(S.O.F. Save Our Forum!) This has now been addressed by MSE (see link in OP)

cornishpasty1

spendaholic said:

I will hang around to see what the new-new forum looks like, and I will still refrain from making abusive comments to anyone, regardless of whether or not they agree with me. (But I will and I do report abuse.)

That's what we've all been doing, patiently waiting and hoping, without really kicking off or being abusive.  I think the ones of us that have been hanging on in here have been polite and patient, and hopefully that will continue, but let's hope they actually get on with sorting it out or at least tell us it's not going to work out eh

spendaholic

cornishpasty1 said:

spendaholic said:

I will hang around to see what the new-new forum looks like, and I will still refrain from making abusive comments to anyone, regardless of whether or not they agree with me. (But I will and I do report abuse.)

That's what we've all been doing, patiently waiting and hoping, without really kicking off or being abusive.  I think the ones of us that have been hanging on in here have been polite and patient, and hopefully that will continue, but let's hope they actually get on with sorting it out or at least tell us it's not going to work out eh

Yeah, I meant the posts that seem to have been removed, the posters the admins seem to be referring to, and possibly the reason why the other threads have been closed. And yes, just talk to us. If it's never going to work, then they need to tell us that instead of keeping us here under false pretenses.
(I don't often say anything, but I do watch and read and thank people and digest it all.  )

libra10

Well said @spendaholic

spendaholic

They've re-opened those threads for discussion again. I wonder what happened there... 🤔

[Deleted User]

spendaholic said:

They've re-opened those threads for discussion again. I wonder what happened there... 🤔

 An MSE person posted that they closed  them because they don't work weekends so couldn't reply. Was just on a thread titled Closed 

Former_MSE_Kirsty

Blulu said:

It is now time to launch a new campaign to try to get MSE to address some of the major issues here?

Our cornishpasty1 opened a discussion a couple of days ago about our flagging forum, here: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6204908/forum-update-re-changes#latest 

That led to me and Rahven chatting about where we are with this whole forum changes thing. We agreed that we feel cheated and fobbed off by MSE. Our forum is still 'not fit for purpose' and hasn't been for ages. Rahven worked out that it's around 16 months since the forum upgrade/downgrade, and around 7 months since she'd sent them her excellent spreadsheet that pulled together our issues with the 'new' forum ("Our" being everyone here who had commented on the problems).

MSE conducted interviews with some of us, where we explained the issues. They responded by assuring us that we were a valued part of the MSE community and they they would do what they could to help sort things. They said it might take a while. Well, it flaming well has!

The least they should've done was to update us every now and then about what was/wasn't happening - which is what the pinned thread in CCC "Forum Update Re Changes" was opened for.

Is it time to try again? People are still signing the petition about this: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6196788/petition-for-mse-re-the-forum-changes#latest

We know that we have lost many long-term users over this, and that the forum is quite simply nowhere near as good as it was.

So...what should we do about it then?

My gut feeling is that fresh blood is needed to take on the campaign now. I don't mind doing whatever I can behind the scenes to help, but I don't think it would be productive for me to contact MSE about this again. I think they would fob me off because I've already said 'my bit'. But fresh blood could start from scratch, perhaps building on what we'd tried before?

That's it then. Consider the gauntlet well and truly thrown down.

Over to you lot...

Blu XXX

Hi everyone,

 

We just wanted to update you on a few things as we know there’s been some passionate discussion on the Site Feedback boards and within Compers Chat Corner over the last few days.

 

Rhaven and Blulu have also been doing a fab job at keeping us up to speed and earlier this week, we managed to have a video call with Blulu just to make sure we’re fully across all of the issues you’ve been experiencing with the Compers Board recently. 

 

Last year we started tackling some of your concerns by introducing new filtering features and by returning the functionality to Enter and Skip comps from the list view. And I’m really pleased (and relieved) to say that subject to any unforeseen delays, we are planning to update the Search facility by the end of July which should also return some of the other functionality you’ve been asking for.

 

From your perspective, I realise this feels like it’s all taking a long time but please know that Competitions Time is incredibly important to the MSE Forum and is in fact, the only of MSE's sub-communities to benefit from bespoke investment and development. We love our Compers! 

 

When we spoke with Blulu earlier this week, we also gave a little more context around what’s been happening behind the scenes across the wider Forum and we wanted to share some of that with you now. 

 

Where do I start?!?!

 

Martin created MSE and the Forum over 18 years ago and during that time, the use and scrutiny of social media websites has changed in an unimaginable way – particularly over the past few years. Re-platforming the Forum was just the first much-needed step towards fixing and future-proofing the Forum. I know some of you think “if ain’t broke” but trust me, the old platform had become obsolete and wasn’t going to support the Forum in the years to come. 

 

As you know, in August, we also updated you on the independent audit we were starting to ensure MSE could lead the way in keeping you and the Forum team safe from online harm. The auditors made a number of recommendations, particularly around mitigating the impact of spammers, bad players and disinformation. Tackling these recommendations has been a huge amount of work and we’ve ploughed loads of resource into it over the past 9 months. At first glance, you may not be able to see the fruition of this work but I’d ask you to think about what the Forum might be like today if we hadn’t got our heads down and done this work – loads of potentially harmful spam cluttering our Boards, Alter Egos causing havoc, trolling, newbies finding it hard join etc… I urge you to take a moment before you suggest the Forum team haven’t been doing anything since the re-platform because they haven’t stopped!

 

On top of this, we’ve also been tackling the challenges of the pandemic from both a business and personal perspective. During Covid, the Forum has never been busier or more needed by you. As a result, we have prioritised developing the safety and security of the Forum while making sure we meet the demands of Covid. This means we have had to delay some of our plans for the Compers Board but I hope you agree that we made the right decision. 

 

As we start to see the light at the end of the pandemic, and as some of the bigger pieces of work following our audit are successfully delivered, we will have the opportunity to start re-prioritising some of the work we had to put on hold previously. We will be working hard over the next 18 months to build new features and return some previous functionality to the platform.

 

More updates will follow and we will set up a discussion in Site Feedback so you can see what is happening more easily. We wish we could build it all over night but we can’t. As ever, we thank you for your patience and understanding – and I hope this post has given you some background info on what we’ve been up to! 

 

Thanks

MSE Kirsty (Head of the Forum)

Blulu

Thank you so much for sharing all that with us Kirsty. For me personally, it has really made a difference to how I feel about the changes being made here. The one thing I have always experienced with MSE, as opposed to so many other of the larger online organisations, is that you are approachable.

Blu XXX

spendaholic

Thanks so much for taking the time to share this with us, Kirsty. 

Ms_Dee

Has anyones layout changed? 😩
Looks awful to me.

MSE_Laura_F

Ms_Dee said:

Has anyones layout changed? 😩
Looks awful to me.

Well spotted! We have made a few changes - here's the announcement from today.

Best,

MSE Laura F