Request: Mobile version of forum?

[DonQuigleone]

I'm finding I'm increasingly accessing these forums by mobile, but it's very annoying to access without a mobile version. I know it's a big ask but I think it would be a real improvement to the site.

[Flower]

I currently access them more often than not via a 7" phablet running the Android OS. The built in browser is actually pretty good for web browsing, I found, but the most difficult thing I have encountered with it is selecting text and links sometimes and especially editing text or post. The touch based interface on the customized version of Android I use makes this extremely difficult at times.

However, other browsers like Firefox (which includes the option to view a site in "desktop mode", something I have fiund quite helpful) and Opera (which almost forces the sites it views to default format into something similar to a mobile version view) do give some other options. Yet the have their weaknesses too.

I am not sure what a mobile version of A-S would do other than allow faster load times, perhaps? Personally I have found many of the mobile versions of sites I visit to not be to my taste, but then again, I am essentially on a tablet sized interface and not a phone's....

Maybe you could give more specific examples of things that bug you via the interface you are using? It is possible a switch to mobile view option would not help it....

[monster]

I sometimes visit the forum on my phone, and it would be nice not to have to zoom in and out when navigating.

[CrowKenobi]

The version of vBulletin that we're using doesn't have a mobile version (I think that vB4 and above have it).

[Fireminer]

Well, curently viewing this forum on a Nokia with 4th Symbian OS in Opera Mini. First, the BB Codes. I've to memorized them instead of pressing a button. Secondly, everytime I write something in the reply box, it takes another loading before I can send it away. And sometime it doesn't bugged to work, or even worse, erasing everything I've just written

[TheFluff]

Originally Posted by CrowKenobi

The version of vBulletin that we're using doesn't have a mobile version (I think that vB4 and above have it).

the mobile version of vb is terrible, it's ugly as shit and there's a bunch of functionality missing from the interface

get a phone with a non-retarded browser, the year is 2014 and the regular interface is perfectly fine

[MeoTwister5]

People use the stock android browser? I'm posting this one on Chrome for android. Aside from the obvious typing difficulties the forum presents perfectly fine.

[NoemiChan]

I accessed AS numerous times using Java's Opera mini. The problem is not on the site, it's on the phone. In general, it's pretty fair.

[SaintessHeart]

It is your phone and ISP.

I used my S2 and Ino on a regular basis, but other than the latter having the browser crash due to excessively large images, there isn't much of a problem.

[Wild Goose]

*shrug* I have had no major issues using the forums on my iPad and Safari (well, my derp with the touchscreen keyboard aside), but admittedly I'm using an iPad 3, which has a fairly largish screen.

Like Flower I do have issues with text selecting, but that's more to do eith the ipad than the forums and the software. At least I can still click on everything.

[Tempester]

Reading mobile versions of forums on my smartphone gives me eye cancer. I'd rather manually zoom in; I can do almost everything except make tl;dr replies with ASuki's normal interface.

[DonQuigleone]

The major requirements, as I see them:

*Make buttons larger
*Make interface scale better.

In general, for mobile avatars should be eliminated, and text should be scaled appropriately so that you don't need to zoom in and out all the time, and so just scroll up/down through the replies. Likewise the reply screen should be like composing an email/ text, and not require scrolling/zooming around.

I'm not sure what would work best beyond that though...

[Kotohono]

Originally Posted by DonQuigleone

The major requirements, as I see them:

*Make buttons larger
*Make interface scale better.

In general, for mobile avatars should be eliminated, and text should be scaled appropriately so that you don't need to zoom in and out all the time, and so just scroll up/down through the replies. Likewise the reply screen should be like composing an email/ text, and not require scrolling/zooming around.

I'm not sure what would work best beyond that though...

You can manually disable avatars/sigs if you plan to use mobile a lot under edit options from the user CP.

[Rokumonsen]

Is it possible for the forum to switch to the latest version of vB so it can provide better mobile support?

[monster]

They've been working on it for a long time. Unfortunately, things can't always happen as quickly.

[relentlessflame]

Originally Posted by Zero-2

Is it possible for the forum to switch to the latest version of vB so it can provide better mobile support?

Originally Posted by monster

They've been working on it for a long time. Unfortunately, things can't always happen as quickly.

It was always our intention to this, but I have to say that right now we are waiting for vBulletin to make more progress with version 5 to see if it will reach some level of maturity. Given that all of our plugins/customizations would have to be rewritten, we decided it wasn't worth it to upgrade to 4, and then have to start over with 5. But right now, 5 is not ready yet, and alternatives we considered would mean losing functionality. So, we're going to stick with what we have for a while longer.

To that end, if we were going to do something for this, the best approach would probably be to add a new skin that has some of the properties DonQuigleone mentioned so requires less zooming on mobile devices. Since it would be just a skin like the others, we wouldn't lose any functionality, but people would have to switch to that skin when using the site on a mobile device if they want to (it wouldn't necessarily auto-detect unless we add/develop another plugin).

In principle I may be able to try making some minor tweaks to the current skin to see what can be done at a minimum to improve things, but making/finding all new buttons would be a fair bit more work. May be able to do some "ugly scaling" as an interim step just to get things started. Anyway, I'll try messing with it a bit and seeing what happens, but no promises... (Also, I should say that I can test iOS and Android to some degree, but no guarantees about other mobile browsers or less popular platforms...)

[monster]

Originally Posted by relentlessflame

(Also, I should say that I can test iOS and Android to some degree, but no guarantees about other mobile browsers or less popular platforms...)

Understandable, but please, just try not to use webkit-only features.

Anyway, thanks for the effort.

[SeijiSensei]

In principle I may be able to try making some minor tweaks to the current skin to see what can be done at a minimum to improve things, but making/finding all new buttons would be a fair bit more work. May be able to do some "ugly scaling" as an interim step just to get things started.

Enlarging the buttons would be nice, but a larger font would be a good first step. If I open a forum on my S3 phone, I see lots of small, hard-to-read entries. I'd prefer a double-sized font that would display fewer items but more legibly. However, accommodating the right-hand column as well is not obvious.

[Kotohono]

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

Enlarging the buttons would be nice, but a larger font would be a good first step. If I open a forum on my S3 phone, I see lots of small, hard-to-read entries. I'd prefer a double-sized font that would display fewer items but more legibly. However, accommodating the right-hand column as well is not obvious.

There should be some way to change text size thru your browser on it, since on computer browsers you can ctrl + mousewheel to increase or decrease text size, I'd imagine it has similar functions on the mobile, but I don't use it, so I don't know the command.

[SeijiSensei]

Sure, I can zoom the screen with a gesture. It's just that I end up spending a lot of time zooming in to read the smaller print or enlarge the targets, then zooming out to see the whole article. As a result, I generally just stick to the computer for the Forum.