Suggestion: make forum more mobile friendly

Gatak · Apprentice Joined: 04 Jan 2004 Posts: 174

I often browse the forums on my Android phone, and I think a lot of people are doing this nowadays.

. The problem is that the forum is not very mobile friendly. Text is small, there is scrolling in all directions, etc.

Is Gentoo working on improving the forum with responsive, or at least mobile friendly themes?. I think newer versions of PhpBB has support for responsive themes. Otherwise I think that NodeBB is pretty good. It has nifty support for autosave, cut and paste, code highlights, paste images from clipboard, etc. example at https://community.nodebb.org . There is also a migration from PhpBB to NodeBB available. https://community.nodebb.org/topic/2635/migrating-from-phpbb/2

Perhaps it would help the community if more mobile users could use the forum?

Thanks

fedeliallalinea · Posted: Wed Nov 06, 2019 3:35 pm Post subject:

Gatak · Apprentice Joined: 04 Jan 2004 Posts: 174

Soon ™

I guess they have their reasons. Though I much prefer them to switch to something more modern.

Chiitoo · Posted: Wed Nov 06, 2019 8:48 pm Post subject:

I'm repeating myself a bit here, but while NodeBB may be modern and all that, it would almost certainly turn away some users, or at least make them unhappy:

Ant P. · Watchman Joined: 18 Apr 2009 Posts: 6920

Yikes. Imposing a Javascript requirement on a forum that's currently accessible from `links -g` on the install CD is a complete non-starter.

Anon-E-moose · Posted: Wed Nov 06, 2019 10:26 pm Post subject:

Based on node.js

*yikes*
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Hu · Administrator Joined: 06 Mar 2007 Posts: 22770

I would not use a forum based on NodeBB. From clicking around the first few pages, I see that it uses broken Unicode for icons (probably a blocked webfont). I see the NoScript banner that Chiitoo cited. I see that various buttons don't work (probably because Javascript is correctly disabled on unknown sites). Three strikes in the first two pages says to me that whoever designed this has bought entirely into the fiction that "Web 2.0" is a good thing, and there are probably more surprises lurking if I bothered to dig deeper. I concur with Chiitoo and Ant P.: though that forum might provide some hints about design (though I don't think even that looks good), the implementation is not appropriate for the Gentoo forums.

I can see why someone might want to read the forum on a mobile device (especially if they're trying to find responses about how to fix a broken computer), but for how I use the forum, I need better keyboard input than a mobile can readily provide. I use a computer (sometimes tower, sometimes laptop) with a physical keyboard in order to post.

Gatak · Apprentice Joined: 04 Jan 2004 Posts: 174

It was just a suggestion :oops:

I agree with the Javascript issues too.

I do use my phone both for forum usage and server admin over ssh quite a lot more than from the computer.

All I really want is a little better mobile layout.

Here is a screenshot on how this post looks like at the moment (is there no way to upload to the forum?). https://pasteboard.co/IFyBIky.jpg

Ionen · Developer Joined: 06 Dec 2018 Posts: 2874

Surely there has to be a viable solution that can satisfy normal, mobile, no-script, and text-only (perhaps with different interface that share a same posts database). I imagine it may end up being a lot of work to convert and put things together though.

fedeliallalinea · Posted: Thu Nov 07, 2019 12:46 pm Post subject:

Gatak · Apprentice Joined: 04 Jan 2004 Posts: 174

Then I will be patient a little longer.

szatox · Advocate Joined: 27 Aug 2013 Posts: 3470

Well...
Just one point from me:

Keep it simple, please, please, please!
It's just a bunch of documents and forms. There is not a single thing that requires client-side scripts.

steve_v · Guru Joined: 20 Jun 2004 Posts: 412 Location: New Zealand

Another voice for "keep it simple" over here.
I have no problem with making this forum more "mobile friendly", but it needs to remain unusable and responsive in links/lynx/other simple browsers.
I have seen a great many forums transition to "modern" and "reactive" platforms, and the result has invariably been a dog-slow mess that doesn't work properly with javascript disabled.

fturco · Veteran Joined: 08 Dec 2010 Posts: 1181

I also vote for a forum software without any JavaScript code. My dream of reducing the size of my browser's JavaScript whitelist to zero will be easier in that case.

Gatak · Apprentice Joined: 04 Jan 2004 Posts: 174

Goverp · Advocate Joined: 07 Mar 2007 Posts: 2183

++javascript=no

I just wish we could ask duckduckgo/google/isthereanyoneelse for javashit-free sites
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pjp · Administrator Joined: 16 Apr 2002 Posts: 20501

Goverp · Advocate Joined: 07 Mar 2007 Posts: 2183

pjp, thanks, but not what I meant. I want a search engine that filters out web pages containing JavaScript. OK, there would be almost nothing left, but perhaps that's good.
What's really needed is a training course for web newbies "JavaScript - Just Say No", but of course all the "easy website builder" packages push packaged JS as if it were added value, rather than bloat.
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pjp · Administrator Joined: 16 Apr 2002 Posts: 20501

Split off Writing web login without javascript?
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superduperuser · n00b Joined: 07 Jan 2020 Posts: 4

I registered just to make this suggestion. Browsing from mobile now and it's pretty thumb intensive with scrolling side to side and zooming in and oit
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Hund · Apprentice Joined: 18 Jul 2016 Posts: 218 Location: Sweden

Any news about the update to version 3? And is there any reason you have waited 12 years to update to version 3? :)
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