... please let me know if this is helping you in any significant way.
I don't like how it looks and plan to turn it off again unless I can understand the benefit.
I believe one "benefit" is the ability to reply to a comment and have your reply appear under that comment. That's something I don't like. I prefer a straight line of chronological comments (and you can simply quote what you are replying to or write @username at the beginning of your comment).
UPDATE: Thanks for all the comments. I'm switching it back. Feel free to keep commenting. This is an option I could turn back on if I saw a good enough reason.
Posts
69 comments:
It is awful. No upside at all.
Not a fan of it, but I can switch it back to the web version.
I agree
Does nothing fo me
Awful indeed, and I couldn't even comment until I selected "Desktop Site" from my mobile browser menu.
I thought there was something wrong with my phone browser, or I had entered into some sort of low data mode. Previously, it didn't display like the full desktop view on my phone (the info and links on the right were placed somewhere else) but it had formatting and pictures showed up inline etc.
I preferred that mobile version of the non-mobile view.
"I preferred that mobile version of the non-mobile view."
Yeah, me too.
I'm using an Apple phone (of course). Perhaps on other brands of phones the formatting is more of a problem.
yuk.. i HATE it
I hate it.
Do. Not. Like.
Yes, hate but…on an iPhone I can see what I’m typing and can edit what I’ve typed. The new web version the format makes the type line disappear and I have to resize and scroll just to see the typing line. Editing is impossible- I end up erasing and starting over until I get the text correct or just give up…
Mixed reaction. Upside: it's been cumbersome rotating my phone and double-fingering the page to expand the text to readable size, but now that's unnecessary. It's all more quickly readable. Downside: The thumbnails are microscopic and I can't see them well enough to decide which ones to click on. Also, if you have more than one image/embed in the same post, there are no thumbnails at all; you have to move over to the full post's page. Final verdict: You probably should dump the mobile version.
Way, way better for readability on an iPhone ( and I have a Pro Max)
Using an Android phone and Chrome. The font is sized better and text flows better making it much easier to read in portrait mode. The comment entry is also working better though the comment box is still fixed in size. In desktop view, the font is much smaller, and I have to scroll left and right to read. Switching to landscape doesn't help that.
My bad on the switch between portrait and landscape. I turned off auto-rotate at some point. I don't really like reading in landscape mode, however Looks to me like mobile mode favors a portrait presentation.
I'm here at home
And when I’m sitting at home, ain’t going mobile
Well, I'm gonna use my phone
So won’t you throw me a bone
And don’t go mobile
Keep me guessing
Wow! Too many smart people on this Blog. It’s gonna take some getting used to.
I do not like at all
I thought something had gone wrong with the blog formatting. I'm with those who would like to change it back.
I read this blog in safari on iPhone. How would I see the “mobile” view? I don’t see a difference in last couple days.
I get its your blog but the obsession over forcing chronological comments is a bit much. At least on my Android the mobile version is pleasantly readable without endless scrolling left and right, or resizing the text. In addition to the changes to the font and text flow, the home page is simplified with imbeds eliminated, and each post is displayed as a selectable entry. Overall a much better presentation for a mobile device.
Check the url you are using for a "/?m=1" at the end. At least on Chrome/Android, there is a settings pulldown menu that includes a check box option for 'desktop site'. IIRC on Chrome it's sticky for each site. You might be defaulting to the web view even with a mobile device.
I’m on an iPad. I desperately need the old “edit” function, as some have probably noticed.
Not a fan
Not a fan, the original way is easier to read.
I have “/?m=0” at the end….
I just tap to zoom once on your blog and then scroll down the page on my phone. Mobile view hides most of the post content so now I have to tap each post to read it, not just the longer ones with digressions. I much prefer the desktop site.
Ok when I switch to m=1, I see what everyone’s talking about. Thx for the help, Christopher B.
Don’t like it at all.
It's way easier to read on a phone. It does kind of look like shit. It's way better than the style that forces you to use rotate and zoom to read the comments on the phone.
Sorry, but it’s awful.
Awful. Easier to read in a way, but also ugly and hard to use.
Both of the new formats are bad, but the desktop format was terrible.
Really dislike it., and don,'t see a benefit. Can't tell what a posting is about without clicking on it.
It hasn't been helpful to me. I had assumed that it was a bug in the blog software.
No and I wondered what happened. I had found before that if I clicked on the post title that the comments would format in mobile mode and be easier to read.
So go back to that now that I've figured it out.
I use an iPhone. I can not see your photos unless I scroll down and switch to web view, which I have to do every time I go to the blog.
Not a significant reading improvement on Android (Pixel). I truly appreciate the photos, which are very well done, and hence scrolling down to switch back to web view seems needless friction.
I thought your bill was broke. But could still read so fine with me... I miss the other format but appreciate the minimized text appearance, and I read here for the parsing of word subtlety anyway.
Much, much easier for 70 year old to read what with the bigger font and less cramped text density.
Dislike. Not enough of each post visible in the main scroll
Dislike. Not enough of each post visible in the main scroll
I prefer a straight line of chronological comments (and you can simply quote what you are replying to or write @username at the beginning of your comment).
I prefer that method as well. I view and comment using my iMac not my iPhone. I cannot see the nested comments unless I try to comment. A lot of comments make little sense to me because of the lack of context.
Chronological for me, also. I get the ‘thread’ view, but it isn’t even that: you can’t reply to a reply, which can get terrible also. You simply miss comments.
I believe part of the issue is the traditional format used for many years is no more. The choice is now the new non chronological format that works poorly on mobile devices or the mobile version with old style text but chronological…
Easier to read but aesthetically unattractive. Function over form indeed!
Now I can better see what I’m typing on my iPhone, but still hides sections of text during scrolling.
Really miss the optional Preview feature before posting a comment (to catch errors and test links, etc.) Blogger made things worse with the changes they made.
And I do prefer straight chron display, especially if the full display mode does not insert the replies where made.
Turn it off
....have your reply appear under that comment. That's something I don't like
I assumed that was a feature you implemented to do away with italics. I prefer italics to quotation marks, but I'm happy to follow the aesthetic guidelines for this blog. I'm not sure what those are now, except for no shouting cap letters.
Goggle seems to be evolving backwards.
Like the ape in 2001: A Space Odyssey hitting itself in the head with a bone instead of throwing one into the air/outer space.
I prefer the desktop version by far, even when reading on my phone.
OK either way. I use an Android phone.
Thumbs way, way down.
I see no change at all. I'm using an iPad, which I assumed would count as a "phone" for software purposes, but maybe it doesn't.
I cannot read the blog on a real phone. It's uselessly small.
I’m 2+ hours from home, where the wife and I are babysitting our 6 month old twin granddaughters. It took a little mental adjustment to the new format, but I see its advantages when my access to this blog is via iPhone.
I kind of like the nested comments.
This happens to me on Android too
I’ve been an IPad mini exclusive user for more than a decade.
In fact I don’t think I’ve ever accessed the Althouse blog on any either a PC or Mac. There have been times when I’ve wished for the opportunity to reply directly, now that I have it I’m not so sure. When on Facebook I’m almost always replying to an individual.
Here (and this is the only blog I follow) I tend to avoid personal interaction, which is interesting because it seems very important to some commenters.
And I don’t mind reading said comments.
Negative response from me.as to iPhone view. Terrible. Went to my iPad. Same format. I don’t find it user or visually friendly.
In the name of all that is beautiful and all that true, demobilize.
I'm changing it back.
I asked the person who emailed me to explain the benefit and he talked about optimizing for search engines and page rank and getting professional help to tweak the template.
That's stuff I don't need to prioritize and don't want to worry about. I just want it to look good for the people who are reading (and have been reading for so many years).
I see the comment: "Much, much easier for 70 year old to read what with the bigger font and less cramped text density." For you, I recommend clicking on the "reader view" icon in the search window.
This, I figured I needed to comment on despite my personal pre-election gag order - if for no other reason than to see how actual commenting works.
What I like about this format: I can, without rotating my phone and resizing, read the comments in nested fashion. I have finally come around to kinda liking the Reply feature, for two reasons: first, it saves quoting the person to whom you're replying; and second, it allows replying to multiple people on the same first reading (instead of copying a portion to quote from Person #1, scrolling to the bottom of the comment thread, replying, and then having to scroll back up to try to find Person #2's comment to which you also wanted to reply so you can copy a portion of that one). And I had adapted my Althouse reading style to rotating my phone to see the nested replies on first reading, then going to chron view each time I checked back to see what was new (then sometimes having to go back to threaded view if I couldn't figure out which comment was being replied to).
What I don't like about THIS format specifically: the aesthetics, and the short excerpt from which you have to glean the topic.
What I don't like about EITHER format: the 6-line comment area that requires typing blind (which, for me, also requires thinking blind - I tend to construct my comments as I type rather than having the idea fully formed before I start), then scrolling down to proofread.
This new format at least makes the scrolling easier and smoother - it actually works every time, it seems; on the previous version, now called the "web" version, the scrolling was dicey and sometimes would only let me see the top 6 or bottom 6 lines, whipping past everything in between, and seldom have I ever left a comment of 12 lines or fewer.
Overall - I had adjusted to what is now the "web" version; I'll adjust to this, if you decide to keep it.
I like it a lot better
Did you change it again just now? (10:45?
It looks different from a hour ago. Which looked different and better than yesterday.
John Henry
Using an android phone
John Henry
I only do Althouse on my laptop or one of my Chromebooks so I have no preference. I see the nested version when I click on comments, the old chrono version when I click on more.
Thanks for changing it back. Now there are 3 ways to view the comments:
1. Reader view
2. Clicking on comments
3. Clicking on the time right before the comments - will show all the comments but without seeing the reply comments
Thanks.
"first, it saves quoting the person to whom you're replying;"
It really doesn't, if you want people viewing the chronological format to understand what you're talking about.
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