Hi, a couple thoughts here. First, thanks to timothy for reaching out like this - it's the result of the #fuckbeta protest, so good job to everybody. But if we have a better avenue for communicating our concerns then we can tone down the protesting I think. At least maybe not destroy the comment threads any more.
My biggest concern for the beta is it seems to destroy the tools needed for a robust commenting and conversation, including notification of new posts, easy ways to quote prior posts, easy way to lin
My biggest concern is that frankly, the beta just plain sucks. It sucks in every single possible way. I get that they're saying it isn't ready, but the concern for many of us isn't just that the beta is just bloody horrible now, but that the direction its going suggests that it will never be an adequate replacement for the current "classic" Slashdot.
If Slashdot wants to do something, they should take a step back and fix the mobile site. Then people will have confidence that they can make the beta site work.
If Slashdot wants to do something, they should take a step back and fix the mobile site. Then people will have confidence that they can make the beta site work.
Oh, yeah, the mobile site. I recommend it gets the same treatment as the Beta. Shitcan them both.
Today's mobiles can handle the full site. Even small phones handle it just fine. There is no reason to have the mobile site any more. Scrap it all.
(Well, maybe there is this one guy still using Lynx or something. He needs to man up and install X).
Agree. We finally are getting to the point where everybody is taking mobile seriously and putting up mobile versions of everything. This is just in time so that I can figure out how to override this on each site so that my tablet doesn't have buttons that are 8 inches wide. Back when I was trying to browse on a feature phone I had to try to navigate mazes full of frames...
What makes them worse than useless is simply that they are not used as an addition but as a replacement since "everyone's going mobile these days". Possibly everyone has a mobile device, but I sure as hell don't want to browse a page "optimized for mobile" on a desktop computer. It's about as bad as using a mobile OS on a desktop computer.
I would strongly urge the management of Slashdot to take heed of the lessons taught by the fall of Digg after the 4.0 changes and the concurrent rise of Reddit, or for those who game online, the fall of Star Wars Galaxies after the forced introduction of the New Game Enhancements.
In short, forcing unwanted changes on your users is never a good idea. You risk losing your current user base who are happy with Slashdot the way it is. If your users wanted the more "polished" look you are now pushing, the
5-digiter here and avid reader since nearly the beginning. Few comments since there are far smarter people in the forum than me.:) I have to agree with keeping the old site (to me, this is actually a new site compared to the original). The current site is cleaner, leaner, and easier.
1. Comments are king. We can get the stories anywhere. 2. See #1. More whitespace = less comments we can get to. Kill the overkill on whitespace. 3. See #1. Eye-candy = more noise-to-signal. To paraphrase James Carville,
Oh, yeah, the mobile site. I recommend it gets the same treatment as the Beta. Shitcan them both.
Today's mobiles can handle the full site. Even small phones handle it just fine. There is no reason to have the mobile site any more. Scrap it all.
Sorry but I cannot disagree more. Well I could. We can all agree that Beta is an abomination, however Slashdot needs a mobile site as the current site is horrendously broken on a mobile.
It's not a case of not being able to run or not having the grunt, but the tied comment system combined with a classically 9:16 vertical layout of many smartphones leads to comments becoming unreadable only a few comments deep. Combined with the fact that a mobile interface should never EVER waste horizontal screen space, whi
What about the rest of the complaints? I mentioned several. But why I don't I go through the process of posting something and describe what I see:
I just loaded up slashdot on a phone and the story takes LESS than half the width of the page as the bars left and right are at their minimum. No surprise that's how the style is set up, the story is dynamic and the left and right is fixed width.
So now I just clicked on the world's tiniest read button, after two clicks it brought up the loupe so I could click on it properly with some accuracy. Having the buttons the same size as a microscopic font is not good practice for a mobile device.
After more battling with clicking on tiny posts I'm now I'm 6 posts deep and your comment takes up less than half the page. Again, we bitch and moan about white space on Beta, but for some reason it's ok to waste half of the very valuable (on the phone) horizontal screen space?
So I hit reply, and the phone zooms on the comment box, except that the browser gets it wrong (this is actually not a problem in Firefox but is in Chrome) and it's zoomed too far. Now as I'm typing I can't see the sentence in one go. No matter I keep typing anyway.
Then I hit preview.... the comment box doubles in vertical size, so something happened....... and.... I hit preview again and THEN it correctly loads the preview. Except for some reason the preview text is in tiny font whereas the +5 comment below it looks like size 72 font.
I didn't hit submit, my story ends here, but it's the same every time. It's also the same on the Nexus 7 as it is on the Galaxy S4. Not a very good experience on the most popular mobile browser in current use.
If you're happy, great. I'm not. Slashdot classic even if the code wasn't broken somewhat is great for a desktop but horrid on a mobile. One of the reasons I greatly prefer to use RSS to read the stories.
I have this exact problem using opera mobile on my S3. It's nit terribly bad if I hold my phone landscape, but all hell breaks loose the second I switch to portrait.
Slashdot classic even if the code wasn't broken somewhat is great for a desktop but horrid on a mobile.
If you have a web server with cgi/perl support somewhere, you can try installing this:
Avantslash [avantslash.org]. The main page loads in 33 kB and a typical comments page is below 100 kB at threshold 2. And it is optimized for efficient use of screen real-estate and low CPU demands. Works even on my ancient Nokia N82 (2008-era, 64 MB internal memory).
The classic site is horrendously broken on mobile Firefox (tiny fonts, bad alignments) but it looks pretty good on every other browser. I think it's due part to webkit-optimized css and part to design choices made by the FF team (the default font doesn't look good on any modern site).
Oh, yeah, the mobile site.
I recommend it gets the same treatment as the Beta. Shitcan them both.
I've been reading Slashdot on my mobile using AvantSlash [avantslash.org] for many many years. It's sole reason for living is so that I don't have to try and use the official mobile site.
I just wanted to say thanks for signposting AvantSlash, it looks interesting.
I really dislike the mobile interface and the classic interface on mobile is unusable because I have to scroll right and left to actually read anything.
When I get some spare time to set it up I'll give it a try.
The problem I have with the mobile site is that my phone just can't handle it. It is slow slow as to be completely unusable. The desktop site runs fine though.
Shouldn't a mobile site be more lightweight than the desktop site? It seems that reverse is actually true.
Today's mobiles can handle the full site. Even small phones handle it just fine.
Not in my experience.
On the home page the classic site wastes too much width with pointless side bars on my S3. On the comments pages the left sidebar wastes too much space. Many of the menu links are just too damn small on my phone to be useful.
Ok, many of these problems can be solved with lots of zooming in and out but that is quite difficult when trying to use your phone one handed while clinging on for dear life on mass transit.
Ok, many of these problems can be solved with lots of zooming in and out but that is quite difficult when trying to use your phone one handed while clinging on for dear life on mass transit.
I _am_ still using text `links` and like it very much thank you. `lynx` I reluctantly abandoned many years ago when it would not do frames. The new JS site browses just fine, don't know about posting.
FWIW, I do have X installed, but try to avoid running it. When I do, it is mostly to open xterms. I vastly prefer my CLI but really don't want to convert anyone. I'm secure in my manhood and choices.
As for mobile site, I believe the biggest concern is not CPU but screen resolution. Many phone displays hav
> There is no reason to have the mobile site any more.
Hmm. Sounds good in theory but Chrome/Android has had this bug for years where is just cannot render text at the correct size. It tries to be clever, but because everything Google does is half-arsed/beta, it fails, so reading Slashdot on my phone is tedious as every 5th story headline is too small to read. Add that to the fact that Google seem to have taken a decision to not wrap text, because they're convinced there'll be a mobile version o every s
Why? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Cue the flood of flame . . .
Re: (Score:5, Insightful)
Hi, a couple thoughts here. First, thanks to timothy for reaching out like this - it's the result of the #fuckbeta protest, so good job to everybody. But if we have a better avenue for communicating our concerns then we can tone down the protesting I think. At least maybe not destroy the comment threads any more.
My biggest concern for the beta is it seems to destroy the tools needed for a robust commenting and conversation, including notification of new posts, easy ways to quote prior posts, easy way to lin
Re: (Score:5, Insightful)
My biggest concern is that frankly, the beta just plain sucks. It sucks in every single possible way. I get that they're saying it isn't ready, but the concern for many of us isn't just that the beta is just bloody horrible now, but that the direction its going suggests that it will never be an adequate replacement for the current "classic" Slashdot.
Re: (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Why? (Score:5, Insightful)
If Slashdot wants to do something, they should take a step back and fix the mobile site. Then people will have confidence that they can make the beta site work.
Oh, yeah, the mobile site.
I recommend it gets the same treatment as the Beta. Shitcan them both.
Today's mobiles can handle the full site. Even small phones handle it just fine.
There is no reason to have the mobile site any more.
Scrap it all.
(Well, maybe there is this one guy still using Lynx or something. He needs to man up and install X).
Re: (Score:2)
Hey I browse with w3m regularly (whenever AMD or Ubuntu decide to bork my graphic driver) and it displays alright at least in classic.
Re:Why? (Score:5, Interesting)
Hey, I am quite happy with my slashdot.org/palm on Lynx, thank you very much!
Re: (Score:2)
The palm site does work pretty darn well...
Re: (Score:2)
I agree. Install Firefox Mobile with the Phony extension. Then select "Desktop Firefox" for the User Agent. Soooo much better. :)
Re: (Score:2)
There is no reason to have the mobile site any more.
So true, for pretty much every site
Re:Why? (Score:4, Insightful)
Agree. We finally are getting to the point where everybody is taking mobile seriously and putting up mobile versions of everything. This is just in time so that I can figure out how to override this on each site so that my tablet doesn't have buttons that are 8 inches wide. Back when I was trying to browse on a feature phone I had to try to navigate mazes full of frames...
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Why? (Score:5, Interesting)
What makes them worse than useless is simply that they are not used as an addition but as a replacement since "everyone's going mobile these days". Possibly everyone has a mobile device, but I sure as hell don't want to browse a page "optimized for mobile" on a desktop computer. It's about as bad as using a mobile OS on a desktop computer.
Dont force your users (Score:2)
I would strongly urge the management of Slashdot to take heed of the lessons taught by the fall of Digg after the 4.0 changes and the concurrent rise of Reddit, or for those who game online, the fall of Star Wars Galaxies after the forced introduction of the New Game Enhancements.
In short, forcing unwanted changes on your users is never a good idea. You risk losing your current user base who are happy with Slashdot the way it is. If your users wanted the more "polished" look you are now pushing, the
Re: (Score:3)
5-digiter here and avid reader since nearly the beginning. Few comments since there are far smarter people in the forum than me. :) I have to agree with keeping the old site (to me, this is actually a new site compared to the original). The current site is cleaner, leaner, and easier.
1. Comments are king. We can get the stories anywhere.
2. See #1. More whitespace = less comments we can get to. Kill the overkill on whitespace.
3. See #1. Eye-candy = more noise-to-signal. To paraphrase James Carville,
Re: (Score:2)
Today's mobiles can handle the full site. Even small phones handle it just fine. There is no reason to have the mobile site any more.
MONETIZA-
Oh, you mean a reason for users to use a mobile site.
Nevermind.
Re: (Score:2)
Oh, yeah, the mobile site.
I recommend it gets the same treatment as the Beta. Shitcan them both.
Today's mobiles can handle the full site. Even small phones handle it just fine.
There is no reason to have the mobile site any more.
Scrap it all.
Sorry but I cannot disagree more. Well I could. We can all agree that Beta is an abomination, however Slashdot needs a mobile site as the current site is horrendously broken on a mobile.
It's not a case of not being able to run or not having the grunt, but the tied comment system combined with a classically 9:16 vertical layout of many smartphones leads to comments becoming unreadable only a few comments deep. Combined with the fact that a mobile interface should never EVER waste horizontal screen space, whi
Re: (Score:2)
Really? Cuz this post is 6 levels deep and I have no problems using the stock browser ons an HTC One X.
Just not a problem.
Re:Why? (Score:5, Insightful)
What about the rest of the complaints? I mentioned several. But why I don't I go through the process of posting something and describe what I see:
I just loaded up slashdot on a phone and the story takes LESS than half the width of the page as the bars left and right are at their minimum. No surprise that's how the style is set up, the story is dynamic and the left and right is fixed width.
So now I just clicked on the world's tiniest read button, after two clicks it brought up the loupe so I could click on it properly with some accuracy. Having the buttons the same size as a microscopic font is not good practice for a mobile device.
After more battling with clicking on tiny posts I'm now I'm 6 posts deep and your comment takes up less than half the page. Again, we bitch and moan about white space on Beta, but for some reason it's ok to waste half of the very valuable (on the phone) horizontal screen space?
So I hit reply, and the phone zooms on the comment box, except that the browser gets it wrong (this is actually not a problem in Firefox but is in Chrome) and it's zoomed too far. Now as I'm typing I can't see the sentence in one go. No matter I keep typing anyway.
Then I hit preview.... the comment box doubles in vertical size, so something happened....... and.... I hit preview again and THEN it correctly loads the preview. Except for some reason the preview text is in tiny font whereas the +5 comment below it looks like size 72 font.
I didn't hit submit, my story ends here, but it's the same every time. It's also the same on the Nexus 7 as it is on the Galaxy S4. Not a very good experience on the most popular mobile browser in current use.
If you're happy, great. I'm not. Slashdot classic even if the code wasn't broken somewhat is great for a desktop but horrid on a mobile. One of the reasons I greatly prefer to use RSS to read the stories.
So now I click reply
Re: (Score:2)
Slashdot on mobile (Score:2)
If you have a web server with cgi/perl support somewhere, you can try installing this: Avantslash [avantslash.org]. The main page loads in 33 kB and a typical comments page is below 100 kB at threshold 2. And it is optimized for efficient use of screen real-estate and low CPU demands. Works even on my ancient Nokia N82 (2008-era, 64 MB internal memory).
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I've been reading Slashdot on my mobile using AvantSlash [avantslash.org] for many many years. It's sole reason for living is so that I don't have to try and use the official mobile site.
Maybe it's worth a look?
Re: (Score:2)
I just wanted to say thanks for signposting AvantSlash, it looks interesting.
I really dislike the mobile interface and the classic interface on mobile is unusable because I have to scroll right and left to actually read anything.
When I get some spare time to set it up I'll give it a try.
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:0)
Classic is just fine on my Nokia N900. The beta crawls along. I fucking hate beta. I'm considering a page scraping script. Oh. Dear.
Re: (Score:2)
Today's mobiles can handle the full site. Even small phones handle it just fine.
Not in my experience.
On the home page the classic site wastes too much width with pointless side bars on my S3.
On the comments pages the left sidebar wastes too much space.
Many of the menu links are just too damn small on my phone to be useful.
Ok, many of these problems can be solved with lots of zooming in and out but that is quite difficult when trying to use your phone one handed while clinging on for dear life on mass transit.
Re: (Score:2)
Ok, many of these problems can be solved with lots of zooming in and out but that is quite difficult when trying to use your phone one handed while clinging on for dear life on mass transit.
Ah, you must be my bus driver!
Re: (Score:2)
I _am_ still using text `links` and like it very much thank you. `lynx` I reluctantly abandoned many years ago when it would not do frames. The new JS site browses just fine, don't know about posting.
FWIW, I do have X installed, but try to avoid running it. When I do, it is mostly to open xterms. I vastly prefer my CLI but really don't want to convert anyone. I'm secure in my manhood and choices.
As for mobile site, I believe the biggest concern is not CPU but screen resolution. Many phone displays hav
Re: (Score:0)
> (Well, maybe there is this one guy still using Lynx or something. He needs to man up and install X).
Pfft - I think you just illegitmized your comments credibility here :D
Re: (Score:1)
> There is no reason to have the mobile site any more.
Hmm. Sounds good in theory but Chrome/Android has had this bug for years where is just cannot render text at the correct size. It tries to be clever, but because everything Google does is half-arsed/beta, it fails, so reading Slashdot on my phone is tedious as every 5th story headline is too small to read. Add that to the fact that Google seem to have taken a decision to not wrap text, because they're convinced there'll be a mobile version o every s