Problems with The Forum during upgrade - August 2014

[Admin]

Shock, horror! What's happened to the Forum (its appearing as a list type thing on my phone) & why can't I change it back? (to responsive style).

Whilst I have been "fiddling", I haven't done anything to the styling used.

Am I right in thinking that you use Opera Mini browser, littleme? If so, it will be due to the way that it works, I'm afraid (it doesn't show you websites directly; it compresses them via Opera's servers to try and speed your viewing up, but it can mess things up along the way).

Unless, of course, you used a non-standard style, in which case I did delete some old, redundant ones. Try clicking here to choose a new one: http://www.staffordforum.com/xf/index.php?misc/style

Hopefully your problem will just be temporary, until Opera's parser catches up. Otherwise, the upgrade in a few days should help.

 

[Lucy]

Same with me, I used the old style still on my phone as I could see what had been posted in forums without entering them.

 

[Admin]

Same with me, I used the old style still on my phone as I could see what had been posted in forums without entering them.

Ah, apologies; I didn't realise that anyone used the old styles. I have been doing some housecleaning, and removing unused/deprecated bits and pieces in order to ease the upcoming upgrade process.

If you could bear with the currently available style, you should find the new one to your liking. I am hoping to upgrade this weekend.

If anyone notices any other strange behaviour, please report it in this thread.

Thanks.

 

[Gramaisc]

If anyone notices any other strange behaviour, please report it in this thread.

Mmmm, that probably should have said something more specific - like.....

If anyone notices any other strange behaviour of the Forum's operating system, please report it in this thread.

It'll just be full of weirdos, otherwise - if it isn't anyway..

 

[proactive]

If anyone notices any other strange behaviour, please report it in this thread.

Can I report John Marwood then

 

[Gramaisc]

Can I report John Marwood then

See?

 

[Admin]

I can neither confirm nor deny if the upgrade will include the latest version of John Marwood 2.0

 

[proactive]

Two of them!!!

Bloody hell...

 

[littleme]

It must be Opera (yes its me that uses Opera).
Both of the styles on the link appear the same, & the 'Old, no longer supported' style isn't there anymore I'll just have to grin & bare it till Opera catch up...

 

[Admin]

It must be Opera (yes its me that uses Opera).
Both of the styles on the link appear the same, & the 'Old, no longer supported' style isn't there anymore I'll just have to grin & bare it till Opera catch up...

There should only be one style to choose from now.

I could go ahead and upgrade The Forum now, if people want? It would mean closing it for an hour or so, and once it comes back it wouldn't look very fancy, but all the functionality would be there and it should be more stable & compatible.

 

[age'd parent]

Well I'm not going to take the blame for saying yes now!

 

[Gramaisc]

yes

 

[littleme]

Noooooo, don't do it on account of me moaning!

I'm going to try my phones real browser, maybe it'll work differently on that....

 

[littleme]

Noooooo, don't do it on account of me moaning!

I'm going to try my phones real browser, maybe it'll work differently on that....

Aghhhhh, exactly the same...

 

[proactive]

Aghhhhh, exactly the same...

What phone have you got, because it's working fine on a whole selection of old phones of mine I've just tried.

 

[littleme]

working fine on a whole selection of old phones of mine I've just tried.

But probably not as old & crap as my LG E400.....

Its fine, I'll get over it, its just showing as list & not as an actual webpage with everything on as it used too...

 

[proactive]

But probably not as old & crap as my LG E400.....

Its fine, I'll get over it, its just showing as list & not as an actual webpage with everything on as it used too...

Can you not download Google Chrome for it from the App Store? Or if your software won't download that then how about Dolphin Browser, which is almost as good. If you can get either of those installed (Dolphin works with pretty much any version of Android) then it really will transform you browsing experience.

 

[John Marwood]

My coffee appears to have run oit

 

[Withnail]

So it has - i didn't like it anyway but each to their own etc.

 

[Admin]

But probably not as old & crap as my LG E400.....

Its fine, I'll get over it, its just showing as list & not as an actual webpage with everything on as it used too...

Ah, I think what has actually happened is that you were using an old, deprecated style, which has now been deleted, so what you are seeing is the usual style that most other people see and is completely normal - which, if you're not used to it, will seem very strange!

This is how it should look on a mobile device (an iPhone 5 in this case):



When this style was initially conceived, responsive web design was still a new thing, and it seemed like a good idea at the time. Times have moved on, however, and whilst the whole web has now moved to become responsive, lessons have been learned along the way and I am now of the opinion that The Forum's default style leaves a lot to be desired. So that will be one of the things to go in the new version! Everyone should see a more "normal" forum layout, which is still responsive and will adapt to your device, but it will not hide key parts of information, or bury things in menus as it currently does.