New Talk launching tonight - please read!

[YetAnotherBeckyMumsnet]

Hello everyone.

After a bump in the road on last week’s attempt (sorry about that) we’re re-platforming Mumsnet Talk tonight. Because of this, the site will be down from midnight tonight (19/4) until 5am on Wednesday (20/4) morning.

For those of us resistant to change - don’t panic! The functionality of the site won’t change very much for now apart from some improvements to existing features like search and private messages. Our plan is to add more features/make updates once we are settled into the new platform.

However, there are a few things that you should be aware of before logging in tomorrow:

The first time you log on to Mumsnet post-replatforming you will need to remember your password. If you can’t (and let’s face it, few of us can) then you’ll need to reset your password. Sorry if that’s a pain - but it is the only secure way to do this.

You may need to update your browser. If you still view Mumsnet on an older browser you may experience compatibility problems with images, videos and links not working properly and you might not be able to post on a thread or fill in a form. To ensure you avoid these kinds of issues, we suggest you update your browser. Please click here for more information about re-platforming and how to update your browser.

And, not forgetting a massive thank you and unMumsnetty hugs to everyone who helped us test the new platform. You’re all stars.

If you’ve got any questions or comments, please add them to this thread.

Thank you.

Dragon user here as well, I like it as I found spoken word easier to understand, so I can manage and guide it, still annoying though. Someone with a visual
impairment who can’t do that are now unable to access MN.

Everything is so spaced out. Is it meant to be like that? Sentences with double spacing after them etc.

Can you include an option in "threads I'm on" to list them in order of when I contributed to them. That's how it used to be and I prefer it that way.

If I revisit a thread it now always takes me back to the page 1 start of the thread. This isn’t very helpful because I want to be able to go to the end of the last page written on. I’m revisiting because I want to know what’s new on the thread. Be great if this could be added to the list of things to change.

When looking in TIO, it used to tell you how many posts since you last posted.

This was good, as you could see at a glance if the thread had been active (so go and catch up now) and roughly how far to scroll back to see your own last post. now it just says the total number of posts. this is not helpful. Can it be changed?

Also show on active who commented last and when (ideally on TIO and in topics too). It gives more of a sense of having a conversation, and seeing who is around. A sense of community

The colours on the App have gone back to normal now thank goodness!

yes it's terrible if you have any visual difficulties.

I can't believe this wasn't tested properly. You don't get this many issues if you test on a wide variety of people. browsers, and devices. You get tiny glitches. These are major, major issues, particularly for accessibility.

Screen space is a huge issue. It is tiring and difficult for people with visual issues to have to scroll and move their eyes so much to read anything - there is so much space at the sides (just measured - 9cm blank on one side, 16cm blank on the right), loads of space extra at the top with a huge mumsnet ad and then 10 blank lines before post titles start. Spacing within posts has increase to more like 1.5 spacing, so it requires constant scrolling and moving your eyes and you can't take anything in in a quick glance.

At the same time, photos are minuscule, as is the font used for all the directions, instructions, navigation, labels etc. It means you can't enlarge things with your browser either - not that most people should need to do that on a site like this anyway!

You can't see the thread titles change colour when you've read them, which again for people with visual issues was a huge help.

You can't easily get the same number of posts on a page as before, or jump to the last one etc, and again, navigation in this way may it easier for users who find it harder to see and read the normal print to use. It helps to be able to see things in one place and not have to keep scrolling, but have a decent size font at the same time. Constnatly clicking and scrolling to try to get to the page you want make is all harder.

Of course there are the regular glitches, threads I'm on not updating on the app, not being able to use the arrows to get to the posts, not being able to see what the posts are about easily, but those are more minor - when you really change how possible it is for people to read and use your site, that actually changes whether we can stay members or not.

It is not just reacting to change. Of course people complain when there are changes and don't like them. This is much bigger than that. It seriously looks like it hasn't been tested on a wide variety and age of browsers, with people who use the site differently, with different settings etc. It needs thousands of hours of testing with different set-ups, and it looks like that didn't happen.

On Safari - please can we use different colours to differentiate the OP and my posts? Currently it's all green!

EdithWeston yes same with my TIO. It looks like there are new comments but there aren't, usually the number of posts is in light or bold depending on whether I've read them all (mobile app) but now they're all showing light, even though there are no recent comments.

And as my Trending threads refuses to update and change I'll have to go and find someone else to do now!

Thank goodness you've kept the MN emojis. I was worried they'd gone. I like them.

This is such a great post. I hope MNHQ see it and address these concerns.

I'll have to go and find someone else to do now!

Something not someone. I'm not currently doing anyone 😆

Me too whinge or honestly, they will lose a lot of users

@mnhq I’ve now logged in on iPad and the CONSTANT pop up videos in the corner are just too irritating for words. Difficult to close as well.

It's really hard to read and follow posts. I can't see who last posted and/or when so have to keeping checking to see if there's anything new.

Definitely a case of 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it' and it wasn't broken before.

Not read the entire thread, @YetAnotherBeckyMumsnet Can we please have more room to type up our posts please. The little box is very hard going and we could expand the box on a browser before. This usability seems to have disappeared.

Anyone using voice commands for navigation will also have difficulties. I can see where Dragon can't properly parse the tags but the site isn't usable hands free.

This is basic accessibility stuff and commonplace accessibility tools. I'd be fascinated to see the test case list for accessibility and the record of testing against that list.

I always go to threads active in the last hour which used to come up in alphabetical list of subject - thats disappeared and subjects just come up randomly? Also when i get to the bottom of the list and i choose to load more and i seem to get both a mixture of new threads and previous ones ive just looked at?

This.
It's bloody horrible. Done on the cheap as per.

The 'Trending' box is bonkers for me too.

It is tiring and difficult for people with visual issues to have to scroll and move their eyes so much to read anything - there is so much space at the sides

I don't understand this one. If the print spread into the space at the sides, I would find that tiring because I'd keep having to turn my head to read it?

The search function on the app is also showing large amounts of posts from some threads brought up by the search term. It's random though, not consistent.

What an absolute disaster!

Also, the times of posting are completely up the spout. My last comment is showing at 9.22 but that's not when I actually posted it!

In fact, it seems to be exactly an hour behind