D Forum Mobile Version - Beta

[Nick Sabalausky (Abscissa)]

I'm actually quite surprised by some of the responses. I use the web 
interface web whenever I'm visiting these forums from my phone, and 
personally, I think the CSS/layout in your version is a HUGE 
improvement. Most fantastic of all is that the thread list page and 
certain code samples are actually *readable* in your version without 
constantly needing to switch back and forth to landscape.

Granted, that's not to say there isn't room for tweaking. I'd maybe 
slightly decrease the vertical spacing on the list of subforums (ie, 
"general", "announce", "Community", "GDC", etc). Being able to ditch the 
need for most of the JS would, of course, be a huge benefit. And on the 
list pages (list of subforums and list of threads), yea, a little touch 
of left margin wouldn't hurt there, just for visual balance. Keeping the 
thread overview would be nice.

But I'd leave the actual posts exactly as-is.

1. I find the text size to be exactly what I wish most sites would use. 
Most sites just assume everyone's on some kind of "Apple iSuperMini for 
Oompa-Loompas With The Fingers of Five-Year-Olds" and crank up the font 
size to absurd levels to compensate. The result is not merely an 
enormously waste of screen real-estate on a form factor notorious for 
every last millimeter being crucial, but the fonts themselves actually 
manage to be uncomfortably large to read in the first place.

(Frankly, devices and users quite *obviously* should be able to just set 
their own preferred font size globally. And accordingly, that's exactly 
how HTML *1* was designed. But now that ships's sailed and we're left 
with the complete f&*$%#@ s*@%storm that is HTML 4/5...)

2. The only reason extra margins would be needed on the actual 
post-viewing pages would be as a workaround for those goofy phones with 
the nonsensical misfeature of "edge-to-edge" screens the manufacturers 
have been trying to push (just because they can, and because they figure 
its harder for their competitors to copy). Handheld touchscreens obviously
need borders (that's just basic HCI common-sense), and requests for 
applications/websites to add them back in just proves its nothing more 
than a glaring flaw of the phone itself. People with better 
practicality-oriented phones shouldn't have to sacrifice their own 
perfectly usable real estate just because of some *other* phones' 
MBA-driven lunacy.

In any case, I think this visual refresh is a huge improvement, I love it.