Slog Feb 11, 2015 4:28 PM

Breaking News! You Can Now Read The Stranger on Your Cell Phone

by Christopher Frizzelle

Comments

1
I'm on a Mac laptop. It doesn't fit my screen. Everything is just a couple of inches wide, over to the left. Making the page bigger just embiggens the font; the text still only appears in the left half of the screen with a giant white space over on the right.

I'm sure it's lovely on mobile devices, but it totally sucks for me.
originalcinner on February 11, 2015 at 4:39 PM · Report this
2
Hey @1 - What size screen is your laptop? Can you send a screenshot to webmaster@thestranger.com? Thanks for the feedback!
Anthony Hecht on February 11, 2015 at 4:42 PM · Stranger Staff
3
Some good, some bad, like all redesigns. The one-click-to-post makes up for a lot of things I'm unfond of. It doesn't make me puke red-hot bullets of congealed blood like some other redesigns I could mention.

One thing that blows: comment numbers in the deep archives are gone -- all comments are numbered zero, which renders much of the conversation unintelligible. I frequently refer back to inflammatory lies I have posted in the past so I can share them with other suffering individuals.
Fnarf on February 11, 2015 at 4:49 PM · Report this
4
- If it's responsive then how do I make the avatar images smaller? I want to focus on text/comments, not wacky images like the one to the left.

- On a desktop, clicking on the little quote graphic or listed number of comments is a bit harder than the previous design since it's so small. I guess "2 Comments" instead of just "2" is considered cluttered in today's world though.
stinkbug on February 11, 2015 at 4:54 PM · Report this
5
Older people like myself are rather unhappy we can't do that thing with our iPad where we do sort of a modified Jazz Hand on the screen and everything gets bigger. I suspect it is a deliberate, ageist, mannequinist plot. 911! Fluoride! Smart Meters!
Catalina Vel-DuRay on February 11, 2015 at 4:56 PM · Report this
6
Looks like better use of screen space.
pat L on February 11, 2015 at 4:59 PM · Report this
7
Catalina @5: Modified jazz hands still works on my touch-screen ASUS, so maybe it's another bug related to apple products?
emma's bee on February 11, 2015 at 5:01 PM · Report this
8
@3 - Yeah, sorry about that. We need to run a patch on the old data to update the comment numbers. We'll do that in the next couple days.
Anthony Hecht on February 11, 2015 at 5:06 PM · Stranger Staff
9
Screenshots of suckage sent to webmaster. Does everyone use mobile devices these days, and no one is reading the Stranger on a 20th century desktop? Or is it just my Mac that's allergic to the new layout?
originalcinner on February 11, 2015 at 5:06 PM · Report this
10
This is so much better! Now I don't have to worry about big pictures of boobs or weed on my work computer.
The CHZA on February 11, 2015 at 5:06 PM · Report this
11
The new redesign fucked up the formatting in the SLLOTD, which normally had a nice demarcation of the letter with a yellow box. Whether it's a just a sidebar or a box, something needs to mark out quotes...

Also, I don't like the short line length. It really makes me scan around. Plus, I don't like the width of the border on either side of the paragraph. Give it a little bit of breathing room...
TheMisanthrope on February 11, 2015 at 5:07 PM · Report this
12
I'm sure this works great for some people, but personally I can't stand being forced to use the mobile version since I like to have the option to zoom in and out on stuff.. Is there anyway to switch it back to the desktop version?
whor_island on February 11, 2015 at 5:11 PM · Report this
13
Don't listen to these people. Take it from a web professional with 22 years ins web design. The new design is much, much better than that terrible outdated jumble before.

Your text is far more legible. You have consistent font usage. The page load is, despite the whines, faster - especially with AdBlock -even on mobile.

Though is would look into hosting all your images on a CDN and that will speed up the mobile load time even more.
tkc on February 11, 2015 at 5:17 PM · Report this
14
@12, Apparently not. Even telling my browser to use the desktop site redirects to the crappy mobile. Bad form stranger. Bad form. And as a QA guy it drives me crazy you didn't try to test this site and are forcing the general public to do your beta work for you.
Akbar Fazil on February 11, 2015 at 5:19 PM · Report this
15
It's messed up for me too (mac chrome, 1280x800), using chrome's inspector to change the @media width value from 58.333% to 100% makes it better. Ooo, inline comment review is nice though!
fad on February 11, 2015 at 5:19 PM · Report this
16
You got rid of the horrible block quote color choice from before! Huzzah!

...but it looks like you disabled the capability to use it at all now. What?
Knat on February 11, 2015 at 5:24 PM · Report this
17
I want my comment string under the article! This is all terrible. I've got my torch lit and I'm sharping my pitchfork.
dwightmoodyforgetsthings on February 11, 2015 at 5:26 PM · Report this
18
It would also appear that you can no longer navigate directly to a particular comment, as they're now hidden behind another link, which breaks that navigation when you click on it.
Knat on February 11, 2015 at 5:28 PM · Report this
19
...and doing some navigating around before posting a comment results in seeing an error (88912, in the case of my last comment and this one). Like Akbar, I'm also in QA, and I'm becoming disenchanted. Disenchanted, I tell you! (I still think it's already a net positive, and look forward to the updates to correct the minor stuff.)
Knat on February 11, 2015 at 5:32 PM · Report this
20
Loads much faster, doesn't have that weird hiccup on mobile anymore. Good stuff!
Volo on February 11, 2015 at 5:33 PM · Report this
21
Can you set it so that direct addresses still lead to (what used to be) their content? (IE, putting "www.thestranger.com/savage" into the address bar leads you directly to the new column with links to blog posts.) That no longer works.
SfR on February 11, 2015 at 5:44 PM · Report this
22
It's beautiful! Nice job, folks.

One question: what is the deal with being unable to zoom in? BBC mobile site has always had it, too.
gunmmoontree on February 11, 2015 at 5:44 PM · Report this
23
@ 19, I was getting that same error when I attempted to log in with a comment, and could only get around it by going to the main page and logging in first. This was on my desktop Mac, not my mobile.
Matt from Denver on February 11, 2015 at 5:44 PM · Report this
24
@5: the ghost of Bob Fosse will haunt the developer who disabled jazz hands!
Eric from Boulder on February 11, 2015 at 5:48 PM · Report this
25
The new design doesn't get rid of the shitty Horoscope column on slog. Redesign fail.
dnt trust me on February 11, 2015 at 5:52 PM · Report this
26
Looks like I won't be able to crop the sexually assertive advertising off the right side when I'm at the library, which is what I usually do when kids are around. And I'll probably miss the old way that a new, tiny comments window would pop up, separate from the current one, but I'm sure I'll adapt. Looks great!
Michael of the Green on February 11, 2015 at 5:56 PM · Report this
27
@ 25, finally some common ground betwixt you and Fnarf. Someone needs to pick up the Fuck Rob Brezny slack. Will you be that hero?
Matt from Denver on February 11, 2015 at 5:57 PM · Report this
28
I don't know if it's a bug or fixable or anything, but my iPhone doesn't allow me to navigate back a screen using the leftward facing arrow at the bottom of the display. Overall, the mobile really is a marked improvement, the desktop a step back (and as a curmudgeonly technophobe, I'm sorely disappointed.)
mikethehammer on February 11, 2015 at 6:05 PM · Report this
29
Unsurprisingly, the Greasemonkey script "Registered Commenter Filter for Slog..." no longer works. Please consider incorporating its functions — nested comments and the ability to hide selected commenters' posts — into the site.

Otherwise, the new design is an improvement, if not as big an improvement as eliminating unregistered commenters. Good riddance to a certain previously ubiquitous troll.
Fred Casely on February 11, 2015 at 6:09 PM · Report this
30
Being one of Slog's top wonders, you Matt from Denver, say Someone needs to pick up the Fuck Rob Brezny slack. I will be that hero. If I get any shit for it, it's coming back hard on you. Fair warning.
dnt trust me on February 11, 2015 at 6:10 PM · Report this
31
The only thing that really bothers me is the auto-hide header that pops up and down depending on which way I'm navigating. Nothing should move on a page unless I move it. If I'm scrolling up, I have to remember to scroll a couple more times to make allowances for that stupid thing. It also pops up when I click on a button or even move the mouse close to the top of the screen.

I can't even get Adblock to stop it, as it reloads itself if I close and re-open SLOG.
Banna on February 11, 2015 at 6:12 PM · Report this
32
Stranger to it's readers: Will have a new font up for us firing all the writers and producing a paper that is more like a mall flyer just selling crap and lifestyle?

Readers: NO
Stranger to it's readers:
Ok, well how about we come up with an app for those phone you all seem to love, will that phone ;love rub off on the Stranger?

Readers: NO

Stranger to it's readers: Ok, well how about more fluffy pieces that bear little resemblance to the Stranger two yes ago?

Readers: NO, Fuck off and stop bothering me asshole.

Stranger to it's staff: Hey! seems they love our new direction here at the Stranger, we had a strong reaction.

Machiavelli on February 11, 2015 at 6:37 PM · Report this
33
Hmmm. Mostly it's fine. The mobile version on my iPad looks much nicer in general.

Minor annoyances/oddities:
1. I'm now part of the Gay Old Guard, and like dearest Catalina, I don't see as well as I used to. This is one of the few sites that won't let me zoom the screen to increase the size. I can still read it okay on an iPad, but this makes it utterly unreadable for my aging eyes on any smart phone with a smaller screen.
2. I guess I'll have to figure out ad-block for the iPad. I'm okay with ads and photos when I'm on wi-fi at home (I recognize that's how you pay the bills), but I don't want to have to pay the cellular data download if I'm pulling ads on a mobile device.
3. Odd paragraph breaks. As I'm typing this, there was no line space between "Minor annoyances" and "1....", but in the preview, it shows a double line space there. We'll see how it formats when I press "Post" in a minute. (I'm typing this on my Mac, not my iPad, if that makes any difference.)

Minor inconveniences aside, I generally prefer the new look on the iPad using the Stranger app.
Reverse Polarity on February 11, 2015 at 6:51 PM · Report this
34
Huh.

Followup to above. It posted just as I wrote it in the comment box, but when i was writing it, the comment box and Preview box did not match.
Reverse Polarity on February 11, 2015 at 6:53 PM · Report this
35
Oh, this has nothing to do with today's reformatting, but several months ago you started using generic stock photos. I really, really hate that. The pics look totally canned, and half the time poorly match your subject. It looks like your writers spend about 3 seconds looking for a stock photo, and then go "meh, close enough" and post it. Or maybe someone else entirely slaps the photos in. It looks lazy, slapdash, too corporate, and cheap. A lot of your own photos look like they were shot with an old cell phone, but that was still better than canned stock images.

Please slap whoever decided to use canned stock photos, and never use them again.
Reverse Polarity on February 11, 2015 at 7:01 PM · Report this
36
@26 - your at the library, let that sexual content fly, assuming your in Seattle it will be one of the tamer things on the library's computer
j2patter on February 11, 2015 at 7:29 PM · Report this
37
@25, @Fnarf, & possibly @27
Rob Brezsny is so awesome !
Your dislike of him only reveals that you are terrible trolls.
gunmmoontree on February 11, 2015 at 7:41 PM · Report this
38
I typically read SLOG on my phone, and so far, this looks fantastic. I admit I would hesitate to jump to Stranger articles from SLOG, because I knew I would be driven to an unresponsive site. The two are now almost seamless. One thing: it's weird that in SLOG, comments open in a new window, but in The Stranger they don't. Since the articles/posts look the same on my phone, seems like they should behave the same way.
McBomber on February 11, 2015 at 7:50 PM · Report this
39
Also, I'm a web guy who recently helped my company site convert to responsive. I know it's tough. Keep improving! Our mantra has been, "yes, there's plenty of work to be done, but holy shit isn't this already 1000% better for mobile?"
Also also, I like that my comment is highlighted for me, and that the preview updates in real time. Nice work, people.
McBomber on February 11, 2015 at 7:57 PM · Report this
40
@ 37, I don't care about him one way or the other, but Fnarf sure does. It turns out I spoke too soon - he posted some hate for Rob about 20 minutes before I posted @27.
Matt from Denver on February 11, 2015 at 8:12 PM · Report this
41
I agree with @5 and @33. I read Slog on my iPad and even in landscape mode there needs to be a way to embiggen the type. It's way too smal for my eyes.
Necktieknot on February 11, 2015 at 8:58 PM · Report this
42
Thanks for all the great feedback everyone, and keep it coming. We'll be making plenty of tweaks in the coming days and, well, forever.
Anthony Hecht on February 11, 2015 at 9:45 PM · Stranger Staff
43
The body text font is nicer. 9 out of 10 people prefer Helvetica.
Sean Kinney on February 11, 2015 at 10:25 PM · Report this
44
1 out of 10 people prefer comic sans. It's blatant discrimination that we never get what we want.
sarah91 on February 11, 2015 at 10:43 PM · Report this
45
So the individual pages include the word "Comments" in the link to the comments (i.e. "44 Comments") but on the main slog page we just get a number (i.e. "44"). That seems inconsistent. I just want a larger "target" to click on when on my laptop.
stinkbug on February 11, 2015 at 11:02 PM · Report this
46
How do all you desktop people walk around the house with your computer? I like to read at the breakfast table *and* in bed...

(a big improvement on phone and tablet - thank you)
sperifera on February 11, 2015 at 11:14 PM · Report this
47
Why do you make the comments load on demand inside the main article, like you do with the "Read More". It would make the flow of the page better.

All and all not bad though :)

Also threading in the comments would be great....
j2patter on February 11, 2015 at 11:36 PM · Report this
48
What the hell did you do to Slog? The text is humongous on my laptop. But when I try to zoom out, the text barely gets smaller in the stories but the headlines on the right do get smaller. Did you skimp on your web designer?
idaho on February 12, 2015 at 12:36 AM · Report this
49
I like the new design a lot it much cleaner looking.
jeffg166 on February 12, 2015 at 4:46 AM · Report this
50
Gäh, this is horrible. I don't want to read Slog at all if it's going to be like this. It was bad enough having to sift through all the local music posts that used to be quarantined off in the other music blog. Now you've made it impossible to read on a laptop. (captions cut off, 2/3 of the screen is white space) Am I missing something - why can't you just have a separate mobile site, like everyone else? I'm not going to be reading this blog until you straighten this out.
SwissMiss on February 12, 2015 at 5:49 AM · Report this
51
Meh, I liked the old font. There's something solid and reliable about serifs.
Avi on February 12, 2015 at 7:12 AM · Report this
52
What does "Error saving comment. (88912)" mean?
originalcinner on February 12, 2015 at 8:21 AM · Report this
53
It is pretty nice on mobile, now that I've tried it, particularly compared to the dated old Slog mobile design. But all that whitespace on the desktop version is just horribly dull.

I'm also not fond of the font in blockquotes being about twice the size of the text in the rest of the article, which seems to have carried over from the old mobile site, or this grey text in grey highlighting I'm getting while typing in the comment box on Chrome for Android.
Avi on February 12, 2015 at 8:48 AM · Report this
54
Why IS there so much whitespace? I'm on a macbook using Chrome. I don't have everything squished to 2" as a couple others report but I do have things only loading to about 2/3 of available space, which is a waste
diane b on February 12, 2015 at 8:53 AM · Report this
55
Is it not possible to have a mobile version of the site like many companies do? The mobile version on the desktop is kind of a pain.

That's a minor inconvenience though. The part I hate is that it does that fucking thing that when I click a link on the page it pops up an ad page in a separate tab. Really? Are you taking a page from web porn sites? I'll put up with it for porn, but SLOG?
Root on February 12, 2015 at 8:54 AM · Report this
56
Mind you, I don't have any criticism of the new design. I like the fact that you can see what you are typing in the little window below. I just like to make things larger so it's easier to read.

Emma dear, I can do jazz hands on other websites and it makes things bigger, so I don't think it's an Apple thing.

Catalina Vel-DuRay on February 12, 2015 at 8:57 AM · Report this
57
I'm with everybody else on the zoom thing. Can you please set your viewport settings so the site can be zoomed?

All you have to do is hange the viewport meta tag's user-scalable property from no to yes:

Current, icky anti-user setting:

meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1, user-scalable=no"

Better, user-friendly setting:

meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1, user-scalable=yes"
rainbird on February 12, 2015 at 9:51 AM · Report this
58
@56, it kind of is an Apple thing or at least they started it. They were the ones who started the viewport meta tag as an iPhone-oriented directive for Safari. Chrome for iPad seems to pay attention to it, too, so it's spread beyond Safari.

While viewport is useful, there's no good reason to set user-scalable to no that I can think of, other than hating visitors to your web site. It's frickin' evil, it is.
rainbird on February 12, 2015 at 10:00 AM · Report this
59
I don't see an RSS feed for comments any more. The RSS feed allows you to see when new messages have been posted to a thread. It really sucks to lose that feature, please bring it back.
rainbird on February 12, 2015 at 10:05 AM · Report this
60
My only complaint is that the header text is unnecessarily enormous compared to the article text. A longish article title can take up like half the screen on my phone which is irritating. Everything else I can probably get used to, but man I really, really hate the giant headers.
JenV on February 12, 2015 at 10:53 AM · Report this
61
Hey everybody.. zoomy zoomy goodness has now returned on your mobile devices. Let the pinching-and-zooming (re)commence!
Anthony Hecht on February 12, 2015 at 12:38 PM · Stranger Staff
62
Bless you, my child.
Catalina Vel-DuRay on February 12, 2015 at 1:24 PM · Report this
63
I miss the old slog.thestranger.com/iphone mobile version, which had little but text, which is all I'm interested in. It really was the best of Slog. Even with Adblock Plus, the new design devotes lots of space to things I don't care at all about.
Phil M on February 12, 2015 at 9:02 PM · Report this
64
I second concern @59: Where are comments' RSS feeds?
Phil M on February 12, 2015 at 9:18 PM · Report this
65
Wanted:
- view of article and comments in a single page
- old mobile abbreviated view of article list

NotSean on February 13, 2015 at 7:54 AM · Report this
66
Your redesign pretty much sucks...and you keep making it worse. Now comments open up on top of the article? So there's no way to skip between the article and comments via scroll or tab? Terrible.

And I have to scroll through a shitload of ads to see the Most Commented sidebar? Lame.

And you only have a few articles on each page? Amateurish.

I've been here since Day 1, and recently SLOG was borderline unreadable based upon lack of good content. Now it's unreadable because it's just simply hard to read!
DOUG. on February 13, 2015 at 2:39 PM · Report this
67
Sorry, I am not liking this. When I view Slog on a desktop/laptop (my preferred format), it looks like shit. What is with all the white space? 40-50% of my screen is blank. white. space. For reference - Windows PC: Chrome, Firefox and god forbid, Explorer. Macbook Pro: Safari and Chrome. iPad: Safari and Chrome. It all LOOKS LIKE SHIT. The only platform this looks good on is my iPhone 6, and even then, why are the ledes SO BIG?! Why? They take up half the screen. Then the GIGANTIC pictures on every post, oy vey, they are fucking awful. Scrolling, scrolling, scrolling to get to the content. And the separate comments page? Nope.

It's not adaptive, it's reductive.

There has been little on Slog to catch my interest of late, but this is really the nail in the coffin. It seems like Slog is dying a very slow death, and is now trying to ratchet up advertising with clickbait, as opposed to actual interesting content. But not even doing that well.

Seriously, guys, I've been around since day 1 of Slog. There is little content here; just links to the Stranger main site, which also now sucks. Nothing provocative, nothing interesting. Savage is dialing it in at best, when he's not just posting repeats of previous columns. You've become the Seattle Weekly without the content or community of commenters. You've bored us all to death, and probably yourselves, too.

Good luck with all this.
Quincent on February 14, 2015 at 12:12 PM · Report this
68
I kinda feel a bit like @67.

I think the redesign does not foster the Slog community I enjoy. The redesign makes it harder to follow and participate in the Slog action. If you want to know which use cases have been broken, let me know - I'll kindly share.

The redesign may have improved the appearance of The Stranger on mobile, but it's a big loss to The Slog.

NotSean on February 14, 2015 at 5:27 PM · Report this
69
I'm actually enjoying some of the redesign features, but then I'm using Firefox on a desktop. [A couple years ago, when my monitor died, I was using my Android to read SLOG, but only for a month.]

I prefer the comments in a new tab and press Ctrl plus the link to have the two tabs side by side. Before, I always had to resize the overlapping comment window to max. It was a pain to do every single time. The live preview is good, removing the necessity of an additional action.

However, what I believe would help in keeping discussions going is a practical format using REAL threads, each with nested replies. It would help when, now, we have to hope #167 @ MazatlanDiver (I just made that up) is still reading and will respond. Or we have to scroll through (and get entangled in) the seaweed snarl of commenters whose only interest is carrying on a semi-private dialogue/love fest/critique. When there are comments on The Morning News, they're all jumbled up. Very frustrating when the news has many stories.
Helenka (also a Canuck) on February 15, 2015 at 11:32 AM · Report this
70
Pop up ads are the worst! I can tolerate your other click-bait, SEO changes, but pop up ads?!?
abbot312 on February 16, 2015 at 10:08 AM · Report this