Official Mumsnet mobile thread numéro deux

[RebeccaMumsnet]

Hi all,

As you know we have launched the new mobile site, we know it's a big change and we are still very keen to get it right with your help. This is very much a version that will evolve with your help as part of the testing process.

There have been a few glitches that have/are being ironed out and the HUGE thread has nearly maxed out, so we thought it best to start a shiny new one.

We know change is tricky but, as with most things MN, we are all ears and happy to look at any feedback you have on ways we can improve the new site.

Thanks all

I was quite positive at first but after a few days these issues:

• pages slow to load and keep closing as unresponsive
• the three dots under each post, when it brings up the options I can't use them
• not able to reply using the box at the bottom this morning

• really don't like only being able to see a few posts at once. I've used it a lot less over the last few days as it makes scanning and browsing the discussions much more of an effort.

There are 3 apps I use all day every day - Facebook, BBC News and MN - I use them far too much and wherever I am. Am gutted that the MN app feels completely unusable now . Was on the train this morning coming to work feeling very sorry for myself that I couldn't have a quick MN, because nothing's quick about the new app -it crashes when I try to 'add post' (to get to the bottom of the thread quickly) and only seeing an inch of text at a time is BONKERS.... Have been here for 13 years and am very indeed...

What worries me is comments like this. Pretty much 95% of people really dislike the new site and for valid reasons. The reasons MN have given for the changes don't make much sense.

So now people are saying things like this;

'This is a major reputational issue and you're, frankly, haemorrhaging goodwill right left and centre.'

'My not using this won't mean anything to MNHQ, or anyone. But it's sad that our preferences as a group have not been acknowledged - and after all WE are the community that makes the site viable.'

'This is more about keeping advertisers happy over the users that make it what it is.
I too am very disillusioned with mumsnet. I have mainly lurked but it has helped me through some difficult times. It felt like a friendly, cosy chat. This site now feels like most of the other crap I have to deal with in rl. It used to be a refuge from it all. sadly no more.'

'Im afraid that over the last couple of weeks I've lost faith in MNHQ's honesty, integrity or any notion that they care about the community who use the site. It was appalling that they passed off the problems with the layout recently as a tech glitch when it appears they were testing the changes.'

Sad and worrying. Massive fail, MN

If MN don't keep the advertisers happy there is no MN. Even with the redesign advertising is pretty mimimal and unobtrusive. You will struggle to find other similar sites with this low level of advertising.

I am getting used to the new layout and don't mind it.
Couple of gripes though. When I bookmark there is no confirmation it has worked and then the page freezes and I havevto come out of MN and go back In.
Secondly, the lack of MN logo. I mainly go through Active. The lack of logo means I feel more detached from MN, as though I could be on any old website. I don't post much, mainly lurk, but I enjoyed feeling part of something. Now it feels very impersonal. I know thats not as important as other problems bit it has affected my enjoyment of the site.

Links, links are not working!

Im also very surprised by the lack of MNHQ comments apart from the "sorry, tech will fix it" and the "oh you will learn to love it", how patronising!! Nothing else.

I don't get it- nothing has changed for me. Was I supposed to do something?

Right. I know it's been said already, but the site really is unusable for me at the moment.

I don't mind the look of it so much, and the ad/toolbar doesn't bother me (although I am on a Galaxy S5, so the massive screen must help).

But the lack of the last few posts/posters on TIO, and therefore the inability to possibly jump to my last comment without having to scroll through pages, is horrible and I really hope it's on the list.

I honestly don't believe that this wasn't something which came up with your hallowed group of 80 testers. People who use this site use this feature. It's probably one of the most used.

Also, did we ever work out WTF the random numbers next to posts in TIO mean?

Ok. So I didn't know about 'turning on' bookmarking on the desktop site. Sorry about that, I've never used the desktop site.
Anyway I've now tweaked my settings on the desktop site. Changed back to mobile & tried to bookmark this thread.
And my iphone crashed. Had to do a hard reset.
So I tried again. Same outcome.
The thread says it's bookmarked but it's still defaulting to the first post.
I thought bookmarking would take me to the last post I read? Am I wrong?
Im scared to bookmark any more threads anyway as it causes my phone to crash. :(

I've basically stopped using mn since this change.

It's too awkward.

The space to view posts is too small- ads at the top, active etc bar at the bottom. It's not user friendly.

Why has it been done?

Just more ad space?

I can't figure out how to get to all topics board.

Not happy.

It must be so crushing for MNHQ to contend with all the disappointment, although I'm sure their game plan before launch was "stick it out! Mnetters usually hate change and they'll either lump it or leave".

The thing is, no matter what the changes were, there was bound to be a backlash - you can't please all the people all the time. But in this instance, for me at least, I'm not thrown by the fact that there has been font changes etc but by the fact that reading and posting has been made very difficult and is far too time consuming:

• threads take an enormously long time to load, whereas before they appeared almost instantaneously, even when there were 1000 posts.

• it's irritating having to click twice now for bookmarks, but it doesn't render the site unusable and I appreciate that different users place differing premiums on all the features. What is much more of an issue is the fact that pressing the bookmark button pulls out the ellipses menu on ALL the posts, freezes the screen and on the iphone, buggers up safari. The only way to overcome this is to go back to the home screen and reload the page again. This whole process takes about 2 minutes which makes me very reluctant to bookmark my place. And I'm just not willing to read threads without bookmarking my place as its too difficult to navigate the far too many threads I read and is too frustrating trying to find where I was.

These are the two main issues for me that sadly mean that the only thread Ive even attempted to read since the relaunch has been this one. I'm not fussed about changes as long as i can access the content but try as I might, the mobile site is now too cumbersome, slow and unwieldly to use. I'm really very sad as I spend many hours on the site a day and its the saving grace of broken nights but despite my best efforts I just cant get on and will be forced to mumsnet on a pc, reducing my reading from at least a few hours a day/night to about 20 minutes

Please adapt the new site MNHQ as its going to be very boring not being able to access the site and I would be so sad if I was permanently shut off from such a fantastic community.

Mumsnet I think we need a real response here, not just a "there there pat on the head"

Seriously, can you see how much YOUR users hate it?

And what Melon said. It's actually quite unusable.

I tried to go on the desktop site instead but the font keeps changing size?

I just needed a distraction from my pain!!

I'd rather pay for the old version that's how addicted I am

It's like the floaty bar fiasco, about ten people said they didn't like it, so they removed it! Everyone went bonkers. So MNHQ don't learn lessons do they? 'No No its fine' 'we don't like it' 'lalalalala can't hear you'

Someone was asking about how you can tell how many pages there are in a thread.
There is a number next to the word 'last' in the buttons at the bottom of the page. It seems that is the number of pages. Not obvious though.

Toby, it's the number o pages in the thread.

I've gone back to using the desk top version on my phone but even that's a bit weird now. All the posts have different font sizes!

If people are having problems with their phones it's probably helpful if you put the type of phone and operating system in your post.

It's definitely better on an iPhone 5s (iOS7) since the beginning. Although bookmarking isn't working as well as it was. It makes all the ellipse menus open, then take ages to bookmark and then freezes so if you could fix that Tech it would be appreciated and the speed too please.

Other than that it's growing on me.

Argh I think my post disappeared!

Anyone else get a page full of this when they try to bookmark anything?

Line breaks are problematic in titles. iPhone 4s and safari.

Hello

We're going to be around on this thread today and trying to keep you up to date with what's happening, what changes we're aiming to make, and also (hopefully) answering your questions.

When you report a glitch/something not working/something displaying weirdly PLEASE TELL US:

which DEVICE you're using (iPhone, Galaxy, Blackberry, iPad, Nexus, Kindle Fire etc etc);
which OPERATING SYSTEM you're using (which version of iOS, Chrome, which version of Windows, etc etc); and
which BROWSER you're using (Chrome, Internet Explorer, Firefox etc).

Without this info, we can't do much with the info you give us so PLEASE PLEASE include it, every time you post about something not working (even if you gave the same info earlier on in the thread).

We know we could have done much, much better in the way we rolled this out and we're extremely sorry (possibly more sorry than you can imagine!) that this wasn't handled better.