Was anyone on here a tester for this awful new site?

[SirChenjins]

If so, is it appearing as you saw it during the testing and approval phases, or did it look better and then go horribly wrong somehow?

Thank you LittleBear

On the plus side, I spend too much time on here anyway so it’ll give me some time back.

Reminds me of when the Handbag forums did the same thing years ago - disastrous redesign and I dropped away from there too. All fell apart after that.

That's exactly the point. The purpose of any new system is improvement, better functionality, improved usability and ease of use. Rolling out exactly the same as before is an opportunity lost imo.

Most people nowadays are very used to technology, they use it every day and have increased expectations about what a forum should and could offer them. Sticking with the "same old same old" is disappointing.

All seems fine to me on my phone, so I have no idea what people are complaining about.

And I've had to log in so many times!

@BatshitCrazyWoman next time it tells you to logon, you should see underneath the Password field, there a checkbox called "Keep me logged on" which you check once - it works well, however you will need to do it once for each web browser you use per device (eg I use Chrome and Firefox, on my iPad).

I imagine that they're complaining about the things that they're complaining about.

I have been doing that! Touch wood, it seems fine now, I've not had to log in since this morning🙂

I was a tester.

Testing involved doing some simple operations I could already do on MN like changing my username and posting on a thread.

There was absolutely no revelation of the new look of the site while doing the testing.

That’s really bad. It clearly isn’t compliant with basic accessibility standards if your screen reader isn’t working.

I'm sure MN did a thorough review of the changes against their obligations under the Equality Act before releasing this version. Although I am even more sure that they won't be able to produce it for any number of made up commercial reasons.

Market research probably shows that not many less able MNetters actually generate any income, so why waste precious development resources on them when there are all those able bodies users to flog tat to ?

I'm on Android now. Haven't yet had the courage to fire up the PC to see the horror.

I've noticed the zombie threads on Active. Lots of threads about scented candles?

Also, I opened up one of the candle threads and saw many of the links to different brands had disappeared. The posts were early referring to links the posters had inserted which had gone poof.

Well. On another site thread, mumsnet have linked to about 45 problems they are aware have happened, and are trying to fix!

Sorry, but I am going to say something else. As it cuts across lots of things.
Just because person A does not have a problem, it may bear little resmblance to what others may be experiencing!!!!!!!

www.mumsnet.com/articles/talk-updates

I have had no problems at all and think it's fine. Sure, you have to customise your settings but it's not difficult. I wonder if the people experiencing difficulties (as opposed to just being anti change ) have a common link, eg operating system or phone type? Hopefully MN can figure out so that everyone who wants to is able to use the new site.

I believe it was I that suggested there wouldn't be a single thought about accessibility.

Lets party like it's 1999.

Oops tell a lie it was at the bottom (really I should have started there)

The site is designed to meet Level AA Conformance as a minimum. It's been tested against various screen readers and assistive technologies using the WAVE accessibility tool. These are the type of things we took into consideration:

www.w3.org/WAI/standards-guidelines/

@Summersdreaming

It's fine on my mobile. Slight changes to the appearance and fonts but nothing world ending!

..

Yes I use it pretty much exclusively on an iPhone and it's fine for me too. I had to logout and log in a couple of times initially to clear glitches.

The weird thing is all the old threads popping up.

Some are very interesting though!

@lightand

Well. On another site thread, mumsnet have linked to about 45 problems they are aware have happened, and are trying to fix!

Sorry, but I am going to say something else. As it cuts across lots of things.
Just because person A does not have a problem, it may bear little resmblance to what others may be experiencing!!!!!!!

...

LOL - yes that's a good point too @lightand 🤣

Same here. I started testing it then realised that I used to get paid to test sites with less issues, and there didn't seem to be any action taken as a response to issues raised, so I stopped.

Site upgrades like this should be properly tested by paid testers. The beta test should be expecting minor tweaks, not massive issues.

Most issues I and others raised are still present on the rolled out upgrade, so it was a waste of time.

It's awful! Asks me to log in at random
moments. Also, I have AD blocker, so instead of ads I get a big blank space.
I hate the new layout, why change it??

The new site is far worse than the old one, I get the same black box with a line at the top when I try to view a thread. Terrible and I will be stopping using the site until it works.

And I'm going to keep asking despite getting non answers from MNHQ
was the site test done in a way that ensures it is accessible to those with visual impairment and works with assistive technology?
did you take appropriate advice in the design and build of the new site from people with expertise at this?

Market research probably shows that not many less able MNetters actually generate any income, so why waste precious development resources on them when there are all those able bodies users to flog tat to ?

So that'll be direct discrimination then.

I’m genuinely amazed to read posts saying ‘it’s no different' and 'what white space?'

I predominantly read MN on an iPad and if I wanted to use portrait mode the absolute blizzard of ads makes it virtually unusable. I have an adblocker so I get huge chunks of grey space, which - combined with the extra white space - means I’m constantly scrolling to see even a few measly lines of actual text. Screenshot attached (assuming you can get the image to load - it’s barely bigger than the thumbnail, but don’t get me started on that)

Yeah it’s fine on a phone. Terrible on an iPad

I use my iPhone (Small screen) and also find the Amount of lines I can see limited due to excessive white space and grey ad boxes permanently at the top.

i like the bold though on active- easier to read.

the images are right at the bottom so I can’t them - enlarging then makes it fall off the bottom.