Welcome to Mamamia 3.0

Think about the last time you moved to a better house.  The idea of it is so exciting. More storage! An ensuite! A bigger garden! An extra bedroom! A garage! A walk-in pantry!

At first though, it can be a little daunting. Getting comfortable can take a little bit of time to get used to. Where’s the cutlery drawer again? Is there a light switch in this room?

The furniture may be set up differently and the bathroom might not be in the same place as it was in the old house but it’s still here.  The family is all coming too as is the dog and that comfortable armchair you like to read the paper in while drinking tea from your favourite cup.  We just might have to unpack a few boxes to find the cup but it’s here. We promise.

So relax, explore and ENJOY the new site.

We’ve kept everything you’ve come to love about Mamamia and added a bunch more usable features that we know you’re going to love.

In case you’re wondering, the new site, WHY? Well, the main reason is this: to make life easier. Not for us – not today or for the forseeable future as we stumble about trying to work out how to drive this slick little sucker – but for YOU.

We listened to what you’ve told us over the months and years and the #1 complaint about Mamamia is this: “too much content, too hard to find it”. People are lazy. None of us like to scroll.

So with the number of stories we’re posting per day, it had become increasingly difficult to find them above the fold (this is the bit of the site you see on your screen without having to scroll down) and even on the home page.

The new design is going to help you see more stories on the home page. We’re all about preserving the finger so you can use it to order Thai takeaway and not cook and therefore spend more time on Mamamia. Cunning, aren’t we, yes we are.

The best way to get a feel for it all is to kick back and click around a bit. See what you think.

1. New Mamamia membership. Login to receive member only offers, free trial products and chat
to other members.

2. Find out the weather in your city.  Because you know you need to know it

3.Nifty search function to find your favourite articles.

4. All our articles have been tagged so that you can find just what you are looking for – be it angsty, feisty, fluffy or a whole lot more

5. New category tabs with drop down menus.

6. Contributors: every post will have the author’s photo at the top. The photo and the by-line will link to their bio and a list of all the posts they’ve done on Mamamia. This is handy. Use it to read more of your favourite writers and to learn more about them.  But be patient – we don’t have all the contributors up just yet but we will SOON.

7. Galleries are  much easier to view than before! You may spend a lot more time in galleries than you used to.  Be warned.

8. A home – just for videos

9. At the bottom of the home page the categories appear again so you can see the latest five posts we’ve published under each category.

A PLEA FOR UNDERSTANDING:

As discombobulated as you may be by Mamamia 3.0  – hopefully in a positive way – times that by approximately 10,000 and that’s what it’s like for us to be driving it in the back end. For creatures of habit as the MM team are, it’s a big change and an excitingly dauntingly huge challenge. So please be patient?

Imagine you’re driving behind an L-plate driver. That kind of patient. And send supportive vibes from your computer to ours. By all means let us know what you think in the comments below. And if you find a bug that you think we should know about please send an email to bugsquasher@mamamia.com.au.

And remember there  WILL be bugs for a bit as we try to change gears without bunny hopping (that’s a manual driving joke that will go over the heads of all those who don’t know how to drive manual which, I’m surprised to learn, is growing but that’s a post for another time).

UPDATE SUNDAY: Is now a good time to tell you that while you’re reading this, I’m actually away? On HOLIDAYS. IN ANOTHER COUNTRY. Borneo actually. With my family. It was arranged ages ago, as was the site rebuild and on paper, they were never meant to clash. But I think the universe is trying to tell me something although I’m not quite sure what. Get A Life possibly?

Jason and I still got up at 4:30am to watch the site go live and all day, in amongst watching orangutans (seriously), we’ve been dashing back to the room to watch how things are unfolding. Huge props to the MM team, particularly Lana who has been dealing with a huge amount in our absence. Also Dave on the technical side and our developers all over the world. From Borneo to the Ukraine and the US, Sydney and elsewhere, this really has been- and continues to be – a global effort. Which sounds hugely posh and full-on but is actually just a bunch of people sitting nervously around their laptops in different time zones.

Anyway, forgive me if I’m in and out over the next few days. Our itinerary is exciting but busy (today we went to visit a village of shrunken heads which was not ironic IN THE LEAST) and I’m going to try and read every comment and respond to as many as I can over the next few days. Meanwhile, I’ll leave you in the capable hands of Lana, Rick, Nicky and Nat.

Big love,

Mia xxxxx