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Question: who uses the site on a mobile device?

Posted: Sat Feb 25, 2012 4:18 pm
by JediTricks
Hey there gang. I was wondering if anybody here is using TFV on a mobile device: iphone, android phone, tablet, or similar type of device.

I ask because our current "spoiler" system is a hover-based system that doesn't work on touchscreen devices, I created it when the iphone was still fairly uncommon, and the ipad hadn't even been invented. I could create an alternate system where a button-press shows the spoiler text, but it won't be as simple as the current system.

Also, if there are mobile users, are there any areas we should address for the mobile experience?

Re: Question: who uses the site on a mobile device?

Posted: Sat Feb 25, 2012 6:54 pm
by Shockwave
I sometimes reply via my Droid X and I haven't really had any problems that weren't user error. As for the spoiler tags, I always mouse over them anyway so for me that's kind of a moot point anyway.

Re: Question: who uses the site on a mobile device?

Posted: Sun Feb 26, 2012 9:38 am
by Dominic
I used to use my (T-Mobile) phone to go online before getting ride of my data plan.

Dom

Re: Question: who uses the site on a mobile device?

Posted: Sun Feb 26, 2012 1:00 pm
by JediTricks
Dominic wrote:I used to use my (T-Mobile) phone to go online before getting ride of my data plan.

Dom
Do you remember any specific issues? Were you bothered by the lack of use of the spoiler text?

Hmm, I may be able to hybrid the system I had in mind to make the spoilers work, turning the entire spoilerized text into a link that doesn't go anywhere, and putting an onclick event-change into the javascript to force a permanent change. That might be a little more seamless, and allow for the existing hover to work. I'll need to give this more thought, and could use more input.

Re: Question: who uses the site on a mobile device?

Posted: Mon Feb 27, 2012 7:19 am
by Onslaught Six
From my limited experiences, you can still highlight text on most mobile devices, yeah? That could work just as well. In fact, that's how
Spoiler
4chan
does their spoilers.

I have a dumbphone so I don't browse the site mobilely, and have no real intentions of doing so. The kind of mass, in-depth discussion we tend to lean towards doesn't lend itself well to the format.

Re: Question: who uses the site on a mobile device?

Posted: Mon Feb 27, 2012 10:45 am
by Dominic
I believe that I dropped the data plan before you introduced spoiler text.

I do recall not being able to read quote boxes or being able to send private messages. I could read them, but not send them.


Dom
-hope that helps.

Re: Question: who uses the site on a mobile device?

Posted: Mon Feb 27, 2012 2:38 pm
by 138 Scourge
I'll get on here from my phone fairly regularly. It's pretty easy to check the site, not so easy to reply to stuff, but that's an issue with my phone, not the site.

The spoilers are always visible on my phone, but it's not something that's ever bothered me. If I don't want to find out spoilers about something, I'll stay out of that topic anyway.

Re: Question: who uses the site on a mobile device?

Posted: Tue Feb 28, 2012 5:30 pm
by JediTricks
Onslaught Six wrote:From my limited experiences, you can still highlight text on most mobile devices, yeah? That could work just as well. In fact, that's how
Spoiler
4chan
does their spoilers.

I have a dumbphone so I don't browse the site mobilely, and have no real intentions of doing so. The kind of mass, in-depth discussion we tend to lean towards doesn't lend itself well to the format.
You can highlight on a smartphone, but without copy-pasting it into another text area, you can't see what you're highlighting.

Dominic wrote:I believe that I dropped the data plan before you introduced spoiler text.

I do recall not being able to read quote boxes or being able to send private messages. I could read them, but not send them.


Dom
-hope that helps.
Hmm, probably because your phone was running a very limited mobile browser that was missing compliant standards, or possibly didn't have the power to render the simple javascript components of the forms, which made them not render the form itself. I sort of remember using the site on my old non-smartphone but I don't remember the experience.

138 Scourge wrote:I'll get on here from my phone fairly regularly. It's pretty easy to check the site, not so easy to reply to stuff, but that's an issue with my phone, not the site.

The spoilers are always visible on my phone, but it's not something that's ever bothered me. If I don't want to find out spoilers about something, I'll stay out of that topic anyway.
What kind of phone? I might be able to dump a mobile skin option into the site which would have a simpler reply form field.

The spoilers are always visible??? Now I'm very curious what kind of phone it is. Does it show them in a different color or at all differently from the regular content? The code used to hide the spoiler text is very simple, even an older mobile browser should be able to handle that, depending of course on how old the phone is.

Re: Question: who uses the site on a mobile device?

Posted: Tue Feb 28, 2012 7:18 pm
by 138 Scourge
I use a Pantech Reveal. It is a couple years old, and not a smartphone. Still, does good enough for most internet browsing. The only thing it's useless for is if I want to look at an image, like, say, a webcomic, because my screen's so small, and some types of images just don't zoom on the thing.

Appreciate the offer of finding a different mobile interface, but it really is my phone that makes it harder to reply. It's just old, has led a rugged life, and some of the keys have gotten kind of fidgety. I'm likely to go smartphone in the next few months anyway, so it's no biggie. Plus, when I'm checking the site from my phone, I'm usually just checking things at work while I'm on a break, so I probably don't have proper time to reply in most cases anyway. Either way, problem's on this end, not that one.

As for the spoiler text, it'll show up on the screen as a black bar with white text inside it. Odd, but again, if I'm not looking for a spoiler, I'm not likely to go into that thread in the first place.

Re: Question: who uses the site on a mobile device?

Posted: Tue Feb 28, 2012 8:39 pm
by JediTricks
138 Scourge wrote:I use a Pantech Reveal. It is a couple years old, and not a smartphone. Still, does good enough for most internet browsing. The only thing it's useless for is if I want to look at an image, like, say, a webcomic, because my screen's so small, and some types of images just don't zoom on the thing.

Appreciate the offer of finding a different mobile interface, but it really is my phone that makes it harder to reply. It's just old, has led a rugged life, and some of the keys have gotten kind of fidgety. I'm likely to go smartphone in the next few months anyway, so it's no biggie. Plus, when I'm checking the site from my phone, I'm usually just checking things at work while I'm on a break, so I probably don't have proper time to reply in most cases anyway. Either way, problem's on this end, not that one.

As for the spoiler text, it'll show up on the screen as a black bar with white text inside it. Odd, but again, if I'm not looking for a spoiler, I'm not likely to go into that thread in the first place.
Heh, ok, I see why your phone is doing that, the Reveal has an HTML browser but it's recognizing the black-on-black non-readability and TRYING TO HELP YOU. :p It thinks you want to read that text and it is trying to overcome any limitations it might have which it encountered by inverting the text color. Great, so now I'm fighting robot-"human nature". :p I don't know if the phone is compliant enough to hide the spoiler text on my next idea, I don't have a phone or emulator for a dumbphone right now, but it might, I'll give you a test page to try it out:

http://www.tfviews.com/test.htm

Please LMK what does and what doesn't work. If you see links for both "Show spoiler" and "Hide spoiler" at the same time, then it's doomed.