Forum from Phone

[The Dude]

I will start this by saying in no way is this a dig on this place or things as they are. I am appreciative and grateful to those who make this place what it is. Just posting sort of an exploratory question(s).

There is a forum, ( kittyforums.net ), that I also visit from time to time. They appear to be using the same or similar software as MEF. What's different is that there is some sort of "interface" that makes it easier to view on my phone (android if it matters). If you can, try it on your phone and you'll see what I mean. (Ignore the initial prompt that asks you to install Tapatalk- you don't need it).

Again, I AM NOT BITCHING, just curious what it takes to accomplish this and if it's worth the trouble. I'm on the road a lot where all I have is a phone, but then maybe I'm the only one interested in this.

[ric]

Hey Dude,

I'm all for upgrading. I do this exclusively from my phone, we don't own a computer. It just doesn't seem necessary.

Wouldn't want to goof anything up though. It ain't broke so...would want to make sure it would really be an improvement.

Maybe a trial run followed by a vote to keep or go back? Have you tried "contact administrators" or whatever it is? When I have trouble and use it, I seem to just get a "form letter" response. Like with cell phones it's figure it out yourself or ask your kid!

Good luck with it.

[g1]

Confession: I was hoping for so much more from a place called "kittyforum" .

[The Dude]

Firstly, I'm not a programmer and have little idea what I'm talking about, so take this with a bucket of salt. What I'm seeing with the other forum I linked is that it is different on the phone than it is on the web. So, I don't think it's really an upgrade. From what I can tell using that as an example, nothing would change when you're on your PC or for most of the folks who come here. The best way I can describe it with my limited knowledge of this stuff is that it's simply a "sister site" that is a copy of this one only geared for a mobile format.

I really don't want to bother the administrators directly with this since it's not a huge deal- more of a convenience. If they feel it's something worth looking into great. If not, I'm good with that too. It's certainly "doable" as is on a phone, but there is much less re-sizing, larger text, etc. on other sites that have a mobile site version.

The last thing I want to do is make a boatload more work for anyone. I just thought there might be some quick plugin to add or box you check to add mobile format availability. If that's not the case, then it's probably not worth the hassle.

[DrGonz78]

Confession: I was hoping for so much more from a place called "kittyforum" .

you read kitty forum and thought of the endless possibilities... Cougar forum, Wildcat forum, Pussycat Forum...

[The Dude]

For the record, I am not fond of cats......other synonyms .

[Enzo]

I appreciate that people do, but I couldn't imagine doing this on a phone.

Of course one factor for me is I do this from work, and when I go home, there is no computer for me. And I would not be one of those nose buried in the smart phone 24/7 people.

When I come on here, I usually search up the schematic of the topic from my files and have it on screen. Then when I give someone advice based on that, I often google up some info or look through MOuser for a part number for them, and find links for them, all of which means multiple screens toggling back and forth. I don't know that I could see a schematic on such a small screen, or if I enlarged it, I'd have a small spot of circuit.


I know, I know, I am a dinosaur. People even watch movies on their phones these days. I like my movies to fill my screen on my desk. People do everything from their phones now. Our local newspaper delivered our Sunday paper without the color section, that is all the ads, the comics, and some other fluff sections. We got the news and sports part. We called them, and they said they couldn;t send out the replacement (we are weekend only, so the guy would not be back until the next weekend) so they'd credit our account. But the content...? "Oh, you can read the comics online." Sorry, that doesn;t float my boat. I don't want to go sit at my terminal (or stare at a phone for that matter) and look up the comics. And I certainly am not going to run my DSL into the bathroom for.. private reading. besides, the big sunday paper may be $2, but each week I get coupons like $10 off at Smokey Bones, $4 off at Red Lobster and Olive Garden, other local restaurants. And even lowly Dennys has a buy one entree get one free coupon. That amounts to $8 or so. And though they'd love to sell me the newspaper as online, I still like to do the crossword and number puzzles. I sure as hell am not going to print them out and do them. Besides, I don;t have a printer at home anyway.

How do you do the sunday crossword puzzle on your phone? Seriously, how?


meanwhile, since you DO use your phone for this, I hope it can be resolved for you too.

[The Dude]

Enzo,

I totally agree for the most part. A good part of my life is spent on the road as I'm still a working musician. There's a lot of down time and travel time and it's nice to have something to do to make it go faster. I figure this is as good a place as any to kill time on the web. I'm far from a phone junkie like most of the kids these days. In fact, my friends are amazed at how cheaply I get by with my phone service because of how little I use it............That, and my phone has a 5.5" screen because I'm old and blind.

[g1]

Sorry to say Dude, but I think it is probably this: vBulletin Mobile Suite - For Use with iPhone, iPad, Android
Unless you could get a group to spring for it it's probably not going to happen.

[The Dude]

Thanks for solving the mystery g-one! I believe you have something there. So it does seem to be a plugin of sorts- just not a free one!

Probably won't happen then. But, for the record, if admin is on board and there is enough interest, I'd happily chip in.

[km6xz]

MEF is not table based so it is responsive to a point, but limits the display to 600px wide or wider before scrolling is required. Very few web applications are not created to be "responsive". Responsive is the term used for having the presentation layer appearance dependent on the viewing display format. If it senses the viewer is on a phone the menus change and the layout re-configures to present the content by stacking boxes vertically that normally in a desktop would be displayed horizontally. So basically, the content is automatically rearranged so all of it is viewable on a small screen by distributing the content as a long narrow page. So technically, MEF is semi-responsive because it works well on a tablet but will require horizontal scrolling on a phone. It uses the Yahoo Javascript libraries which offer many features useful in responsive presentation.
One of the problems with converting most forums to Responsive is that most are based on tables as the main formatting element. That would have to be changed from tables to Div (divisions). But MEF is already Table-less so just changing the style sheet settings would allow narrower screen displays.
The easiest way to optimize an existing table based page to be optimized for mobile is to simply create a properly formatted table-less Mobile version. All the content would be the same since all of it comes from MySQL database. When the server detects your viewing format, it simply redirects you to the mobile version.
I noticed 18 months ago that my own business web site was visited 33% of the time, by mobile users so built a completely new site that was responsive from scratch so no redirects were needed and now I am finding that 50% of on-line bookings are either phones or tablets. This was surprising since most of our customers are between 50 and 75 years old. A site is giving up roughly 1/2 their potential audience by not being friendly to mobile devices.
I avoided even carrying my phone unless I needed to talk to someone until I got a smart phone, Galaxy 3 when it came out. Most of my web use is now on that phone. The maps, translation features, mobile skype, public transport apps( it knows where I am to within 3 meters so just tapping the map where I want to go, it generates routes to select from by choice of transportation type, tells me how long I need to wait at the bus or trolley stop it recommends, how much the fare is and alerts me when I have reached the proper disembarkation point) which is great when visiting unfamiliar cities.
Desktop computers are not selling much at all and laptops have seen a 80% drop in sales over 5 years ago. I still prefer a laptop because I use it to create content and office applications but when out and about, never take a lap top. 4G LTE is so fast, 87mb/s that there is no wait for data refreshes.

I converted one of my lesser used sites from table based to responsive by replacing tables with flexible grids that automatically rearrange when the client browser is detected to be a mobile device without any additional coding on my part. Once one gets used to the functionality of a smartphone, and has a reliable connection with good speed, their life becomes semi-dependent on it.

I am laying in bed, writing this message, preparing to go rent two bike for the day for my 50km bike date with a new favorite girl. I got home a 6am this morning from dancing and it is 08:40 now. She is quite athletic but these long rides, or all night dancing, puts her out of commission the next day. She has an excuse for not having as much energy, I have 30 years more practice in partying so.....;>) and don't do silly things like daily runs or going to the gym every day.
We are going someplace we have not been before and will not bother with looking at a map or looking up lunch spots, because the phone does that for us. There is mapping application here that is better than Google Maps because it has more information about addresses and buildings.

[The Dude]

Multiple choice:

A) I'm an idiot and didn't see this before.
B) There's something new here at MEF.
C) Both of the above.

I just discovered that this place HAS a mobile version! At the bottom left of the page, there is a box with an option for a mobile style. It's much easier to read on a phone. Some features are not there in the mobile version, but you can easily switch back. Thought I'd point this out. I hadn't seen it before. Other sites automatically take you to the mobile version if you are on a mobile device. Not the case here.

[Justin Thomas]

Thanks Dude! Just found it and it works on my Dingle I mean Kindle. Now, if I could only find the "Like" button... one thing, good, is when I try to click on a thread, it's a lot less picky about where my fingertip goes. Using Desktop, my finger always routes me to the user's profile page. This is definitely a good feature for casual browsing.

Justin

[Audiotexan]

Thanks Dude! Just found it and it works on my Dingle

(Set!) And this is just so WRONG but....(Spike!)

Sounds like prescription directions: "Apply MEF to your Dingle twice daily."


PS: Nice catch TheDude! Thanks for pointing that out!