it will be fabulous.

If you pm me with what you want your local nickname changed to and I can get tech to do it.

MNHQ

EmmaMumsnet · 21/04/2013 20:57

@newmum2Jack

Hi, I'm a new mum, my son is 7 weeks old and was wondering where I can meet new mums in my area. I have to start getting out, I cannot watch anymore Jeremy Kyle!?! Can anyone help?

Hi newmum, welcome! If you pm me with where you are, I can point you in the right direction?

MNHQ

EmmaMumsnet · 21/04/2013 21:05

@exexpat

I can't say I've been finding local at all useful, I'm afraid.

You have to click through way too many pages to get to any actual listings, and then there are hardly any there, and most of them are out of date (the Bristol what's on listings still have loads of Christmas and Easter events).

There are no dates on the classified ads, so you can't tell if a 'for sale' ad is new or has been there for months - maybe they should expire after a week unless the poster chooses to renew?

The local talk board is mainly used for discussion of schools and places to live, as ever, which is fine but of limited interest. We used to run our local MN book group via local talk but were put off when you had the stupid rule about having to have separate names, and we haven't felt inspired to move back since that was abolished.

Basically it all looks very shiny and pretty but is far too complicated - it feels like users have to make a major investment of time and effort to find things, only to discover there is nothing there after all. I'd find it more useful if there were fewer pictures so that more of the actual links and information were on the home page (ie less need to click through loads of layers).

We now have the number of listings in each category (shown in brackets) next to each category title so it's really easy to see at a glance where the content is.

I've just been to the Bristol what's on page and tidied that up ? some listers had put the wrong end date on. If people put the right end date on, the listings disappear automatically.

That's a good point about classifieds. They do come off after a fixed period but maybe we need to say that somewhere!

You no longer have to change nicknames when you go on Local, so do bring the Bristol Book club back. If you've already created a local nickname and want it to be the same as your main site nickname, just pm me and I can get that done. Smile

MNHQ

EmmaMumsnet · 21/04/2013 21:07

@ConfusedPixie

I think that the meet ups section on mine is too complicated. There's a section for every part of Brighton and Hove, 27 in total! I would technically belong to the 'Woodingdean' section but would much rather hop on a bus for 20 minutes and meet in the town centre as the 'areas' aren't too alive really. i thought about using it for the most recent meetup but decided to just use the normal meet ups part of the forum to prevent confusion.

I would prefer on the childcare section to have my advert listed under both nannies and babysitters as opposed to two separate adverts and I have seen other ads (not childcare related) repeated into different sections. Like at the moment, of the six latest ads, two are the farmers market and two are the utility warehouse. It'd probably be easier to have the option to choose two or three sections for it to appear in.

People are posting in my local section, but not often.

We agree with you Confused, and we'll sort out the Meet-ups pages for Brighton asap.

AS Mme has said, we're working on being able to put listings in several topics.

MNHQ

EmmaMumsnet · 21/04/2013 21:11

@Goldrill

Has Cumbria got an editor? I've checked the facebook page but there's not a lot n that either.

It's a grand idea but I'm not sure there are enough of us up here to make it work!

We haven't got an Editor for Cumbria yet, so pm me if you're interested?

MNHQ

EmmaMumsnet · 22/04/2013 14:53

@Portofino

We need our Brussels site back. I had been busy populating with info. It hadn't really taken off, but we have a very active FB group - 50 odd members. So I had hopes...

We haven't ruled it out, we just need to iron out the kinks in UK local first but we'd very much like to get some overseas sites going again. It was just a bit of a logistical nightmare trying to do it all at once. Smile

MNHQ

EmmaMumsnet · 22/04/2013 14:54

@ChocsAwayInMyGob

There is no local editor in my area. I would like to be one. I have emailed twice but had no reply. How do I do this MNHQ?

I've emailed you Chocs. We'd love to have you on board.

MNHQ

EmmaMumsnet · 22/04/2013 15:01

@afussyphase

Thanks, EmmaMumsnet - I've just re-checked Islington and there is more now. Having the 'active' tag on the meet-ups helps, so we don't have to click all of the inactive ones. Things I'd love to see: --more of what you're already doing so we can see where the content is with minimal click-throughs. Thank you! --discussion of people's first-hand experiences of the local schools (hopefully an antidote to the gossip-without-basis that can go around). Discounted entry to local things would be amazing, especially expensive ones like the Zoo I realise I may be dreaming here. --Listings of family-friendly places like pubs/cafes, cafes with play spaces/crayons etc --active childcare boards, and (again with the dreaming?) people posting their rates! Saves so much time, really. Thanks again :)

Thanks Fussy, anyone can put a listing or review on the Mumsnet Local sites so we're hoping Mumsnetters will want to share this kind of info with each other. Anyone can post a review underneath a school listing, and there are often discussions about schools on the local talk boards about specific queries.

Good idea about rates on Childcare listings. We can encourage people to do that on the Add a Listing form.
Thanks for all the feedback Brew

MNHQ

EmmaMumsnet · 30/04/2013 09:52

@VikingLady

Darlington seems to have disappeared!

Hi Viking,
Darlington isn't a site in its own right, it falls in the Durham site.

MNHQ

EmmaMumsnet · 30/04/2013 10:08

@JiltedJohnsJulie

If I had have managed to put the pamper evening on, where would it have shown up when people searched?

Also, under the Cheshire What's on section you've got people adding lists for a whole year again, so the first few listings are always the same and a couple are duplicated. Really thought this would have been sorted before the relaunch......

Hi Jilted,
I've just gone in and tidied up Cheshire What's On for now, but when there's a Local Editor for Cheshire, they'll be able to move listings from What's On into more appropriate categories, so the What's On shouldn't get clogged with permanent listings.

MNHQ

EmmaMumsnet · 30/04/2013 10:22

@JiltedJohnsJulie

Justine just seen your comments on the Islibgton site and thought I'd have a look at the primary schools in my area, Cheshire. Can you tell me what order they are in please? They don't seem to be alphabetical or by town.

Soon, you'll be able to search alphabetically, or nearest to you or in a number of other ways. Unfortunately, the filters aren't there yet. The easiest thing to do at the moment is to click on 'See All On Map' if you're browsing for schools near you. Or you can type a school's name into the search box if you are looking up a specific school. There aren't many reviews on our school listings yet but once mumsnetters start to add those, it should be a useful resource for parents.

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