Hey guys, for the longest time developing the Message Boards (and the entirety of our website) has been focused solely with a desktop environment in mind.
However, I understand that many of you browse the web through mobile platforms, such as tablets and cell phones. Obviously, this format is more convenient for many people; and for some this is the only means to access the site.
With this in mind, I understand that the mobile version of this site needs some work to accommodate those users; so I ask all of you out there to help me out in determining the best way to go about fixing our mobile platform. If you could, please post several things you feel should be included/added, things that need fixing, things you find frustrating or broken, and anything else you think would help make the mobile site less of a pain to use.
Thanks!
(Also, this topic is not about the current notification bug the boards have been experiencing. We are aware of the issue, and are currently working to develop a permanent solution.)
I think adding a simpler version of the site might do the trick. I mostly use the mobile site but I’m not exactly sure what would be the best course of improving it because it crashes regularly for unknown reasons.
Just a few ideas:
-Disabling image and gif auto-show.
-Have reply box and keyboard fit only half the screen rather than full.
-Alternate quoting option (something like Eurobricks) because the highlight rarely works.
-This one might just be a bug Hitting the search icon at any point other than the first post will cause the screen to jump to the first post and likely crash.
-Xposts per page option (Show a certain number of posts per page.)
That’s all I really have for now. Basically I would like if the mobile site was a bit lighter and more simple.
Irony: the boards got stuck the moment I came to this topic.
Anyway, I don’t mind the mobile site, myself. One thing I really want to see, that I would find really useful, is the button on the bottom of posts to show how many replies a post has/linking to the replies, like what the desktop version has. That’s not just something I’d like to see; that is a serious flaw to me.
Ah, excellent! I use the mobile site frequently myself when I don’t have computer access, so I would love to see a better mobile version!
Here’s my ideas (I don’t know if it’s possible to make the site do any of this at all, but it’s just what I find annoying on the mobile version):
Make the page fit onto the whole screen, currently there is a little blue border on the side and I have to zoom in to see things sometimes.
Tapping on pictures doesn’t bring them up in a larger view, so I can’t zoom in on pictures at all without saving them
On occasion the page will switch back up to earlier posts, which is especially annoying on longer pages like the 2016 Discussions that I am on frequently where I have to scroll down forever to get back to where I was
There’s no little blue dot notification on the posts that tells me when I have “read” them, so people trying to get Master rank can’t know for sure if they have read all the posts for their requirements
The navigator on the bottom right of the page that lets you go to specific posts or the top and bottom is too small and right on top of the bar to make new tabs on the Internet App, so clicking it is way too hard. Maybe make it bigger or position the drop down button closer to the top of the page.
The Likes sometimes glitch
Have an easier way to quote, as @Dr_Chronos said it’s hard to highlight specific parts of posts
Also like he said, make the reply box smaller. Whenever it comes up I can’t see the other posts and whenever I click “Done” on the keyboard it glitches and almost gets covered up by the bottom of the screen.
I can board on my phone all day, but I can’t be here for 10 minutes on desktop without the site crashing.
there is?
Glad you mentioned that, as it reminds me of a bug that applies to both mobile and desktop: if you try scrolling upward to unloaded posts, often it will get stuck continuously going up and loading the next 10/20 posts, and it’s all but impossible to stop. I’ll try to go up a few posts, and wind up going up hundreds.
I would like to see a post preview so I can tell if things like @'s and spoilers are working.
BBBB55
also, the boards lag out every time I visit this topic, lol.
For me, yes. It’s not as noticeable as it used to be, but on some occasions the page will literally be half post and half blue. It’s like the top banner is too large and the posts can only fit on half the page, so the rest is just a blue background.
That might be your side of the problem. The site works fine normally, at least for me, but if your Internet connection is poor it will crash a lot. I was using my dad’s phone’s WiFi hot spot yesterday during a long car ride and because the connection was bad it took a long time to load posts and the pages crashed frequently. I’d suggest checking your router if you have consistent problems and no one else is mentioning similar problems.
You can force your browser to run mobile-view by clicking the bars next to your avatar on the top right and clicking “mobile-view” at the very bottom of the list.
