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MNHQ

Mumsnet Talk re-platforming - Known issues update

846 replies

JustineMumsnet · 21/04/2022 14:44

Hi all,
As you probably know we re-plaftormed the site overnight on Tuesday (in order to move to a faster, more stable and secure site which would be easier to develop new features on). There are a number of issues and bugs as a result of the move that we are working through and we thought it would be a good idea to list them on a page which we can keep updated as we sort through the problems. You can find that page here.

Mumsnet is a very large, complicated and old site - we've been working on re-platforming for the best part of 3 years - so it's not a huge surprise there are some bugs but please be assured we are working our way through them will get to them all as soon as we possibly can. In the meantime I do apologise for any inconvenience and frustration - I know it's been a painful day and a half for some.

Thank you to all those who've fed back and are helping us solve the remaining issues - it's really much appreciated Flowers.

OP posts:
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DippingAToeInTheWater · 19/05/2022 15:27

JustineMumsnet · 18/05/2022 15:04

Looks like the Pinned threads at the top of Active aren't showing for you - they are showing for us so I'm thinking it might be your particular set up - are you able to share the browser and device you're using?

Show quote history

Hi, it's Android and chrome, so nothing unusual.

Like others, would love to know when search is going to be sorted. Thanks Justine.

Bosky · 19/05/2022 22:09

FORMATTING TEXT - READABILITY ISSUE

No longer possible to apply more than one "special format" (Bold, Underline, Strikethrough, Italics) to a continuous string of characters.

This is a real pain in the arse. Combining formatting was extremely useful when posting blocks of text where different sections/words/phrases could be "highlighted" differently.

It is much more difficult now to avoid misunderstandings and reduces readability. "Workarounds" are long-winded and take up time and space, eg. posting a block of text followed by extracts that could previously have been highlighted (or struck out) in-line within the text.

BRING BACK ADVANCED SEARCH

Search is now USELESS.

Echoing what prh47bridge said above re Windows PC (I am using a Mac):

As others have said, the current search functionality is worse than useless. Yes, it is quick, but that doesn't help when it can't find things. For example, if you search for posts I have made mentioning the word "admission", it produces just two results. A similar search using the word "appeal" also produces just two results. Given that I have made thousands of posts mentioning these words, this is ridiculous. Many other searches using keywords from my past posts fail to produce any results at all. I currently have to use Google to find any of my past posts to which I want to refer.

I could give my own examples demonstrating the same issue.

ACCESSIBILITY IS WORSE

Echoing previous posters above. Absolutely shocking. One of the pleasures of using Mumsnet previously was how accessible the site was.

I was always worried by complaints from members that Mumsnet "looked old fashioned" and that at some point those complaints, from members who clearly know bugger all about accessibility, would be heeded.

The particular way that Mumsnet used to "look old fashioned" was a positive accessibility feature.

EspeciallyDistracted · 20/05/2022 06:42

I am getting cookie warnings again every time I click on a new page today. Iphone, safari, mobile site. IOS15.4.1

AnnieLou12 · 20/05/2022 07:42

Am also getting the cookie consent every time I go to a new page. It only started happening this morning. iPad using Safari. Came here to see if it was just me.

AnnieLou12 · 20/05/2022 07:44

Also just got the cookie consent just now straight after posting the above.

Beees · 20/05/2022 07:47

Cookie consents galore here on android using chrome. Honestly beginning to wonder why I even bother coming onto the site, every day there is another problem.

EarringsandLipstick · 20/05/2022 08:15

Justine's replies are shocking.

Just: we think it's fine, you the users are all wrong. Nothing to see here.

It's dreadful the way they treat their users.

EarringsandLipstick · 20/05/2022 08:19

The insistence that the new platform is more accessible despite repeatedly being told otherwise.

I use the app so accessibility isn't an issue there; I can see the points that others make re the website, tho it doesn't affect me much personally. However the mobile browser is utterly unusable, accessibility & functionality - I tried to use it when we had the quote issue.

If MN could say, honestly, we've messed up - we're going to sort it out. But this blind insistence that it's all good bar a few minor issues 🤦🏻‍♀️ clearly zero testing was done & they can't even say that

BotCrossHuns · 20/05/2022 08:41

And still can't see photos properly!! they're minuscule

and I'm on/I'm watching never remembers what's been seen before on the iphone etc. and is impossibly small font on the desktop, so unusuable.

And all the blank space.

User237845 · 20/05/2022 13:16

Can I add to the voices asking for advanced search back please. Can't even find my own posts now. It's impossible.

MNHQ
JustineMumsnet · 20/05/2022 13:26

Hi all,

Thanks for your patience on all this, here's the latest update on the issues we're looking into with some idea of timings for fixes - although obviously they're not set in stone it's hard to give exact timings for tech fixes because when you get into a bug/issue it's often the case that it's more complicated than you first thought - but with that caveat in mind:

  • Dates to be displayed as yesterday/today - we're hoping to release this either today or Monday
  • Images - we're on these at the moment - we know about images posting sideways and the size of issues - we're working on fixes for both of these at the moment and they will hopefully be sorted early next week. There seems to be an issue for some with images causing the page to refresh, we could do with seeing this in action - if it's happening to you it would be great if you could get in touch to show us?
  • Search - we've made some improvements to the current Search function (better date filter, getting it to remember your filters etc) that will be released today. Advanced Search is being worked on but will be a couple of weeks before it's ready as it's pretty complex.
  • Outstanding bookmarks issue - we think we have a solution to this and this will be released either later today or Monday depending on how quickly we can sort it
  • Ghost PM notifications - we've identified the issue here and have a fix so that it shouldn't happen going forward - if you are currently having this problem, however, please get in touch as we need to know your username to solve the problem for you.
  • Notifications not taking you to the right place on thread - we need to do quite a bit of work on the notifications backend to get this sorted which is a pretty big job - so that will be a couple of weeks before it's sorted
  • Auto-capitalisation - am afraid there's bad news on this one - the text editor we're using does not allow this to happen - we've raised it with the provider but it's open-source software and it doesn't look like they're minded to fix it - so we're stuck without this for now although we'll keep looking for solutions - sorry not better news on that one
  • Accessibility - we have made a lot of changes based on feedback about what we needed to improve - including keyboard shortcuts and making small arrows and pagination bigger and bolder. We're looking into a Dark Mode. Any further input on how we can further improve Accessibility further would be much appreciated

That's where we're up to, as I said in my OP, Mumsnet is a huge legacy platform with multiple versions, edge cases and variations built up over the years so I'm not surprised there have been quite a few bugs/issues/oversights we needed to solve post launch of the new version (it wasn't for want of testing with users which we did for months). I am confident we'll get there though - we are working really hard to get though the list. Meantime thanks for your forbearance and I'm very sorry for the inconvenience.

OP posts:
Johnnysgirl · 20/05/2022 13:33

None of those issues were raised by the testers? They're fairly fundamental?

BotCrossHuns · 20/05/2022 13:34

Re accessibility, how about actually reading the things people have complained about?!

We've said lots of times that it's too much scrolling, which is difficult, and makes it visually hard as well - it comes from the very narrow strip where the posts are, and over half the screen space blank.

And the miniature font for all the naviation text, as well as for the thread titles in the trending box and in the threads I'm on/watching. everywhere but the actual posts - the font is like size 8 or 10.

And the overlapping of the words and lines in the threads I'm on, especially if there are any lists (like in your post just before this) - that makes it totally unreadable, both with the mini font and the overlapping, and anyone with visual issues will find it extra hard.

BotCrossHuns · 20/05/2022 13:36

post counts are too small to read; they vary between the desktop and the app; you have to remember the post count to determine if you have any new posts to read, as the iphone app won't remember this and changes them all back to unread/white within a few hours etc. Again all very difficult in terms of accessibility

saraclara · 20/05/2022 13:37

I also only get two search results, whatever the word I search for. Neither of which are the threads I'm looking for

EarringsandLipstick · 20/05/2022 13:53

Johnnysgirl · 20/05/2022 13:33

None of those issues were raised by the testers? They're fairly fundamental?

Exactly.

Justine, this just can't be true.

There weren't a 'few bugs'. There were many many bugs!

prh47bridge · 20/05/2022 14:00

@BotCrossHuns As far as I can see the difference in post counts is because the app counts the old way, giving the total number of posts on the thread, whilst the website counts replies and therefore doesn't include the OP. So, when someone starts a thread, the website will show it as 0 replies, but the app will show it as 1 post.

BotCrossHuns · 20/05/2022 14:35

prh47bridge · 20/05/2022 14:00

@BotCrossHuns As far as I can see the difference in post counts is because the app counts the old way, giving the total number of posts on the thread, whilst the website counts replies and therefore doesn't include the OP. So, when someone starts a thread, the website will show it as 0 replies, but the app will show it as 1 post.

yes exactly; i mentioned this discrepancy upthread as one of the many niggles to solve. But it just adds extra memory load to having to remember both post number, and which device, in order to figure out if there are any new posts to read!

MNHQ
JustineMumsnet · 20/05/2022 17:36

EarringsandLipstick · 20/05/2022 13:53

Exactly.

Justine, this just can't be true.

There weren't a 'few bugs'. There were many many bugs!

Show quote history

We did multiple rounds of beta testing with hundreds of users - which raised lots of things which we adjusted prior to launch. Sadly it's nye on impossible to catch every single scenario in testing because we have millions of users with 100s of different browser and device combinations. This was a rebuild of an entire platform with many, many different features and variations built up over 20 years. Ideally we'd have no issues for anyone of course but in the scheme of it it's not surprising there are some. But we will sort them.

OP posts:
MNHQ
JustineMumsnet · 20/05/2022 17:37

prh47bridge · 20/05/2022 14:00

@BotCrossHuns As far as I can see the difference in post counts is because the app counts the old way, giving the total number of posts on the thread, whilst the website counts replies and therefore doesn't include the OP. So, when someone starts a thread, the website will show it as 0 replies, but the app will show it as 1 post.

This difference is on the radar and we'll change the way the app records it. Thanks

OP posts:
MNHQ
JustineMumsnet · 20/05/2022 17:41

BotCrossHuns · 20/05/2022 13:34

Re accessibility, how about actually reading the things people have complained about?!

We've said lots of times that it's too much scrolling, which is difficult, and makes it visually hard as well - it comes from the very narrow strip where the posts are, and over half the screen space blank.

And the miniature font for all the naviation text, as well as for the thread titles in the trending box and in the threads I'm on/watching. everywhere but the actual posts - the font is like size 8 or 10.

And the overlapping of the words and lines in the threads I'm on, especially if there are any lists (like in your post just before this) - that makes it totally unreadable, both with the mini font and the overlapping, and anyone with visual issues will find it extra hard.

We are certainly reading and have changed some things already in response to feedback and will continue to do so. Some issues are not universal however so we need to research them and find out in what instances they're occurring in order to be able to fix.

OP posts:
SirChenjins · 20/05/2022 17:51

JustineMumsnet · 20/05/2022 17:36

We did multiple rounds of beta testing with hundreds of users - which raised lots of things which we adjusted prior to launch. Sadly it's nye on impossible to catch every single scenario in testing because we have millions of users with 100s of different browser and device combinations. This was a rebuild of an entire platform with many, many different features and variations built up over 20 years. Ideally we'd have no issues for anyone of course but in the scheme of it it's not surprising there are some. But we will sort them.

Show quote history

@JustineMumsnet I put a post up shortly after the launch asking if anyone had tested this new site and quite a few people said they hadn’t continued with the testing because it was too involved, or they fed back the same comments that we’re all highlighting now - and iirc the issue of (non) payment for testing was highlighted so some said it wasn’t worth their while.

Either way, the hundreds of testers obviously missed a shedload of issues, both major and minor. How did that happen? And why wasn’t the legacy site made available to allow you to take down this one and work on it Confused

BotCrossHuns · 20/05/2022 18:44

JustineMumsnet · 20/05/2022 17:41

We are certainly reading and have changed some things already in response to feedback and will continue to do so. Some issues are not universal however so we need to research them and find out in what instances they're occurring in order to be able to fix.

Show quote history

But most of these accessibility issues are universal, occur on desktop devices, and have been mentioned multiple times since day 1. And you've specifically just asked for ideas about accessibility, when we've already given you many many ideas

the whole point of beta testing is that you test all the combinations of devices and browsers, and recruit (and pay) people to do so - many people here are involved in software testing at some level, and know how it works. These issues could not all have been missed! They are not minor glitches, but massive errors!

EarringsandLipstick · 20/05/2022 19:12

Either way, the hundreds of testers obviously missed a shedload of issues, both major and minor. How did that happen? And why wasn’t the legacy site made available to allow you to take down this one and work on it

Excellent point.

EarringsandLipstick · 20/05/2022 19:15

the whole point of beta testing is that you test all the combinations of devices and browsers, and recruit (and pay) people to do so - many people here are involved in software testing at some level, and know how it works. These issues could not all have been missed! They are not minor glitches, but massive errors!

That's it exactly.

Justine is correct that on any new platform there will be some unexpected behaviour. These will be minor issues, if the work has been done correctly.

The issues here are huge - they affect the very functionality of the site, on all platforms, and mean many users can't use it at all.

Not minor and simply not believable that structured, paid, planned testing happened & didn't pick up even some of these major issues.