Hi,
is there an option to switch to a page layout better suited for mobile phones?
Couldn’t find one.
The Drupal theme this site is using is so old that it probably predates mobile phones 
Not having a ‘mobile friendly’ layout forced on me is one of the things I really like about this forum. I’ll never understand how hidden menus, large text, and increased scrolling is better. Prime examples of what I mean are facebook and ebay mobile sites.
I would rather like to choose.
I come on here on my iPhone - but only to view new posts. Not read them, just see which have been updated. Then I’ll read them at home on my tablet. But its no drama, I find reading websites on a wee 4” screen a real pain even if they are mobile friendly.
Did I say anything about denying choice? No, I didn’t. I stated “I” appreciate not having it forced on me. The problem with ‘mobile friendly’ sites as I see it is the fact that users aren’t offered a setting to choose which version they prefer.
This site:
is supposed to work for mobile and non-mobile devices alike.
I actually prefer BLF's Drupal, but I never surf the web on a mobile device. ;)
It’s certainly possible to have a site and let the user choose his/her preferred layout.
On my iPad mini, this site is quite navigable as is. I’ve seen much worse. It’s a bit more cramped on a 5” phone screen, but doable.
The CPF app is a nice way to view their site on a smalle screen device, but overall I much prefer to use my iPad mini and a full desktop version of the site. Posting replies is easier as well since the reply box formats properly and fits on the screen in portrait mode too.
That being said, it is not uncommon for sites to be what is called “adaptive” and to detect what device you are using as well as your screen resolution, and then to size the site content accordingly. Our web devs at work just did this to our corporate site last year. It also increases your ranking within search engines such as Google.
There are a great many sites that prompt you to choose desktop or mobile format when loading, or at least give you an URL to choose one over the other.
Sites which adapt to the viewport size are called “responsive” and you are right that Google recently started down-ranking sites it doesn’t consider to be mobile friendly, which is the same effect as up-ranking the mobile friendly sites.
Here is their testing tool:
Yeah, sorry about the lack of support for mobile devices. Very soon I’ll be forced to upgrade to the next major version of this forum engine, and then I’ll see what options we have for mobile.
Woaaah fella. Pretty sure he was simply voicing his preference. As are you.
Agree
Well maybe you are right, but most mobile sites have the tendency to give you the choice several times and starting out in m. by default.
Ever since my first phone with internet and touchscreen (oh the good old G1 with 5 row qwerty keyboard, never found a better phone sigh) refused to use a mobile site, sites that do not offer the option for desktop site is just avoid.
I like this format but I dumb-phone so it doesn’t matter to me as long as it’s a nice PC format too.
I think the real problem is that smartphone development hasn’t been designed to work with what the rest of the world already has in place. My logic: There’s nothing wrong with the websites; they work fine with everything but phones so the phones should be what is changed, not the rest of the world. It’s their self-created problem, not everyone elses!
But like I said, as long as it’s nice on my PC I don’t care. Carry on, I certainly do!
Phil
I use the site pretty much exclusively on a smartphone,find it works great and far better than many other sites that are supposedly mobile friendly and constantly override any attempt to view as desktop on a mobile device, sites like ebay or banggood or even ali express which defaults to mobile and Russian friendly, which is probably great if your Russian, I’m not, so have pretty much stopped using that site
That was probably true several years ago as the “smartphone revolution” was just taking off but that’s really not the case anymore. Everything can work together in a cohesive way. Any website that redirects you to a “m.whatever” version, either by choice or automatically, is now doing it the old-fashioned way. Good mobile-friendly sites today use CSS rules to adapt the layout based on the viewport size. This is better for the developer because it means they only have to maintain one version of the site, but its usually better for the user too because the site can be written to optimize itself based on whatever size screen its on, not just for two generalized ideals - desktop and mobile - while ignoring the fact that not all mobile screens are the same size. Its generally referred to as “responsive design”, because the website responds to how the user is trying to view it.
I’ll be honest, the lack of proper mobile support really hindered my initial involvement in this site. It took me a while hanging out here to realize that the community is so good that’s its worth putting up with using the unresponsive site in a mobile browser and just spend lots of time pinch-n-zooming and scrolling around. Its workable and the people and information here is worth the hassle. But I too hope to see better mobile support soon. Drupal fully supports responsive themes, but I do realize how much backlash would come from the community by a big change like that. I don’t envy SB’s position on this one.
Doh! You’re right… “responsive”. I don’t always listen when the web dude talks… I’m a network/server/security guy. So when they get around to talking code and web site design, I check out.
Thanks for the correction.
Hmm that will be interesting.
In regards to mobile, I (mostly) like how it is now. I like the layout of everything and I think it’s easy to find and doesn’t have any major glitches on my smartphone. The only thing I would like better is if we could add some kind view-port adjustment as described above. Otherwise I think it’s good. I spend probably 70% of my BLF time on my phone. I really only use desktop if I’m already working on something else on my computer, or if I need to post something with a lot of text and/or multiple pictures (and that’s more of a keyboard limitation, not a site limitation).
So I’m hoping when you’re forced to update that the format stays mostly the same.
Yes, to say the least. Drupal upgrades are not fun. I’ll have to roll out functionality bit by bit, because it will require me to completely re-create major features that we know and enjoy on BLF, such as receiving only one email notification until you return to the thread, and the community moderated spam control. So first it will be the new core upgrade with just reading and posting. Then bit by bit I’ll re-introduce the niceties as time permits.
The upgrade is mainly necessitated by the closing support window for the old Drupal 6 engine we’re currently running on, not to add new features or change the look. There’s no immediate risk, but as time goes on it could leave us vulnerable to security exploits since they will stop auditing and fixing the software. So I’ll try to keep change and disruption to a minimum.