Request for a better "Internet Tablet" optimised forum style

[Milhouse]

As much as I like my N800, it's still pretty slow when viewing forum pages using the "desktop" (dark) style - it's graphics and javascript heavy, and the resulting pages are very complex meaning even micro-b has a hard time displaying them (in particular "go to first unread post" causes micro-b to stall/hang for several seconds).

The "mobile" style generates much less complex pages which are basic and spartan - ideal for a mobile phone, but not very attractive.

When viewing on a 770 or N800 it would be great to have a hybrid style that is more attractive and better laid out than "mobile", but not as graphics/javascript heavy as "dark". Is this possible? It seems odd that this site doesn't already have a style optimised (ie. reduced complexity & reduced bandwidth) for use on Internet Tablets.

[fpp]

I believe I made the exact same remarks and request (although maybe not in so many words)... somewhere around december, 2005 :-)

Edit - Ah, no, it was actually in january, 2006 :
http://www.internettablettalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1001

...but there were quite a lot of words in fact :-)

[zeez]

Agreed....

[Texrat]

I believe I made the exact same remarks and request (although maybe not in so many words)... somewhere around december, 2005 :-)

Edit - Ah, no, it was actually in january, 2006 :
http://www.internettablettalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1001

...but there were quite a lot of words in fact :-)

You must be a fiction writer. :p

[fender_fella]

I use the "classic" style and I believe it works better on the tablets. The light background is easier to see on the small screen and it just seems faster to me (probably my eyes playing tricks)

[cwichura]

Given that ITT works fine with JavaScript turned off, it'd be nice if we could get regular Moz extensions to work with microb so we could use stuff like No Script and just block all the useless JavaScript on the site. I gave up trying to browse ITT with my N800 because it is so painfully slow with all the JavaScript and advert banners.

[Milhouse]

Sorry fpp - a voice in my head was saying it had already been raised, I should have searched! :)

"Classic" still downloads too many graphics and a complex page layout. I'm looking for something _really_ simple yet more attractive than "mobile" which is just not very well laid out at all when you have a screen as big as those on the Tablets.

I've been using the "Mobile Phone" style on this (http://www.whatmobile.net/forumvb/index.php?styleid=12) site for the last few days and while it's not perfect, the "Get New Posts" and "Get Daily Posts" pages are very usable (if a little psychedelic) and each page downloads almost instantly without putting too much strain on the N800 - reduced "strain" equals less CPU usage which equals increased battery lifetime!

[fpp]

You must be a fiction writer. :p

I'm not, but sometimes I think I chose the wrong career :-)

[TA-t3]

I agree with fender fella about preferring the classic style on the N800. I prefer not to log in from the N800 (which would give me my personal setup, which is classic style) because that will presumably mess up the 'New Posts' history, which I prefer to handle from the desktop. Thus I'm stuck with the default style. And I'm also with Milhouse w.r.t. the rest.

[tabletrat]

I don't mind the darkness or graphics, but I would like the page numbers on the bottom right to be a bit bigger. they are hard to get to on the 770

[richardyates]

I'd *really* like a lighter background - I don't have the best of eyes, and this is easily the hardest forum I've tried to read - it puts me off from bothering quite often:-((

[rm -rf]

I'll be the odd duck. I like the current mobile style & use it even on my desktops. I whish more forums had a simple lightweight style like Itt's mobile style.

The only change I'd make is to add time/date to each post's header so I could see how old/dead a post is.

[vaiodon]

The Classic style gets rid of the.feckin ads at least. But wouldn't Firefox extensions be great in the micro-b browser so one could load adblock.

Yes, yes, I know micro-b is just the Gecko rendering engine and the full FX feature list probably requires a lot of functionality coded in the N800's common UI layer and there's other ways to stop page/page elements from loading but adblock's easy.

Something on the forum, while posting from an N800, causes the page to jump which has caused me to lose a number of reply posts in mid-flow. That's a real pain in the arse, I suspect it's the page refreshing with a new flash element for the Sky+ or Vodafone ads.

I think that it's probably time to abandon the site, I can't see the evidence of Nokia taking the slightest bit of notice or contribution & viewing it on my N800 isn't a pleasant experience for the forementioned random scrolling issues (of which I've suffered 6 or more just while typing this).

[Milhouse]

Adblock is available (http://www.internettablettalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7865) for microb - I haven't tried it though, personally I want Flashblock :)

This site is independent of Nokia though - the lack of any NIT optimised style for this site isn't the fault of Nokia. :( The best bet would be to report this thread so that it is brought to the attention of Reggie (admin).

[vaiodon]

Adblock is available for microb - I haven't tried it though, personally I want Flashblock

That's worth a try, thanks.

Is Reggie the recipient of the ad click thru wedgie? Can't blame him for that!

A much thinner, or non-existent, banner would be more appropriate for the top of the actual forum pages.

Enough of this for the weekend, goodnight!

[namtastic]

I'd *really* like a lighter background - I don't have the best of eyes, and this is easily the hardest forum I've tried to read - it puts me off from bothering quite often:-((

Hear hear. I find the current color scheme too hard to read for any extended period of time.

[Tweak]

I'm all for a thinner banner. Would be a third less screen wasted at the top of each post. I only use classic theme since the mobile is to light and the default is to dark.
That's worth a try, thanks.

Is Reggie the recipient of the ad click thru wedgie? Can't blame him for that!

A much thinner, or non-existent, banner would be more appropriate for the top of the actual forum pages.

Enough of this for the weekend, goodnight!

[namtastic]

I'd *really* like a lighter background - I don't have the best of eyes, and this is easily the hardest forum I've tried to read - it puts me off from bothering quite often:-((

Oh, BTW, just found this simple bookmarklet. It's an extra click each page, but it's more reusable than creating user stylesheets everywhere...

http://www.russellbeattie.com/blog/the-zap-colors-bookmarklet

[sully]

Just FYI, I've created a mobile-friendly interface to these forums here:

http://blog.yllus.com/itt/

A thread discussing the aforementioned website can be found here (http://www.internettablettalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=10293).

[Milhouse]

Nice idea, but I'm guessing the lack of support for my credentials means it's not possible to support "New Posts" functionality or to allow posting, which ultimately limits dramatically the appeal of your creation. It's OK for non-authenticated read-only users however.

Ultimately it's down to Reggie to create an Internet Tablet friendly theme for a forum which is dedicated to Internet Tablets - the lack of this theme after so long is somewhat staggering. Is this forum just a hobby...?

[Reggie]

Right now, I'm at the mercy of vBulletin and its available themes. I thought that a lot would like the Mobile theme.

Let's wait and see what the 3rd gen tablet brings us. Maybe a redesign of the site might be appropriate based on what new things it will come with.

[Reggie]

Ok, I scanned around and found two more mobile themes (Mobile II and Mobile III). Mobile III looks like a good option. Do test them out.

Just in case you need to go back to the dark theme, go to this URL:
http://www.internettablettalk.com/forums/index.php?styleid=4

[Milhouse]

Thanks Reggie - Mobile II is the same as the theme I use on another forum, it's a bit pschedelic but very usable on the tablets (lightweight == low bandwidth, low CPU).

I always thought (assumed, even - bad I know) that you could modify/tweak themes, obviously not. However if this is possible, a darker/toned down version of one of the mobile themes (II?) might be nice but if not at least we have progress! :)

Thanks again.

[Texrat]

I do know that recent versions of vBulletin have to be skinnable, because another vBulleting-based forum I used to frequent customized theirs.

[sherifnix]

Is there an easy way to switch out of the mobile version of the forums? I have no access to the user control panel! Please help :) There is no link available in this theme.

[sherifnix]

This is definitely a bump. I've bookmarked this thread so I don't lose track of it... since I have like no access to any forum features.

Any suggestions as to how to reset my theme preference if I have no way of reaching the user control panel?

Please Help!

[sherifnix]

Oh god lol...

I created another account and copy/pasted the usercp url. That was fun :) All is good now though.