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Latest release - changes to notifications

16 replies

KatyMumsnet · 13/10/2022 13:41

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.

Latest release - changes to notifications
Latest release - changes to notifications
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MNHQ

KatyMumsnet · 13/10/2022 15:01

Really sorry about the issues you're seeing we had some unexpected complications when updating this system.

The wrong thread IDs were being assigned to notifications which is why you're seeing some you've never seen before - but this should stop happening soon.

Bear with us!

MNHQ

KatyMumsnet · 13/10/2022 17:02

I'm really sorry to hear this caused upset for you @TigersAndToucs. This isn't something we anticipated as the error did not occur during testing. The last thing we want is to upset people and we're working as fast as we can to fix the error.

@larkstar this is a known issue that we are trying to fix

MNHQ

KatyMumsnet · 13/10/2022 18:28

Hi all,

We've released a fix that should stop you seeing the wrong threads - we're running it now and it should complete in a couple of hours. You may see things return to normal in the meantime.

Thanks for your patience on this!

MNHQ

MattTech · 13/10/2022 22:28

@larkstar I understand how frustrating it is when things go wrong, but I can assure you that that’s not the case.

Our developers write automated tests for every new feature that is released to the site. Our current test suite has over 2,000 individual tests with more than 20,000 assertions and we have a stringent code review and testing process that goes through multiple teams before changes are released.

In this particular instance, there was a problem with a database migration script that locked some tables. This prevented the site being able to write to those tables which in turn caused the site to be unavailable to logged in users. This script had been run multiple times before today without any problems. Once that migration script had finished running, the site became available again.

We then had to migrate everyone’s old notifications to a new database structure. Again, this migration had been run multiple times in testing but when we ran it today an error occurred that caused some watch notifications to point to the wrong threads. This has now been fixed.

As I’m sure you can appreciate with your software development experience sometimes releases don’t go smoothly. For context, in an average week we release upwards of 20 changes to the site with multiple releases per day - most of which go smoothly and completely unnoticed which is exactly how it should be. Unfortunately, the release today didn’t.

I know it’s extremely frustrating when things like this happen and it’s never something that we want. We take these incidents extremely seriously and have already analysed what went wrong and implemented more checks in our code review process to prevent these issues moving forward.

@HatThatWearsYou We haven’t been hacked, and the two incidents are unrelated. 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.

Once again, I’m really sorry that this happened today. If you do still have any problems, please let us know.

MNHQ

MattTech · 14/10/2022 08:34

@HatThatWearsYou No problem at all. I'm not sure why the other thread wasn't replied to. I'll follow this up internally with the team to find out.

@WahineToa Are you getting no notifications at all, or is it specific types of notifications you're not receiving? If you could let me know I can take a look.

MNHQ

MattTech · 14/10/2022 08:44

@WahineToa Thanks for the information. Could you check your settings (www.mumsnet.com/settings/notifications) to make sure that you've got the notifications you're expecting to receive turned on please?

Thanks

MNHQ

MattTech · 14/10/2022 09:43

@WahineToa That is indeed a new feature. Thanks for letting us know your thoughts on it. We've just discussed it internally and we're going to change that back to how it was before because we agree that it's not really the right number to be showing. We should be able to roll that fix out within a couple of hours.

MNHQ

MattTech · 14/10/2022 09:48

@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!

MNHQ

MattTech · 14/10/2022 09:54

@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.

MNHQ

MattTech · 14/10/2022 11:22

@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.

MNHQ

MattTech · 14/10/2022 11:56

@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!

MNHQ

MattTech · 14/10/2022 12:18

@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.

Latest release - changes to notifications
MNHQ

MattTech · 14/10/2022 12:47

@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.

MNHQ

LilyMumsnet · 14/10/2022 18:05

HatThatWearsYou · 14/10/2022 17:37

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

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. Flowers

MNHQ

MattTech · 15/10/2022 10:24

@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.

MNHQ

YetAnotherBeckyMumsnet · 15/10/2022 16:10

Thank you, @WahineToa Flowers

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

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