We're re-platforming - anyone have a few mins to test our Beta site and feedback?

[JustineMumsnet]

Hi all,
As some of you already know because you've been testing it, we're in the process of re-platforming. In the last week or two we've been making changes based on your feedback and we are hoping to launch next week. Before we do that, we'd be grateful if some more Mumsnetters could take a look at it to see if there are any remaining glitches.

Our main objective in re-platforming is to move onto a new code base that will allow us to develop and improve features much faster. We have kept the functionality and design largely unchanged for now, aside from small enhancements to the user experience and some updates to a few features that don't function optimally. So, for example, there is a new version of Search and a new version of Private Messages.

If you’d like to take a look at the new platform please go to the beta site You can log in with your existing Mumsnet username and password.

For this test - we’ve taken a snapshot of the live site as it was at the end of 20 Feb - so any new posts, or changes you’ve made since then, won’t be reflected on the Beta site.

Whilst navigating around the Beta site, if you notice any usability issues or bugs, please report them via the “feedback” tab you’ll see on each page (see screenshot above). Any time you can spare to have a play (be it minutes or hours) will be hugely useful and much appreciated.

A few final things to note
1 - For now we're just focusing on the web version of the site, so if you only use the app, then we don't need you to participate just yet - we'll be looking at that in due course.
2 - If you’re a Premium member, this won’t be reflected on the Beta site just yet.
3 - Some users who've registered on Mumsnet with a social account will need to reset their password to login.
Big thanks!

I get into a loop trying to login with FB.

It asks me if I want to link Social Media, I agree, and then it asks me again, and again, and again.

Could you add the option to see just the OP's posts for Android app users please?

Not currently available for Android app users

419 Page Expired

Hi all - thanks for all the feedback we're going through it all and catching up!

@Voice0fReason please can you tell me what browser/device you are using? Including the browser version if possible.

The zoom works ok for us when we test it on our device/browser combinations, so we need to try and simulate what you're seeing on our end to be able to fix the issue.

Thanks,

Katy

@DIFleming we won't be updating the apps while we do the migration to the new website but we will consider this when we do look at the apps.

@YukoandHiro

Why not redesign? It's so overdue

Hi YukoandHiro, the plan is to get the backend sorted before looking at the front end design. The good news is once we've re-platformed change should be much easier and quicker to implement. But long experience has taught us that users don't react well to wholesale design changes (I vividly remember one Mumsnetter's words to me after one site redesign: 'You've come in overnight and changed the wallpaper in my front room without even asking") so the changes we make are likely to be small and incremental over time rather than a big bang approach.

so the changes we make are likely to be small and incremental over time rather than a big bang approach.

Good. I came over to MN as a direct result of Adoption UK 'improving' their message boards. They more or less killed a supportive online community in one fell swoop. Small and incremental sounds much better. MN just needs to be functional. It doesn't need to be fancy.

@KatyMumsnet

Hi all - thanks for all the feedback we're going through it all and catching up!

@Voice0fReason please can you tell me what browser/device you are using? Including the browser version if possible.

The zoom works ok for us when we test it on our device/browser combinations, so we need to try and simulate what you're seeing on our end to be able to fix the issue.

Thanks,

Katy

Laptop running Chrome Version 98.0.4758.102

The problem is that the top of the screen is fixed so I can't scroll down.
On the rest of the site when I scroll down, the Mumsnet logo section and menu bar move up and off the screen.
It's only on the private message section that it doesn't move. I can zoom out but then the text is too small to read.

I've just tried it on Edge and it's exactly the same. I get to see a little bit more because I don't have a favourites bar on Edge.
It only scrolls once you are into the private messages themselves. Everything from the top of the mumnset logo to the bottom of the Search Usernames box is fixed.

I vividly remember one Mumsnetter's words to me after one site redesign: 'You've come in overnight and changed the wallpaper in my front room without even asking"

And yet you are doing more than that, because you are demanding different tech if users. Older systems, on which MN works perfectly well at the moment, are excluded. So you've not come in and changed the wallpaper, you're repossessed the whole house.

@AuntieStella

I vividly remember one Mumsnetter's words to me after one site redesign: 'You've come in overnight and changed the wallpaper in my front room without even asking"

And yet you are doing more than that, because you are demanding different tech if users. Older systems, on which MN works perfectly well at the moment, are excluded. So you've not come in and changed the wallpaper, you're repossessed the whole house.

As a (very) ex software developer, MN are in a no win situation with that. Older platforms / browsers eventually become unsupported by microsoft / apple / whoever. They will find they can't fix security holes etc if they don't move up the versions at some point.

My parents recently had to upgrade their browser because Tesco online ordering stopped working properly for them. I've had to do similar for M&S clothing.

So it is more like older systems are in a building which is falling down, at some point you have to move out before it crashes in on you.

@AuntieStella

I vividly remember one Mumsnetter's words to me after one site redesign: 'You've come in overnight and changed the wallpaper in my front room without even asking"

And yet you are doing more than that, because you are demanding different tech if users. Older systems, on which MN works perfectly well at the moment, are excluded. So you've not come in and changed the wallpaper, you're repossessed the whole house.

But, MNHQ shouldn't have to compromise their business and security because SOME people use old and outdated technology

For me the main issue is I can't see what day of the week it is, only the date. Sometimes I leave a thread on a weekday and come back after the weekend and I just want to read posts posted on the latest day (if the OP has a lawyer/doctor appointment and I want to see it went ok and the OP will be fine).

Also, the posts look very disjoint with all these boxes and much busier so when I opened a thread I thought that I had got search results instead and I had to click on one but I am useless with different inerfaces anyway.

Thank you

I know that individuals don't matter.

Except when they say something that the site owners want to hear.

It doesn't bode well if they can't even get their Beta site to work for everyone. I can't log in (even on a private browser) and I'm not deleting all my cookies just to do some free testing.

Thanks all for your input!

@SoupDragon is it the 419 issue that's preventing you from logging in, or something else? We think we know what's causing the 419 issue so we will be working on a fix shortly.

@Voice0fReason thanks for the extra info - we will take a look at this!

It is the 419 issue.

I'm likely to be grumpy about any change though so maybe you're best without my feedback 😂

@SueMumsnet attached is a screenshot showing the background green colour with the blue text.
The second is at the bottom of the page with blue text on light grey background.
Both found using TPGi's free colour contrast checker.

I haven't tested the platform, but the big orange notification that it's happening is really really annoying. No matter how many times I close it, it reappears every time I load a new page. Every. Single. Page.

So much advertising on the page - was that the motivation for the redev? Too much spacing between text now and each article - meaning lots more scrolling.... so we can spend more time on the pages looking at the ads! LOL

It would be good if there were thumbs up and thumbs down buttons for posts, as it reduces the rate of people being unhelpful or unkind for the thrill of it, as they get a bunch of thumbs downs.

Also helps you find useful posts as they are labelled with lots of thumbs up

Like upvotes and downvotes on Reddit

No, the idea of a 'like' button has been debated and rejected by user majority many times.

Please do not sneak it in by the back door

Can I ask that you put options so that the background colour can be changed by the user, it would help anyone who is dyslexic and some people with sight impairment.

@QuirkyStick

Like upvotes and downvotes on Reddit

Hell no. That is used as a bullying tactic on some Reddit groups.