Mumsnet Talk re-platforming - Known issues update

[JustineMumsnet]

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 .

The first 5 slots of each board are blank (Windows 10 desktop, Opera web browser)

@KatyMumsnet

I can now send PMs.

I have received some PMs that I have been able to read.

However I still have notifications for 2 unread PMs (my initial problem) that don't actually appear in my inbox. I still think they are real PMs rather than a ghost notification because it was around the time I was communicating with a few people.

The bottom of the inbox is still slightly cut off by my laptop taskbar for some reason.

Is there anything you can't ask me here that requires an email conversation?

Why has communication on all of these issues been so lacking? Mods come and go with days between and everyone is left hanging, shouting into the void. Can we have more regular updates please?

Just checked and the inbox is only cut off short in maximised screen, if I put the browser off to the side to share the screen with another app the bottom of the inbox stretches way below the last message and I can scroll all the way to the bottom with the side bar.

@JustineMumsnet Is it possible to reply to my concerns re accessibility for all including amount of scrolling. Thank you

Thank you for finally making photos accessible to all but still disappointing that it has been a month or so of inaccessibility. The new format should have considered accessibility as a fundamental part of the review.

Just to say I bloody love that you can copy previous usernames, makes it much easier when swapping.

Plus love that the username now accepts the space after the name when it auto fills. Thanks

@KatyMumsnet
I'm still having a problem with the end of a post being cut off when the PP has quoted a previous post first.
Hopefully I've attached a screen shot to illustrate!
Most annoying

@BotCrossHuns the back button is taking me back to the same list of threads on all my device and browsers on the website and on the app when I click through from chat and back again. Can you let me know how you're accessing the site - i.e. mobile or desktop or app / which device/browser so I can try to recreate the problem?

Regarding the fonts - we have reviewed them and the sizes are all in line with website standards. Are there places in particular where you feel the font is too small, then we can take a look at that specifically?

The blank spaces on either side of the thread column are the same size as the old version of the website and are designed this way to accommodate ads - are there other areas of blank space that you are referring to?

@Thelnebriati those empty slots should contain sponsored threads, we've identified a problem in some screen widths so we will fix that. If all cookies have been rejected then that may be another reason why they do not appear.

@DragonwithoutaDungeon glad to hear you have access now! We are looking into the issue with 'ghost' notifications so when we have a fix I will update you. I can also see the issue with the bottom of the inbox being cut off on shorter screens so I will raise that with our developers. Thanks for flagging!

@ThisIsGroundControl really great to hear you're finding some of the changes useful!

@Polgara2 2 this issue was fixed in the latest update so if you update your app to the latest version hopefully that will be resolved for you

@BoreOfWhabylon I managed to recreate the issue with @ mentions not showing in bold so will add that to the list to investigate further. No need for a video or anything though because I've got one.

Thanks @KatyMumsnet. Just as well, as I've no idea how to do a video like that

Regularly getting this message windows chrome when typing a reply and lose reply. Only aware of it happening this week.

.......it only happens when typing a reply (frustratingly!) I don't have problems just reading threads.

Hi,
The thread list updating is occurring for me in, for example, Chat. I click on a thread, then click 'back', and it's in a new order. I am using Firefox on a desktop Mac mini.

The font size is tiny for all the naviation elements - e.g., 'add image' 'active', etc, as well as the lists of threads in trending, or in I"m on/I"m watching, as well as the page numbers, the 'watch thread' buttons, the forum names, etc etc - basically everything except the actual posts. Particularly in the threads I"m on/watching, you can't really read it properly at all. This is again on Firefox on a mac mini.

Also the blank spaces on the sides - this is much greater than before, and results in much more scrolling, which is bad for accessibility. The column with the posts in is approx 1/3 of the width of the entire screen, which is worse than before. It looks like it is designed for a mobile device and does not translate to a desktop monitor or something. Seriously something about it is worse than it was before, or we wouldn't all keep mentioning it.

There are also blank lines at the top of the thread lists. The combination of that and the very narrow strip of posts means constant scrolling to try to read things.

Two things:

1. sick of typing long responses only for the page to refresh and lose it all
2. sick of threads I’m on being deleted (presumably) but disappearing from my threads I’m on list so I don’t know for certain and also don’t get to the deletion message

I am getting very tired of the pages refreshing all the time in the last day or so

@KatyMumsnet There are still problems with images.

I will use the image that Polgara2 posted above as an example.

The image is small but is contained within a large, white pop-up.

Zooming in, to increase size of text for easier reading, results in smaller images contained within a larger popup.

Zooming out, so text is smaller, increases the size of the image.

Right-clicking and then opening the image in another tab/window helps as a larger image is displayed in the new tab/window.

Images attached:

1. Screenshot of image at 100% zoom
2. Screenshot of image at 150% zoom
3. Saved image that had been opened in a new tab/widow

Browser: Brave (Chrome based) MacBook Pro, OS 11.6.5 Big Sur

Th image screen shots are also good examples of about how much white space there is surrounding posts, and how irritating it is to be constantly scrolling through a long narrow column than if it actually used a decent amount of screen space.

The tiny font everywhere but the actual posts is also hard to read - and the overlapping writing in threads I'm on is still there.

(firefox on a mac).

And on the iphone app, no way to tell properly whether there are new posts or not, as everything in I"m on or I'm watching goes back to white after a short period. On the desktop, there's no way to tell anyway, any time.

example of overlap and tiny font in threads I'm on:

Thoguh I guess you can't really see the tiny font in that with no context. But it's much smaller than the normal font used in posts and on other websites.

@BotCrossHuns I've used the wayback machine to check and @KatyMumsnet is correct. Posts are the same width as they were previously. I think the reason they appear narrower is that posts are in a larger font (16px as opposed to 14px), hence there is more scrolling to read them all. But Mumsnet has always had a huge amount of space either side of posts. It would be an improvement if the website made better use of space on wide screens.

@JustineMumsnet @KatyMumsnet interesting posts above regarding scrolling. I have continually raised the concern that the increased amount of scrolling makes the new format inaccessible to all and therefore not inclusive. MN state there should be no more scrolling. I am still waiting for response as to whether this is just affecting some of us and how quickly it will corrected. Please could someone at MN please confirm as it is very disappointing that the disabled are badly affected by the new format.

One suggestion I made in the past is a character limit in OP's first post, so that you don't have to scroll through a half page OP to get to the first post.

I disagree with MN. There clearly will be more scrolling. Whilst, contrary to what some think, the posts are still the same width, MN now use a larger font - 16px as opposed to 14px. This means that there are fewer words on a line of text, so a post may run to more lines than previously. Even if a post occupies the same number of lines as previously, those lines are larger so it will take up more screen real estate than it would have in the old format.

However, I agree with MN that the new website is more accessible by common standards. WAVE is a commonly accepted evaluation tool for the accessibility of websites. This shows 2 errors and 3 warnings for the current site compared to 20 errors and 23 alerts on the old design. These tests show how well a web page conforms to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) produced the World Wide Web Consortium, which is the main standards organisation for the internet. WCAG does not currently include any standards for the amount of scrolling permitted on a page. Perhaps it should.

@Zonder we're currently working on a change to the local thread order. We are changing it to show by most recently updated by default, with the option to change it to closest to location

Any update on this, @KatyMumsnet ?

@prh47bridge thankyou so much for taking the time to respond which is more than anyone at MN have managed. It would be much better if they had explained this and said that yes there is more scrolling and explained why rather than saying there isnt more scrolling when I know there is. Could the text block not be wider so the same amount of words in 16 font fitted on a line as used to with 14 font so the scrolling didnt increase for those with mobility issues but the larger text also helped those with vision issues?