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Re: Bitcointalk Mobile Browser presented by CoolStorage.org
by
ZipReg
on 15/03/2025, 21:55:33 UTC
I tried checking it out momentarily, here is what I observed in a couple of minutes

1. The signature space or codes are out of place. Perhaps if you could get away of resizing them
2. The theme makes my navigation buttons at the bottom of the screen display almost invisible. Maybe because the colours are similar
3. How about Sub-board. I can't seem to get away of accessing them.

Hey buddy Smiley thank you for the feedback! I focused on main boards for the demo, but you can also manually enter any board number and tap go to access that sub-board for now.


This is interesting project since more people are using mobile devices these days, but I already noticed something I don't like.
First is bright white theme that hurts my eyes, and second thing I saw was bad signatures, or they are distorted and not shown correctly.
Pages are opening slower than I would like, but that could be for different reasons connected with hosting.
Can this be applied directly with bitcointalk domain as separate optional theme?

Hey buddy Smiley I appreciate your feedback, I used the original forum colors in the mobile theme, it may be a screen brightness issue for you.
Yes many options, I can integrate it, it would be easier to do if the theme selection option can be enabled, also I can easily add a light/dark theme switch which would solve your concerns. Thanks!


This is a massive and an interesting project for the community. Thanks OP, you have done great for the community. I have used it and understand that alot of work is put into the project.
But I am sorry to say one thing; it seems that we are all accustomed to this present formation of the forum, any other thing might not make sense to us, which is the reason the long awaited epochtalk failed.

Hey buddy! Thank you for the kind words Smiley I feel your concerns, I am not familiar with the current state of things, that's why I wanted t be clear that I am not trying to step on any toes here. Thanks again!


If I can do this without direct access, imagine what I can do with the user interface directly! Cool
Can you come up with a fake reply window/page [without a direct access] to showcase how it can look and feel when someone tries to use this function [e.g. editing part of the quotes or using different standard posting options]?
- FWIW, I really like what you've done so far, but unfortunately, I'm out of sMerits.

By using an empty install of the same forum version, I can create a mobile and updated standard theme for the forum
that can be placed without editing any of the forum source code and without any downtime or compatibility issues.
(This is assuming the forum software has the option to offer user selection of different themes)
I don't know much about coding stuff, but considering that this forum has been heavily modified, I don't think an empty install of the same SMF version is going to be enough.
- The current forum software has the option to change themes, but it's disabled (you can find it in the "Look and Layout Preferences" section of your profile).

Hey buddy! Smiley Thank you for the interest and feedback! I absolutely could make mock ups of forms, I'd start with the login page. Thank you for the kind words!
Yes, the easiest way would be to add another theme in there, however, if due to customization's it's not possible, there are still other options for direct integration. Cheesy


I tried checking it out momentarily, here is what I observed in a couple of minutes

1. The signature space or codes are out of place. Perhaps if you could get away of resizing them
2. The theme makes my navigation buttons at the bottom of the screen display almost invisible. Maybe because the colours are similar
3. How about Sub-board. I can't seem to get away of accessing them.

4. There is no page for profile, if you click on a profile, it will lead to the original Bitcointalk profile page.

Hey buddy Smiley I greatly appreciate your feedback, yes, all community member links in the mobile browser lead to the actual forum pages, thank you!


I think this is a great initiative, we do need a mobile responsive interface and this might just be the stepping stone for this. Using this forum on mobile is tough to type in, but I am sure developers like the OP will be able to come up with some solutions.

I am not sure about that "job" lining because if you want to do it it would have to be done by you, maybe some of the users can donate to help but probably not like a job.

Hey buddy Smiley thank you for the feedback and the kind words, I am sure we will work something out! Cheesy


Proposal:

I would like to propose that I create two new themes for the community.
I have the skills to get this job done right and will take great pride in doing so!
It would be an honor for me to have this iconic website listed in my portfolio of work.
By using an empty install of the same forum version, I can create a mobile and updated standard theme for the forum
that can be placed without editing any of the forum source code and without any downtime or compatibility issues.
(This is assuming the forum software has the option to offer user selection of different themes)

The community could then select between the classic, new standard, or new mobile themes.


The idea is good. But, as I remember how the SMF version used works, the forum template is directly integrated with many of its features. That's why the option to change themes was disabled, as using another theme would remove functions or break the changes made.

To do this, you would need to have access to the source code of the entire forum, something that the administration does not want to share for security reasons. The current theme, although visually similar to the original SMF, is very different in terms of code from the original.

I could be wrong, but this is what I remember from when I used SMF on the forums I had. In fact, it was because the forum design was interconnected with the source code that most forums at the time did not allow changing the theme. Unless they didn't make any code changes.

But, I could be wrong. @PowerGlove might be able to check this out, as he's been messing with SMF more recently.


Hey buddy Smiley I greatly appreciate the interest and feedback, thank you! If the theme IS hard coded "so to speak" it would still be easy for me to make an integrated mobile version.
Many options, I would replace the original forums login page with a mobile detect library, from that new login page you are directed to either the original login or mobile login with your flag marked as mobile=1 for example.
The easiest way would be to mirror the current site to a sub domain like m.bitcointalk.org and then just edit the user interface from there. They could share the same database once it's completed also.
I am confident in saying that if/when theymos asks the most trusted members of the community (those who know me of course heheh) they will vouch for me. Cheesy


I wish there was an Android or iOS app of this.

There is not much I can do about iOS, but if you want this published on the Play Store then contact me for pricing.

Hey buddy thanks for the feedback and offer, I think it should remain decentralized, requiring an app store is not an option IMO. Cool


This reminded me of an older app that fahbil created back in 2018 for Android. But I think yours looks better.

What I noticed is that if you click on one of the quote links, the app takes you to a blank page with nothing than the blue background on it. Perhaps that's something you can look into.
There is a thread in Meta that compares Bitcointalk and Altcoinstalk. The OP of that thread gave an example how Altcoinstalk has a button you can click on to copy a whole quote/code for easier pasting elsewhere. Maybe that's something you can do as well.

Great initiative with the app, thanks for creating one. The biggest issue with using the forum on a phone remains quoting to and editing parts of someone's post. That's never going to be as easy on a phone as it is from a computer because you have to make the selection with your fingers. 

Hey buddy Smiley thank you for the feedback and interest! See known issues section in OP. I greatly appreciate the kind words, yes I will include a copy button in all quotes and code sections, thanks!


Your topic immediately gained my attention, thank you very much for this cool project. It's my dream to have a Bitcointalk Application for smartphones. When I was starting my UI/UX design journey, I created Bitcointalk's mobile app UI/UX concept, I'll be happy if you check my thread and rate my design - https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5309058

I appreciate the effort that you put into it but it's sad that we can't log in and post from your modified design but it's a good way to check Bitcointalk and read posts when we are with our smartphone. If you are interested in and capable of implementing a good UI/UX design for your project, I think that we can work together. If there is a big demand, I can dedicate my time to create a very good UI/UX design for Bitcointalk.

Hey buddy Smiley thank you for the interest and kind words, greatly appreciated! I would like to make that a reality for the community. I am going to remain solo on this one, too many cooks as they say, but I do have another project I made for the community that could use a facelift if you'd like to show off some skills there? Let me know if you're interested, thanks! https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5410693




Second day in the books! I can revealed we've got some bot net activity, taking that into consideration, the first days numbers are probably inflated from the bots. We're at around 13k pages served between the two demo sites for day 2.

Thanks again everyone, have a good one! Cheesy