PPrune Mobile format

[Capn Bloggs]

"Starting today...".

I can't work out how to swap to the mobile version when viewing on my phone. Or do I have to use one of thoses pieces of fruit (which of course ain't going to happen! :})

[KBPsen]

In your browser's settings you should be able to select mobile or desktop site. It's usually a box you tick or untick.

[Cunliffe]

Big button at bottom of each page on my tablet switches to mobile version.
No good to me since my eyes are getting dim. Text is too small and cannot be enlarged.

[ExXB]

I don't see said big button on my iPad. On my iPhone I can't find anything I'm interested (or allowed) in.

[IBobi]

http://i744.photobucket.com/albums/xx88/IBobi1/PPmobile_zpskxnajr9o.jpg (http://s744.photobucket.com/user/IBobi1/media/PPmobile_zpskxnajr9o.jpg.html)

[Keef]

Nope, no such button on my iPad either. It looks to be still displaying the traditional format, which is fine.

[Keef]

Oo-er! After writing the above, PPRuNe refused to work at all for a while. It's back now, and the message about mobile format has disappeared.

[KBPsen]

You're not missing out on anything. All you get is a home page with headers under which the various forums are hidden. You can't see if there's any new posts, not even when you go to look under each header.

A waste of time really.

[Bushfiva]

A waste of time really.

You're quick to condemn. Sounds like someone didn't find the "New Posts" button.

[KBPsen]

Sounds like someone didn't find the "New Posts" button.That you have to be logged in to use. No thanks.

[Capn Bloggs]

Ibobi,
I want to go to the mobile site on my phone, not go to the standard site from the mobile site.

[Bushfiva]

KBPsen, I wonder how you are managing to look at new posts, and indeed posting, if you're not logged in on your PC?

[Bushfiva]

Bloggs, scroll aaaallllll the way to the bottom of the page, and it should show you a big yellow button to go back to the mobile page (if it thinks you're on a mobile).

[Keef]

Using my phone, the login cookie didn't work.
The Pprune Social tab didn't work: the screen paused for a few seconds, then came back to the front page.

I'll persevere when using the phone, but not getting on with it at the moment.

[Keef]

Yup: the PPRuNe Social mobile forum is broken. If I go there on the full-sized forum and then switch to mobile, it takes me back to the front page.

Search will find a relevant topic and go to a forum in there.

Lots of big gaps appear in threads: is that intentional, or space for ads? I don't see any ads.

[Keef]

Oh - btw: the big yellow button for the full site is a big grey button on my phone. The button for "use mobile site" is yellow.

[Curious Pax]

I get the same as Keef for the Social section.

[Capn Bloggs]

scroll aaaallllll the way to the bottom of the page, and it should show you a big yellow button to go back to the mobile page (if it thinks you're on a mobile).
Thanks Bush5a, but no button at all on my phone (G S3), all I get is the full site (with a link to a Bangood cheap Magnifying Glass ! ;)).

http://www.smilies.our-local.co.uk/index_files/scratchhd.gif

[Bushfiva]

Ah, if I use the original Android browser I get the same result as you. Maybe worth informing Ibobi. With Chrome for Android, I see the buttons to flip between the two versions.

[IBobi]

Let me see wat tech says about the PP Social issue (I see it too) and the Android browser lack of mobile/full site toggling (Can't see that since I have iPhone).

[Capn Bloggs]

Yes, it's all happening on Android Chrome. :D

Would prefer to use stock Android browser though; I'm on Android 4.3, Galaxy S3.

[VP959]

All I can say is that it is a pain having this version come up as the default on a laptop.

It started happening last week, and has effectively stopped me viewing PPRuNe from that laptop. I did find the button at the bottom that says view full version, but when you change topics it goes back to the mobile version.

I don't have a mobile device, and am running firefox on a laptop via a mobile phone data dongle when the problem occurs. Running the same laptop on wifi doesn't at home seem to caused a problem (other than me needing to manually switch to full view once, when it then stays in full view).

The mobile version looks pretty unusable as it stands, no easy way to get to the last page of a multiple thread page, no obvious indication of a thread being read and for now has stopped me viewing PPRuNe when away from home.

Be nice if it defaulted to the full view and gave you the option to switch to the mobile view if you're using a mobile device, rather than the other way around, but that's my personal view as someone who doesn't use a mobile device (well, at least not a phone or whatever) to access PPRuNe, so is a bit biased.

[Blues&twos]

I have tried to use the mobile app, but very quickly found it frustrating to use. The "Social" selection not working forced me to give up. I have selected the option to use the desktop site once, and that's how it has remained to my relief.
A bit more testing required, I reckon!

[Derfred]

How do I go to "last unread" post in a thread like I can on the full site?

[VP959]

How do I go to "last unread" post in a thread like I can on the full site?

As far as I can see you can't, in the same way you can't see or do a lot of other things on the mobile version.

I'm just about to head off so I'll only have my laptop, which, for some reason only known to the PPRuNe team is considered to be a "mobile device" as soon as I leave the house, meaning I'm effectvely stuck with the unusable mobile version until I get home (I really cannot be bothered to scroll down after every page or topic change and reset to the full version).

In my view there are some very serious bugs in the mobile version at the moment. Like many, I suspect, I've seen websites that offer an alternative mobile version, or even accidentally gone to them from web search. In every case it's been obvious how to get back to the full version and once back to it you stay there.

I like the idea of offering a mobile version, and a button at the top that asks if you want the mobile or full version would be fine by me. The present solution just doesn't work very well at all, partly through treating large screen non-mobile devices erroneously as if they were small screen 'phones and partly because it is a complete pain to keep scrolling to the bottom of each page to switch back to the full version.

[VP959]

I'd just like to say thanks to whoever fixed the glitch of the full version not appearing by default on a laptop connected over a mobile connection.

Thanks, I was able to browse PPRuNe at lunchtime once more!

[Grum]

Why is there not a 'Windows Phone' app for Pprune? :8

Is it needlessly complicated, expensive, or perceived as not necessary?

[KBPsen]

KBPsen, I wonder how you are managing to look at new posts, and indeed posting, if you're not logged in on your PC?I look at the home page, what else? There I can see the last post in all forums, who made it and when. It gives an instant overview. No one need to be logged in to view new posts, but you knew that already

In the mobile version I can see nothing unless I go through two menus, and then I can only see one forum at a time.

It really is a case of providing less through more hassle. What is the point of that?

[VP959]

I'd just like to say thanks to whoever fixed the glitch of the full version not appearing by default on a laptop connected over a mobile connection.

Thanks, I was able to browse PPRuNe at lunchtime once more!

The problem is back with a vengeance, with the site defaulting to the mobile view (with no ads and no option to switch to the full version at all - the button at the bottom just doesn't work at all) for anyone accessing PPRuNe via a VM or proxy, it seems. I only found this out recently, whilst running Linux in a VM on a Windows machine - when trying to access PPRuNe it is impossible to get to the full site, only a rather corrupted version of the mobile site.

The really good news is that Admin have been very helpful and are promptly passing all this back to the development team, and giving feedback on the issue, so with a bit of luck these teething problems may well get ironed out fairly soon. My guess is they will, as a side effect of this issue is to remove all the adverts from the site, and leave a big blank white screen with no graphics, just text, so IB may be concerned at the loss of advertising exposure

As an experiment, this reply is actually being made using the mobile version of the site that is the only accessible version on a Windows machine running Win7 and Firefox, because I've connected and logged in through a proxy, which sort of illustrates one of the issues.

[SWBKCB]

Like others, I'd like to go straight to the last post of a thread rather than the first - until this is possible the mobile version is pretty much unusable for me.

[VP959]

This is getting weird.

All day today the site was back to working normally on the laptop, even on the mobile connection, just as it was earlier last week.

My guess is that the techie folk are experimenting to try and find why the mobile format falsely detects some non-mobile devices as being mobile and have temporarily reverted to allowing the full site to work.

[IBobi]

WRT proxies and VPNs etc., it's likely that you'll continue experience spotty and erratic service from the mobile skin and perhaps even PP itself. Routing through a proxy is seen as a security risk by much of the software we use to screen for spam, and as such you may not even be able to get to PP at all at times when using a known proxy IP. This is unlikely to change. Given the increasing flow of spam, there is simply no other way for us to deal with this problem.

[ExXB]

This morning when I accessed PPRuNe with my iMac, using the Safari browser I was detected as using a mobile device.

This afternoon my iPad was not detected ...

Different ISPs though ...

I'm not complaining, just thought someone would be interested.

[VP959]

This morning when I accessed PPRuNe with my iMac, using the Safari browser I was detected as using a mobile device.

This afternoon my iPad was not detected ...

Different ISPs though ...

I'm not complaining, just thought someone would be interested.

This is pretty much my main issue. Sometimes when my laptop (running Linux/Firefox) connects to PPRuNe via a mobile connection (as in when I'm out and about using tethered wifi from a mobile) then it defaults to the mobile skin, but without the option to view in full mode and with no adverts (and with a lot of functionality missing). Other time I can connect using exactly the same tethered connection (as I did today several times) and the full version displays properly.

At home, on my home wifi connection, the laptop works faultlessly, always showing the full version.

It does look as if whatever detects that the user is on a mobile device isn't doing this correctly some of the time. If I connect my laptop via a tethered wifi link then I expect it to be detected as a full featured browser device, with a large screen, rather than a mobile device.

I access dozens of other websites with my laptop on a tethered wifi connection that have auto-mobile device detection and NONE falsely detect the laptop as a mobile device, only PPRuNE seems to do this.

I have sometimes Googled and found the mobile version of a site in error, and almost without fail a message is displayed asking if I want to view the full version. The button is there (at the bottom of the page) on the mobile PPRuNe mobile site, but it doesn't do anything, the site stays in a cut down version of the mobile version.

At the moment it's very hit and miss as to whether I get the full site of the cut-down mobile site when I connected with my mobile wifi router. Today it was working fine all day, last week (same location) it was unusable.

[IBobi]

When you are using a desktop (any browser) with a normal internet connection, you should always see the full site.

If you use proxies, VPN, wireless hotspot -- anything that connects in other ways to the Internet -- you may continue to see the mobile site.

[VP959]

The snag is that the mobile site just fails miserably when viewed on a laptop, plus, in my case, whenever this happens on a mobile connection there isn't an option to view the full site, in fact the cut-down mobile site is inoperable (Firefox/Linux laptop).

Today the site was working fine again in full, normal, mode when running on a tethered wifi connection, if it stays like this it'll be fine.

FWIW, no other forum I use that has a mobile option behaves like this, they all default to full, normal view on a laptop on a tethered wifi connection, it's only PPRuNe that seems to have this odd problem of failing to detect a mobile device properly.

Today I had a friend around who tried a direct mobile connection from his phone to PPRuNe and he got the mobile version, with the option to switch to the full version, whilst I was still getting the full version on the same mobile connection tethered to his mobile phone wifi.

Not sure if this helps at all.

[IBobi]

If you are unable to go back to the full site, please flush your cache-cookies and you ought to see the option to return to the full site.

[ChickenHouse]

Sometimes the buttons to toggle mobile-full version of pprune are hidden - reason: they are covered by the GoogleAds ... also, when using the mobile skin my spam&tracking warning algorithm occasionally get nuts on all the embedded one-pixel spy software pieces. It appears that Google stopped that policy for the full version, but it still places a lot of spyware on mobile devices ... According to LittleSnitch&Ghostery&Collusion proxy here, some single GoogleAds "talk" to as much as 4 dozens tracker sites. Maybe cutting down funding by ads is a way?

[cattletruck]

Can the old style be accessed by a URL rather than having to have a cookie loaded by clicking Full Site.

The thing I like most about the old style is you can see both the thread starter and the last poster, and go straight to the last post. If this option was available in the new style then I wouldn't mind it.

[VP959]

Can the old style be accessed by a URL rather than having to have a cookie loaded by clicking Full Site.

AFAICS it can't, yet that seems to be exactly how the majority of other websites get around this issue. There are a few other forums I visit that have two URLs, one for the full version, one for the mobile version.

This is a fantastically easy to use and understand way of dealing with mobile users, and even the least technically competent person can usually see if they've landed accidentally on the "wrong" version, as the URL usually has the give away words "mobi" or "mobile" in it, as well as giving an option right at the very top of the mobile version to view the full version.

From what I can see, PPRuNe is using some novel way of trying to guess whether a user is trying to use a mobile device or a large screen device, and my experience is that, under some conditions, this is failing miserably.

At a guess, thousands of laptop users will want to access this site from wifi hotspots, tethered wifi devices or other wifi connections that may not go via their home landline connection, yet many will get an unusable version of the cut down mobile site, without the option to get back to the full site, if my experience is typical.

[p.j.m]

Anyone else having problems with the pprune android app?

I can't log on any more.

[Karearea]

I haven't been able to access Pprune on my mobile at all these past few days - has been connecting to the site perfectly well up till then.

[CISTRS]

PPRuNe Android app has been down for about a week.
Many error messages are generated.
Such a nuisance...

[IBobi]

As far as I am aware, the PP app is not supported and will probably continue to get worse until it finally dies (if it has not already done so).

The current mobile solutions are to use the mobile skin, or to use the full site on your mobile browser.

Paul

[CISTRS]

Thanks Paul.