Mobile friendly site theme please!!!

[BillButNotBen]

I guess you know your site stats, but personally these days I read the site/feed a lot more on my phone than on a PC. And the site really doesn't scale well (or at all) to a mobile device. It's been asked for a few times in the feedback thread, but it's been a year or so now and I thought it was time to give it it's own thread.

There are some (inconvenient) ways to try and get round the issue, like instapaper or google mobile sites, but they all have flaws. They tend to remove the comments (which are often helpful) or cause problems with the images.

I'm sure there must be a mobile option for the forum as well.

It really makes it very hard work to read at the moment, which takes half the fun out of it!

[ianjones]

what mobile browser you using, i think it works cracking on mobile safari? But i did try it on a blackberry 9700....

[Heliocentric]

I use opera mini with images off and without "single column view" without any difficulty. In fact I load threads on the forums and articles on the main Page on new tabs, as many as 8 tabs without bother.

[BillButNotBen]

Doesn't really matter which browser I use, it looks like the desktop version in all of them.... which is to say way too small text and not well laid out for a small screen.
I can read the text in the articles by zooming in, but it's fiddly and it doesn't work with the comments.
I ran it through the google mobile tests and it came out with 1 out of 6.

There are loads of wordpress plugins that'd fix it in about 10 minutes.

[WalterT]

It works -fairly- well on my HTC (auto-wrap is my friend.) android device, but I agree it'd be really nice if they put some effort into the mobile layout.
I also use a really good app called pulse, a custom news feed, which generally displays full stories but RPS requires you to load the page in a browser to read the whole text anyway :(

[DWRoelands]

It is sort of puzzling that, at the end of 2012, a serious media outlet shows no interest in making the site mobile-friendly.

[BillButNotBen]

It works -fairly- well on my HTC (auto-wrap is my friend.) android device, but I agree it'd be really nice if they put some effort into the mobile layout.
I also use a really good app called pulse, a custom news feed, which generally displays full stories but RPS requires you to load the page in a browser to read the whole text anyway :(

the NewsRob app works well for that - it'll download and keep offline the full articles, and you can set it to use Readability or something to make the story readable on a small screen. BUT the problem is that you then don't get the comments.

After trying it on the stock browser, firefox beta and opera, I've found that Dolphin browser does a reasonable job of making the main article text readable, but again the nested comments won't fit comfortably on a small screen and don't auto-wrap.

It's a rather strange oversite... maybe RPS don't have any smartphones in their castle...

[roadgamethes]

yeah,It's a rather strange oversite... maybe RPS don't have any smartphones in their castle.

[Fumarole]

I use chrome on my android without difficulty.

[BillButNotBen]

I use chrome on my android without difficulty.

Really? If formats the comments into a readable layout and it doesn't load all the un-needed stuff all around the page. It hasn't worked great in any other mobile browser I've tried on android (basically every browser except Chrome).

There's more to being mobile friendly than just loading the desktop site on a tiny screen, imho.

[Fumarole]

Now that I think about it, I only use Chrome for the forums. For the main page articles I use gReader. Nested comments require scrolling left/right, some embedded photos looks weird, but the articles are fine and resize nicely.

[james067]

There are mant sites available from where you can download the themes..checkout at google

Tin Containers manufacturers | Plastic Jars manufacturer | Screen Printing Services

[BillButNotBen]

Now that I think about it, I only use Chrome for the forums. For the main page articles I use gReader. Nested comments require scrolling left/right, some embedded photos looks weird, but the articles are fine and resize nicely.

Yeah, same for me. I use newsrob to read the articles, and that works fine. But if i want to see the comments (and they are often useful) I have to open it in a browser. The article resizes (bar the same issues with images and basically with downloading a lot of un-needed big images etc..) but nested comments don't resize and need lots of annoying sideways scrolling. That's in Opera, Dolphin and Stock browers, which i think are all i've tried.

[alms]

At this point, this issue has turned up so many times I lost all hope to see it resolved. My solution has been drastic but simple: I only read RPS when I'm in front of a PC.

I guess they're just waiting for the time when all the smartphones are so powerful and screens so big it won't make any difference anymore.

[BDH]

At this point, this issue has turned up so many times I lost all hope to see it resolved. My solution has been drastic but simple: I only read RPS when I'm in front of a PC.

I guess they're just waiting for the time when all the smartphones are so powerful and screens so big it won't make any difference anymore.

RPS probably don't do it because of the issues with ad impressions. A mobile site means that there is less empty space to plaster with adverts which means that they get less money. I suppose it is a business after all.

[ambing1]

it would be interesting to browse and post comments on RPS on the go.
i agree the mobile rendition of this site in mobiles is not encouraging.

[sabrage]

I use chrome on my android without difficulty.

And to think I've been trying to use the default browser for (almost) a year now. I had no idea, I thought it was just one of those "the way it is" things. Trying to post on here with the S2's included Internet app was a sure-fire ticket to a migraine.

Anyone managed to find a Google Reader replacement? Preferably one not infested with advertising like Feedly?

[Fumarole]

Anyone managed to find a Google Reader replacement? Preferably one not infested with advertising like Feedly?

I use gReader. It does have ads, but they're not bad.

[BillButNotBen]

And to think I've been trying to use the default browser for (almost) a year now. I had no idea, I thought it was just one of those "the way it is" things. Trying to post on here with the S2's included Internet app was a sure-fire ticket to a migraine.

Anyone managed to find a Google Reader replacement? Preferably one not infested with advertising like Feedly?

I never noticed any ads on feedly, but i don't use it much. Does it have a paid version to skip them?

On android I switched to JustReader which works well for reading articles, but again is useless for comments. But that runs on a google reader backend, so I'm waiting to see what will happen. I'd guess a lot of them are going to move over to a feedly backend, but I don't know how that will impact costs/ads.

I find it remarkably dumb that RPS hasn't implemented a mobile site. I know mobile ads produce less than desktop ones, but right now they are getting ZERO ad impressions from me as I'm forced to use JustReader a readability service just to make the site useable, and that strips out all the ads.

Then again, RPS doesn't actually seem to have any web staff or web managers, so I'm not surprised. It's a shame that they don't think that the whole 'web' side of being a gaming website isn't worth enough to invest in a few trained staff.

[sabrage]

I use gReader. It does have ads, but they're not bad.

Ah, I took "gReader" as code for Google Reader. I just use the official app for that.

I never noticed any ads on feedly, but i don't use it much. Does it have a paid version to skip them?

On android I switched to JustReader which works well for reading articles, but again is useless for comments. But that runs on a google reader backend, so I'm waiting to see what will happen. I'd guess a lot of them are going to move over to a feedly backend, but I don't know how that will impact costs/ads.

I find it remarkably dumb that RPS hasn't implemented a mobile site. I know mobile ads produce less than desktop ones, but right now they are getting ZERO ad impressions from me as I'm forced to use JustReader a readability service just to make the site useable, and that strips out all the ads.

Then again, RPS doesn't actually seem to have any web staff or web managers, so I'm not surprised. It's a shame that they don't think that the whole 'web' side of being a gaming website isn't worth enough to invest in a few trained staff.

They can probably be blocked, but I'm not a big fan of the UI besides. I want an RSS reader, not a tumblr page, and I have no need for any of the social features. The Old Reader is a little better, but their servers are absolute garbage so everything takes way too long to load. It took them three weeks just to import my Google Reader subscriptions, so I'm actually just using it for the first time today.

Can't say I've ever felt obligated to view ads out of any sense of loyalty.