Why no mobile friendly version of forum?

I searched this and found some posts from years past but nothing recent.

Its hard to believe that the leader when it comes to digital bibles does not have a forum that is easy to browse on a mobile device. Almost all forums are mobile responsive now.

Fortunately, I do most my work from PC but it would be super handy if when I was waiting for something if I could search the forums (mobile) as that is where most my information comes from when learning the ins and outs of Logos 10.

I suspect it has something to do with the effort it would take to port the current database over to a new forum software database.

Rich

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DMB

I suspect it has something to do with the effort it would take to port the current database over to a new forum software database.

Good guess. They just unloaded employees due to economics, and you'd like a forum re-do, instead of Bible software work?

Rich McCabe

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1241522#Comment_1241522

I never said I would prefer that over software rework. I don't really see the kind of software rework I would like in the future anyway.

As a web developer I just find it strange that they are running a forum that is basically 15 year old technology. The forum is basically useless for mobile users. Does not effect me a ton since I am mostly desktop but there are a lot of mobile users. And so far the forum is the only place I have found to be useful for figuring out the software.

Robert M. Warren

Long ago, on a Samsung Galaxy far, far away, I had an Android browser named Opera that, right out of the box, formatted the Logos Forum beautifully. Of course, as is often the case, when Opera was 'upgraded' that feature was jettisoned to the Hall Of Deprecated Features. (Located between the Oort Cloud and the Hall of Unfinished Sentences.)

You have probably already tried the possibility that your mobile browser can be reconfigured.

Rosie Perera

I think they were hoping to move people on over to the Faithlife social media site as a replacement for the forums. Some support (Proclaim) is already largely done over there. But the majority of us who are used to the features of the forums (better than Faithlife groups still, so far) aren't going to switch. And I doubt FL has the people power to write their own alternative forum software. This one was purchased from some third party and they used to edit it a bit periodically to fix stuff early on, but they haven't done so in years. Maybe someday they will bring Faithlife groups up to the capabilities of the forum and convince the rest of us to move over there. The only time I've ever tried FL groups, it was mostly crickets over there. Granted, it's been a while.

Rich McCabe

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1241546#Comment_1241546

Well I certainly would not write my own for a forum like this. I would just purchase something like VBulletin which is cheap and be done with it. But the trick is migrating whatever this forum is to that one.

I just know that if I need to learn something about Logos, this forum is the place. I am not going to find it in the documentation, if I can even find the right documentation

I also know there are more phone users than desktop users unless there is something unique about this market. It's not a huge deal to me but would be nice to be able to browse the forum on my phone while my wife is lost in Hobby Lobby.

Frank Sauer

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1241550#Comment_1241550

Considering the incredible asset that the Forums Community is to Faithlife - it can be frustrating to consider how long the simple features like Mobile friendly have been ignored.

I'm not sure if the potential savings has ever been estimated by the company, when considering the number of tech support issues that are taken care of in the user community.

Also, I'm not sure of the sales/purchase of packages and or single resources that come from the free advertising and suggestions by users in the forums.

Between the savings on tech support and the purchases that may not have been made without the forums - one would think that investing in the conversion to an up to date forum platform would be worth the investment.

The ability to view in a mobile friendly manner, as well the ability to subscribe to only the categories a user is interested in should be the minimal capabilities

Simon’s Brother

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1241524#Comment_1241524

I would not say it is useless on mobile, I am using it on mobile now and the majority of the time I access it via mobile. i guess we all have different expectations of what we find acceptable to work with in different contexts. I‘m sure at some point in time the forums will get attention but till then I’m content with them in mobile as it is a service provided free of charge for users and non-users of the software,

As a web developer I just find it strange that they are running a forum that is basically 15 year old technology. The forum is basically useless for mobile users. Does not effect me a ton since I am mostly desktop but there are a lot of mobile users. And so far the forum is the only place I have found to be useful for figuring out the software.

Rich McCabe

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1241558#Comment_1241558

OK, close to useless

If I have to pinch zoom to read, zoom out and pan up and over to find a menu, attempt to click it and then pinch zoom back in and continually move the screen side to side to read that's almost not worth it.

I just don't have the patience to do all that.

And again, this is a "technology" company...

Rich McCabe

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1241557#Comment_1241557

I'm not sure if the potential savings has ever been estimated by the company, when considering the number of tech support issues that are taken care of in the user community.

Also, I'm not sure of the sales/purchase of packages and or single resources that come from the free advertising and suggestions by users in the forums.

Between the savings on tech support and the purchases that may not have been made without the forums - one would think that investing in the conversion to an up to date forum platform would be worth the investment.

100% Agree!

NB.Mick

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1241557#Comment_1241557

Considering the incredible asset that the Forums Community is to Faithlife - it can be frustrating to consider how long the simple features like Mobile friendly have been ignored.

I'm not sure if the potential savings has ever been estimated by the company, when considering the number of tech support issues that are taken care of in the user community.

Also, I'm not sure of the sales/purchase of packages and or single resources that come from the free advertising and suggestions by users in the forums.

Between the savings on tech support and the purchases that may not have been made without the forums - one would think that investing in the conversion to an up to date forum platform would be worth the investment.

I am 100% with you in the part I quoted up until the last sentence - I definitely fear that some unwise decision maker might disregard all these arguments and just switch over to another "up to date" forum platform, such as the faithlife group postings or discussions or something even worse. Such a change might break the attractiveness of the forum (such as citing older posts, putting in pictures where we want them, finding old posts through Google) and thus break all of the benefits to Faithlife you mentioned. Some minimal tweaks, such as "pruning the tree" of subforums, would be okay, but switching it out completely might break it.

The ability to view in a mobile friendly manner

Actually I'm not sure what you guys understand when you ask for "mobile friendly". I sometimes read the forum on my Android phone or my Android tablet, using the Chrome browser. I like it that way (I put the phone horizontally to make the screen bigger and sometimes use the two fingers to zoom in or out), in fact Chrome on my phone irritates me because I have to wave-off a reminder that it might display an even more "mobile friendly" view I don't like. I wouldn't want somebody try to fix something that isn't broken in the first place from my perspective.

Rich McCabe

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1241561#Comment_1241561

Actually I'm not sure what you guys understand when you ask for "mobile friendly". I sometimes read the forum on my Android phone or my Android tablet, using the Chrome browser. I like it that way (I put the phone horizontally to make the screen bigger and sometimes use the two fingers to zoom in or out), in fact Chrome on my phone irritates me because I have to wave-off a reminder that it might display an even more "mobile friendly" view I don't like. I wouldn't want somebody try to fix something that isn't broken in the first place from my perspective.

Mobile friendly/responsive websites are able to sense when you are on a small screen device like a phone. They "switch" to a different layout that is easier to read with appropriate size text. These mobile sites typically have a different menu system that is easier to navigate as well. I often turn off some of the "bling" that desktop visitors see as mobile users do not see that. Not all attempts at this are well done but for the most part its usually successful

Rosie Perera

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1241564#Comment_1241564

Mobile friendly/responsive websites are able to sense when you are on a small screen device like a phone. They "switch" to a different layout that is easier to read with appropriate size text. These mobile sites typically have a different menu system that is easier to navigate as well. I often turn off some of the "bling" that desktop visitors see as mobile users do not see that. Not all attempts at this are well done but for the most part its usually successful

As long as they don't wreck things for the desktop user, I'm in favor of responsive websites. I've seen some that make the desktop experience look like a narrow column of text in a large font with about 40 characters per line, with a ton of wasted screen space to the left and right. On a site such as a forum which is text-heavy, I'd want to be able to take advantage of most of my screen As it is, the current forum uses less than the middle 1/3 of my wide screen. That's OK, though, because it uses a small font and can fit about 120 characters per line.

Rich McCabe

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1241572#Comment_1241572

As long as they don't wreck things for the desktop user, I'm in favor of responsive websites. I've seen some that make the desktop experience look like a narrow column of text in a large font with about 40 characters per line, with a ton of wasted screen space to the left and right. On a site such as a forum which is text-heavy, I'd want to be able to take advantage of most of my screen As it is, the current forum uses less than the middle 1/3 of my wide screen. That's OK, though, because it uses a small font and can fit about 120 characters per line.

For sure. However, a proper mobile site should not effect the look of a desktop site at all. Its basically two different sites pulling the same database content.

The main site www.logos.com is a good example of how it should work. Looks great on desktop and mobile. Same content, different format. The mobile site has a different menu (hamburger) that is designed for easy phone access and the text is properly sized.

Sean

A very reasonable request that should not be at all controversial.

Rosie Perera

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1241577#Comment_1241577

The main site www.logos.com is a good example of how it should work. Looks great on desktop and mobile. Same content, different format. The mobile site has a different menu (hamburger) that is designed for easy phone access and the text is properly sized.

[Y]

If they ever do upgrade the forum, I sure would like them to increase the number of emojis we have available. I get tired of this small set sometimes. There's no way to express laughing so hard that tears are coming out your eyes, for example, one I use often on social media platforms.

Jan Krohn

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1241595#Comment_1241595

You can also use all the emojis from the keyboard's emoji tab. 🤣

The forum emojis are just an addition to what's there by default.

Rosie Perera

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1241598#Comment_1241598

You can also use all the emojis from the keyboard's emoji tab. 🤣

The forum emojis are just an addition to what's there by default.

What keyboard emoji tab? I'm on a PC. Well, I guess I could copy/paste an emoji from somewhere else...🤓

Jan Krohn

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1241600#Comment_1241600

Try the Windows key together with "."

Paul M

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1241580#Comment_1241580

A very reasonable request that should not be at all controversial.

I agree, its a pain to use on a mobile and for me this is my main usage. A responsive design/app should allow most platforms to be supported easily.

Jeff Meyer

The funny thing is that the forums aren't even desktop friendly. I have an ultrawide monitor and the forums show up as a fixed width column centered in the browser window no matter how big or small I make the browser - the forum extends past a small browser window and takes up less than half the screen on a large browser window.

Rich McCabe

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1242791#Comment_1242791

That is somewhat typical and just a design choice. My company often does that on purpose as if you stretch a section it doesn't always work well.