Official Mumsnet mobile thread part 3

[DawnMumsnet]

Morning all,

And welcome to the new thread!

As SarahMumsnet said at the end of the last thread, we have Tech on call for fixes this weekend, and various MNHQers will be here to talk and help wherever we can.

We'll be adding to the rolling list of bugs, glitches and dislikes (see below), so please keep the feedback coming. Do remember to list which device you're using, which operating system, and which browser, so we can identify the specific issues.

Right then, who's first?

I know that you need to raise revenue in order to keep the site running but the adverts at the top of each page are horribly distracting.

This evening I've had to give up trying to read anything because all I can see is a stupid football bouncing up and down. On a mobile screen these adverts really dominate and it's putting me off visiting the site at all.

I'm not that fond of my family so please fix this so I don't have to talk to them any more than necessary

StairsInTheNight
"I miss the little bar at the side of the screen that showed how far down the thread you were."
So do I.
You can tell I'm in the fortunate position of it generally working well cos I keep complaining about minor issues, but please could you add this to your list.
And the grey splashes.
And the line between posts...

I have a bar on the right hand side that shows up when I'm scrolling down. iPhone 5s. It may be a browser thing

Thanks LittleBear. Just looked and it is there. (iPhone 3GS / iOS 6 / Safari)
Now very embarrassed. Obsessed with font and line spacing n stuff so missing the obvious.
Sorry JessicaMN

BTW, I don't get strange adds on my iPod, just the MN add banner at the top, but I have set up my browser not to accept pop ups. Maybe it will help?

No worries. It is pretty teeny

Attached screenshots (at last!!). HTH.

I clicked on a thread with only one post, and a thread with two. In both cases the OP was missing.

It seems to be getting there but I just can't cope with this white, even with my brightness turned all the way down it's so bright my eyes hurt after just a few minutes.

Can't the white be changed to an off white / pale grey or something? Just something not quite so harsh on the eyes. I see mumsnet have declared this issue fixed despite loads of people still getting headaches and sickness from the site?

I phone 5c safari new iOS

We need 'I'm watching' to be more functional, with at least a delete button for threads we've watched and then got fed up with and a bump button to take some threads back to the top of the list.. :(

The darker buttons are much better, thank you MN ??

Samsung Galaxy Tab 3
OS Android Jelly Bean 4.1
Browser Chrome

I've realised over the last day or so, since I put Chrome on my tablet (and reading some of the posts here) it's not that it's taking lots of taps as such, to open a thread - its just that Chrome is extremely slow to respond on this site. My default browser on my tablet still doesn't work properly though, so for now I'll stick with Chrome.

The site is massively better than it was a week ago. for all the work you've obviously put in so far! And I love the smilies menu!

Now when will will these much vaunted bookmarks be available to us Samsung users?

One thing that is a definite improvement, please don't take it away, is that when I preview a post now, the rest of the thread is still visible above it. This is extremely helpful as I've a memory like a sieve a small child who likes to climb up & help, so I have to stop halfway through!

Ooh, and the formatting of lists under talk topics is MUCH better. Great stuff. Very agile!

When I try to post a message, I get an access denied message (a Windows Phone pop up), but then it posts anyway. Actually this isn't a new bug, but it went away for a few weeks? but is back today. Strangely happens on the S&B board, but not this one.

Lumia, Windows 8.1, IE

Hi. Couple of tiny requests.

• number of posts in a thread please.
• when looking at DMs the tool bar changes and getting back to TIO is a pain.

Thank you.

HTC one
Android - it's just had an update so latest version
Firefox

Have changed browser to Firefox as has been suggested; this has addressed problems with bookmarking which now works. However the downward arrow/chevron at the top of pages has moved to the left hand side of the screen underneath the topic section that I'm in and doesn't work at all, it seems to have become part of the topic title.

I have again also checked the option to hide the shortcut bar at the bottom, which has been reappearing every 24 hours or so, so I have to re-hide it every day. Will see if Firefox sorts this issue out.

Am however pretty annoyed that for one website only, ie mumsnet, I have had to take time to change browser and then work out how to link the browser change to Last Pass (which I use to access all websites with passwords).

Also if the site was not redesigned in relation to the ads, then why do they appear at the top of every page and stay there when scrolling, which they didn't do on the old mobile site?

Also have had an ad appear for what is presumably an abortion clinic, which is a fairly sensitive subject for many people. And if the ads, or at least some of them, are tailored to my search history, then it must be looking at someone else's history as I keep getting ads for things relating to giving birth.

Also posting my previous post froze the screen, showed an advert in the background whilst frozen and then took me to a completely random place in the thread, which wasn't where I'd bookmarked and meant I had to scroll down half the thresd to get to my post!!

And just in case it was a blip re the frozen screen, ads in the background whilst uploading my post (both the bottom and top one at the same time) and taking me to a random place in the thread, it wasn't, it just did it again!

The new mobile site is also so much slower in terms of loading threads, scrolling and uploading posts than the old one was. And I certainly don't have an old phone or operating system!

I'm looking at the desktop site on my tablet (Asus Slider) and interestingly the threads I tap actually open, so maybe the Samsung issue is the cause of lots of the problems I'm having on my phone (s3 mini). The ads are exactly the same size as they are on my phone, but miles less intrusive on a bigger screen.

I have to say, though, that there's still FAR too much white space, far too little to read on each screen and far too much scrolling. It's very uninviting, I don't feel that I want to spend too long on the site.

If you can sort the spacing so there isn't three pointless miles between paragraphs the mobile site would be OK on the tablet, but I don't see it ever being my preferred option on the phone. Ironically for a mobile site, I don't find it at all phone-friendly.

I asked about adding a widget to the site to make the text automatically fit to the screen but I don't know if the MNHQ person who replied realised I meant the desktop - can I check?

Does anyone know how to stop the desktop site from crashing? I'm still really not getting on with the mobile site but switching makes my browser crash every time. I've got a relatively new Sony Xperia running the latest Android (whatever thats called).

@SunshineOutdoors

Hi, thanks for responding to my post. Desktop feels better due to both function and design. I find it weird and jarring to click on talk from the homepage and all the font and layout suddenly changes and looks sort of unfinished. I like that the desktop talk retains all the same fonts and colours. But I could easily live with a different 'look' if it worked properly - it's just so slow and judderey and hardly any text on the page. I just hate it. I stuck with the app for ages until I gave up for the mobile site but it's awful now.

Hi SunshineOutdoors, we acknowledge there is some inconsistency across various parts of Mumsnet design-wise and we're working on bringing together a more seamless experience.

Slowness is something that concerns us very much so thank you for letting us know how it feels to you. We're continuing to try and optimise speed of page load as much as possible because we know that can be frustrating when you're trying to read.

@MrsHowardRoark

I know that you need to raise revenue in order to keep the site running but the adverts at the top of each page are horribly distracting.

This evening I've had to give up trying to read anything because all I can see is a stupid football bouncing up and down. On a mobile screen these adverts really dominate and it's putting me off visiting the site at all.

I'm not that fond of my family so please fix this so I don't have to talk to them any more than necessary

Well we certainly wouldn't want to force you to talk to your family unnecessarily We've been testing the current position of the advert and we'll be testing a new approach next week.

Scrollbars are phone specific and on iPhones tend to appear and disappear on scrolling - we haven't hidden them promise!

@MrsHathaway

Attached screenshots (at last!!). HTH.

I clicked on a thread with only one post, and a thread with two. In both cases the OP was missing.

Thank you MrsHathaway the extra detail is really useful and I can confirm that happens for me too. We'll sort that out. Thanks!

@Lezprechaun

It seems to be getting there but I just can't cope with this white, even with my brightness turned all the way down it's so bright my eyes hurt after just a few minutes.

Can't the white be changed to an off white / pale grey or something? Just something not quite so harsh on the eyes. I see mumsnet have declared this issue fixed despite loads of people still getting headaches and sickness from the site?

Hello there, sorry to see you're finding the screen too bright. We made some changes including changing the font which has helped most people with this issue. We're also continuing to look into other ways we can help people who find whiteness difficult, including thinking about colours and spacing. It's a tricky balance to get right between keeping the contrast high with lots of space for readability vs making the best use of the space.

We'll carry on trying different things and keep you posted about developments.