Thanks for the heads up FinanceLPlates - I'm reading this and there's a lot in here to be sure:
On the tech glitches - search/ quoting/ pms/ trending threads/ server response time for some browsers - they're all on the list and we are working on fixes.
The performance issues at 10pm were server related and should now have been fixed.
On the page refresh when the ads load - we been looking at this for a bit but can't replicate it/ get to the bottom of it and would love to get a bit more info - if anyone's prepared to give details of device, browser, and ideally which pages it's happening on (eg Talk topic) and which ads are causing/loading on the refresh that would be really helpful - either PM me or post here? Sorry for those it's affecting - agree it must be really annoying.
On the active algorithm we made a tweak some time ago (about a year ago?) to try to ensure newer threads weren't crowded out by older ones (ie one's with more than 500 posts). But aside from that there hasn't been a change.
If you think there's an actual tech issue with active or trending not updating (again we can't replicate this) then again it would be really useful to know device and browser. (plse pm or post here).
On over-zealous moderation of threads we'll definitely look into that - thanks for the feedback. We've always been aware that people go to a lot of effort to post responses and that we shouldn't delete threads with lots of responses willy nilly - so we may need to have a reset on this.
On the tabloids picking up MN content and using it for articles I'm going to get a legal opinion here to see what if we can do anything about it (if anyone's knows a good online IP lawyer plse shout!). This trend seems to have gathered pace enormously of late - used to be just the DM, but now the Sun, Star and Mirror too all regularly mine MN for content.
On deterioration in original/funny content am not so sure about that. It's a refrain I've heard repeatedly over the years but the data doesn't really bear it out. What's certainly true is that we've had a persistent troll on and off for a week or two now. A professional troll you might call them who may well be politically motivated. We're working on what we can do behind the scenes and with luck they'll get tired of it soon (they usually do). And I do believe that there is a more anger about - to some extent this may be a sign of the times - people are stressed and quite polarised it seems to me. Certainly the number of reports of posts we receive has steadily increased since Covid. Not sure there's too much we can do about this but as ever, please report anything you see that's unpleasant/breaks the guidelines.
Sorry that you're not feeling the love so much. On the positive side I can assure you we're working really hard to improve the UX and moderate to keep things civil and that there hasn't been any change in approach our end. I genuinely appreciate the feedback (and your patience re the re-platforming) 