All I want for Christmas is a tiny pony December 6, 2014 6:30 AM Subscribe
Would it be possible for the "Random" link to be included in mobile view? I like this feature a lot as it's a great way of finding cool FPPs from the past, and some old MeTas are just...wow. But to get to it I have to switch between the mobile and desktop views, which is a pain on my phone. On desktop it's between the "Popular" and "Best Of" links so could it be put there on mobile as well? Does anyone else even use it on a regular basis?
In the mobile view in the modern theme the Random link is available at the top of every page. If you can make the switch that would be one way to get easier access. (One of the big motivations for making the modern theme was bringing the mobile view and desktop view closer together.)
We're not likely to add more menu items to the mobile view in the classic theme. The menu there is already very long. However, you can bookmark the random links on your phone. Here's how:
Bookmark the MetaFilter home page on your phone. Edit that bookmark, and add
posted by pb (staff) at 6:48 AM on December 6, 2014
We're not likely to add more menu items to the mobile view in the classic theme. The menu there is already very long. However, you can bookmark the random links on your phone. Here's how:
Bookmark the MetaFilter home page on your phone. Edit that bookmark, and add
/random to the end of the URL. Change the name to something catchy like "MeFi Random" while you're editing. Now every time you select the bookmark you'll get a random thread. You can repeat for the other subsites if you want.posted by pb (staff) at 6:48 AM on December 6, 2014
Ok cheers pb. I have deliberately resisted the new theme (sorry) but maybe I'll have to give it a go.
damn you, change and progress, you frighten me
posted by billiebee at 6:53 AM on December 6, 2014
damn you, change and progress, you frighten me
posted by billiebee at 6:53 AM on December 6, 2014
Something else that bugs me about the mobile interface is how far down the list recent activity is. I'm surprised it's lower in profile than so many things. It always irritates me to scroll to the bottom (via the link at the top) and then have to scroll a bit more to get to recent activity.
posted by Brockles at 7:25 AM on December 6, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by Brockles at 7:25 AM on December 6, 2014 [1 favorite]
Also, the new theme takes up too much space on the page for me. Too much scrolling. Does that get better with text size changes? It feels like more work to scan the page than with the Trad site.
posted by Brockles at 7:27 AM on December 6, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by Brockles at 7:27 AM on December 6, 2014 [1 favorite]
You could always bookmark Recent Activity, Brockles. I think bookmarks are a good tool on mobile devices that are often overlooked.
Sorry if it sounded like I was making the case for everyone to switch to the modern theme. I wasn't trying to do that, I was mentioning that as a possible solution for this particular problem. The modern theme isn't going to work for everyone. That's why we want the themes to exist side by side.
posted by pb (staff) at 7:35 AM on December 6, 2014
Sorry if it sounded like I was making the case for everyone to switch to the modern theme. I wasn't trying to do that, I was mentioning that as a possible solution for this particular problem. The modern theme isn't going to work for everyone. That's why we want the themes to exist side by side.
posted by pb (staff) at 7:35 AM on December 6, 2014
Brockles, do you mean you are scrolling to the bottom of the page under the About Metafilter text to get to Recent Activity?
posted by Snarl Furillo at 10:32 AM on December 6, 2014
posted by Snarl Furillo at 10:32 AM on December 6, 2014
Only on mobile (which makes book marks clunky because there are so many of them). At the top of the mobile page site is a 'scroll to bottom' link which drops you to the large form set of links at the bottom.
I guess it's more of an expectation that the list would be in order of importance/frequency of use, and the order is as follows:
(Up to 3 My Mefi/My ask type links)
Metafilter
Askme
MetaTalk
FanFare
Mefi Music
Projects
IRL
Jobs
Popular
Best of
My Profile
Preferences
Mefi Mail
Recent activity.
Search
Logout.
It seems to me that Recent Activity should be above Jobs at the very least, with profile and mefi mail directly under that. It's odd that something so useful is shuffled down the bottom of that list.
posted by Brockles at 12:25 PM on December 6, 2014 [1 favorite]
I guess it's more of an expectation that the list would be in order of importance/frequency of use, and the order is as follows:
(Up to 3 My Mefi/My ask type links)
Metafilter
Askme
MetaTalk
FanFare
Mefi Music
Projects
IRL
Jobs
Popular
Best of
My Profile
Preferences
Mefi Mail
Recent activity.
Search
Logout.
It seems to me that Recent Activity should be above Jobs at the very least, with profile and mefi mail directly under that. It's odd that something so useful is shuffled down the bottom of that list.
posted by Brockles at 12:25 PM on December 6, 2014 [1 favorite]
Do you have a mobile device with a touch screen or is it like a Blackberry or something? Bc if you have a touchscreen, the person at the top right (between search and the x for the scrolling top menu) is actually a menu if you click on it and there's a link to Recent Activity. It's the clock icon.
It took me a while to figure it out and I was very grumpy until I did.
posted by Snarl Furillo at 12:36 PM on December 6, 2014
It took me a while to figure it out and I was very grumpy until I did.
posted by Snarl Furillo at 12:36 PM on December 6, 2014
And I guess even on non-touchscreens you should be able to click it like a link.
posted by Snarl Furillo at 12:37 PM on December 6, 2014
posted by Snarl Furillo at 12:37 PM on December 6, 2014
Snarl Furillo, Brockles is using the classic theme.
The menu items in the classic theme are grouped together with similar items much like on the desktop. So you have the list of subsites and then member-specific links. They aren't in a random order and they're also not in order of popularity. They're grouped so folks can find similar things together.
posted by pb (staff) at 12:40 PM on December 6, 2014
The menu items in the classic theme are grouped together with similar items much like on the desktop. So you have the list of subsites and then member-specific links. They aren't in a random order and they're also not in order of popularity. They're grouped so folks can find similar things together.
posted by pb (staff) at 12:40 PM on December 6, 2014
Nm I am confused. Sigh.
posted by Snarl Furillo at 12:48 PM on December 6, 2014
posted by Snarl Furillo at 12:48 PM on December 6, 2014
Ok, well the convenience of the links means I shall give the modern look a go, But it feels like everything is still too spread out on the modern interface. I like the look a bit more, but it does feel like I am zoomed in too far with too much space everywhere still even after a few hours using it. I'll see if that goes away a bit after using it for a while. Especially on my iphone 6, though, it feels like WAY too much space between posts. Waste of screen space.
A compact mode would be awesome as the new theme seems to remove text size options? Maybe I was on a compacted version of the old site too?
posted by Brockles at 2:11 PM on December 6, 2014
A compact mode would be awesome as the new theme seems to remove text size options? Maybe I was on a compacted version of the old site too?
posted by Brockles at 2:11 PM on December 6, 2014
still even after a few hours using it.
I tried to take a pair of boots back to the store after one hike with similar complaint and the clerks laughed at me and told me to give it a few more hikes. You'll get used to it after you give it a chance. (In other words, giving it a chance is not 'a few hours,' it's more like a few days or a few weeks.)
posted by carsonb at 3:54 PM on December 6, 2014
I tried to take a pair of boots back to the store after one hike with similar complaint and the clerks laughed at me and told me to give it a few more hikes. You'll get used to it after you give it a chance. (In other words, giving it a chance is not 'a few hours,' it's more like a few days or a few weeks.)
posted by carsonb at 3:54 PM on December 6, 2014
I'm used to the new theme now. Might be worth giving it another try as pb put some changes in based on feedback that made it a lot more usable (such as the hiding top menu).
posted by arcticseal at 4:41 PM on December 6, 2014
posted by arcticseal at 4:41 PM on December 6, 2014
A compact mode would be awesome as the new theme seems to remove text size options?
Rolling out some font-size options for Modern is firmly on the list of stuff to do; last I heard I think Matt was working with the fella who did the design work on the new theme on a couple of tweak integrations.
A specifically compact-in-layout theme isn't I think something that we have specific plans for but it's something to chew on at least.
posted by cortex (staff) at 8:58 AM on December 7, 2014
Rolling out some font-size options for Modern is firmly on the list of stuff to do; last I heard I think Matt was working with the fella who did the design work on the new theme on a couple of tweak integrations.
A specifically compact-in-layout theme isn't I think something that we have specific plans for but it's something to chew on at least.
posted by cortex (staff) at 8:58 AM on December 7, 2014
Rolling out some font-size options for Modern is firmly on the list of stuff to do
Oh that's lovely. I've had to resort to setting my browser to overrule fonts on websites.
ALL websites. Just because of MeFi. It's that bad.
posted by Too-Ticky at 1:56 PM on December 7, 2014
Oh that's lovely. I've had to resort to setting my browser to overrule fonts on websites.
ALL websites. Just because of MeFi. It's that bad.
posted by Too-Ticky at 1:56 PM on December 7, 2014
A specifically compact-in-layout theme isn't I think something that we have specific plans for
I find it much more of an issue on the iphone, but a smaller font size would definitely help.
On the main site it seems odd to need to use so much vertical space for what used to take more width to do. If that makes sense. If the font size scaling affected the gap between the posts that'd also be great.
posted by Brockles at 3:29 PM on December 7, 2014
I find it much more of an issue on the iphone, but a smaller font size would definitely help.
On the main site it seems odd to need to use so much vertical space for what used to take more width to do. If that makes sense. If the font size scaling affected the gap between the posts that'd also be great.
posted by Brockles at 3:29 PM on December 7, 2014
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posted by mathowie (staff) at 6:47 AM on December 6, 2014