New features: Acronym translation and content linking

[JanineMumsnet]

We often get feedback from new users to say that they are bamboozled by all the weird and wonderful acronyms you use used on the boards. With this in mind we have now enabled a feature whereby a 'translation' will be shown next to an acronym. This will be set to 'on by default' for logged out users of the site, and for new users who sign up from this point forward. For existing logged in users of the site, the feature will be off as a default. You can turn this feature on or off at any time by going to your talk preferences here. At the moment we are only testing this in a few specific areas: conception, pregnancy and antenatal clubs, so you shouldn't see this across the entire site yet.

The second feature will hopefully help users to find useful content on a specific topic as and when they need it. For example, if a user posts about heartburn or SPD the tool will highlight this word and link to useful content about this topic. Again, for now this feature will only appear in the conception, pregnancy and antenatal clubs topics and you can turn this feature off at any time by going to your talk preferences here.

We hope you find these new features useful, but as ever we appreciate your candid feedback, so please let us know in the comments what you think.

Thanks
MNHQ

Yay! Such a great idea, however when I try and click 'acronym finder' on my login and click 'save changes', the page refreshes and then the tick box is unticked again? Maybe just me I don't know 🤔

@beckyboop1 I'm having the same problem - I'm trying to turn off the content linking but every time I untick it and press save, the page refreshes with it ticked again! Very annoying- any ideas MNHQ?

Hi @syncope and @beckyboop1

Thanks for raising this. I will get this fixed and let you know when it's done.

So if I switch this on I will see the "translation" in other people's posts or will my posts read like "DH (dear husband) said to DS (dear son) that we need to go ASAP (as soon as possible). AIBU (am I being unreasonable) to say wtf (what the fuck) no way"? If the latter, I would expect uptake to be low.

What if the poster types DS but means dear sister not son? Or DF for dear friend not father?

I could go on...so I shall.
What’s wrong with simply typing ‘Son’? Why ‘DS’? To me, it’s more effort to hold down the caps key on the keyboard. And let’s be honest with ourselves; you might think your son/daughter/mother etc is a ‘darling’ ‘dear’ but I can assure you, we feel differently. It makes me quite nauseous actually. I want you to understand that I talk like you do, I don’t want to feel like I’m in a sci-fi film and and working out whether someone is talking about their family or a robot.

There's at least one thread in childbirth full of people saying 'oh' and it being followed by 'other half' (when it's just an exclamation, like "oh, I see!") and someone mentioned an op, short for operation, and it helpfully added "original post/poster"...

I've turned it on... DS DS DD12 DS22 PFB1 STBXH

PavarotisBitOnTheSide

calm down dear, DD and DS etc is an old old internet acronym, not just a MN exclusive...

oh... it's no enabled here... I see.

,...oh dear lord... it's awful...

Or we could talk like normal people?

We could. We could equally talk whatever way we like.

It's still not letting me uncheck the box.

But how will it know when it's Dickhead Husband?

New members of MN have been assimilated into the distinctive jargon of the site without too much drama up to know.

Why, on a site which has enough glitches anyhow, introduce marginal new features.

And skim links went very badly you tried them.

I didn't like them then, and don't expect to now. They are intrusive at best, and can be extremely crass. And again if marginal utility - if someone wants to find out more on a topic, and are already online, are they really at a loss on how to find it?

@AuntieStella thanks for your feedback. You are right, there may be instances where the 'translation' is wrong in the context of a conversation, so we will be monitoring this and amending the logic of the feature as we go to improve it.

@Olissa8 Thanks for adding that feedback on 'oh' and 'op' - I will get that translation amended.

The reason for introducing this feature is because we have had overwhelming feedback over the last couple of years that suggests new visitors to the site are confused/put off by the acronyms. This is particularly noticeable in the pregnancy and conception sections where people might enter the site from Google looking for advice about a specific symptom or issue.

The feature will be default off for logged in existing users, but on for logged out and new users. It is possible to turn the feature on and off by going to your talk preferences - so hopefully it won't be too disruptive to your experience.

@prequelle is it possible for you to tell me which browser you are using and device? I will get that looked into for you.

Thanks for adding that feedback on 'oh' and 'op' - I will get that translation amended.

So will it read "OH (oh or other half) will have an op (original post/poster or operation)"? This might be fun.

@paxillin it's more likely that unless the two letters are uppercase, we won't translate the two letters at all.

Thank you, that makes sense. I wonder if it would be better to have a "hover with your cursor" type translation rather than in brackets.

Is there much demand for this change? A few find it hugely puzzling, but the other 800,000 (or however many posters MN now has) seem to have coped well for many years. Oh well, perhaps it will attract a new clientele who currently wouldn't post.

@paxillin we did consider doing this, but the majority of our traffic is on mobile and that wouldn't work. We aren't wedded to always having it work in this format, and we might explore other options in the future if this doesn't work well.

It's possible to turn off, so the majority of logged in users shouldn't see it, and for now we are just restricting to very specific topics. So hopefully it isn't too annoying.

And you're right, the community has thrived with people using and understanding the acronyms, which is why we want to keep and encourage the use of them. But if we want to be welcoming to new users, it feels like a nice thing to offer to make their lives easier.

Fair enough, if it is a big obstacle to newbies.

Janine I'm on Android, S8 using the built in web browser (not sure what it is). Thankyou

I keep seeing DTD explained as "darling twin daughter" in the conception threads 🤣

Eurgh... I don’t like it. Part of the appeal of Mumsnet is that it feels like you are part of a club - it’s not exclusive as you learn the etiquette over time. But this just feels patronising and spoils the flow of the threads.

I am glad to see this feature being tested but wanted to point out another flaw in how we post. For those people who use screen readers it is much better if we put spaces in between letters on acronyms. That way the reader will say each individual letter rather than trying to make it sound like a word.