Latest release - changes to notifications

[KatyMumsnet]

We are currently releasing a change to our notifications system that is causing some errors on the site. Everything should be working fine within the next hour. Apologies to anyone being affected by the errors.

Here are the details of the changes we’ve made...

Our notifications system controls email and web notifications you receive based on your settings and we’ve just released some changes to make it more flexible so that you have more control over what you’re notified about.

We’ve also introduced two new notifications that are available via email or web:

• OP updates - this will notify you when an OP updates a thread you’re watching or have posted on
• Quotes - this will notify you when another user quotes you

If you are receiving watch thread notifications you’ll now be able to differentiate between updates about threads you’ve started, threads you’ve posted on and the threads you’re just watching.

Web notifications appear in the ‘notifications’ feed accessible via the person icon in the top right corner of the website (see screenshot). We’ve added settings for each type of notification so you’re able to control what you’re notified about.

We’ve made a small change to make thread lists easier to manage too. You can now 'unwatch' threads from your ‘I’m on’ or ‘I started’ lists, so they remain on the list but you’ll no longer be updated about them (see screenshot). You'll find it in the three dot menu next to the thread titles.

If you want to change your notification settings you can find them here: https://www.mumsnet.com/settings/notifications

The changes currently only apply to the website, not the apps.

@WahineToa No bother at all! 😄We're still working through a few changes that should make things better this morning. It's really appreciated when we get great descriptions of what exactly is happening - it makes diagnosing the problem and getting a fix out much easier. Thank you!

You’re welcome @MattTech thanks for the hard work, hopefully nobody had a horrendously late night over it. Have a great day!

@QueenOfWeeds @BakeOffRewatch Thanks for letting us know you're still seeing the issue with incorrect threads. We've just found the problem and we're working on resolving the issue now. Things should be back to normal within a couple of hours.

@QueenOfWeeds @BakeOffRewatch We've fixed the underlying issue that was showing you incorrect threads now, so your notifications should be pointing to the correct threads.

@MattTech yeah all fixed now for me, cheers

@BakeOffRewatch No problem at all... Apologies about the problem! Glad it's all fixed for you now.

@WahineToa We've released the change that adjusts the count in the notification icon to what it was previously now. Hopefully that makes things better!

@MattTech just noticed it, fantastic! Well done team! 🍺

I’m getting no notifications at all!

About ten, old greyed out notifications are listed but otherwise nothing. Also, if I go onto any random thread the “watch this thread” box is ticked. Luckily this hasn’t resulted in me getting notifications for every single thread on the site. I’ve looked at my notifications section within settings and can’t see any way to rectify the issue.

@FigRollsAlly I can see that you've had no new notifications since yesterday. Were you expecting some?

You can change whether the "Watch this thread" box is ticked by default or not in your Talk Settings.

I've attached a picture of the options that control it.

Thanks Matt. I was expecting notifications from a few threads I’d posted on but I’ve just got a notification about this thread so that’s good. The automatic watching of threads you’ve started or have posted on is fine but I could go to the bottom of any random thread, that I’d never looked at before, and the watch option would be ticked. I’ll check now if that’s still the case as I last checked just before posting on this thread.

Just checked and it looks like the watch this thread box is part of the “Add your message here” bit so it’s just relevant if you post on a thread and therefore fine. As I initially had the same issue as others, with very old threads being notified, and then they disappeared and were replaced with just greyed out ones I thought it might be a related issue. Hopefully all sorted going forward although I still might not get notifications for threads I posted on whilst the problem was happening.

@FigRollsAlly No problem at all... Glad to hear it's all okay 😃If you don't get any notifications that you're expecting please let us know and we can look into it.

Thank you for adding the unwatch button to the drop down menu. It makes it so much simpler instead of having to scroll through a seperate list. I noticed (and posted on my thread) yesterday but only noticed this thread just now. Which brings me to another thought...

Could site issues/fixes announced by yourselves be automatically stickied for a day or two in the active lists? I seem to miss these kind of threads so it makes me wonder how many other people don't see them too.

There's two that I can see going about that issue, one is mine that I started a week ago.

The other thread about the same issue haven't been updated either and when I checked yesterday people were still posting on it the day before.

I find it a bit annoying that HQ don't update the users and pretty concerning that you ended up with the renavigation issue in the first place, that seems like something that definitely shouldn't happen and could potentially have put a lot of users devices at risk?

@MattTech it looks like it's happened to someone again today www.mumsnet.com/talk/site_stuff/4653165-randomly-redirected-to-another-page

And according to this thread it's inappropriate adverts www.mumsnet.com/talk/site_stuff/4650877-mn-wtf-are-these-adverts

just seems like you've sold space to dodgy people?

Hello!

We're investigating this now - it's an advert related issue and we're in touch with the users. Have you been redirected? We're working on resolving this as soon as possible. We're really sorry for the inconvenience it's causing.

Yes I started a thread on the redirect issue last week. You commented on it.

So going by your reply it is still happening? @MattTech seemed to be suggesting it had been fixed. The redirect error reported the other day was due to a bad advert on the site from a third party. Once we had found which advert it was it was prevented from showing on site.

I don't really like that, it feels like either I'm not being told the truth or that your right hand doesn't know what your left hand is doing.

@HatThatWearsYou We use an industry standard method of adding adverts to the site which are provided through Google’s ad networks. This means that when the page loads we request some adverts from Google and then insert them on the page.

When there is a problem with an advert misbehaving we have to flag it and it is then investigated and removed from the network. These adverts are not specific to Mumsnet - wherever they’re showing on the internet they will be causing the same problems. It’s also why we quite often have to ask for more information about the particular ads that are being shown as it helps us to flag them more quickly to get them removed.

This is a simplified overview of how it works, but hopefully that helps to explain why it may look like we’re not taking immediate action. I can assure you that we are - ordinarily we’ve flagged the adverts within a few minutes - but we have to wait for them to be removed from the ad networks.

The offending adverts from the other day were flagged and removed which is why I said the problem had been fixed.

The problems above are from different adverts that have already been flagged and are in the process of being removed.

I hope that helps to clear up any confusion. We’re absolutely telling you the truth and we have a whole team dedicated to fixing problems with the ads but the length of time it takes isn’t always completely under our control.

Once again, apologies that this is happening. I understand completely how frustrating it is. Things should be back to normal very soon.

@HatThatWearsYou I have nothing to do with MN but I can promise you they’re not lying. If you’re not in the industry you may not realise how adverts work but you are indeed being told the truth direct from the tech team- who are probably working overtime this week resolving these issues some of which are not of their making. The tech team from MN didn’t make the mistake with the ad, someone else did and it passed Google checks and everything….

Thank you for explaining that @MattTech that does help to have a proper insight to how it works.

I think in future you could be a bit clearer since your first response to me made it appear as though you had corrected the whole problem.

We might not all understand the ins and outs but if you are clear about what is going on it causes a lot less upset and confusion.

@WahineToa Thank you, I just like things to be made clear.

Thank you, @WahineToa

And thanks for the feedback, @HatThatWearsYou - we've noted for future reference.

@MattTech I'm still not convinced am the notifications issues are resolved. My page
www.mumsnet.com/talk/notifications-page hasn't updated to tell me about any new parts on threads that I'm watching.

Have you reset options in users profiles and not told anyone about it?

I've written thousands of test harnesses to check that what I think my code does is what my code actually does.

Thanks for your reply - I wasn't expecting one. It's sometimes hard to judge just how many people are involved in maintaining a site and how it is organised internally - code reviews very a lot of place to place, some a involved whole teams walking through it line by line and a file of evidence about test cases, harnesses and documentation (but that's rare now in my experience), others just involved getting one other senior engineer to sign off changes. Errors, bugs, mistakes aren't a problem so long as you try and learn from them - why did they happen, how can we automatically detect this same kind of error in the code or in real time.

OK - looks like I've had to change some settings in my profile to get my notifications page to update.

Geez, patronising much 😂 I’m sure the developers on such a busy site know how to test their own code! Stuff happens doesn’t it… I’m sure not all your releases have gone smoothly over 20 years. Jumping onto a site because of an error and saying they’re unprofessional, is unprofessional for you! My DH is a software developer for over 20 years too in London, team lead, he’s laughing at this thread!