Mobile style or app? Which - or none?

[webbie]

There are various options we can pursue for making the forums custom on a mobile device - but all have their ups and downs. Here are the currently available and projected options........and their pros and cons....

1. A mobile app - tapatalk or forumrunner - these are paid apps, so you'd have to buy them for 2-$3. They allow you to have a mobile interface on this forum...and also on any others that have those apps enabled. (they are probably on 1/4 of the popular forums out there)....

2. A mobile style which is currently available - there is one style available which would automatically detect your device and offer you a mobile style if you have a mobile device. The only problem here seems to be that it uses automatic detection, so you may lose the option of looking at the site through a regular style! This means, for instance, that your ipad will be served up with the mobile version even if you want the old regular version.

3. Neither - wait for a better solution - The folks who write this forum software have promised a mobile style in the next release - my guess is that will be out in the early fall. This may have better manner than the currently available mobile style (easier to turn off and on)......

Note that we could do both #2 and #3, that is, we could do the currently available mobile style now and then move to the built-in future style if and when we desired. We could also do all three, but the most stuff we do, the bigger the chances of incompatibility and problems.

So, place your votes and give your comments. I dislike solving problems that do not exist, so if most everyone is very happy browsing the site on mobiles as it stands, I may do nothing!

The poll lets you select only one....because that will give me the preferred info....

 

[thedude110]

One and two both represent things that drive me batty about the web -- number one asks me to pay for free content, number two traps me in an interface I may not prefer when it could very easily give me the "full site" option.

Would I pay a couple bucks for a mobile app? Sure. But I'd rather there be a free forum app that would allow me to surf via that interface or the desktop interface in my mobile browser (as I currently do, in a functional way, on my iPad). A consumer's common sense says, "if the site is free, access to the site via an app should be free."

 

[webbie]

I can "buy" the right to distribute one of those apps for about $800, I think......that is, then you don't pay for it, I do.....

But, yeah, that input is good...I'm a bit concerned about the mobile style that forces you into it. I'll check into whether there is a way around that auto-detection - that is, a different URL which can be bookmarked, etc.

 

[GAMMA RAY]

I will take a number 3 and super-size it!

I can navigate the site pretty well now on the droid.
I only get pi$$ed off sometimes when I am trying to post and hit the wrong area on the screen then have to start over.
No worries though, I gots a heavy duty case on it and it has survived being thrown at the wall a couple two tree times....

"If it ain't fixed then don't try to fix it..."
I think we can wait to see what the software people come up with in early fall.

 

[PapaDave]

Well, if your phone survives that long, then sure.

 

[Delta-T]

lets skip all this small stuff and get right to the meat....are we gonna get an iOS, or Droid touch screen version of the wood choppy game?

 

[GAMMA RAY]

lets skip all this small stuff and get right to the meat....are we gonna get an iOS, or Droid touch screen version of the wood choppy game?

Delta does not count...he does not even have a modern "hand held device"...
Just sayin....

 

[Delta-T]

do too! I have Ipod Touchy Feely . It play music, games, interwebs, my monty python movies.....sometimes it gives me warm hugs when I'm feeling blue. Mine have ~20GB of musics on it.....so much sounds, so few ears.

 

[begreen]

Please keep Delta's hand held devices out of this thread or it will get rapidly (and deservedly) canned.

I'm for waiting to see what the xenforo devs come up with.

 

[Jack Straw]

I can see it now, there will be some hanging chads and this will end up in the Supreme Court . Let's do what most of my co-workers do.....do nothing and hope the problem solves itself or goes away.