Coming Soon: A Completely New HTF (1 Viewer)

[Citizen87645]

I really, really dislike auto mobile version and whenever possible I switch to normal view on my tablet and iphone.

This isn't "mobile version" in the traditional sense (e.g. it kicking you to a subdomain like m.hometheaterforum.com). It's all based on browser window width (or screen resolution) measured in pixels, not type of device. Consequently, even if you request the desktop version it won't do any good because there is only the one version. Another site that does this engadget.com.

Also the preview page look like there is even more unused space on the sides than there is now. Reminds me of blog view.

Where's Sam Posten to share his changed opinion on line length and page width? "Filling the screen"should only be a priority for movies, not reading words.

 

[Mike Frezon]

No OAR = No Sale!

 

[Persianimmortal]

Regarding "responsive" design, it does bother me also but it is unfortunately the way of the future. I believe Google's search algorithm even penalizes sites that don't have responsive designs. Worst case scenario, at the start of each HTF session just use the 'Request desktop site' option under the Send To menu of Safari on your iPhone or iPad.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Regarding "responsive" design, it does bother me also but it is unfortunately the way of the future. I believe Google's search algorithm even penalizes sites that don't have responsive designs. Worst case scenario, at the start of each HTF session just use the 'Request desktop site' option under the Send To menu of Safari on your iPhone or iPad.

Not sure just yet how I'll feel about HTF going "responsive" either. I do find plenty of news/blog sites where I end up reading articles and blog posts shared on FB (on my iPhone) quite annoying w/ how they seem to "respond", but most of that seem to be caused by the way they handle ad placements... although I rarely ever navigate beyond the specific articles/blog posts I wanted to see on those sites -- could be much worse if I did actually want to navigate those sites beyond the initial page hits.


I've basically given up checking HTF (and most other sites) via my iPhone's browser though -- I'm usually on a computer (whether desktop, laptop or tablet w/ at least 1280 horiz pix) or have one nearby (usually running Chrome) anyway, so...


_Man_

 

[Dave Upton]

We have been very picky about how our responsive view works because we get irritated easily too. I think it's about as fast/lightweight as possible and makes reading easier.


Rest assured, if an army of you guys wants a non-responsive theme, we will probably make one, but it would require a lot of raised hands to justify the time investment vs other things we have higher up in our "to do" list.

 

[Mark Booth]

No OAR = No Sale!

Hilarious!!


Mark

 

[Mark Booth]

We have been very picky about how our responsive view works because we get irritated easily too. I think it's about as fast/lightweight as possible and makes reading easier.

Rest assured, if an army of you guys wants a non-responsive theme, we will probably make one, but it would require a lot of raised hands to justify the time investment vs other things we have higher up in our "to do" list.

I suggest the ownership give the new site 3 months and then look back and see if participation and views have increased, decreased or stayed the same. That will tell you whether there are a lot of "raised hands" from people that aren't bothering to raise their hands.


Mark

 

[DaveF]

Dave,


Forgive me, but I don't want a "rearranged" view. I want EXACTLY the same view on my iPhone as I have on my 27" iMac. The iPhone has this miraculous feature called pinch & zoom and it allows me to quickly and effortless move around on the page.


Every site that has switched to these "rearranged" views (which is simply another way of saying a forced mobile view) are sites that I've stopped visiting. The one exception is my own photo hosting service (SmugMug) and I despise what they've done with this "rearranged" view. I am in the process of deciding on which photo hosting site to switch to so I can dump SmugMug. And I've been with SmugMug pretty much since they were founded.


Edited to add: Why not let the user/member decide which view they want to see? Why is it necessary to make it automatic? Give users/members the option to turn the automatic OFF and allow those users/members to CHOOSE which view they prefer!


Mark

For the record I don't want the same view on my 4.7" iPhone that I have on my 24" iMac. I've used the desktop HTF design on my iPhone and it's not good. The current desktop design is tolerable on my 10" iPad, but I wouldn't characterize it as particularly well suited for tablet browsing. (That said, IPB is no worse than vBulletin and better than Huddler.)



Since I'd rather use Safari than an app, I look forward to the new "responsive" design. I'm hopeful it will scale well across all screen sizes.


There's a lot of different opinions on what's usable and attractive. I don't envy the designer trying to make everyone happy.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

This is probably a dumb question, but will members need to sign up again, change passwords, make new logins or anything like that as part of the upgrade?

 

[cineMANIAC]

I like the "better layout/design" part. The current format looks like a dictionary: large blocks of text separated by the occasional sidebar sprinkled randomly throughout. Wasn't very appealing but I'm glad it's being rectified

 

[TonyD]

didn't see it asked, are there any other forums with the new format that we could look at?

 

[dvdclon]

didn't see it asked, are there any other forums with the new format that we could look at?

Here's a list from a couple years ago:


https://xenforo.com/community/threads/the-big-forum-list.26352/page-24#post-811472

 

[Tony Bensley]

Have Image upload options already been changed in anticipation of bigger ones coming? I ask this because when I attempted to upload an Image from my PC earlier this evening, I discovered that clicking on the Image icon currently only provides the URL upload option?

 

[Ken H]

I volunteer for beta testing.

 

[TonyD]

Steve Hoffman forums look ok. Some others not so much.

 

[Dave Upton]

This is probably a dumb question, but will members need to sign up again, change passwords, make new logins or anything like that as part of the upgrade?

Nope, we intend to leave all that alone if possible. We are testing that extensively to avoid these issues.

Have Image upload options already been changed in anticipation of bigger ones coming? I ask this because when I attempted to upload an Image from my PC earlier this evening, I discovered that clicking on the Image icon currently only provides the URL upload option?

Nope - this should not be the case. Is the problem ongoing?

Steve Hoffman forums look ok. Some others not so much.

Our skin for XenForo is 100% custom, so it's not really valid to compare them unfortunately. The closest example I can provide would be this one, which is closer than most to our experience: http://www.audentio.com/demo/xf/index.php?misc/style&style_id=52

 

[Tony Bensley]

Hi Dave!


In response to your above post, yes it's ongoing since Saturday, and a quick click revealed that I still have the problem.


Normally, I'd send an illustrative screenshot, except of course, in this case, I cannot!

 

[Dave Upton]

It's working for me - so i'm not sure why. Perhaps you could clear cache?

 

[Tony Bensley]

It's working for me - so i'm not sure why. Perhaps you could clear cache?

Hi Dave!


I'm actually very reluctant to do this on my Google Chrome, as I'll have a ton of Forums in which I'll have to re-enter passwords--A very time consuming process!


However, I did try the same thing regarding the Image icon in my cache free Internet Explorer, and it didn't make any difference. Since Saturday, all I get when I select Image is a single Image Properties dialogue box with a blank space beneath "URL" without any other tab which would normally have the upload from PC tab option!


Other than my cache (Which, based on my lack of success in my cache-less IE, doesn't appear to be the cause of my issue!), what are some of the other possible causes?


CHEERS!


Tony

 

[Dave Upton]

Tony - that issue should be resolved now.


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