Suggestion from newbie, don't shout!

[luckylipgloss]

I'm a long time lurker and have to say that I find the board really tricky to navigate, and somewhat limited in scope, kinda dated. Are there still plans to switch to another format?

I like the way you can answer a specific post on C4 forums - saves posting extras saying 'oops post crossed' - also like that you can see at a glance who started the post on C4 too (also you can go and edit a post once you've posted - correct typos etc!).

But having said that - I'm quite happy with MN too!

I'm with Janh - don't change it, Tech!! Minor tinkering at the edges is acceptable but I can't cope with those tree things and I hate twee signatures and those moving piccies.

theres a 'threads I'm on' link ??????? ... when did that happen

over 35 here don't like change

Tech....this is a threat....
DON'T CHANGE ANYTHING

Pretty please.....and I will send you some chocolate chip cookies.......

Don't change anything, if it ain't broke don't fix it.

Oh no!, I agree the site looks a bit dated but is one of the most efficient sites in terms of usability I have seen (and believe me, after completing a MA in Interactive Multimedia I can tell you that web usability is one of my little obsesions). But besides that, I have been using this site soooooo many hours during such a loooooong time that I really find difficult to switch to the style of other message boards

I've never seen sites with signatures or emoticons but the few I've peeked at I couldn't work out at all. I'm old and dense and don't like change, but the member profile click thing sounds good because there are so many members now, it would be nice to get an instant idea of who you're talking to. But please don't change anything else!

Hear hear Turquoise

Please don't change anything. Personally hate the usenet style - Mumsnets way leads to far more involved discussions (and arguments). If you want to reply to a specific post further down the thread you can always reference the time and poster of the relevant comment.

But clickable member profiles might be nice - as long as we could choose how much or little we wanted to reveal - especially now the site is bigger - I tend to put dd and ds's ages in posts now because I'm sure there are only a few people
who "know" me well enough to remember my family details.

The only other thing that would be nice for people who access at work would be an option to be able to get rid of the blue lines so the page looks more like a word document. Far easier to disguise Mumsnet as work then

No, please don't foist vBulletin on us! Horrible horrible thing.

MN is lovely but I don't recognize it - did you write the software yourselves?

Clickable names would be good - they already look like links and when I first arrived I kept clicking them and wondering why nothing happened!

Otherwise the lack of 'signatures', avatars, blinky emoticons, post-counters etc is lovely, easy on the eye

I like it as it is - no changes, no changes!

I used to post on maybeworld too and it is so hard to navigate and keep up with threads in comparison with MN.

MN is as near to a "real" conversation as you can get without being face to face (or on MSN, I suppose). The format lends itself really well to lomg, involved "conversations" with lots of contributors.

It used to pee me off so much on maybeworld when a thread got to so many posts and it would close down with a message to say it was too long and to start a new thread - makes everything so disjointed.

i LOVE some of the other forums. Alot of them have an option to turn off all the codding and smileys which is good as if you like it then you can keep it but if you hate it you dont have to have it. numbered posts wouldn't really bother me either. I can understand that they may be a bit confusing to some mnetters and agree that the option should be there. i also like the idea of being able to edit and/or delete your own posts.

I agree, don't change anything! I am nearly 35 () and am beginning to struggle with change!

I joined another site a few weeks back ... it was when people were having argie bargies on here and it got a bit tedious.
I never posted on that site because I find it really hard to navigate and was freaked out by the fact that anyone could see which thread I was looking at at the time ... so I lurked for a day or two and then came running back to mumsnet and waited for all the arguments to die down.

havent read all this thread but have to say the things i find most annoying on other sites:

a. you can read the title but not sample any of the posts until you click on it and find its very boring after all.

b. they have pages. dont like pages.

c. having to click on each individual reply post...that drives me insane.

i think the layout of this site is great and havent seen another one like it...suits me just fine. i do think the profile idea is nice though.

Another vote for no change. I DETEST (BOLD and CAPS, that's how much I detest) those moving emoticons and stupid quotes and the layout of most other boards. OK, I suppose I could live with being able to click on a name to get a member profile but that's it.

I am going to go against the flow and say that I much prefer bulletin boards (not usenet), such as Snitz and YaBB.

The board adminstrator can decide whether to have signature posts, avatars and the like, so if people didn't like them, it's not something that has to be imposed on them. They can also decide on how many posts to show on one page.

Bulletin Boards are good for being able to edit posts (for those spelling and grammar pedants among us), showing pictures, and quoting the bit of someone else's post that you are replying to. Formatting posts is much less clunky than here, and offer the possibility to include lists and tables.

Being able to edit/delete your own posts spoils the flow of a thread IMO.

I think MNet should be left as it is, I know that some people would like a 'profile' section, but for me the nice thing about Mnet is the anonymity....afterall anything worth knowing about me is in my posts, I am afraid that I would leave a 'profile' blank and people may take offense to that, but please remember that anonymity is very important for some people.

I do not want mn to change either. I love its simplicity.