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.

I would like to second this as well.

Also the 'quote' function on the desktop is hidden behind a '...' so might not be easily found by people new to the site.

One more thing - previously, when you were on page 2, 3 etc of a thread (i.e. any page that wasn't page 1) the OP was collapsed and you had the option to 'view full OP' or similar. Now the whole OP shows at the top of every page.

Could it please go back to automatically collapsing at the top of pages 2+? It's yet another thing taking up room at the top of the page.

I'm finding more and more I'm having to scroll a lot further down to do anything - the narrow text space on desktop, the big premium ad, and now the full OP.

But why is it so much 'a work in progress'? Why isn't it tested more first?

And I agree with everything @BotCrossHuns has said. I've got my fonts on everything larger at the moment because of visual difficulties, but this is ridiculous! And on the phone (Samsung Galaxy) everything is so tiny I can't read it at all! (Desktop, don't use the App)

I'll get used to it, no problem BUT...

just have to mention I can't access Private Messages... it's said this since the swap to the new format.

ERROR 500

Apologies, our server seems to be having a moment…
We're making it a strong cuppa and hope to have it back up and running shortly. Please check back in a few moments.

I don't see many posters claiming to be experts on web design. We're providing feedback as requested to a ££ corporation, not a kid doing their GCSE coursework.

I have another request, please can we have a little draggy handle to increase the size of the text box?? It only shows four lines at once and this is really frustrating when trying to write a longer post.

Apologies if this has been asked already, but I can't get Search working at all to check. Has the Extra-Curricular sub-board from Education gone with the change? I was on a thread there that has dropped from my Threads I'm On. When I went to check via the board it wasn't there. I tried to Advance Search my own post but that was well and truly FUBAR. There were some long-running thread there with lots of useful posts and posters.

Still having to reject cookies every time I move pages , even on the same thread.

This is dire.

My main gripe with the new Talk site is that the Last Hour threads are no longer arranged into the catagories, but are all jumbled up together, and I find that very confusing to look through.

It also took me a while to work out that, if I want to read a particular post (on Threads I'm on, for example) I don't just click on the username to read that post, but have to click on the arrow on the right instead.

And I genuinely haven't seen anything about this change in the past weeks/months - I am sure there were threads, but I suspect my eye just slid over them as I was looking for other things - so like a lot of users, this change has been a big shock!

I suppose this is a lesson to use professional paid testers not just mners. Probably would have been a good idea to add a post after you went live highlighting some of the things that had changed - colours, search, things set back to default

This is quite hard to believe.

Hundreds and hundreds of users - but we are all coming up with the same complaints now. Were those hundreds of users all on the same browsers and devices, from the same demographic, using the site in the same way? surely the testing base needs to specifically and actively aim to test loads of different browsers and devices, older and newer ,and have people who use the site in many ways, and with various disabilities and access issues.

Also - and this isn't a bug but a request - I do like that we can now quote posts that have quotes in them, but it would be better if we could just quote the last person (for example, I just wanted to quote your second post, rather than the previous post and reply).

But please fix the layout issues/space/font size more than anything, as that is such an accessibility issue, much more than the glitches or feature requests, which are (merely!) annoyances

This is absolutely unusable, I have to accept the privacy notice every. single. time I go to a new page, that or I get an access denied message.

iPad running iOS 14.6

And although I like the idea of quoting posts with quotes, the fact that it can then go on for multiple iterations of that (in fact MUST contain all the iterations, each time), means that the posts get longer and longer. And when vertical space is already far too spread out, it becomes almost impossible to use. That in itself needs fixing, but then in the quoting a quote feature, if people could just highlight and cut out the part that they do or don't want quoted, that would help a lot.

It basically looks like a mobile site that is trying to be used as a full desktop site, and that's really never going to work.
Surely the web company that designed it would have a much better idea of how to properly test it with all possible combinations of devices, software, and users? I have done even something as simple as testing for apps that I've written, and I'm always amazed at how many different ways people find to use an app compared to how I might use it, and how many tiny problems that highlights. Something like this would take so much more testing, and a professional web design company should have been much better at it!

This new format is hell for neurodiverse people like me. I can't focus on the individual posts anymore. It's very gray and 'samey' and it's exhausting.

I now can't access any thread from my notifications, as I get a black pop up (see image) and I have to go back to get rid of it.

And yes, when I could get onto a thread from notifications, it took me to the beginning of the thread, with no option to go to new posts.

I'm on Android using Chrome.

Yes, you've summed it up really nicely actually.

There's no clear division between posts and it makes threads quite hard to read and follow.

Very disappointing.

In a thread, I can't see many of the functions I used to use, eg Flip thread, Watch this thread, Quote message etc.
There is masses of wasted space, so scrolling down a thread is slower and cumbersome. Also, when writing a message I can only see five lines at a time in the text box.

On the site generally, it's much harder to navigate than before.

Is it because I haven't got the latest technology? For environmental reasons (among others) I try to keep machines going as long as possible. I'm disappointed if Mumsnet has bought into the consumerist dogma that if you don't have the latest gadgets you don't count.

Just coming back again to say that the quote function (on the app, iPhone) is still
not working.

Text is pushed up beside quote & only part appears.

I am not diagnosed neurodiverse but am struggling

Well if all of those hundreds and hundreds of testers were aiming to come up with a site that is pretty much unusable I'd say they've succeeded

Why are pictures so small when you open them? They’re really tiny in the middle and surrounded by white space.

I'm struggling with seeing any photos or attatchments - they are there but when I open them the vast majority are in a pop up box but remain thumbnail or just slightly bigger sized - they are impossible to make out any details - especially if they contain text. There doesnt seem to be anyway to make them larger.

Bookmarks still aren't working in the app.

Larger text is still “on” in my settings and I get larger text everywhere else so why is the font here so small? It’s giving me eye strain.

Another one here that can't read PMs - they open, then are immediately obliterated by a large black box.

laptop, chrome.