I would like a reply to the "Reply" issue

[DappledThings]

Just thought I'd start another thread to get more attention on this again as there has been no answer as to whether it is even being looked at.

A few comments on MNHQ's recent thread about the new feature pointing out nobody asked for that but a lot of us have asked you to fix this.

To summarise: The button marked Reply does not do what it says. It adds a post, it does not do a reply. MN has no reply feature but, bizarrely, chooses to have a button that pretends it does. This leads to threads full of "replies" that have no context and are impossible to follow. Plus posts saying "sorry, not sure why my reply didn't work, I clicked reply"

@DappledThings Giving your thread a small bump so hopefully MNHQ reply. Although at this point it feels like they're just hoping everyone stops asking.

I am just baffled as to why this is such a difficult problem to fix. It feels ridiculous this has been going on for so long - I really like the quote feature but it has changed how people use the site - they expect to be able to quote things now, when they just didn't before. That in turn means the "reply" function now causes a problem.

You could temporarily fix this ridiculous issue by making reply do exactly what quote does.

Or, even simpler, just re-label Reply as Add Post. I can understand changing functionality could be a bit complex, but changing the boilerplate so the label of the button matches what the button actually does would be the work of minutes.

It is utterly infuriating. So ridiculous.

I am just baffled as to why this is such a difficult problem to fix.

It's not. The problem is MNHQ don't see it as a problem, so don't think there's anything that needs fixing.

Tattle is better - sorry. No need to bookmark and reply works!

Agreed. There have been vague messages of "we're looking into it" but I've not seen any recognition of the fact it is actually a problem. Despite the numerous examples of threads where the OP is writing posts clearly intended to be replies but aren't actually replies because the "Reply" button doesn't create a reply. It's so obvious that labelling a button as a function it doesn't perform is a mistake.

It’s pointless though because there is ‘add post’ right in the middle of the nav bar anyway. People don’t need that replicated on each post.

This stuff really wouldn’t be so bloody hard if MNHQ employed a service designer and user researchers to look at their products end to end across channels and worked with users continually to improve the service.

users will have a range of different opinions and ways of using the site, obviously. But it isn’t difficult to work out that putting in a ‘reply’ feature on individual posts will cause problems if it just adds a post in no way linked to the post the user wanted to reply to.

Yes. It's ridiculous.
I'm on mobile and have the blue bar that says active, watching, ADD POST, I'm on and search.

Then below every post there's save, thanks, REPLY (which is just add post. Again. ) Report and bookmark

While we're at it - what's the difference between bookmark and save? It feels like those two do the same thing and could certainly be made into a single button that adds the thread to your watch list at the post you've read up to. If you've already saved/bookmarked it then pressing it later updates the bookmark / save. Combine those buttons functions. There's no need for two.

Labelling it accurately as ‘add post’ would just create two identical buttons that very often are one above the other on the page.

Thats just pointless clutter.

There have been vague messages of "we're looking into it" but I've not seen any recognition of the fact it is actually a problem.

Yep, it's very telling that there's been no update from MNHQ since the 8 / 11. Not even an update to say they're still working on it. Just complete silence. Why bother updating users on something they don't see as a problem. I suspect we could come back to this thread in a year and still nothing will have changed.

I may add this to my pile of ‘examples of really bad UX design in MN’ that I use in my professional life. Usually I find myself talking about the absurdity of the way the app is treated as if it has no relation to the website, and how this manifests in frustrated users trying to figure out why the functionality is completely different between the two all over the place. It’s usually a don’t be like MN, actually look at the app as part of a coherent ecosystem of channels for users story.

Each post has a button under it that is replicated at the bottom of the thread anyway.

Just seems completely random. At least swap the one at the bottom of each post for the quote button, to make it make sense.

I agree with all of this! The reply button is useless and misleading, what people want there is the quote function (and yes to condensing all quotes to a few lines that can be expanded).
I have no idea why mumsnet are claiming that there are users that don't want this to happen as I haven't seen anybody say that anywhere and have only seen lots of confusion on lots of threads as to why their reply to someone didn't work.

That is just greedy on your part. I don't have the Add Post from your blue section. Mine is labelled Add Messsge on the post, not Reply.

Why are there so many different options??

Lack of proper service design.

I totally agree it would be pointless and clutter. But it would be an easy to implement stopgap that would stop people trying to "Reply" while they figure out what the overall design should actually be.

This is what I see. Android Tablet, Opera.

I just despair. Why does MN look different and offer different functionality depending on which device or browser you’re using.

This isn’t ‘responsive design’. It’s completely inconsistent and confusing design.

@HebeMumsnet @LilyMumsnet

Please can MNHQ sort this out?

Morning, everyone. Still no definitive news on this yet but we are planning to run some tests over the coming weeks and will update on Site Stuff as soon as there's news.

Thanks Hebe - I do think that a temporary fix, as suggested by others, would be a really sensible interim solution while you look at longer term options. Will you feed this into your testing/considerations please?

Is it really so difficult for posters to just learn how the site works rather than expected MN to change every tiny thing? What's so hard about using the quote or tag function instead?

the ‘reply’ function is just extremely confusing, bad design. Users shouldn’t have to learn the absurdities of the site design for it to be usable.

Theres also the fact that MN works differently on different devices. You can’t just learn how it works because MNHQ do not provide a consistent user experience across channels.

This is basic UX design stuff.