Dakka Updates...

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**legoburner**

Had a few days to get some good coding in and have added a bunch of often requested fixes and features to dakka which have gone live today...

Mobile fixes:
- fixed a few bugs and glitches on mobile version (hopefully including that iphone black screen bug)
- drastically altered mobile version of forum list page for better mobile / small screen viewing
- drastically altered mobile version of thread list page (main forum pages only - additional cleanup if well received)
- made forum and thread list bullets clickable to enhance touch screen browsing usability, wider clicking areas for title clicking in mobile view as well
- reduce amount of text in the tag whole gallery popup so it is useable on a small screen/mobile mode (like an android phone)
Note those forum view changes are optimised for viewing in landscape mode and might be a bit too ugly/text heavy. Post your opinions if you think it is a positive change or not. I need to reduce the width of the dakka header to be more mobile friendly and increase the font size more to improve the useability at the very least, but it should be a bit more useable and a bit less scroll-heavy than previously.

Fixes/features for everyone:
- skip to first unread now skips to last post if there are no unread posts instead of jumping back to first post in a thread (much more logical)
- forum home page now shows most recent thread and top exalted thread in the full forum list instead of just generic views
- Thread view for PMs (compiles all PMs to/from a user together, including sent messages, by date). Allows you to read the entire discussion you've had with another user in a single place, 100 comments per page. I can easily go back to see the very first PM I sent to yakface negotiating our combined efforts on Dakka

- skip to first unread on new posts after marking 'all posts read' should now work. Not tested much so please test and let me know!
- batch delete from my subscribed threads using checkboxes instead of individual link clicking. If you want to clear out your subscribed threads, or your subscribed threads for specific forums it is now quite easy to do.

Automatically Appended Next Post:
Oh and I'll move this thread to nuts and bolts after a few days. Just here so that more people notice it for now.

Automatically Appended Next Post:
And already spotted a bug in skip to first unread. Will get a fix up within the day.

Automatically Appended Next Post:
...and fix in place

**OrlandotheTechnicoloured**

Skip to first unread defaulting to lastest if you're read them all is a really welcome addition

so thanks!

**Cyporiean**

These changes are pretty awful on my iPhone.

I have to now do a bunch of extra zoom and scrolling to be able to read things.

**Cyporiean**

This might be good on a tablet, but it's no longer mobile friendly.

**Vivster**

Yes the mobile version is quite distracting from what it used to be

**legoburner**

Portrait for sure, but how do you find it in landscape (tilt your phone sideways)?

I'm not opposed to rolling back the changes, just thought I'd try them out to see how people feel. The header being shrunk and font size increased might help too. I'm only able to test on ipad and android devices here so that is why I went to public testing.

**insaniak**

The extra width on the mobile version is nice, but I'm really not a fan of the thread preview in the thread listing. Makes it too cluttered.

In the normal site, I'm getting a lot of the following error when trying to open threads:

An error has occurred.

For detailed error information, please see the HTML source code, and contact the forum Administrator.

java.lang.NullPointerException

So far only when hitting First Unread, but I always open threads with First Unread in case I've just forgotten that I've seen that thread before

**Tyranid Horde**

I quite like being able to turn the screen sideways and I don't have to zoom in when I turn it landscape. However, it doesn't work when my phone is in the portrait position. I have an android btw.

**Casey's Law**

Honestly, thanks for trying to optimize the mobile experience but I think it might require some spitballing before such an update. I'm finding the whole process of using the forum more difficult since the new layout although in theory the changes would have made sense. I'd be happy to crunch through some ideas with you, but for now, I personally believe we were better off with the slightly clumsy, older mobile layout.

The other updates are greatly appreciated!

Thanks as always, Lego!

**legoburner**

insaniak wrote:
The extra width on the mobile version is nice, but I'm really not a fan of the thread preview in the thread listing. Makes it too cluttered.

In the normal site, I'm getting a lot of the following error when trying to open threads:

An error has occurred.

For detailed error information, please see the HTML source code, and contact the forum Administrator.

java.lang.NullPointerException

So far only when hitting First Unread, but I always open threads with First Unread in case I've just forgotten that I've seen that thread before

Could you please view the source of the page when you next see that and PM the error message to me that is at the top of the source code. Might have missed an error trap on the new skip to unread adjustments.

**insaniak**

Done

**d-usa**

I've always viewed in landscape. The thread view just seems "empty" now in the new layout. But I can probably get used to it and if it fixes the blackscreen issue it will be worth it.

**Azreal13**

I can't see it ever being a huge deal, but I've just noticed a preview of the most recent post in the 40k Discussion Forum that used a spoiler tag, but the contents were visible in the preview.

Doubt it will ever be a huge problem, but can see some situations where it might be.

**Just Dave**

I don't think I'm a fan of the new layout for mobiles either I'm afraid, Lego.

Love the sound of the other updates, thanks, but the mobile layout's not doing it for me, personally.

**OrlandotheTechnicoloured**

Here's a source grab of the error talked about above

(just as I was thinking, odd I don't seem to be seeing that)

**RiTides**

I'm not sure what I think... On my Windows phone, forum view page is TINY font on forum titles and very wide. Thread view page inside a subforum, on the other hand, has Huge font titles. Not sure why those are appearing so differently...

**Deadshot**

I personally dislike the new style a lot. It just seems so empty and difficult to navigate. As my online usage is more or less exclusively on my phone its very distracting. I have no tried landscape (nor will I for I cannot deal with landscape) but portrait is not veryy good.

**Azazelx**

I browse Dakka a lot on my mobile these days, with close to 2 hours on buses commuting to and from work. While I appreciate the work and effort, the new version is a downgrade to the point where I'll probably just skip Dakka until the changes are reverted. Preview lines from posts isn't needed, and it's way too small.

I'm probably not going to change the way I use my phone on buses for one website, either. FWIW, I use a mix of portrait and landscape, and I'm not fond of the new experience in either form.

**RiTides**

On thinking about it, I find it harder to read, too. Dakka's basically all I read on my phone

. But now the thread titles are so big, that I can't zoom in to be able to read who posted last, etc. Maybe tweak it but I was happy with the previous version.

Cheers for the work you put into this stuff, Lego!

**orkybenji**

I like it on iPhone in landscape mode, except the thread titles should be a little bigger and more pronounced. It's a bit cluttered.

**legoburner**

Fair enough, I will revert back. As a temp fix you can change your theme on your phone to normal dakka instead of mobile dakka and it will be close to the old layout.

**Thachng**

Are you ableto make it like warseer mobile view where the width is as wide as the phone and the text is really big so you don'thave to zoom at all?

**Shandara**

Getting the following randomly sometimes:

**legoburner**

Thanks. That bug (and related ones from others in this thread) is fixed now on my local version and I'll get the fix up in the next couple of hours.

Automatically Appended Next Post:
ok, besides the mobile font being fractionally larger for forum and thread titles, I've rolled back the main mobile visual changes (leaving in the other bug fixes though).

RiTides, could you please let me know if you still have the same display issues - there is some additional javascript going on in there now and I dont have the capacity to test on every possible handset, so if that is still the case then I can roll back further.

**Casey's Law**

Thanks Lego, ole reliable isn't tossing me any issues on Android.

**d-usa**

Much better.

We are such ungreatfull children, Lego does something nice and we complain about it. You mother us too much!

**legoburner**

Was always a controversial tweak - anything where you change the core interface has lovers/haters, but I have very limited mobile testing capacity here and limited time to do testing, so thought I'd try it out publicly and see how it went.

The other features (PM threadview, cleaning out my subscribed threads easily, bug fixes, etc) are working without problems so far at least

**notprop**

d-usa wrote:
I've always viewed in landscape. The thread view just seems "empty" now in the new layout. But I can probably get used to it and if it fixes the blackscreen issue it will be worth it.

I'm going to have to chime in and agree with the majority here. The main forum pages and lists are unreadable without zooming on part of the screen.

Curiously I had gotten used to the existing glitches on mobile viewing, I'm not sure getting used to zooming every screen is something I can get used to.

**Casey's Law**

It's gone back now notprop.

Threadview is a great addition, Lego! Who's idea was that? It's really handy.

**legoburner**

I think it was lunahound about 3 years ago? he he