Site looks off
 

@Yoda

When I visited the site today, this is what it looks like on my phone:






Is it just on my phone or is anybody else seeing this?

It's like that for me too.

Re: Site looks off
 

It looks good on a PC, no difference here.

Looks the same on desktop Chrome and Firefox.

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Thanks. I'm glad I'm not the only one seeing this. I thought something was wrong with my phone.

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Technically, we were missing an important tag that specifies the site's viewport, which basically means it doesn't let your phone do that thing where it just zooms way out on a site not designed for it.

Please note that "bugs" where someone is using a mobile device without using the mobile style are not something I can guarantee will be fixed. The desktop site is not designed for mobile and it's not going to work great with it even when it's usable. I strongly recommend using the mobile style if you're on a phone.

I've tried the mobile style but I just can't get used to it. It seems claustrophobic to me.

Re: Site looks off
 

Try switching from desktop mode to mobile mode if using a cell phone to visit this site and see if that helps

I'm sure it would. But as I've indicated, I have issues with the mobile site. It's harder to navigate and it seems too claustrophobic to me.

Yep. That's how it looks and it only just happened today. I haven't seen this before.

Re: Site looks off
 

I'm pretty sure you'll get used to it if you use it for a bit. I mean, it's inarguably easier to use, you don't have to pinch and zoom, buttons are bigger and easier to press, text is easier to read, and it loads much faster.

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Must be the MoFFo glitch.

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It's a running joke among web developers that users always hate anything new simply because it's not what they're used to, so I'd definitely give it a go. Even if it's better, and even if you'll like it better, it's still expected that it would feel off/wrong/claustrophobic/whatever at first.

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This site won't really be usable for me if it stays this way. Bummer.

Why? See above re: mobile style.

I can't do this because it cuts me off of chosing the option. I can't scroll left right on here.

Here's a direct link to Edit Options. If that doesn't work, I can change the setting manually and/or make it easier to click in the header.

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Oh yikes. This looks really bad.

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I think it's kinda crazy that you guys prefer a super tiny layout you have to constantly zoom in and out on. You may have gotten used to it, but think of how much of your browsing time is spent "fighting" the layout because you have to do all that. It's probably a lot.

Mobile styles load faster, are easier to read, and easier to use because everything's bigger and easier to click on. They're simple and functional and way better on phones. Give 'em a try, beyond the shock of things being different, and see how it wears after awhile of not having to do all that legwork.

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The mobile is awful I'm sorry.

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I mean, if you're requesting some kind of change to it you'll have to be slightly more specific, but I'm pretty skeptical of any feedback that comes immediately after trying something new against years of ingrained habits, even if those habits involve obviously cumbersome browsing and zooming.

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I'd actually rather use the broken desktop on the phone then the mobile version.

Maybe I'm the only one who feels this way. Curious how it will look now on tablet.

Mine is a mess, unusable, having a very hard time posting

Re: Site looks off
 

Respectfully, maybe having a strong opinion like that 30 seconds or so into trying it is not giving things a fair shake, for all the reasons mentioned above.

This is a thing developers talk about all the time, for what it's worth.

Per above, try the mobile style for a bit. It's established that it's not going to work on desktop, but it's not really meant to.

It's not that, cant reply

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If post too long

You should be able to scroll within the text box the same way you'd scroll on the page. I can make it a bit bigger, however, to make it a little easier.

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Can't get to main page either

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The home page is accessible on mobile by clicking on the film reel or on the little house icon in the footer on each page.

Look at top of pic

Can't scroll to the side to

Get to different page

Post too long,

Can't reach reply button

I'm not sure what you're showing me with that last image, but that's still the desktop style. Try switching to mobile, first option on the Edit Options page. Or just Default, which will display mobile if it detects you're on a phone.

Yeah, when you said "It's not that, cant reply," I took that to mean the problem was not that you were still on the desktop style, but it looks like you still are.

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Can't see whole screen

Or options

Or reach them

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That's why I linked you to it just now, in case you couldn't click? Seems to have worked for raul.

Regardless, at this point I'll just switch it in your profile manually rather than figure out exactly where the communication issue is. EDIT: when I got into your profile it was already switched, so I guess you figured it out.

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My problem with the site today is that the font is too big & I can’t seem to make it smaller.

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Yea on mobile now and it seems functional. Maybe it takes getting used to but it's definitely not as nice as before. Don't see any options while I'm doing this post, emojis, links, etc. No way to post pics.

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Whatever was done, I would switch it back. I can't see myself using this. And I'm guessing cricket feels the same.

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To confirm the above, I was able to switch to desktop and then back to mobile with no problems, but I can see how it can be confusing for someone. However, it is possible. Hopefully everyone is able to fix it.

Cool, that's a start. :up:

I think what people are seeing is less glitz, because it's simpler. In that sense, for sure, a mobile site is not going to look as nice (nice meaning fancy) as a desktop site. The places where it's nicer is you're not wasting tons of time zooming in and out and scrolling and panning because the site is super tiny, which is what I assume you were all necessarily doing before. The core functions of reading and posting should be way easier.

The automatic emojis aren't on there, but the attachment button should be just below where you reply.

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Wish I could post a pic but I can't. For me personally, it's much easier and quicker to zoom in and out on what I want than this way.

It's not really that simple, for technical reasons I can go into if people are genuinely curious and open-minded, I guess. If you want the short, relevant version, it's that this isn't just some for-the-heck-of-it tweak I made for no reason.

My response is kinda the same as it was a few minutes ago:

Respectfully, maybe having a strong opinion like that 30 seconds or so into trying it is not giving things a fair shake, for all the reasons mentioned above.

Just swap "30 seconds" for "five minutes," I guess.

I'd really like people to actually try this for a bit before dismissing it, otherwise I can't even really consider it feedback.

The mobile style could be a lot better, and I can definitely work with people to make it better and add the crucial things it might need but doesn't have. But that's going to mean actually trying it out and seeing how it feels, rather than dismissing it immediately because it's simpler or just different.

Are you using desktop or mobile? If it's desktop normal font size options/zoom should work. Works on Chrome here, at least.

EDIT: general note to no one in particular, though, to start new threads for other site concerns. I don't want this thread to become a general "whatever I wish were different" thread. It's specifically about the mobile tech stuff.

One of the tricky parts of web development is that cumbersome ways to do things become ingrained, to the point where yeah, even those much slower or tougher ways are easier! Just not as easy as they would be without the benefit of being so much more familiar. This happens at offline offices and stuff, too, which have a way of doing things that's often wildly inefficient, but it's just how it's been done and everyone understands it, so that even "better" ways seem worse at first. This is super common.

That said, the stuff that's cumbersome because it's missing, that I can help with/fix over time. If we're talking about missing buttons that make posting easier, embed images, et cetera. I could definitely use some good, considered, real-world feedback about that.

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Before I could see a lot of stuff on my screen. Now a post takes up my whole screen. People like that?

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On mobile, the Manage Attachment button doesn't appear as an option unless you click Preview to see your post. The newly loaded screen provides the attachment option. The trade off is if you've made an edit, you can't re-preview as that button is now gone.

But it is available.

I mean, if your phone looks anything like mine, the "stuff" you could see was "a bunch of white blobs from a distance I can't read." You had to zoom in on the posts (so that it took up your whole screen, or nearly so) in order to actually read them, yeah?

Whatever I usually use. Refresh my memory: how do I check which one I am using?

Oh, you're talking about Quick Reply. Yeah, Quick Reply is different, it excludes stuff to be, well, quick.

I can see about adding the Preview button to edit, too. Though again, a lot of this is academic if people's issues are "I like everything being very zoomed out on desktop" rather than "mobile could work if you added some key features."

Let's take this to PMs or another means of communication.

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I don't know but it was good and easy. This is brutal sorry to say.

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Like before I felt like I was connected to the whole site because I could see a lot. It's not like that at all now.

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Again, I'm not sure what you mean by "see." You couldn't really see anything, because you couldn't read it. You needed to zoom on the post and have it take up most of the screen the same way to actually use the site.

This sounds very, very much like disorientation because a thing is new. Which, again, is common and normal and all that, but makes it very hard to judge anything immediately, which is why I'm asking people to try it rather than just react to a sudden change in the moment.

Re: Site looks off
 

Maybe it’s because Since I first joined I have almost exclusively used my phone to visit this site, since I work a lot. But it doesn’t seem to be that much of a hindrance.
Hopefully you guys get more use to it.

Re: Site looks off
 

That's almost definitely a huge part of it. I really can't emphasize enough how common this phenomena is. You can literally find people hating a change, then getting used to it, then hating a new change because it's not like the thing they used to hate.

It's not really wrong to have that reaction, either, if you've gotten very used to doing things a certain way, even if that way involves a ton of extra pinching and zooming and scrolling and wasted time. Most of it doesn't even register as a waste because it becomes second nature, and then different things just feel bad for reasons that can't even be put into words. Like when I used to have a slower computer and would just switch windows when waiting for something to load. After awhile it didn't even register as a problem...until I upgraded and got used to the faster ways.

And it's totally possible for it to be just as slow or slower at first, because things are new. The problem is, the only way to avoid that is never to change anything.

Re: Site looks off
 

Well I won't really use this on my phone so it will limit my time here certainly. Sorry guys

You could actually try the version of the site specifically built for the device you're using for more than a couple of minutes before giving up.

Obviously I can't make you, if you're simply determined not to. But that's obviously just a decision, rather than someone genuinely exhausting their options/not having any other choice.

No I can see the whole site, and just zoom in on what I want to read. It's quick and easy but this is the opposite

Right, so you can "see" blocks of colors and stuff, but have to zoom on the posts to actually read them, at which point they take up a lot of the screen, just like on mobile. What's that intermediate view of the page adding if you can't read any of it?

It's quicker and easier to zoom on each post to make it fill the screen, rather than having it already doing that? :confused: Seems to me the difference is that on mobile, the middle step is cut out: the thing you want to read is already readable.

Re: Site looks off
 

I just had a look...HI GUYS BTW,,,and on my computer (using Chrome) it looks the same as it always has. But on my phone, if I switch to desktop setting, all hell breaks loose and I almost couldn't switch back as I could hardly reach the user CP and it wouldn't scroll to the right at all. I was lucky a tiny fragment was able to be clicked on.

Re: Site looks off
 

I might have to reset things to Default en masse, since people not being able to switch to mobile is, in fact, a problem, beyond familiarity or anything else.

I use mobile for mobile. It IS easier that way, the only drawback is you can't see the "who's online" and "now playing" sections. Or birthdays/anniversaries. That's why on the very odd occasion, I switch to desktop on mobile for just a moment or two.

Re: Site looks off
 

I don't want the site zooming in for me though. It's not easier at all or better in any way, quite the contrary.

Can you explain why a bit, though? You had to zoom to read the posts. Now the posts are already zoomed. When I asked this...

What's that intermediate view of the page adding if you can't read any of it?

...it wasn't rhetorical. I'm genuinely asking. What's better about seeing a zoomed out assembly of stuff you can't read, as opposed to just being able to go right into reading it?

See above. I'm perfectly happy to hear people out if they can try to explain things a bit, but I can't really do much by just being told something is worse, when the reasons it's worse seem to apply just as much to the desktop version, except for the addition of extra steps.

I'd also ask you to consider, again, how easy it is for "this is unfamiliar" to feel the same as "this is worse." Especially if it proves difficult to explain why it's worse.

That's a good description of what I had described as "claustrophobic." Generally speaking, desktop views rival mobile views as there are more options and things to see. It is what it is I guess. I wish it weren't.

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I don't actually have to zoom in the other way to see everything. It's just nice to see everything instead of my page being so limited. And the functionality is not nearly as good.

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Viewing posts when I clicked on desktop for mobile looked almost like chat bubbles WAY on the lef. If that description makes sense.

I don't follow. You could read posts zoomed out?

I understand, but I'd ask you to consider the possibility that this felt better more because of familiarity, given that to actually read posts and do most things you had to zoom in anyway. Especially clicking on tiny icons. And that's without getting into the time to load each page.

Logistically, it feels like this should clearly be easier. The "feel" of it is not unimportant, but if that's the primary issue, that's a really strong indicator that familiarity is the real explanation. Which is a totally real thing, but very different from it being objectively worse, since one will change and one will not, if that makes sense.

This, to be sure, is fair, and something I can fix and work on, if people want to work with me and help improve the mobile style through use. I can make it a priority, too. Some of it's a little overdue, even though the basics are mostly there.

Re: Site looks off
 

Responding to reading posts zoomed out,

I would turn on my phone, go to safari, and I can see the entire front page and read everything in front of me without zooming in on it. I do zoom in on things but not because I have to.

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A means to upload images for the mobile view and to post them is a necessity for many of the threads here. I don't like hotlinking because these images tend to not show up.

LOL. Like smoke signals? :p

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I hold my phone horizontally so there's no need to zoom. I can see everything.

Well, the front page has giant text for the forum names and stuff, so that makes sense. But the actual core site functions requiring zooming, for sure, yeah? Reading posts and replying to them, clicking on icons, etc.

You specifically mentioned the posts filling the whole screen, for example, but I have to imagine you could only read posts while zooming in, which comes to the same thing. That's what I'm trying to understand.

Fair, on the hotlinking.

You can upload images on mobile right now, though, just hit one of the reply/quote bubbles on a post, and the button will be right below the text box. It's just not on Quick Reply, though we can see about adding it there, too.

I can't even imagine how this would work, at least not without hiding a ton of the site and losing that "I can see the whole site" thing we've been talking about.

I mean, some of this is just math. The screen is small, it's not going to be possible to see and use the site. Either you're zoomed out and can "see" things, but only the general outline and structure, or you're zoomed in so you can read them all and interact with them. I'll grant that it's going to feel different, especially if you've spent years getting used to it one way and now it's another way, but I'm not sure how it's even possible that anyone was accomplishing these two mutually exclusive things simultaneously on their phones.

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Is it fixed yet?

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Yeah, this breaks a lot of functionality for me.

I’m on a large mobile device (iPhone plus) so the mobile interface is just not needed for me. I get that it’s a first world problem and may cause you work, so I ain’t going to be a dick about it.

Same response as before:

I'd really appreciate you actually considering what I'm saying rather than just responding reflexively over and over and refusing to entertain any of it.

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With the phone held horizontally, I can read everything on my screen across the entire width of the site without having to zoom in or to scroll from right to left.

I dont know what change you made but are you absolutely certain that you can't make that change without changing the desktop view for mobile users? Also, can you make an upload image feature for the mobile view?

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Am I just suppose to sit here and pretend like I may like it later down the road? Like for example, I can't even link an image for the Hall of Fame on this. And even if I can which I'm sure there's a way, it's certainly not user friendly.

Hmm, my phone's about the same size, and stuff is definitely not legible by default on it. At least, not the basic stuff.

I appreciate that, thanks. At this point I appreciate anyone actually talking about this. ;)

Aye, as I mentioned just a few minutes ago, you can already upload on mobile. Go to reply (the talk bubbles on posts, just not Quick Reply) and attach with the button below the text box.

Re: Site looks off
 

Yeah, I don’t hold my phone horizontally. But if I did then viewing the site is beautiful because my phone is the width of the site. No zooming necessary. Just scrolling.

Legibility doesn’t matter to me. Functionality is the most important thing for me. And these two layouts are vastly different function wise. Mobile is like a neutered show dog.

No offense.

That's actually really common, yeah. But it sounds like you've already made up your mind.

Something is not user friendly if it's in a place that doesn't make sense or is hard to use or see, but not because a user doesn't already know where it is just because things are new, for example. This is an important distinction, and one I've been trying to talk about.

But, as I've been saying, if people can work with me and offer good faith feedback, we can add more features and see what's missing.

None taken, especially since a lot of that functionality can be added, and therefore the problem can be fixed.

If the problem for someone is "this isn't what I'm used to," or they refuse to even really try it, well, that can't be fixed, unfortunately.

Smiles, editing toolbar, thumbs up count on posts, and ability to see who has given thumbs up on posts.

I’ll find more I’m sure.

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Yep, makes sense. Most of those are at the top of the list, so we're on the same page about the important stuff.

I clicked on the quote button but I dont see an add image button below the text box, just a navigation button. The upload attachment does appear only after clicking on the preview button. However, the upload button doesn't seem to work.

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I've switched back to desktop even though you can't see half the screen.

I also prefer to see profile pictures next to everything we do. Visually it is easier to discern who is replying to threads and who is online. With mobile you are basically asking me to read more. :p ;)

Ditto. I have resorted to holding my phone horizontally. Seems to alleviate most of the issue, but it is still squeezed.

Ah yes, that's right. Thank you for reminding me.

Er...can you elaborate? Saying something doesn't work might mean nothing happens, it might means an error comes up (if so, what's the error say?), it might a window comes up but then something inside that window doesn't react, it might mean it does but the image never uploads...or a hundred other things. Need a little specificity on any error report to be able to do anything about it.

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I just tried to upload an image, but it only appeared as a URL.

Thanks for the update, I guess.

If you're just going to talk right past everything I'm saying or asking, though, I'd rather you let the people actually trying to help improve the mobile style have the thread. The performative anger thing where you just keep saying how much you hate it and not really engage with me at all is wearing a little thin.

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It's hard to explain, but suddenly the site seems very cold.

I don't really know what this means, can you PM me more specifics? Please note that attachments need to be coming from your phone's hard drive, it's not for URLs.

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I guess it does work, just not what I expected. Buttons usually change color or something when you click on it but this one didnt.

I can stop talking then. No problemo. Not trying to start an argument just stating my opinion.