Today's Update
We updated the forum software today. Several bug fixes were made, behind the scenes issues addressed, and other normal updates. You'll also notice - more predominately - that quite a few things look different. In example: Forum & Thread icons are a little different to the trained eye, on-page popups have a little more pop, a deck listing is styled more in line with the forums, profile pages have had their tabs moved, and so on. A lot of little changes of how things look.
Why all these little changes, and adjustments to the look of the page?
It was necessary to adjust all of these things so the site flowed well with Mobile Browsing. Yes, Mobile Browsing integration has arrived. I'll start by saying that Mobile Browsing is not completely finished yet. You will find that a few of the pages don't work as well with it as the rest, but the majority of the site has been changed to flow well on mobile. If you're not on a mobile browser at the moment, you can get a live preview of how it looks by shrinking your browser window down more narrow. At a point, it will switch to Mobile Mode view.
Feedback
We're always looking for feedback, but we're especially looking for it today. Anything that doesn't work as it should - in mobile or desktop mode. General feedback is also welcome.
If you have an issue with Mobile, please include what Device you're using, your Software Version, and what browser you are using. This is absolutely critical in narrowing down what is affected and how. Devices are not made equal, and bug affecting some will not affect all.
Also, see the post below for more info on mobile browsing.
Navigation & Login
You'll note, quickly after getting on in mobile, that the top navigation of the page is missing, as is the log in, notification area, etc. To get to these, tap the button on the top right. This will open up the navigation menu. It contains the normal navigation bar links, your Notification icon, Private Messages icon, settings, and the link to your account. This will also allow you to select Desktop Mode. This disables the Mobile Mode view, and displays the site as it would be on a large screen. To exit this pane, click the button again (it's moved to the top left), or click anywhere on the page on the left.
Navigating Pages
At the top of a forum listing, or inside of a thread with multiple pages, you will see the below arrows. These buttons will allow you to quickly navigate between pages of the thread or forum listing. You can go to the first, previous, next, and last page by hitting the corresponding button. You can also click on the number drop down to quickly select a specific page.
Returning to Mobile Mode
If you've selected Desktop Mode, it will continue to load further pages in Desktop Mode. (It might display the Mobile version for a second before it switches). If you want to return to Mobile Mode, scroll to the very bottom of the page. All the way at the end, there's a button to return to mobile mode.
Last Unread, Forum Peak Through
In order to accommodate the lower screen size, as well as the lack of precision in screen taps, certain things have been cut from mobile view. In normal view, each forum from the main listing - and sub forums for the one you are on - show the latest updated thread. This has been removed from Mobile view due to size. Everything would need to be half the size it currently shows for these to appear. Additionally, the "last unread" button is missing from thread titles. The "Last Unread" will be revisited, but will not be around for this update.
There are a few issues that I've encountered so far (iOS 8.1 on an iPhone 6):
1) When viewing posts, the first line is covered by the (rather annoying) "Member Details" drop-down menu. I can't take a screen shot very conveniently, but in this post in the Single Cards Thread, for example, the post starts at "together does drive the card over the top", rather than "@Abdul Alhazred". I think this is because the "Member Details" drop-down is blocking the first line. Of note, this happens only in portrait mode -- in landscape mode, it's absolutely fine. (I'll try and upload a screenshot to clarify this.)
2) On a related note, I would suggest the "Member Details" drop-down menu to be somehow merged with the top black bar so that it doesn't block any of the post. It's fine in landscape mode.
3) The "Like", "Report", "Reply", and "Quote" buttons take up the entirety of a line in portrait view. This makes it somewhat easier to accidentally perform one of those functions when the intention is just to scroll down the page when viewing a thread. Also, I don't think there's a function to multi-quote.
4) This is just personal preference more than anything, but I think the most recent post information is more important than the number of threads and posts that a forum or subforum has, or the number of replies and views that a thread has.
5) Landscape mode seems to just be a mini-version of the desktop view, where the left side contains information about the poster, and the right side contains the post, along with the four buttons mentioned above. However, the poster information portion takes up a rather large amount of the screen (about 40%), which leaves relatively little room for the post. I do like how signatures are disabled in mobile browsing, though. It saves a ton of scrolling, and alleviates accidental signature-scrolling when post-scrolling is intended.
I haven't done too much with the rest of the browsing. Everything else looks good so far. Thanks for the update, and I'll keep posting here if I see any more issues!
How to use card tags (please use them for everybody's sanity)
[c]Lightning Bolt[/c] -> Lightning Bolt
[c=Lightning Bolt]Apple Pie[/c] -> Apple Pie
Vowels-Only Format Minimum deck size: 60 Maximum number of identical cards: 4 Ban list: Cards whose English names begin with a consonant, Unglued and Unhinged cards, cards involving ante, Ancestral Recall
iphone 4s
ios 8.3 (updating to 8.4 as we speak; will update if anything has changed)
safari
---
Actual bugs
- member details covers the first line of every post in both portrait and landscape modes.
- member details bar can be clicked twice to reveal the full content of the post
Preferences
- I exclusively use MTGS to look at very large, established threads. Lack of a latest post button is a major impedance and would be my most wanted feature.
- From the forum index I don't need a "thread last posted in." This can be done without. I agree with the above poster that the number of views in a thread is far less relevant to an average browser. Keep "latest post" and the posts (as it's relevant to click that sometimes).
Questions
- I see ads inbetween posts now. This is fine, but I'm getting video ads. Any testing as to page performance? The old ads nearly killed the mobile browsing experience; are these optimized for mobile? I'm on wi-fi right now, but when using cellular I'd prefer for MTGS to not brick my plan.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Can we have Megiddo removed from the forum forever please?
i'm pretty sure i can find your ***** online within 3 minutes
I'm encountering all of the iOS issues above (iPhone 5 with 7.1.1). Biggest of all, though, is that I cannot find a way to switch back to the full site. Occasionally I can get the "desktop site" icon to show up in the drop down menu on the top right of the screen, but it never actually switches.
Please advise if there is a way to switch back as I would much prefer to use the full site instead of mobile.
I think the smiley button is broken. I can click on it and the screen darkens but I don't get the window where I can choose a smiley.
Good catch, we'll get that fixed up.
Thanks for the patience everyone, this is a major change on our end so we appreciate all the feedback. We're working hard to get everything running smoothly.
The thread front on the forums seems to have been changed while also getting really large while text in a thread is still normal sized.
What device, version, and browser are you using?
How big of a difference in the text size are you getting?
(A screenshot of the large font sections would definitely help narrow down what's going on if you're able to)
Desktop version on mobile phones does not automatically adjust to the phone screen width making the text far too small to actually read, and impossible to read because text scrolls off horizontally off the screen. Plus I cannot zoom in or out to fix the issue.
Mobile view seems way too cluttered like others have said. I really like the adds that pop up in between posts on mobile view. That's awesome. /sarcasm
Is there a way to switch back to mobile view after choosing desktop? If there is I cannot find it.
The thread front on the forums seems to have been changed while also getting really large while text in a thread is still normal sized.
What device, version, and browser are you using?
How big of a difference in the text size are you getting?
(A screenshot of the large font sections would definitely help narrow down what's going on if you're able to)
I don´t know if the images help anything since you cant see the before and after but to me the thread overline fonts were smaller before which now have gotten bigger while text inside the thread is normal. If you for instance zoom out on the page, the font gets normal sized again while the text in a thread gets really small to read
I´m on a 31 inch TV screen using Firefox. Resolution is set to 1024x768
Fonts on desktop are really strange when viewing the forum, but once in a thread it's all gravy. Font size seems to have increased one size up from where it was before, but if you Ctrl + Mouse Wheel Down to reduce the size, it gets quite small. Not sure how better to explain, it's just . . . slightly larger and a bit of a headache haha.
The mobile version looks phenomenal and threw me off for a bit. Super glad you guys finally got a mobile site!
Font size for the names of threads is way too massive. The size for sub-forum names is fine and in the thread the text is all fine, it's just names of threads when browsing a sub-forum.
Using Android Lollipop (unhappily, but using it nonetheless):
Making a non-scalable version of a site and calling it "mobile" does not make it user friendly. Responsive web design is a wonderful thing; in general making multiple, distinct versions of a site is not user friendly. Users expect all of the functionality of the desktop site even on a mobile device.
Disclaimer: I say this as the administrator of a website that is decidedly not mobile friendly and who struggles with this issue himself (link in sig).
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
[center]AKA Leon What I'm Currently Playing: Vintage:UW Mentor Legacy:UG Infect Modern:UX MUD Standard: N/A
I use a Samsung Galaxy S5. But I much prefer working in desktop mode as I despise the mobile versions of any site. Not being able to resize in desktop mode is just aggravating.
If you are using Android, or specifically the Chrome browser, you can go into settings -> accessibility and check "force enable zoom" to enable zoom on any site regardless of what any incompetent developer tries to force on you.
As for the font size, there is a risk it's intentional. There has been a trend recently to increase text sizes in the name of readability or to have a "unified look between desktop and mobile". Hopefully it's just a bug or unintended consequence of other changes, but we'll see.
On desktop here, I agree with what previous people said about the thread names. They are larger and the site seems way too busy with the larger titles and boxed page numbers (not sure if they just got bigger as well or more changed about them).
Here's a screenshot about what I mean: http://i.imgur.com/6473h4J.png
The thread names part is larger than before, making them hard to read, for me at least, when just skimming over the site. The rest seems like before.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Tired of losing to natural Tron or getting turn 2'd by Infect?
Standard infinite combos giving you a headache and the opponent always has Force of Will?
No matter the issue, there is one simple trick to solve all of your Magic problems!!
~~~To get in on the secret to eternal luck, skill and victory, just follow this link!!~~~
As for the font size, there is a risk it's intentional. There has been a trend recently to increase text sizes in the name of readability or to have a "unified look between desktop and mobile". Hopefully it's just a bug or unintended consequence of other changes, but we'll see.
I really hope not, because it hurts my eyes looking at it. There's too much going on at once and I'm not even browsing the forum for new threads because it's too much of a pain to deal with. I've just been responding to threads I've already commented on or specifically looking for threads on new cards I wanna talk about.
Member details blocking first line is vwry annoying (nexus 5, chrome beta). IMO that whole line could be rolled into the block above it as a small link. No reason for it to take that big of a space on mobile.
Really happy to see a mobile version.
EDIT: after using this more, I agree that showing last reply and time would be better and more important than number of replies/views.
We updated the forum software today. Several bug fixes were made, behind the scenes issues addressed, and other normal updates. You'll also notice - more predominately - that quite a few things look different. In example: Forum & Thread icons are a little different to the trained eye, on-page popups have a little more pop, a deck listing is styled more in line with the forums, profile pages have had their tabs moved, and so on. A lot of little changes of how things look.
Why all these little changes, and adjustments to the look of the page?
It was necessary to adjust all of these things so the site flowed well with Mobile Browsing. Yes, Mobile Browsing integration has arrived. I'll start by saying that Mobile Browsing is not completely finished yet. You will find that a few of the pages don't work as well with it as the rest, but the majority of the site has been changed to flow well on mobile. If you're not on a mobile browser at the moment, you can get a live preview of how it looks by shrinking your browser window down more narrow. At a point, it will switch to Mobile Mode view.
Feedback
We're always looking for feedback, but we're especially looking for it today. Anything that doesn't work as it should - in mobile or desktop mode. General feedback is also welcome.
If you have an issue with Mobile, please include what Device you're using, your Software Version, and what browser you are using. This is absolutely critical in narrowing down what is affected and how. Devices are not made equal, and bug affecting some will not affect all.
Also, see the post below for more info on mobile browsing.
No longer staff here.
(Click to enlarge)
Navigation & Login
You'll note, quickly after getting on in mobile, that the top navigation of the page is missing, as is the log in, notification area, etc. To get to these, tap the button on the top right. This will open up the navigation menu. It contains the normal navigation bar links, your Notification icon, Private Messages icon, settings, and the link to your account. This will also allow you to select Desktop Mode. This disables the Mobile Mode view, and displays the site as it would be on a large screen. To exit this pane, click the button again (it's moved to the top left), or click anywhere on the page on the left.
Navigating Pages
At the top of a forum listing, or inside of a thread with multiple pages, you will see the below arrows. These buttons will allow you to quickly navigate between pages of the thread or forum listing. You can go to the first, previous, next, and last page by hitting the corresponding button. You can also click on the number drop down to quickly select a specific page.
Returning to Mobile Mode
If you've selected Desktop Mode, it will continue to load further pages in Desktop Mode. (It might display the Mobile version for a second before it switches). If you want to return to Mobile Mode, scroll to the very bottom of the page. All the way at the end, there's a button to return to mobile mode.
Last Unread, Forum Peak Through
In order to accommodate the lower screen size, as well as the lack of precision in screen taps, certain things have been cut from mobile view. In normal view, each forum from the main listing - and sub forums for the one you are on - show the latest updated thread. This has been removed from Mobile view due to size. Everything would need to be half the size it currently shows for these to appear. Additionally, the "last unread" button is missing from thread titles. The "Last Unread" will be revisited, but will not be around for this update.
(I will be adding more to this basic intro)
No longer staff here.
A few things will be tweaked quickly.
Known Issues
After the page loads in Mobile view, it switches to desktop.
This will let you use or, or exit it so you don't have to refresh.
No longer staff here.
There are a few issues that I've encountered so far (iOS 8.1 on an iPhone 6):
1) When viewing posts, the first line is covered by the (rather annoying) "Member Details" drop-down menu. I can't take a screen shot very conveniently, but in this post in the Single Cards Thread, for example, the post starts at "together does drive the card over the top", rather than "@Abdul Alhazred". I think this is because the "Member Details" drop-down is blocking the first line. Of note, this happens only in portrait mode -- in landscape mode, it's absolutely fine. (I'll try and upload a screenshot to clarify this.)
2) On a related note, I would suggest the "Member Details" drop-down menu to be somehow merged with the top black bar so that it doesn't block any of the post. It's fine in landscape mode.
3) The "Like", "Report", "Reply", and "Quote" buttons take up the entirety of a line in portrait view. This makes it somewhat easier to accidentally perform one of those functions when the intention is just to scroll down the page when viewing a thread. Also, I don't think there's a function to multi-quote.
4) This is just personal preference more than anything, but I think the most recent post information is more important than the number of threads and posts that a forum or subforum has, or the number of replies and views that a thread has.
5) Landscape mode seems to just be a mini-version of the desktop view, where the left side contains information about the poster, and the right side contains the post, along with the four buttons mentioned above. However, the poster information portion takes up a rather large amount of the screen (about 40%), which leaves relatively little room for the post. I do like how signatures are disabled in mobile browsing, though. It saves a ton of scrolling, and alleviates accidental signature-scrolling when post-scrolling is intended.
I haven't done too much with the rest of the browsing. Everything else looks good so far. Thanks for the update, and I'll keep posting here if I see any more issues!
[c]Lightning Bolt[/c] -> Lightning Bolt
[c=Lightning Bolt]Apple Pie[/c] -> Apple Pie
Vowels-Only Format
Minimum deck size: 60
Maximum number of identical cards: 4
Ban list: Cards whose English names begin with a consonant, Unglued and Unhinged cards, cards involving ante, Ancestral Recall
Signature by Inkfox Aesthetics by Xen
[Modern] Allies
ios 8.3 (updating to 8.4 as we speak; will update if anything has changed)
safari
---
Actual bugs
- member details covers the first line of every post in both portrait and landscape modes.
- member details bar can be clicked twice to reveal the full content of the post
Preferences
- I exclusively use MTGS to look at very large, established threads. Lack of a latest post button is a major impedance and would be my most wanted feature.
- From the forum index I don't need a "thread last posted in." This can be done without. I agree with the above poster that the number of views in a thread is far less relevant to an average browser. Keep "latest post" and the posts (as it's relevant to click that sometimes).
Questions
- I see ads inbetween posts now. This is fine, but I'm getting video ads. Any testing as to page performance? The old ads nearly killed the mobile browsing experience; are these optimized for mobile? I'm on wi-fi right now, but when using cellular I'd prefer for MTGS to not brick my plan.
Please advise if there is a way to switch back as I would much prefer to use the full site instead of mobile.
Preferences and opinions are being read and considered.
( Just wanting to make sure you know you're being heard )
No longer staff here.
Good catch, we'll get that fixed up.
Thanks for the patience everyone, this is a major change on our end so we appreciate all the feedback. We're working hard to get everything running smoothly.
Damia http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=410191
DDFT Legacyhttp://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=505247
Domain Zoo http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?p=10212429#post10212429
Fixing the navigation scroll issue is our number one priority. We'll be getting a fix out for that as soon as possible.
What device, version, and browser are you using?
How big of a difference in the text size are you getting?
(A screenshot of the large font sections would definitely help narrow down what's going on if you're able to)
No longer staff here.
Desktop version on mobile phones does not automatically adjust to the phone screen width making the text far too small to actually read, and impossible to read because text scrolls off horizontally off the screen. Plus I cannot zoom in or out to fix the issue.
Mobile view seems way too cluttered like others have said. I really like the adds that pop up in between posts on mobile view. That's awesome. /sarcasm
Is there a way to switch back to mobile view after choosing desktop? If there is I cannot find it.
I don´t know if the images help anything since you cant see the before and after but to me the thread overline fonts were smaller before which now have gotten bigger while text inside the thread is normal. If you for instance zoom out on the page, the font gets normal sized again while the text in a thread gets really small to read
I´m on a 31 inch TV screen using Firefox. Resolution is set to 1024x768
The mobile version looks phenomenal and threw me off for a bit. Super glad you guys finally got a mobile site!
Making a non-scalable version of a site and calling it "mobile" does not make it user friendly. Responsive web design is a wonderful thing; in general making multiple, distinct versions of a site is not user friendly. Users expect all of the functionality of the desktop site even on a mobile device.
Disclaimer: I say this as the administrator of a website that is decidedly not mobile friendly and who struggles with this issue himself (link in sig).
What I'm Currently Playing:
Vintage:UW Mentor
Legacy:UG Infect
Modern:UX MUD
Standard: N/A
As for the font size, there is a risk it's intentional. There has been a trend recently to increase text sizes in the name of readability or to have a "unified look between desktop and mobile". Hopefully it's just a bug or unintended consequence of other changes, but we'll see.
Here's a screenshot about what I mean: http://i.imgur.com/6473h4J.png
The thread names part is larger than before, making them hard to read, for me at least, when just skimming over the site. The rest seems like before.
Standard infinite combos giving you a headache and the opponent always has Force of Will?
No matter the issue, there is one simple trick to solve all of your Magic problems!!
~~~To get in on the secret to eternal luck, skill and victory, just follow this link!!~~~
I really hope not, because it hurts my eyes looking at it. There's too much going on at once and I'm not even browsing the forum for new threads because it's too much of a pain to deal with. I've just been responding to threads I've already commented on or specifically looking for threads on new cards I wanna talk about.
Really happy to see a mobile version.
EDIT: after using this more, I agree that showing last reply and time would be better and more important than number of replies/views.